Acura RSX, ILX and Honda EP3 Forum banner

DIY Mac mini carputer

36K views 204 replies 61 participants last post by  Nino 
#1 · (Edited)
Ok, first of all, all of this information was researched by me and the selection of parts was researched by me. Feel free to do your own research and select your own parts. There are way better parts, better computers out there, but if you want you can copy everything that I have done and I guarantee that it will work.
This DIY is for the lazy people out there (like me) who wished something out there like this was available instead of having to search through hundreds of threads to make decent sense of building a car computer. Use this as a rough guide. I'll try to include as much of the install as much as I can. I'm also using the stock amps so for all you audio gurus out there, feel free to add amps. here's the breakdown of the parts that I used and rough prices. Remember these are my opinions!

I will be updating this everyday until I finish the write-up. there's a lot of info...

The prices here are what i ended up spending +/- $100.00
Wiring diagram is belooowwwww

Mac Mini - You can probably get a decent Intel core duo/solo one for about $350-$500. Get the Intel chip so you can run both windows and OS X. I also upgraded my RAM to 2gigs instead of 512MB. Add another $100.00

7" monitor - Xenarc 700TSV - touchscreen monitor. 379.00 + 20 shipping

American Interntional bezel from ebay - dont pay more than $20.00 shipping included on ebay search! you gotta look at the bezel. If it's an americal international, youll see a frame around the double din. You can probably use another double din, but the AI looks better with the frame IMHO.

glue sticks, glue gun, epoxy - $20.00 at lowes or Ace Hardware.

Carnetix P1900 (CNX-P1900 Ver. 2.2 Dual Output 140 Watt 12V DC-DC Regulator) (you need this to power up your Mac and to shut it down instead of pressing the button. In other words, you let the car turn on/turn off instead of you having to press the button. more info later)- $99.95 shipped from mp3car.com. Another alternative (possibly better but more expensive) is the P2140 power supply. This power supply allows you visually see what the power supply is "pulling" from the car and "putting out" to your screen and Mac mini.

Carnetix Macpac cable harness (connects your power supply to your car to your car's power supply) This thing is awesome. Allows you to not have to cut you power supply which came with your mac mini. So if you want to remove the computer from your car, you can because you'll still have your original in your house. - $24.99 shipped

Ground loop isolator- (to eliminate engine noise quickly when you think you grounded everything correctly. worked for me!) - $8.00 shipped through ebay. When I thought i had grounded everything correctly, I still had alternator whine and computer hard drvie noises. Now installing this got rid of all that.

Metra wire harness - $21.00 - use it so you don't have to cut into your factory harness to hook up your stock amp and stock speakers. It's also a good idea to have because if you dont use it, soldering in that little double din hole becomes annoying.- Clubrsx.com

RCA cables - 4 bucks shipped through ebay. You should probably get some gold ones though, i used cheapo ones..

zip ties - $10.00 at walmart.

Edirol/Roland UA-1EX sound card interface box (gets sound out of your mac) - $79.99 + plus shipping - google it.

Software -

Parallels software - $75.00 - Use it to run Wondows and OS X at the same time. You can also get an alternative which is called VMware. Some people have tried using it but can't get Iguidance to work because of some deal they have with Parallels software. :dontknow:

iGuidance 4 GPS Navigation Software + GlobalSat BU-353(SiRF III)- GPS Navigation System for Laptop $130.00 shipped BuyGPsnow.com - Bundled GPS receiver and Iguidance software. This (iguidance) to me was the best bang for the buck. Has the best car interface because it was designed to be put in a car computer.

AMP software - free - mac front end software. A front end is a user interface which lets you access whatever you want from a convenient screen instead of using the small layout of a regular computer. The buttons are oversized and fonts are oversized to accomodate the in-car experience.

Road Runner software - free - Windows front end software. This free front end has hundreds of free skins and hundreds of people working together for free making it one of the best front ends out there.

Ok here's what you'll be working off of. Learn it.

 
See less See more
1
#100 ·
Not to revive a dead thread, but how did the PC turnout? I'm not really a big fan of Mac, grew up around PC's lmao. Regardless, I really do like where Apple is going and such.

Did you ever figure out how to put your boost gauges into your carputer?
 
#103 ·
I'm pieceing up my carputer as we speak :) I've built too many computers so this should be a breeze. I never put one inside a car before though, so that's my obstacle. I plan to make it so I can take the computer out daily because I'd rather have the screen get jacked rather than a whole computer if someone broke into my car.

I had thoughts of routing the computer to my trunk, has anybody tried that yet?
 
#122 ·
the bezel is cut up but i still used it to "frame" the screen.

oh and will our base RSX's still be able to pull that RCA plug solder trick? we don't have stock amps i'm assuming...
i dont know. im not a base expert, but you need some sort of amp to power your speakers or else you will not hear the music.
 
#120 ·
that is awesome, i was thinking about making myself a carputer too. but quick question? i know you said its a touch-screen, but does the carputer still need a keyboard and mouse?

and, will it be easy to adapt the carputer to control the whole sound system in the car (speakers, amp, etc)? cuz heres what i plan to do.


1. make a carputer with touchscreen
2. have it control my whole sound system (be the new deck)
3. buy a computer cd/dvd drive and use that as the new car cd drive :p
 
#121 ·
i have a bluetoof Apple mouse and keyboard in the car at all times.
will it be easy to adapt the carputer to control the whole sound system? yes. have you looked at the diagram? :dontknow: its just the speaker wires and the amp turn-on wire (just like an aftermarket deck)...cannot get any simpler than that.
 
#123 ·
yeah i saw your post on mp3 car. im gonna try something like that. :thumbsup: my only concern is the only cheap way of using an amp for the speakers is keeping the radio somewhere and using an aux in for the radio. not really looking forward to installing a 6 channel amp.
 
#126 ·
this is awesome info nino. Someone should sticky this
 
#129 ·
nino hit me up on aim im putting my carpc in 2mar i could use some help
 
#138 ·
haha, I just need more space for my music (which is only 1Gig), and I can't do other stuff (like Navi or pics) while music is playing. Checking email on the go would be sweet too
 
#142 ·
hey nino u got instructions for moding the bezel to fit the monitor. Thanks man
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top