midtowndesi

This is just an update of a thread I started some time back. The history - the old thread - can be found here:

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...716&highlight=



Basically, I wanted a way to mount my ibm x41 tablet laptop into my box. This is the tablet that I have. It's got 1.5 ghz cpu, 60 gigs of space, 512mb ram, and the screen is "touch screen" - you have to use the supplied pen for this functionality. Please also note (contrary to the old picture I have below) that this tablet laptop weighs about 4 pounds with battery - making it an ideal solution for my case.



Basically, I wanted to make a mount that fit into the xb cubby but it had to be removable EASILY (like sliding it in and out) . I started with this piece of metal i had laying around. It's something like 5" wide and about 20" long.



I drew a mspaint diagram of how i wanted the mount to be shaped. This is the diagram. According to the diagram, in the cubby, i was going to use 2 pieces of "hard foam" to keep the mont in place. Instead, I chose to use 2 pieces of foam that i connected to the sides of the mount itself. This is an old picture from my 1st thread -when i had an x41 NON-TABLET laptop. the tablets screen folds over the keyboard so it makes this diagram a little different but still gives you an idea of what i wanted to do..


So I took the piece of metal, and bent it according to some measurements i took - the depth of the cubby bin, the thickness of my laptop, etc. I covered this with a bandana by folding it around the metal and ductaping it together - this is to prevent the bare metal from scratching my laptop. Basically, when I was done, and I attached the couple of pieces of foam to the sides, I was done. This is what the mount looks like when it's partially put into the xb cubby space:



All I have to do now is to take out my tablet(laptop) and slide it into the space that there on the mount. I made this space a little smaller than the width of the tablet so it would have a really snug fit. This is what it looks like when I have the tablet mounted.




I wanted only 3 wires running to the laptop - power, sound (from aux input) and usb gps reciever. I plugged in the stero wire into the aux port




and ran the wire under the shift console and the kick panel next to the drivers right foot. I have these wires coming out of the area on the passenger seat as shown in this pic:




Right now, i have to remove that small rectangular compartment in order to access the wires but i plan on drilling a hole at the bottom of this and fishing the wires through there. that way 1) you cant see them when im not using them and 2 ) i dont have to remove the rectangular thing! duhh!

some finished product shots:





I will add more pictures and info to this as i edit but just wanted to say that the laptop moves as i drive - but only slightly. It does not fall out of the "mount". The mount takes a good amount of vibration from bumps and stuff and I'm having no problems with it. I've taken sharp turns that have bumps at high speeds and this solution seems to be holding up so far!
- sh00k

Max

Pretty ingenious, simple, cheap. Nice work.

ProshopXB

Definatley a very neat idea, well done and please show us some pics of the completed mod.

midtowndesi

Thanks Max - that's exactly what I was going for. Just something that worked. Not anything pretty, fancy looking, etc. Just something that'd hold my tablet.

The 1 more pretty important piece of into I forgot to mention - the mount that I made - specifically the portion that holds the "back" of the tablet - rests nicely on the cubby door. I originally wanted to remove the door but it actually helps keep the mount stable! I tested it and made sure that the weight wasn't TOO heavy that the door would break and it wasn't! The 3.x pound laptop I'm sure is the reason the door isn't breaking. Try mounting a 9lb. dell with a 17" screen! (that was my original idea!)




Proshop, sorry for the late pics - here they are. Please laugh at how simple the idea is! haha!






The next 2 pics show the foam that i use to "secure" the "mount" into the cubby. They fit pretty snug into the cubby and minimize the "sideways" movement of the laptop when I'm driving. I'm going to try to find some more of that foam stuff to make a tighter fit into the cubby. For now though, it's still not so bad.




I will get some more pictures later this week of how the tablet looks from outside of the car and how it looks at night. I got the chance to see it in the night for the first time yesterday, and it's gorgeous!!!

PS - The front-end i'm using is Road Runner. Oh la la - what a fancy interface! Again, I will put up some screenshots later this week.
- sh00k

midtowndesi

UPDATE - APRIL 10, 2006

I took some crappy night shots this past weekend. I will try to get some nicer and cleaner ones later this week but here they are... I did a bit of night driving this weekend and had a blast. I can read the display absolutely clearly because it's huge. =D










- sh00k

midtowndesi

I finally realized this week that my laptop has OFF THE HOOK voice recognition capabilities...

which means....

i can say "START MENU.... ALL PROGRAMS...... WINAMP" and it'll launch winamp!

Only problem is that when music is playing, the software tries to recognize the songs as "audio input" coming from the user - IE - me talking....

solution? right now, im just using the crappy 99 cent mike that's built onto the laptop... i figure if i get a nice noise-reducing mike, and wire it above the drivers seat (factory "on-star" style) that it'll recognize my voice better...

This aint a priority for me right now so on the back burner it goes. but pretty cool anyway =]
- sh00k

Max

HAWT!

Is it not too bright at night?

midtowndesi

Sup Max,
It is really bright at night but I have two options to dim it:

1) I can press the fucntion and the (i forget) key to lower or increase the brightness.

2) I am also (when I feel like it) using Road Runner as a front end. The default skin that comes with it has a button right on the screen that says "NIGHT" and when you click it (or in my cas, tap it with the tablet pen), it dims the screen. There are 3 settings with it - ranging from regular intensity to very dim. the very dim option is perfect for night driving.

Since I mainly use the tablet for mp3s, i dont really dim the screen when I drive at night. I can see though, if i was taking a road trip at night, i would dim it cuz my eyes would be on the navigation every couple of minutes - and to read the instructions as well.

not to toot my own (or IBM/lenovo's horn) but this laptop is the ****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


CONS OF THIS SETUP:

Yes, there are cons that weren't so visible when I first started using my mount/tablet laptop. There was a day here in nyc recently where it was a little cold outside and raining. I needed to use the temp controls to get the windshield to stop fogging up... When I went for the controls, i started cursing. lol. my mount completely covers the temp controls. This is a huge problem in cases where i wanna turn on the AC, heat, defroster, hazard lights, etc, since the mount covers that whole area.... this is a small price to pay though since days like that are rare here in nyc. but still, i'm thinking of a work-around right now where I can mount it in the same position and STILL keep the temp controls right where they are....

I'm definitely not complaining though. I have friends that have wired their cars with PCs but that took so much effort. this thing is effortless. It's the lazy way out and im proud of it!
- sh00k

tribal_dude

does it try to fall off when you take hard turns??

tn_05_camo_xb

Looks pretty good, but how stable is it?

midtowndesi

Since the "space" (on my mount) where you place the tablet is pretty tight, it squeezes the bottom of the tablet well enough to hold it in place. i've done some stupid and sick turns and the mount does move, but the tablet doesnt come loose or anything like that. Never has the tablet gotten close to falling and i've had it mounted for the last maybe... 1500 miles or so...

When i hit bumps, the tablet does jiggle up and down, i'd say maybe 2" up and 1" but it becomes stable again really quickly.

This mount was just made with whatever piece of metal i had lying around. my next version of the mount is going to be even wider (almost the width of the xB cubby) and will have a better support for the base of the tablet. to stabalize it, i'm thinking of having some sort of support by the ash tray... maybe.... i'm happy with what i have so far and it does the job.

it's slick though - for most of the time, i am using winamp as my mp3 player. i have it docked on the bottom left hand corner of the screen. when i rest my arm on the stock scion armrest, my wrist is placed over the shifter, i am able to tap "next, back, etc" buttons within winamp very easily - no streaching moving up like when you want to touch the stock head unit. this is convenient as hell too =P
- sh00k

sabot7726

Looks cool. I cheaped out and bought a $40 laptop mount and bolted it to my passenger seat.

Miraculously I have access to all *****, compartments and misc thingies without even trying.

Now I just need to route the cabling and throw away my trash :/ I work 14 hours a day in my box as a travelling salesman so it gets out of hand easily

midtowndesi

Wow, nice man! LOL @ you saying that you cheaped out - I think I cheaped out since my setup cost like 99 cents! lol =P

That's awesome that you can access everything! On days where I have to play with the temp controls, with my setup, it's a pain to access the *****. I am trying to find a place that sells sheet metal/aluminum so i can start working on my next version of the mount... this one should actually hold the unit much more steadier than my current one. but for now, since im lazy, this setup is just fine!

good work dude! ps, re: the cup in your cup holder - TB IS THE BEST PLACE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!
- sh00k

MacMaster

Its like having a giant navigation system, dvd player and everything else on your dash. But how do you acess your AC controls, and how do you get wireless internet without having one of those things sticking out of the side (i;m a mac user and proud of it).

I dunno about this whole laptop in the car thing yet.

I guess it serves its purpose though

have fun with it

sabot7726

I can reach the ac controls just fine, the only thing I can't really get to easily is the radio controls on the radio itself. I can do 99% of that on the steering column control though. My laptop is rigged to automatically link to any unsecured wireless, and in remote places I just dial out with my ppc-6700 cell phone.

For extra geek points I like to tie my GPS into google earth, then dial out with my cell phone. Then everywhere I go it downloads the GE satellite imagery and all the bulletin board entries of different misc stuff :p

RBasil

I bought one of these (link below) for my laptop in my xB. The best part is the stand can be moved from one vehicle to the next in a snap.

http://www.airdesks.com/CarDesk.asp

sabot7726

Ya I saw that one too but $170 for it was not worth it to me.

Fujiz_xb

nice.. indeed,

midtowndesi

I totally hear you. I am really really cheap and was not able to justify spending $200+ on a ram-mount laptop mount... that's why i built my 99 cent half assed mount. i am planning on making another mount (or two) and plan to spend like 20 or 30 bucks max on it. even though my tablet is touch screen, i feel it is more convenient to have the keyboard out and have the screen "tilted" in my (driver) direction...

so my next mount, I am thinking, will hold the laptop in it's open form, similar to this:



the keyboard will be "hovering" above the shifter (i have an auto) and, again, as with my 1st half-assed mount, it will reside in the cubby hole and will be removable. i will let you all know how this turns out...

the reason iwant to do this is cuz it sucks to use the tablet laptop "pen" to change a song, especialy when driving and driving over bumps. i want to be able to use the mouse buttons on the keyboard. that way, i can bring the mount to the "fwd" button on my music player (winamp, road running frontend, etc) and then just skip songs, rather than ttrying to be accurate with the pen while taking turns, etc.

another plus side to the new mount i want to make: i can lower the screen back towards the keyboard of the laptop so i can access temp controls and those 3 buttons - AC, parking lights and the defogger!!! i have to reach behind my tablet now to do any of that! it sucks when i need those buttons but that's only when it rains or i want the AC on because im a sweating beast ;]
- sh00k

midtowndesi

It serves it's purpose and then some. Con vs. the factory option is, depending on the laptop you're using, the size can be difficult to work with. My laptop is really light so I was able to think of a way to mount it with minimal brain power ...

Those navigation units from garmin run over $300. I figure if you're going to spend money on each components (a garmin unit, a dvd player, a screen, etc) - that'll run you into the thousands easy. You can get an older and even used laptop (ty craigslist) and do everything that the seperate units can do.

I feel that the benefit of having a computer/laptop in the car outweigh the small nuances that come along with it.

Not sure if you've seen my night pics, but if not, take a look at them. it's so clear and easy to read streets at night with a single very quick glance over at the monitor. plus, with streets and trips 2006 (my navigation software), it talks to you just like the regular navigation units from the factory/stand alone ones do...

just the reasons why i went the laptop/tablet route compared to the factory navigation. plus, i THINK, that on the factory navigation unit (which has dvd drives built in), you need to buy another unit in order to watch movies on it! this is my understanding of it. that sucks!

and wanna listen to mp3s? you'd need yet another component.... etc....
- sh00k