Ed Blown Vert

iTrader: (2)

The Company who makes it is www.jottodesk.com

I bought it from www.afterthoughtsauto.com

Here is another pic showing the addon piece that holds the lid.

Brody

iTrader: (3)

Wow, that looks really nice!

Did the add-on come with the model that you purchased? If not, who sells it and how much extra was it?

What model on the Jotto page does Afterthoughts sell?

Can you lower the height of where the laptop is held much more?

horist

from the pic it looks like that's all the way lowered.... where you see the **** just below the laptop on the vertical (to the floor) piece.. that's the up/down adjustment

I'm not sure what model it is... I bought mine from afterthoughts as well... but I like it

I no longer have a passenger seat so I'm going to try it w/out the weight of the seat holding down the ends ... hopefully it still works ....

I need to look into that addon piece! it wasn't available when I bought mine... that's a nice item ... when I launch my screen moves which makes it harder to see (I used to have autotap setup so that if i got more than 2* of KR it would flash the screen red... so I could see it outta my peripheral vision)

From what I remember though... the Jotto desk that fits F-Bodies also works in B-Bodys ... I could be mistaken on this though?

NCal

I made my own Laptop Stand from some aluminum stock that I liberated from the scrap pile at work. The Laptop surface is 17"x15"x1/8" thick aluminum and the mounting posts are black Anodized Aluminum ~1.25" round that were once used to stabilize crated machinery during shipping.

I drilled & tapped the post ends so they screw onto the threads where the passenger seat mounts, then drilled the plate accordingly. I also traced around the laptop and placed some shelf holders (that I had) around it's periphery to keep it from sliding, then covered the surface with ribbed rubber matting. The whole thing took around 2 hours to make and can be mounted and/or disassembled in under 2 minutes.


So far the laptop has stayed in place well during hard acceleration and twisty roads (even with the roof panels removed), but I may run a strip of velcro across the 'puter near the screen for insurance later on. I store the box for my HPTuner cable under the stand (on the seat). It stays out of site and also eliminates any "bounce" when driving over uneven surfaces (driveways, speedbumps, etc..). Oh yeah, total cost came to about $16 bucks.
You can see more pictures @ http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/...Laptop%20Stand .
Nick

Black02SS

iTrader: (36)

Nice looking setup man. I might have to try that.

Ed Blown Vert

iTrader: (2)

Thanks and it works good.

The screen holder was extra which I bought from Jotto. Not cheap though about $40.
http://www.jottodesk.com/dept.asp?id=80

They sell the Camaro mount part#425-5340
http://www.jottodesk.com/dept.asp?id=88
Its cheaper from Afterthoughts.

The mount is as low as it can go. I also wished I could drop it further. I guess you could cut the mount and redrill the holes.

critter

iTrader: (9)

I made a stand out of plywood and angle iron. It works well except that the vibration from the car causes the laptop to reboot Gonna try with some foam insulation.

Brody

iTrader: (3)

Critter, what laptop are you running?

Ed, do you like the quality of the unit? Any issue at all? I don't mind paying $250 for it, but it better work at that price.

critter

iTrader: (9)

Toshiba 2805. It shouldn't reboot, but it does.

Ed Blown Vert

iTrader: (2)

Its a sturdy unit. Bolted right in with no drilling. Easy to adjust. No issues at all. In fact, better then I expected.
I think these are the same units they use in Law Enforcement.

Brody

iTrader: (3)

TTT

Does anyone know if the afterthoughsauto unit will fit on a C5? Anyone have both and F-Body and C5 to see if they are similar in that area?

Brody

iTrader: (3)

TTT, I really would like to get a mount in my C5.

Midnight F-117A

I got one as a birthday gift 2 days ago. I did a 360 mile roundtrip (NY near the city to MA near boston) to drive my gf back to college. The stand is a very nice construction and it's awesome. for about 1/4 of the trip, a pickup truck followed me and didn't pass me the whole time til I got off an exit heading to my county, prob thought I was a undercover cop.

The only issue I had was that I had to cut about 3/4" off the handle that locks the hollow tube to the solid tube which is welded onto the flat plate which is predrilled with holes to use in the 4th gen F-body and late crown vic's.
Because the plastic handle hits the interior and if I did not cut it off, the fabric will get a wear spot in that area and it'll made removing and reinstalling harder. Other than that, it's a great item to have. I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop and I use a GPS software to plan routes and keeps me on track, even gives me the options of other ways if I run into major traffic, or I can locate resturants, etc down to the building #, when I'm running the comp at night, I use the red taskbar and black background on the GPS software for night vision.

Midnight F-117A

Measure between the center of two front passgener seat rail mounting bolts and I will measure mine and tell you if another hole has to be drilled or it'll fit in one of the two predrilled holes.

Ed Blown Vert

iTrader: (2)

Hmm, I didn't have that problem with the handle.

Gregg 00SS

iTrader: (8)

Know this is off topic, but what GPS software you use?

Midnight F-117A

http://www.delorme.com/streetatlasusa/default.asp

Brody

iTrader: (3)

I nearly purchased the Delorme unit, but the reviews were horrid (poor direction, maps don't follow GPS well, and tremendously outdated were the comments I kept reading). I ended up with MS Streets and Trips 2005, it's reviews were only average. I like it. I haven't seen any software get positive reviews yet, FWIW.

Midnight F-117A

I don't have that problem with the Delorme GPS. The directions are great when you tweak the route preferences, like avoid toll roads, avoid local streets, preferred on interstate and highways, avoid ferry roads and avoid trails.
Say your visiting someone and want the fastest and easiest way, what this does is calculate route in the shortest/fastest distance from where you are to the highway, and when you come up to the exit you need to get off to, it will take you thru the local roads. If I leave the local roads selected standard, it will make like the trip thru local streets which we all know is the slowest way possible.
I only found two errors in the Delorme maps, one of them is a street that has a dead end and it shows it connects thru (in worechester, MA) and the other was from the connection from north and south Saw Mill River Parkways to the Sprain Parkway north (they had construction recently here and that changed the route) the map thinks there's an divider there diving the north and south merge but there really isn't.
I can download updates from Delorme which corrects the minor places on the map.
The good thing is that I can edit the maps for locally changes.

It shows routes turn by turn and the roads to turn onto...etc, voice navigation comes up within 2 miles of the next turn you need to make, this is optional at installation.
It does a GPS logging which can record your route, speed, heading and all that for review later.
The accuracy of the GPS is good, when the arrow is green, it's in 3D GPS mode and it stays on track well, I estimate about 30 ft accuracy range.
when it goes into 3D DGPS mode, it means it's WAAS enabled and it's really accurate down to 15 ft range. If the arrow is yellow, it's either in 2D GPS or 2D DGPS, then the range isn't good and it drifts off the route until it locks onto the 4th satalilite. I rarely have the 2D GPS problem unless i'm in a really covered area like a tunnel or in the woods where there's a trail with trees all over.

I was in the same boat when I was considering the Delorme, but like a 2 weeks after eyeing it, they came out with an gaurentee offer that I try it for 90 days and if I don't like it, I can send it back for a refund minus the shipping, I like it and I kept it. Now my gf likes to use it to find resturants and places to stay near.

Gregg 00SS

iTrader: (8)

I found Delorme on the newsgroups, so gonna download and try it out. I have Streets & Trips 04, but never used it hooked up to my GPS. Usually just build a route and print the maps. But from what I've seen of it, the in car navigation sucks. Looks like you have to have someone watching the monitor for you as it doesn't talk to you, and the font is so small. That is why I like the looks of Delorme. I already have a Garmin III+ GPS, so I'd be using that hooked up to the laptop.