I wanted to do a GPS nav screen in my car, but I didn’t have an in-dash system. But I did have an old laptop..hmmmm. What if I used this as an excuse to use my brother’s welder to create a little stand so I can use GPS software on the laptop while I drive? Materials: About a foot of 1 inch square steel pipe. An old music stand shelf. About 2 feet of water heater copper tubing. A couple of connectors. Link.
4 thoughts on “DIY Laptop – GPS Car Stand”
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That’s one of the ugliest installs I’ve ever seen. The passenger seat is all but useless with it in, and it’s a minivan/SUV. Also, the first hard bump he drives over is going to bend the copper, possibly into the way of the gearshift, or too far away from the driver to reach. I know a lot of people that have laptop installs in their cars (datalogger for DSMs) that are much much better than this, although they usually don’t have a passenger seat in the way. I should start putting some of my hardware hacks up on this site if this is the kinda stuff that flies here :)
-Jesse
Yes, you should post some of yours.
Is this the best stand ever? No. But, there were criterea in the design that were met, namely:
The tubing actually flexes, but only slightly, so when you hit that bump, instead of your drive heads bouncing off the platter of the disk in your laptop, there is some cushioning effect.
And yea, I could have taken out the front seat, but not what I wanted, and there are tons of commercial stands available for several hundred dollars for any variety of cars. But that isn’t the spirit of the MAKE philosophy.
Cmon, lets see what you got. Throw down or shut it.