So I've been jealous of people who have GPS based navigation systems and MP3 players in their cars. Instead of shelling out thousands of dollars for both, I decide to investigate into an inexpensive laptop based setup for the Honda Odyssey.

Some inquiries on the Odyssey forum led me to a place called Jotto Desk laptop mount for cars. Appearently this is what police have in the cruisers. Been the cheap ass that I'm, instead paying the retail of $200 or more, I went to Ebay to find cheap Jotto Desks. Alas, Ebay has some interesting not-Jotto desks. One caught my attention, from a place called MobileLaptopMount. They use standard home improvement center parts for everything so it can be customized easilly and cheaply.

This thing cost $25 plus $13 for shipping. I figure I can gamble on $38 so I ordered it.

What arrived in the mail is a 12"x12" piece of plexiglass witha 3" round pipe flange mounted on the center of it and a 1/4" alumimum lip on one edge. Another pipe flange, two 45' elbows, 4" pipe, 5" pipe, and 10" pipe of 1/2" size completes the package.

The idea is to mount the base pipe flange somewhere near the front seat where it's sturdy and can hold the weight of the whole setup. Then use various of length of pipes and elbows to get the pipe to where the laptop needs to be, and mount the plexiglass on the end.

The instruction says to mount the base on the floor if possible, and some people mount the base on the seat anchor bolt and that works as well. I pried the carpet and discovered almost an inch and half of padding underneath. Ok, that's out. The seat anchor is recessed into the floor, also doesn't work. After sticking my head on the floor of the van for long time, I figured what heck, I'll simply sacrifize one of the cup holders for this. I got my epoxy out and was simply going to pour the epoxy into the cup holder with the base flange to secure it. Just then my wife pulls in the driveway and after I demostrated to her what I was about to do, she immediately vetoed the plan.

After pouting at her for nixing my setup then apologizing for pouting, it's back to square one. More head scraping the carpet time was spend and a second idea came up. The front seat base mount has real sturdy steel walls. It makes for a perfect place to anchor the base flange. Out comes the drill and four holes later I got my base flange mounted.

The picture is a little fuzzy, I couldn't really see the LCD of the camera when I took this. The flange is mounted on the inside of the passenger seat base with four bolts and nuts.

Here is a view of the underneath of the passenger seat. I had to take out the storage tray and cover panel to get to this area.

After this, it's just a matter of figuring out the right combination of pipes and elbows to get the laptop to where I want, between the two front seats but closer to the passenger and not high enough to block the right side mirror for the driver, and able to access the front console cup holders as well.

I went to Lowe's and bought every length of 1/2" pipe and elbows for less than $10.

First attempt: I decided to use four elbows to get the pipe up and around the center flip tray. One 90' elbow and three 45" elbows went into this setup.

I soon realized a serious flaw. The weight of the laptop mounted 2ft above puts a serious amount torque on the bottom pipe, and it's torqueing the pipe lose toward the front. This setup is also a giant pain in the ass to get the pipe tight and just at the correct angle, with 4 elbows and 8 connections.

After some serious brain storming, with my wife's permission, I decided to bring back the cup holder into play.

Second Attempt: Drill a hole in the front passenger side cup holder of the flip tray. Router the pipe through it and to the laptop. This reduces the number of elbows to 2, and the cup holder also prevents the pipe from torqueing itself lose.

Out comes the big drill bit and filer. After filling the front passenger space with plastic bits and dusts, I made a hole in the cup holder big enough for the pipe and cover (that makes it look less industrial).

The final setup has the laptop about five inches above the tray. I cranked everything tight except for the where the plexiglass tray mounts to the pipe where I hand tighted it and it can swivel from driver to passenger with a little effort. The laptop is held in place by velcro attached to the tray.

Now I need to return all the extra pipes and elbows to Lowe's. It turned out the only extra part I needed is a 90" elbow.

I already ordered a Holux GPS receiver from Ebay for $35 + $20 shipping, and a LineX USB FM Transmitter from Ebay for $32 + $7 shipping. The GPS receiver is already here and it works beatifully with Microsoft Streets & Trips. I'm still waiting for the FM Transmitter.

So for $132, I now can play all of my MP3 collections, and have a GPS based navigation system in the car. How cool!

The final setup:

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