i am working on putting a car computer in my ride. 7" or 8" screen, small computer (size wise) and auto on and off switch in the computer that works with the ignition. I have already found these components that i need. what i am looking for is something to hide the moniter. I am looking for something that when you turn on the ignition the moniter flips up and when you turn the ignition off the moniter flips down. Kind of like the auto hide on decks. I can fabricate the housing, get the motors and what not. I just want to know if someones makes a relay or circuit board setup that can do this. Any ideas or at least a direction to look would be nice.

Good luck. There isnt even a VGA touchscreen that is motorized being produced yet, not to mention one that auto extends. Over at www.mp3car.com we have been discussing this for over 2 years now. There are many motorized screens but none that are carputer worthy. Digitalww sells a inscreen conversion kit for the xenarcs and lilliputs, but you have to dissasemble the monitor and fab up parts.

i don't have a problem with making my own parts and designs for the screen. Right now i have some drawings, sketch's and a couple of cad drawings to get me started. This what i am going to school for, to design and build products. This is the only thing that is holding up my design and getting started on it. I have figured out a way to manually flip up the moniter but i was hoping i could find an automatic way. The design is not like the normal flip up the hinges at one point, but more like forward and up. just for an on\off switch for motors that can do the work automatically. Think of it as a mp3car computer power source. fires up the computer when you start or have it in the on possistion and turns off when the keys are in the off posistion, but controls a couple of motors.

edit: I did have a chance to look at www.digitalww.com and they have given me a couple of ideas. I sent an e-mail to them on how the indash motorized unit works and how it's controlled for opening and closing. This a lot closer to making my idea a reality but if anyone else has some suggestions please let me know.

just feed a line off of your OPUS PS... you are using an OPUS arent you? damn sure hope so. lol

EDIT:
here is a simple diagram. If you use this then hook up accesories like your motors and monitors 12V to your OPUS then everything is switched on and off with the key. Especially helpful since any ATX compliant mobo still sucks power on the 5V rail even with the computer off. This will drain your battery in a short time.




These have been "supposedly shipping soon" for about 2 years now...

http://www.digitalww.com/DWW-700M.htm

and here is an in-dash housing that i mentioned. non motorized but you might be able to rig it up.
http://www.digitalww.com/indashhousing.htm

thanks for the info. i will probely be in touch with you when i get all the parts in. I have not heard back from digitalww yet but i did some reasearch on google and also came across a couple of other companies (they are over seas though). I will keep you updated on what i find out.