DSM Laptop stands...?

[GsXtacY325]

So i'm looking for ideas to build a laptop stand in my '95 gsx. So if you got one, POST PICS!

My laptop slides too damn much on my leather seats and i guess a good way to stabalize it is a stand of some sort. anyway, looking for ideas. get creative. POST IDEAS, POST PICS, POST SUGGESTIONS, please?

 

[Twinky-Ninja]

I have been pondering this too. It would be perfect while tuning and running log runs. Here are a few ebay items i've been looking at. These are the more pricier ones. there are some cheaper ones as well.


*NEW* Laptop Computer/GPS/DVD Mount/Stand/Car,Truck, RV - eBay (item 170182770932 end time Jan-12-08 18:15:41 PST)

CAR LAPTOP STAND MOUNT TABLE DESK PORTABLE AUTO TRUCK - eBay (item 360011726911 end time Jan-13-08 23:00:00 PST)




dave

 

[blcknspo0ln]

Whatever you do, dont' buy the cheapy (<$50) eBay stands. Back in the day, I bought one and it was full of plumbers pipes and elbows. WTF. The kits linked above look good, but at that price you can spring for a really good one for $150. To me, dealing with a sliding laptop is much cheaper than to buy and install this huge laptop stand thing. If you really need to keep it in place, try finding those non-slip gel pads and glue it to the bottom of the laptop.

 

[turboglenn]

I built one a few years ago (based it off what i saw in my friends cop car) but I don't have any pics of it. I really didn't like it, so now i just use a CD case and a power inverter to hold the laptop in the passenger seat properly. I used a bunch of 90* stock from ACE, and welded 4 bolts to the floor and ran 4 supports upright. Then I made a box that had simple clamps to snug the PC into. I can draw a pic, or if it's still in my shop somewhere i'll get a pic if you want. TO me it was a pain because when you weren't tuning there were 4 bars sticking out of the floor you had to take out, and when the laptop was mounted in it , it covered the shifter (but you could still shift) and blocked access to the radio and heater controls.

 

[crazy_skier]

a few months ago I remember seeing one that was built. He had a board that went between the center console and the seat up to the hight he wanted. The guy then had a board as wide as about 2/3 the seat, take another 90 and have a board go into the seat. And then you can finish boxing it off at the angle of the seat so it is flat. After assembling it, you can carpet it (this one was an industial looking grey). I was going to make one but never got around to it. you could also make a cut out on a second piece of wood so that your laptop sits flush in on the deck of it. Then it would never move around at all and it would look clean I'll try to paint something of it.

 

[GsXtacY325]

a few months ago I remember seeing one that was built. He had a board that went between the center console and the seat up to the hight he wanted. The guy then had a board as wide as about 2/3 the seat, take another 90 and have a board go into the seat. And then you can finish boxing it off at the angle of the seat so it is flat. After assembling it, you can carpet it (this one was an industial looking grey). I was going to make one but never got around to it. you could also make a cut out on a second piece of wood so that your laptop sits flush in on the deck of it. Then it would never move around at all and it would look clean I'll try to paint something of it.

I'm trying to picture it and i think i got somewhat of an idea, but definitely draw/paint, whatever you can, a picture to help me get a better idea.

There are a few things that are crucial to me for a badass laptop stand, but some may not all be seriously possible including:
1. Allow driver to access laptop with little to no strain (even when buckled up) and not interfere with driver's position/view
2. Allow a Passenger with little to no interference.
3. OBDII cable/dsmlink cable obviously needs to reach.
4. No rattles/weird vibration noises (for christ sake it IS a dsm )
5. Look Clean, no janky bullshit

Some questions I have Include:
1. Where to mount?
2. How to secure laptop?
3. How to keep clean with no rattles/wierd noises and no janky bullshit

Anyone else got ANY idea throw them out! One day, not necessarily soon, but one day i WILL have a badass laptop stand.

 

[Defiant]

Building one will only be a matter of how much effort you want to put into it, while "ready-made" that'll still probably take a fair bit of dicking with to get close to "right" will go for at least $150. But it's up to you.
Laptop Mount - 4WDTrips.net Forums
GpsPasSion Forums - Laptop mount in a Taurus, swivels into back seat
DIY In-Car Laptop Desk - SlashGear
02 T/A Tinted, cammed, duals.
DSMs have that front bolt on the seat rail nice and accessible for a mounting point to start from, at least.

 

[eclipsegst1990]

I've had a laptop mount in my GVR4 for a few years now. I like it, but it's a little wobbly. Some of you may have some better ideas, but I went with the following:

RAM POD III

The aluminum rods they provide are relatively soft and you can bend them to the angles needed to mount the unit. I mounted two rods to the passenger seat bolt and the third rod to the aluminum housing encasing the console. Works well and shifting isn't a problem. I'll post some pics soon, I'm working right now .

Brian

 

[myeagleneedmods]

I wonder if modifying one of these to hold a laptop mount would work: Sticky Pod - Camera Mounts

 

[GsXtacY325]

Defiant: I guess i am willing to put in as much effort as it takes to design/build/buy a laptop stand that i am satisfied with. I have an AAS degree in CAD/CAM and have full access to acad, proe, and solidworks as well as student versions of each on my home pc so i suppose i am willing to create my own stand if there is no product on the market i am ultimately satisfied with. However, if a product does exist that i am unaware of that fits my requirements i won't hessitate to jump on the oportunity. By the way, thanks for the links provided these are deffinitely giving me ideas!

eclipsegst1990: the RAM POD III is very similiar to what i had in mind (i think, still open to ANY ideas). I guess the soft alum. rods scare me from this product a little bit, but please do post pics. It does look like a decent product at a decent price and really caught my attention.

myeagleneedmods: VERY nice link! not necessarily for the laptop idea (although you may be on to something for modifying these mounts for laptop use), but for the fact that i may purchase a video cam mount simply because i spent $700 on a video cam 3 years ago just for the purpose of filming videos of my eclipse(in-car, outside, whatever) and have not used it ONCE! good find i like! But as far as using these mounts for laptop use, it would be rather conveninent, but i don't know if it falls under the 'clean' catagory. It does in the fact that it would be a simple to place/remove device, however i can't figure out a decent place to put the mount w/o obstructing driver view. And it would look alot more attractive in black IMO.

Anyway, keep the Ideas rolling...

 

[myeagleneedmods]

Well, since they claim it can be mounted on a dash, I was thinking that you could mount it there and then get extensions and whatnot so that the laptop would be in the passenger seat. And as for being white, theres nothing a can of spray paint cant handle

 

[turboglenn]

Just a little FYI/Warning on mounting laptops and cameras to your chassis for extended periods of time. The vibration and shock from the motor and suspension taking larger bumps than it can handle smoothly can ruin laptops and cameras FAST!

I ruined my miniDV cam having it mounted to the tank of my GSX-R and it only took about 10-15 hours of on bike taping to shake it to death. Also when i had my last laptop mounted in my eclipse it was firmly bolted with all metal parts and secured to the floor pan very tightly. It took a couple of weeks of straight daily driving with it mounted to it, but eventually it had started to turn off on it's own and eventually had to be sent in for repair because some of the more delicate parts vibrated to death as well. That was a Compaq.

2 things i recommend to avoid this:

1.) Mount the stand or camera mount with some sort of dampening device such as rubber washers to make the main mount from chassis to stand/mount for cam or PC

2.) If you have a choice in laptops get an IBM thinkpad model that's meant for industrial or hospital use, they are much tougher and can handle a lot more abuse than your normal laptops (this was a recomendation from one of the IT guys at a place i use to work)

So now i have a nice toshiba 2gig pentium 4 with a 80gb HD for home and entertainment, and then i have a refurbished thinkpad 770 for tuning , i keep it stripped bare and have disks to boot my ECU tuning programs without running the full windows OS on top of it, allowing for longer battery life and much easier to keep from getting off track since there's no other windows open or available to accidentally get switched to... you get the idea.

Good Luck!

EDIT: I've noticed a lot of people have caught onto this because all of the camera mounts we've bought for our SCCA racer guys now have dampeners or fairly large rubber joints between the mount to the cage and where it hooks to the camera. Other sensitive electronics that we mount permanently in the race cars, we've found a really tough 3M double sided tape that bonds REALLY tightly and is thick enough to absorb a lot of the vibrations that would normally get to them. I forget the exact name of the tape, but it's the only 3M one that ONLY comes in a pack of short strips, not in rolls like most other doble sided tapes.

 

[rrussell]

I totally agree on the IBM Think Pad for durability.

I was trying to find the stand that uses a strap right in the middle. The lap top sits flush against the dash.

Its what a lot of storm chasers use.

 

[Ajax]

we use the panasonic toughbooks CF-51's at my work

 

[eclipsegst1990]

By all means, I'm not trying to step on toes here, but I know of a few businesses that have had laptops installed in vehicles for thousands of miles with the laptops on almost 18 - 24 hours a day (heat/air or baking in car parked) hooked up to inverters and have had no problems (Dell P3 700mhz). Yea, they're older laptops, but since they were purchased NEW, they are still running in different vehicles today. This may be a different story with a race vehicle with different vibrations, but don't forget your "highway taxes at work" when you drive in areas of Southern New Jersey with all the unforgiving "pot holes."

Hey, if they can withstand these areas, I wonldn't worry too much about laptop failure. Turboglenn does have a good point with dampening the units, but I'll bet you'll have more problems with inverter problems other than the laptops. Hell, I have a Dell Pentium M that has ran in my 90 Eclipse (God rest her soul), my friend's 92 Laser, and now my 91 Galant with no problems. It seems that the laptops outlive the cars unfortunately. It could be just the brand or the type of hard drives used in certain models that can handle more shock, I dunno.

Regardless, here ares some pics of my hacked up installation of a mount. It works pretty good, but I think, the joint between the laptop arm "ball and socket" could be a little tighter to stop the gravity tourque from pulling down on the laptop tray. Hey, so it tilts a little, I'll just drift in the other direction to g-force it back into place. Oh, and the bungee cord holds the front of the laptop on the tray because I lost one of the mounting pads. Oh, I don't recommend the bend I have on the left rod, keep them sharp angled bends or straight up if you can for a more sturdy tripod effect.

 

[John Hiram]

I found an interesting article on the net about laptop stands.

First Hand Laptop Stands

I hope this helps!

 

[HIGHPSI4]

Local Guy makes these for the 1G. Has a quick disconect clamp so you can pull it out when you want.

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

^^That's awesome!!! I totally want one!! I also want to relocate my lighter/power outlet where it is in that last picture.

 

[2point3Tsi]

can I have one that pops outta my passenger airbag slot? cause thats what I'm doing once I get that extra cash to piddle away

 

[kewlguy]

use 4 butterfly screws (the screws you can tighten by hand and fold down to flatten) and clamps with pads to secure laptop to stand.

 

[TheBigPhantom]

That's really neat but does someone know where to actually buy one of these around the chicagoland area?

 

[Supa Dexta]

^^That's awesome!!! I totally want one!! I also want to relocate my lighter/power outlet where it is in that last picture.

You'd don't need to relocate, just grab another one out of a junkyard and wire it in. I have mine in that general area as well.