That is soooo sweet! Nice job!
I thought I would post a few pictures of my dock
I thought I would post a few pictures of my docking station. I have modifed it for use in the car. I travel for work (1,300+ miles a week) and have been using my TC1000 for work since January this year. I tried the MobileCX bracket with RAM mount, but got tired of plugging and unplugging all the cables and power cord every time you get in and out of the car (I make several stops a day with consulting-type work). So, I bought a refurbished docking station from ebay for $79.00 and dismantled it looking for a way to mount the electronics on the MobileCX bracket. After staring at all the parts scattered on the table for several hours it hit me that simply reconfiguring the existing docking station hardware was the best answer. After spending all weekend in the garage, I ended up with a pile of metal under the drill press. I now have a functioning car-docking station, complete with DC power cord (from HP) and all the usb ports to connect to things like my gps sensor and frogpad (which I have been learning, so I don't have it set up yet.) I have also ordered parts from STO-P to make a surge protector (yes, car electrical systems do have voltage spikes - (where do you think all the power goes when you turn off the starter motor that draws 75 amps or so?) so I will be working on that when the part comes in. The vehicle it is mounted in currently is a Ford Freestyle. I typically get two new cars a year for work because the miles rack up so fast, so I'm not worried about the wires hanging all over. It has to be able to be transplanted into my new car in about 4 or 5 months, so I can't hard-wire or make the wires hidden or anything. The docking station is mounted via the ram mount that came with the mobilecx bracket. I mounted it in the map compartment on top of the dash so I can remove the docking station, close the map compartment and everything looks "factory" since the ram ball mount is under the lid. I did make some metal brackets that reinforce the ram mount under the map compartment and attach to a beam in the dash. The docking station has enough thick metal in it that is very solid. I was able to recess the screws in the metal and keep the drive bay open, so that when my dvd burner comes in, it should slide right in. There were only a few parts that I didn’t reuse. Two small plastic bits and three screws are all that is left. I used the arm to mount a cell phone clip so that I have and adjustable cell phone bracket. The rotation still works to view in portrait (easier to dock the computer) or landscape mode. With the computer in landscape it doesn’t block the view out the windshield at all. I did have to tint the windows to be able to see the screen in the sun though. The one remaining wire that is hanging out of the PCcard slot is for the Sierra Wireless Aircard 775 and goes to a signal amplifier and then to an antenna on the roof. Since it is the last wire that has to be plugged in, I am planning to get a JunXion Box so that I can put the AirCard in it and route a Cat5 cable to the docking station. As soon as that happens, I'll be able to dock and undock, and have internet and (with the wireless feature on the JunXion Box, will have wireless when I am on-site.) The cell phone card works well with the booster and antenna, but when I'm in a building with just the small antenna, the signal drops out a lot. Anyway, here it is. O ya, I just ordered a TC1100 to upgrade my TC1000.
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That is soooo sweet! Nice job!
Nice job. Can you make me one? I assume you won't be using the multibay for anything. Too bad the TC1x00 doesn't have a View Anywhere screen since you seem to drive in the sun. However, driving at night must be really cool! :-D
That is exactly what I was going to do! I've been looking for a dying or dead docking station to use as a donor. I wasn't sure that the docking station would hold the tablet securely enough. Thanks for doing the rest of the R&D for me!!
very nice!!
Thanks for the feedback everyone. The docking station does hold the TC1000 tight enough. I've hit some pretty serious potholes, speed bumps, and chunks of semi truck tire over the past couple weeks and no problems so far. Thankfully the docking station was designed with the same tough materials that the tablet itself uses. I do leave the keyboard off while it is docked because I use slate mode during stops while I am traveling. The TC1100 I just bought came packaged with a DVD burner so as soon as that arrives, I'll see If I can figure out how to get the cd's to stay in the drawer when it opens vertically. The multibay opening is actually at the top of the docking station in the car, so it is not blocked by the phone or dash or anything. I figure that the Sony Playstation 2 can stand on it's side and hold the disks in it (so I've heard anyway), so there must be a way to get the dvd drive to work in a vertical mount. If anyone else tries to build one, be very careful with the bundle of wire that goes from the connector that plugs into the tablet all the way to the circuit board in the base. There are about 60 tiny wires in it that seem too small to solder on if you damage them. I was going to remote mount the base under the seat or something because it is very heavy, but trying to modify those 60 wires seemed virtually impossible if you think about trying to insulate them from RFI and EMI and all in the car. I figured it would be easier to leave the electrical components all intact and reinforce the mount to hold the extra weight of the base. There are a lot of small parts in the docking station, and it has an assembly sequence that has to be followed to get everything back together. It's not an easy project at all. I could have drilled a lot of holes in the metal in the base to lighten it up, but I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, so I made sure to not permanantly destroy anything. If I want, I can turn it back into a desktop docking station no problem (with a few extra holes here and there, but functional).
Wow, that is just hot! :) I'd kill to have a setup like that, whether I needed it or not.I was especially impressed when I scrolled down and saw the unit rotated to portrait mode. Nice job all round. :)
About the DVD drive; if it's anything like the drive that comes with the TC4200, it'll be a typical notebook-style tray, meaning it has that "grippy" thing in the center to hold the CD/DVDs, instead of those that let the CD sit on a tray. In addition, those tray-style drives typically have ridges around one side of the inset portion so the CD/DVDs stay put when the drive is mounted sideways.
Looks great...my dad is always telling me to do stuff like this when I have the time, but maybe I'll have time when I finish grad school.
Ok, that's exactly what I was looking for. Great job. How did you fasten the back of the rotating part to the top of the base? Can you shoot a picture of that without too much trouble? If not, can you post it in 100 words or less? I just ordered me a spare to lighten up and permenantly modify it, now all I have to do is go out and buy a car to mount it in!
Ok I was buying a car anyway, I just haven't recieved my last check yet to finialize it the deal. My question is probably moot since I wont be using the TC1000 screen anyway. I'm probably going to mount the Base on the side of the console and add a 7" touch screen in the console so I dont have to use the pen. Still, since I don't want to damamge anything and since you have a working mod I would like to use your design. I promise to post pictures of it when I'm done.
The center circular part (with the HP logo) has a front and a back. I drilled holes in the back and put screws through it into the top of the base. I had to drill identically spaced holes in the top of the base also. I used some small nuts (two on each screw) to make spacers. Do not put screws through the area that has the black plastic stuck on it (inside the circular part). That is where the connecting wire slides back and forth as you rotate the docking station from landscape to portrait. I used three screws between the base and the circular part. I countersunk the screws and nuts inside the top of the base so that the expansion bay could still be used. You will need some sharp drill bits to drill the thick metal in the base. I used some dewalt bits that worked well.
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