WiGLE.net

My wardriving rig in the Escort includes:

Pentium 90 laptop running OpenBSD with BSD-Airtools (Linksys WiFi card)
Garmin eTrex Yellow GPS
Garmin serial & power-in-one cable
Vector 40W Pocket Inverter
2 Additional 12V outlets running constant current (the original 12V outlet is ignition only)

Yes, bungee cords keep the laptop from sliding around.




My night-time cockpit:



Power Distribution (ignore the Super Street Magazine )


Misc car photos:






My new tires:






More information about my car:

http://www.focushacks.com/escort/

ax0n LOVES his cars... I'll have to do some work to get a better setup in the truck. And my new rig is coming along. A Compaq LTE 5380, P133, 2GB, 32MB, w/ a (first charge test of) 2+ hr battery. Woo! A whole 43MHz bootst, but a loss of 8MB RAM. Maybe it's that XGA displayh that I like so much... Too bad it'll run in text mode 90% of the time.

Under textmode your 640x480 screen isn't too bad is it?

Under textmode your 640x480 screen isn't too bad is it?

No it's great. even with WindowMaker 640x480 is slick. I use links GUI mode and dstumbler in a semi-transparent wterm window quite often. It's boss.

I know in linux there is a package called SVGA textmode. You could probably set your text res up to 80x40 or 80x50 pretty easily.

Im not sure if they ported that to BSD yet.

Nice use of bungee cords, I’ll have to try something like that.

Nice use of bungee cords, I’ll have to try something like that.

It's somewhat ghetto but it keeps the lappy from sliding around.

I want to go to the boneyard one of these days and pick up another one of those fiberglass hatch covers, except cut it out so the laptop sits down inside of it, covered and out-of-sight, and mount some 12v outlets and the inverter to the under-side, with some 12V PC Case fans to keep the laptop compartment cool on warm days. Should be a cheap project, but it's still a pipedream.

where is the antenna, friend?

where is the antenna, friend?

Unfortunately, the heart of my rig is a Linksys WPC11v3, which does not have an antenna port on it. My last card (which I still have, just don't use for WDing) was a D-Link DWL-650 and I tried wiring up a pigtail to it, to no avail.

Sometime, I'll pick up one of the 200mw PRISM cards (Senao, Engenius, etc) with antenna ports on them. Then You'll see a mag-mount omni on my roof. Until then, the antenna is on the card itself, which is part of the reason the laptop is mounted in the back window. It seems to pick up more stations when it's back there than anywhere else in my car.

interesting...

I'm building my wireless wheels at the moment, and will soon have pics.

Thanks for the idea, and I see that most here do the same. I'll have to adapt.

Good luck with the cards.

I like the location of the laptop, and the bungee cords. I was looking for a better way to mount it within reach, but some of the laptop mounts are expensive. Just have to be careful about local laws concerning having the screen on. My favorite is the Jotodesk: http://www.jottodesk.net/mi/5167acd.htm

This one is really awesome, and includes a 400w inverter, but costs twice as much: http://www.a2zsolutions.com/desks/floor ... pitome.htm

I actually have a Jotto Desk in my truck... once my external antenna and card show I will post up some pics of my rig...

Yah, inverters are cheap, so a Jotto with an inverter is somewhat pointless, ya know. I replaced my small 70 watt inverter with a 350W I bolted to the floor in my (un-used) back seat.

I re-did my back window mount so that it's now held into place with angled aluminum.

More pics:





Blurry: