Casetronics Travla C

Casetronics Travla C-134


Case PDF Manual

Nissan 350Z Parts Used to Install:

?	Cubby Hole Finisher Plate	?
28316-CD010	NAVI Unit Right Mounting Bracket (part #2)	$11.56
28317-CD010	NAVI Unit Left Mounting Bracket (part #3)	$20.90
79942-CD000	NAVI Unit Finishing Face Plate	$16.02
?	NAVI Finisher Plate (part #6)	?
	Motorized Navigation Door	?

Where to buy:

8" Depth Modification

The 350Z has lots of space to tuck things in to, but as you can see from the above photos, the computer is an inch or two too deep. The Travla is 10" deep (including the curved carrying handle). I have theorized the following modifications to the case that could shrink it down to 8":

(NOTE: The computer and the stereo are facing in opposite directions)

The obvious space saver is to move the DC/DC converter externally. There are a few obvious complications with doing this, but I think they can all be worked out. What's even better is that I found this sweet teeny tiny 70W power supply! With that I *might* not even have to move the DC/DC power supply externally. However, I suspect that I am near the limit of optimizing space and do not have any room for that board even without modifying the case.

I positioned the Hard Drive and CD-ROM where they would best fit. The Hard Drive fits almost perfectly in a small nook in the motherboard (beside the PCI slot) and would be mounted to the CD-ROM using double-sided foam tape. The vertical BIOS battery gets in the way, but that can easily be moved elsewhere with the use of some wires. There are a few other wires/headers that get in the way, but they could be shrunk down without too much trouble.

In the 2 photos above you can see the lines that I drew inside the right side of the case. Cutting out that portion of the case would save exactly 2 inches!. The front face plate would then scoot back to underneath the CD-ROM (where it was originally).

With the case split apart, the front half is permanently glued to the faceplate and the back half is left to slide in and out of the case like normal. We'll want to make sure that enough cable length is provided so as to allow the face plate header to slide far enough away from the motherboard to disassemble.

So, I think that I can get everything to fit together nicely, but the new CD-ROM/HardDrive assembly is sort of "locked" into place and this prevents the case from being properly reassembled. This could be solved very simply by drilling two small holes in the top front of the case that look down on the front screw mounts for the CD-ROM. The CD-ROM will need to be coaxed in to its front mounting spot. We can then secure it in to place by screwing in its front mounting screws from the top front outside of the case.

Voila! An 8" deep Travla! Dude! This thing will now [almost] fit in a 1 DIN car stereo slot!

I wonder how this configuration would harm cooling. :(

About the Casetronic C-134 XTC PC

http://www.casetronic.com/Product/Barebone/Mini-Checkercube/minicheck.html
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=212
http://www.caseoutlet.com/NWPc/Mini-Checkercube/minicheck.html
I used to know where you could buy just the case ($130), but I have lost the link.
Headers:
An external PCI enclosure could be rigged up by using something like this (with a long umbilical):

A perhaps better overall computer (because of the built in 2 PCI expansion slots) may be this one:
Opus Solutions ITX Vehicle Workstation
Problem is that it wasn't scheduled for release until May 2003 (it is now 03/01/2004 and I still don't see it yet).

Ideally I wanted to install a 1U rack mount server in the car, which would have fit perfectly in the 18" wide glove compartment.
The point of this was to allow me to use a genuine Pentium 4 PC on a standard or mini ATX motherboard (for simple upgrades in the future).
There were a few problems with this though.

I have 18" of width, but only 14"-16" of depth to play with.
There are very few 1U cases that are less than 16" deep.
The largest wattage 1U +12VDC DC-DC power supply I could find was 150W.
A P4 system nowadays ideally needs >200W (some need are pushing 400W, but I wouldn't expect to use that much).
To get that power I would need a standard (2U) power supply, which I wasn't really keen on.
(I was really insisting on a 1U server...2U is unacceptable! :))
4/20/2003: Check this one out! 1U +12VDC ATX power supply
(sorry, the link is bad and I cannot find the item anymore. Bug that company for more info)
I refuse to use a DC to AC power inverter (+12VDC to 115VAC).
I don't really care to deal with any problem of running a P4 on a "low" wattage power supply (I consider 150W relatively "low" nowadays).
It may have in fact been sufficient, I just did not want to run into any problems halfway through the project. "Not enough power" could quickly dead end this project (although there are several obvious ways around this).
Assuming 75% efficiency, a +12VDC 150W power supply would have a current of 16A. Imagine what a higher wattage would draw!
I was not comfortable with putting a system in my car that draws more than 20A.
Unlike a stereo, the computer needs to run for a few minutes after the ignition is cut off, and I did not feel comfortable discharging my battery that deeply.
Higher current equals lower efficiency, and I hate inefficiency! :)
A >200W DC/DC power supply was pretty much out of the question in my mind.
I considered putting one of those new fangled 36V/42V power supplies into my car in an attempt to lower the current. But, that would be terribly experimental *and* expensive *and* it would void the warranty on my brand new car. Maybe in a few years once 36V/42V systems start to catch on...
The glove compartment of the 350Z is in a fairly inconvenient location.
I never decided if this was acceptable or not for a PC (it may have in fact been OK).
A 12V powered 1U server was going to be fairly expensive to custom build (probably over $2000).
Overall, the nicely packaged DC ready ITX solution was hard to beat at $730, total.

Yes, I am well aware that there are smaller and cheaper and faster units out there.
The Cappuccino and Latte are the first ones that come to mind.
In the end, I chose the C-134 because I liked it better and it was based on an industry standard that I can replace components on.
It is optimized for minimal power usage (sacrificing some speed, mostly floating point), and it is a very cool pre-packaged solution that has an acceptable price tag.