Can anyone suggest a method by which I can mount a laptop in my friend's 04 MCS? We are participating in the Silver State and would like to connect a laptop to GPS to help us navigate and control our speed targets!

Here are the limitations; the laptop must be firmly secured and the laptop cannot obstruct the airbag. Lastly, we would prefer not to drill holes in floor boards et cetera.

Here are our positives; we have the budget to buy a new computer or other specialized equipment.

Suggestions? Comments?

Brian

 

PC or Mac? Not a laptop install, but pretty cool nonetheless:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/macc...mini-mini.html

 

We can work with either. We are a software company!

 

Remove the passenger seat, build a little desk that bolts to where the seat was and sit in the back seat to navigate

 

well..... when I'm along in the car i just place it in the passenger seat. I use the seatbelt to keep it from sliding around. but I need a new way to do this too.

 

Taht would be good except the fire extinguisher needs to be mounted to the front seat.

 

I have a rear seat delete kit, and my computer is mounted where the bottom of the passenger side back seat was. That gives easy access to the I-Bus feed from the CD changer area and a 12V feed from the rear cigarette adapter.

The video and USB is run up the center console. I have a 7" touch screen I was going to fit where the HU is by moving the switch panel and dropping the AC controls down, but I think I'm going to sell it and get an in-dash pop-up touchscreen instead. The screen's a little too low in the dash, and the AC move wasn't as clean as I was expecting.

You could also probably mount the base of the monitor to the center dash piece if you wanted an even bigger monitor. That would keep it pretty far away from any airbags.

Good luck !

 

http://www.gomobilenow.com/product_p/1phd-nd.htm

There is a whole range of solutions (i.e. curves of the main shaft). Which one fits mini - I don't know (yet) but planning to look into it). All this types of laptop stands usually fit under the passenger seat's rail (you need a large torx screwdriver to set it up - and there are some pressure screws that fix it firmly on the floor. So it is a "no drill" solution as you want it. They seem to be pretty rugged. Now... how you fix the laptop on teh stand is another story. They usually provide (at extra cost) three important parts - some harness for teh laptop (or just plain old straps), a hood and a screen holder (heeps the screen from closing or changing its angle when hitting bumps on the road.

It will probably set you back about 350$ with all the accessories - a bit much for my taste. But one can design a much simpler one - with just a platform under the seat and a rod from a monopod and just weld or screw a support plate on the back of the laptop, I would probably even buy a cheap slim laptop from ebay for this purpose, the navigation hardware requests are minimal (and you just need windows 2000 for that and a barebones pentium III or M...).

But if you decide for the stand and a separate laptop - go to www.gomobilenow.com or LapTraveler.com

WHatever your final answer is - please post pictures at the end...

MMM