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Ask Slashdot: How To Add New Tech To Old Van?
First time accepted submitter Dslice_allstar writes "I have a '77 GMC Van that I would like to take into the 21st century with some good tech. I have several large LCD monitors, and I want to hook at least one up for watching movies and doing some mild PC gaming. I am concerned about power, i.e. using an inverter and not frying the computer every time the van starts/stops, and I'm worried about whether the alternator will support a computer/monitor setup as well as LEDs and the like. Would a UPC backup be a good idea? I would also like to be able to play music over the sound system, preferably off the computer. Should I be thinking mini ITX HTPC, or would a netbook better serve my purposes? How would you all pimp out an old conversion van?"
Adding new tech to a van is OK, if you're into that kind of thing. (Which I am.) But of far more importance is what kind of art you put on your van. Be it a wizard summoning a space unicorn to be ridden by a hot babe, a barbarian protecting hot babes, or an interstellar wizard summoning hot babes for nefarious purposes, van art is what takes your van and gives it that certain je ne sais pas which says, "I am awesome."
In this case, I think you need to consider the technological contents of your van and create a motif based around that. For example, you can have a wizard summoning hot technological Linux cyborg babes. That would be cool. And when you drove down the street, people would be like, "that's cool." And isn't that the real purpose of owning a van?
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Forget technology for now.
With an old vehicle, first and foremost it needs to be well looked-after. A well looked after vehicle - even if it's getting on in age - commands respect. A clapped-out rusty biscuit tin on wheels commands scorn, no matter how much technology it may have inside.
Fit bars to the front if it doesn't already have them. You don't want some idiot reversing into you and destroying the grille; I can't imagine parts will be too easy to find for a vehicle that age. Roo bars (the type that don't curve around the side) will probably look best.
Sort out any rust or dents it may have, then give it a nice shiny new paint job. I'm thinking something along the lines of a red stripe starting at the top rear and going diagonally to finish at about the level of the door handle, whereupon the red stripe goes horizontally along the door.
Paint it black below the red stripe, and grey above it.
Fit some lights to the roof just above the windscreen.
A spolier on top and red wheels complete the look.
Sorry, but this is wrong on many levels. An inverter isn't any harder, and most likely easier than going without because anything that would normally plug into the wall will.. Well... Just plug in and work.
Now the issue is you don't want to use just any old inverter as there are major differences between them. Get one with voltage stabilizing (does a good job of keeping a steady output voltage, just like the some home theater power centers do), and also make sure it's a pure sine wave. Pure sine waves run a bit more, but are much safer for sensitive electronics vs a non-pure wave system. The last one we did at the stop was a 2000watt RMS/4000 max pure sine wave that ran about $800-1000 (can't remember exact figure), but you can fine similar setups with less watts for a lot less money.
Also, use a good deep cycle or dual-purpose marine battery all the way around. Try to use the same battery in all locations, as using different batteries (different in style as in deep cycle vs a starting battery, or a smaller capacity vs larger capacities) can cause issues as one battery may fully charge before the other, but because of the load imbalance one may over charger or one may remain undercharged.
Also look into the after market audio areas for an alternator/generator. The same RV van I put the power inverter into above we also put a tsunami alternator which produced around 240amps at a fairly low rpm. We also used one of their heavy duty relays (500amp rated) to isolate the rear batteries from the one under the hood when the key was off so the main battery wouldn't drain and leave you stranded.
The setup used all home equipment (made a custom flip down mount for the 36" tv we put in), including the directv receiver and home theater system.
my van (a Mazda Bongo) has a leisure battery (120Ah) that runs the electronics inside and has optional charging from the engine (if it is running - via Willington cable), solar panels (when out in the sticks) or through a campsite hookup electricity point common in EU campsites.
Whilst the solar panels only provide 26W or so at full sunlight; they do help extend the range of the leisure battery when camped out places. There's some new 80W panels that can bond to the roof (which is a rising roof in a Bongo) that I'm thinking of getting so I can run a better fridge. The nice thing about this is that if the leisure battery is drained; the engine will still start.
Whilst I do have an inverter for 240V, I try to use kit that supports 12V to save on transformer inefficiencies. Every Ah counts!