Originally I started with my normal car stereo. After deciding that was just not enough of anything. I was conversing with my uncle, talking about ideas for sound systems. He brought up the idea to install a computer and I instantly thought of Apple's Mac-mini. From there, everything started falling in place.

I found a used 15inch ELO touch screen off Ebay for a whopping $175 shipped. I bought a hanging flat screen VESA mount, $75 shipped. I reversed some of the parts on the ceiling mount in order to mount it from my car floor. Seeing as I hadn't recieved my Mac-mini, and being anxious to test the monitor, I decided to use my laptop. The current gallery photos are from around June 2007 when I first installed the monitor and mount.

First Installation Gallery

In my car's current state I have replaced my factory deck with a Panasonic CQ-3303 with an auxilary input, installed new quad-axel rear speakers, a 12in single sub-woofer on a 200rms cheap amp, setup the my mac-mini, and added a wireless keyboard and mouse(just in case) =). There is a second 12v car battery mounted in the trunk, and the alternator was recently rebuilt. I also added switces into the dashboard for ultimate customization while listening. I can turn off the amps, inverter, or stereo at will. This allows me to only run what I want, when I want it. Good for when I am parked. Will update with pictures soon.

I still have quite a few items on the list including, mac-mini dock for easy removal/installation, replace front speakers with component sets, and buy a set of 12inch sub-woofers for the trunk.

Updates

Added a set of 10 inch subwoofers and 12 inch subwoofers to the trunk.
I am also thinking about more customizaton to the car involving more computer controlled features.

The first piece we started out with was a replacement motion sensor for an outdoor light. Some extra wire, soldering iron, solder, and a laptop.

We disassembled the sensor, and discovered the internal workings held the magic we needed, a DC relay. Due to the setup of the circuit we had to make a few small modifications. We soldered onto the relay conectors and used it to send a signal via the parrallel port of a laptop computer. From there we setup a php mailer script to send an email to the cellphone we wanted to text. It works beautifully. The downside is that we had to use a laptop and AC power. The upside is that it was very inexpensive to build.

For those of you actually wanting to reproduce our project, we created this section to show you what to buy and how to do it. MORE SOON!

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