Alpine Carputer - Part 02

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #2.

So after that, the sides are off:

After so many many screws, the board is off too (sides re-attatched):

Close-ups of the sides re-attatched.. Just because I can:

You may or may not have noticed a little square underneath the "V-Power" logo on the front of the amp. This lights up blue when the amp is on and working. This will become the power LED for this project. This is the mount for it on the other side:

These are my current ideas:

• Mount in boot


• Fit in with car audio equipment


• Easily removable


• 'Docking station' case (more info to come later)


• Internals: Mini ITX board (Via Epia), 2.5" laptop HDD, 12V DC power supply board to run off cigarette lighter plug


• War driving - GPS and WiFi (extended antenna??)


• Bluetooth as well for control? (bluetooth keyboard and mouse, possibly control by PDA or phone somehow)


• 1 DIN motorised touch screen


• Input to sound system via auxilary input (volume control and EQ done by head unit)

I haven't thought much about what software to use or anything like that yet. I do NOT want to play music through this. I only want to play videos. Music will still be handled through my head unit and iPod. That will eliminate startup time and so on.

The car that I am looking to install this into will be a Subaru Liberty generation 2. This has 2 DIN spaces. The top one will house the screen that I mentioned. The bottom one will hold the head unit (if I were to go out and buy it all today, that would be an Alpine CDA-9886i)

I think that covers everything I've got for now... I'll report back sometime later when I have more.

If anyone can find an example of a carputer installed in a dead amp, please let me know! I could only find one... which it turns out I forgot to bookmark!