Title pretty much say's it. There is a debate on a forum about gas mileage loss. We are wondering how much power will be lost from running the AC and how much of the power actually results in cooling power.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...8&page=1&pp=15

Actually the debate starts about how much powerloss results from running a carpc, but later on it get's to the air conditioning stuff. So, any body know the answer to this one?

Also, any of you guy's regular's at the mp3car.com forums? I've used it to build up my system. I was wondering if anyone else had a carpc in their maxima and how they did it.

 

What's a carpc?

I get 10% less mileage when running my AC. As far as I'm concerned, rhe guy who said that you get worse fuel efficiency with AC off and windows down than with AC on and windows up is wrong. I experimented with both and get much better mileage with the first alternative.

 

Carpc, it's using off the shelf computer parts and putting them into a car for use as GPS/DVD/MP3/Divx/WiFi etc... In my system I have a full 900mhz computer 256mb ram and a 40gb harddrive plus a 7"lcd all stuffed into the area where the radio and cup holders use to be.

 

Wow!

 

Adamis, do you have any pics of your computer set-up?

 

Sure, had to setup my cardomain site to do it, but it was time anyway. Here you go.

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...page_id=429803

 

Neat, although I consider it impractical if you're mostly driving alone. Music is all you can effectively handle.

Where did you place the main pc unit?

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean by impractical. I should have uploaded some newer pics, that is sort of an old install. The GPS is now fully functional. Street names and points of interest such as gas stations / restraunts / stores, etc show up on the screen. I can drive down a street and see exactly what is on the street instead of having to look around for the store names. It also has the ability to provide directions, although they aren't voice directions it highlights the route on the map.

It handles MP3's as well as movies in Divx format. I don't watch movies while I drive unless it is extremely late and I'm driving on I5, it keeps me awake.

The board behind the lcd is the computer. Everything is in the dash. It is an ugly nightmare to say the least when I have to pull it out, but otherwise it looks almost stock. The great thing is, I didn't have to do any cutting to the maxima to fit it in. Everything just fit, although barely.

 

That's what I meant by impractical. You have actually a better visual control if you "look around for store names" than look down at the GPS. As for directions, I've driven in cars with navigation systems, and they aren't that efficient. I'd take a good ol' tangible map over them anytime. I don't believe that anyone watches movies while driving, sorry. If you do then you're suicidal. I have a kenwood cd unit that is capable of playing mp3's, so I'm fine as far as that's concerned.

I'm not trying to knock your installation down, it looks nice. I'm just saying I'd have not much use out of it. To each his own I guess.

 

looks like a via Epia. clean install man, what brand is that LCD? TV right?

by any chance is it touch screen?

I like that, I had the parts for a carPC but I had no time and no screen. I was going to put a touch pad in the center console or on the steering wheel. I like the mounting scheme you came up with man, It's clean

 

Yup, it's a composit screen. It's not VGA that's for sure bit if you increase the font on everything it works just great. VGA is just to dang exspensive right now.

No on the touch screen. I didn't like the idea of getting finger prints all over my screen. Plus, right now there really isn't much software developed that a touch screen would be useful on. Try using a touchscreen on winamp and you'l see what I mean.

I use a remote to control everything and it has worked great. Plus it's RF so I can take the remote outside of the car and change music and volume from there. Should I ever have to...

 

depending on the aerodynamics of the car, it is USUALLY more efficient to run the AC than to drive 60+ with the windows down.

That's the way it used to be back in the 80s and early 90s, but many cars now have much better aerodynamics and the windows are designed in such a way that they don't gain much resistance with the windows down.

The AC unit itself uses about 6-10hp to run everything from the compressor to the blower motor(s).. it takes about 75-80 to push your car at 60mph down the highway. so if you factor 6hp out of 80hp, then it will rob about 7.5% of your gas mileage.

I can't say much as to what happens with the windows down as I don't have numbers for it on a Max. it would take a wind tunnel to tell you that- or at least someone with a CONSULT system and a dyno to see how much throttle % is used to run the same speed with AC and windows. with that, you can look at the power put down on a dyno at both throttle openings and determine efficiences from that.

way more work than it's worth.
this day and age, I really don't think it makes much difference.

 

hey adamis thats a very cool setup, do you have a keyboard or a mouse anywhere? how long did it take you to buy the parts and set it up, and how much did the whole thing run you...but other than that, its great

 

Well, sorry for not replying to this one a while ago. I bought a mini USB keyboard that isn't much bigger then a laptop keyboard. I also have a USB mouse to use but I put it in my center console and use the Remote.

I've been working on this for over a year now. Until last week I had probably 1200 into this whole setup, but then I fried the motherboard, ram and power supply over the weekend. Sucks because I was changing the power source and putting it back together and I would be done with it. Now, unless I can get some of this stuff RMA'd I have another 300 bucks to spend on this thing... That's the way the cookie crumbles though.