Cars

Home Dock For Car Stereo Faceplates

Categories Cars, Electronics, Gadgets, Music, Transportation1 Comment on Home Dock For Car Stereo Faceplates

Home dock for car stereo faceplates by Dave Delisle davesgeekyideas

Once upon a time I carried around a car stereo faceplate when I wasn’t on the road. I often thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a home stereo system where I can attach the faceplate to? Now that we live in an era where many people dock their phones and iPods while at home, this idea doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

Unfortunately there are no universal connectors for faceplates, so a home dock would need to be tailor made for a specific brand (Alpine, Bose, Sony, etc.). Despite that drawback, this is an untapped market in my opinion.

K.I.T.T. Car Stereo Deck

Categories Cars, Electronics, Music2 Comments on K.I.T.T. Car Stereo Deck

K.I.T.T. car stereo deck design by Dave Delisle davesgeekyideas

Every once in awhile I’ll post a design that strikes me as a no-brainer, like this or this. I’m very surprised there hasn’t been any K.I.T.T. car stereo decks made commercially or as fanmade/homebrew projects even.

This design would be encapsulating the K.I.T.T. dashboard into a stereo deck which would feature its namesake as a music visualizer - pretty straightforward. Originally I had a normal volume dial, but for fun I used the steering wheel instead, something that wouldn’t be too practical for an actual stereo deck.

Just like the last stereo deck I designed, this design discards the CD slot on the front, so if you want to load a disc the face will have to flip down (if CD capability were included to begin with).

One touch I’d like to include are voice greetings from K.I.T.T. when powering on and off the stereo (“Hello, Michael.”), and the Knight Rider theme on command.

Racing Game Proposal: Head-On Combat Zones

Categories Cars, Transportation, Video Games5 Comments on Racing Game Proposal: Head-On Combat Zones

Racing Track design by Dave Delisle

The last post which featured Mario Karters running amok all over the track got me thinking: wouldn’t it be cool if you could combat other racers head-on for brief stretches?

How it works: The racers are split into 2 groups. They race on two tracks (that are mirror opposites) which are conjoined in small stretches (“Chaos Zones”, in light gray in above image), allowing racers to combat each other head-on. The start/finish line is placed on a conjoined section.

Continue reading ➞ Racing Game Proposal: Head-On Combat Zones

Spy Hunter Car Stereo Deck

Categories Cars, Electronics, Music, Transportation, Video Games6 Comments on Spy Hunter Car Stereo Deck

Spy Hunter car stereo deck design by Dave Delisle 2012 davesgeekyideas

I thought I’d address the complete lack of geeky car stereo decks with this Spy Hunter design. For the most part it would be your standard stereo, save for a neat cosmetic touch: the back-lit weapons dash that adorned the original arcade cabinet.

These five icons would randomly illuminate (at a slow non-distracting rate) for a bit of a light show. Other touches include 3 buttons found on the steering wheel of the arcade cabinet: the ‘Source’ button disguised as the Weapons Van button, and the play/stop buttons use the same red push-buttons used to fire weapons.

Not only would this deck help recreate the feel of playing the arcade game while behind the wheel of your car, but also grant you delusions of being a badass spy (even if you’re driving a station wagon).

Notes:

You can check out the arcade cabinet in-depth here. This design was based on this Alpine model. The icons would not allow for a CD slot on the face, so if you want CD functionality you would need to pop the face down to load discs. I suppose you could program this sucker to play the Peter Gun Theme upon start-up. Sound effects from the game could be enlisted for button presses.

Car Dealership Idea: Hot Wheels Sign

Categories Cars, Toys, Transportation8 Comments on Car Dealership Idea: Hot Wheels Sign

Car Dealership SIgn 2011 Hot Wheels Dave Delisle davesgeekyideas

If I were to open a car dealership the first order of business would be a sign, one that is essentially a giant Hot Wheels package containing an actual car.

Not only would it serve as eye-catching signage, but it would also serve to highlight a particular car - much like dealerships do when they place a single car on a ramp or display stand to make it stand out from the lot.

Continue reading ➞ Car Dealership Idea: Hot Wheels Sign

TMNT Blu-Ray Case

Categories Cars, Films, TVLeave a Comment on TMNT Blu-Ray Case

TMNT Party Wagon Blu-Ray case design by Dave Delisle

This is my least original creation! And for a few reasons: there has already been a pizza-themed box set for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and this is a shameless rip-off of the excellent Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine DVD box set. However this being a design I would want to buy, I may as well throw it out there. Plus it was fun to make, so why not.

UPDATE (Aug 27/2012): There is now an official release of a TMNT collection in a turtles van. Below is a pic, more details can be found here.

TMNT Party Wagon Blu-Ray Case

Traffic Light Idea

Categories Cars, Safety7 Comments on Traffic Light Idea

Traffic Light design by Dave Delisle davesgeekyideas dave's geeky ideas

The green light conveys motion using an animated sequence, the yellow light is shaped like a caution triangle, and the red light is shaped like a stop sign, but with an animated white border to show more urgency and danger.

This might be ideal for color-blind folks, who might appreciate the different shapes.