hey everyone im looking into a carputer well i have been for the past month or so been on the mp3 car forums and i just wanted to kno if any fellow org'ers have done this to there rides.. thanks

 

yep -- i'm working on a prototype right now... however, I've got my company involved to do the hardware for me and will probably introduce something to the ORG by summer time hehehehe


anyways, what kind of hardware did you decide to go with? How do you plan on interfacing with it? (touch / voice / keypad / mouse / etc.).


I've got a couple lilliput touchscreens at home - they're damn good, no probs especially with their latest batch with the fixed power control board.

 

how much for the screens and how much bigger than the microvison are they and i was thinkign of interfacing a keyboard, rollerball mouse, and soem sort of gui probably using a theame maker for xp. also im goign to add navigation and have so that i can hook it up to my homenetwork when in the garage or driveway for easy transfer of songs im just not sure abotu getting a $900 pc online which i think is nuts the stores aroudn here sell them for much cheaper and i think all i wud neeed is a dc/dc power supply also i dont really understand the whole thign abotu when u stat the car and u need some sort of converter or sumtin any help on this is greatly appriciated

 

don't spend 900 on a prebuilt system ... that will not come with navi and software usually.


microvision screens will not suit you for a carPC project (trust me, i have one). Since it's a composite screen , you won't be able to read text and it will look really bad. You can get lilliput screens for $300 online ...


here is a basic write up I did a while ago:

First, start with a motherboard. Take a look at VIA products, they have some pretty exciting stuff. 1ghz+ is the way to go now if you want a decent media-driven system.

Powering it is your second issue. Most of the VIA boards take a standard ATX power (harness). There are many products available for the VIA boards as well. There are some issues to keep in mind like having the system survive (doesn't reboot) when the car is cranking. Also, most of these power supplies (DC-DC) have features like auto-on when the car starts up and auto-shutdown when the car is turned off. OPUS is one company that comes to mind, as well as many ITUNER products.

Now, worry about your display and interface. Personally, I say you save up for a VGA touchscreen. They are about ~$300 for the lilliput screens. Alot of people have complained about them, but I would recommend them. I have spoken directly with the manufacturer as well as a few distributers and all of them have confirmed that their latest screens have a new power controller (weak link before that people had issues about).

Keep in mind that both lilliput and xenarc use the same LCD screens, just different power boards.

Now, you'll need some sort of GUI. MediaEngine is pretty good, based on winamp. It is skinnable so you can play with it and make something customized to your needs.

If your system is not going to fit in a single or double din (at this point not really possible with mini-itx boards), you might as well get a standard 3.5" harddrive.

GPS is a must-have if you are going to be building a carputer. I recommend the Rikaline GPS mouse that you can easily find on ebay for about $50-$60. The BU-303 GPS mouse is pretty good too. I have both, both of them are great and lock sattelites quickly.

There are different O/S to consider, but for the average carputer enthusiast, you can stick with XP.

As far as all the other fine details, like GPS software, and whatnot, check out MP3Car Forums.


I am working on a similar project... hopefully to be done by Summer. I've spent alot of money and time, testing a bunch of different products, and my feedback here is based off of first-hand experience.

I'm now involved with some of the embedded solutions that aren't found on the consumer-level.... so much available since last year. The project has taken forever now, but soon, I'll have my own hardware and software up and running.

 

sounds kool thanks for all the help

 

I've had a car computer as well for a few years now, but I took the cheapo approach and it serves me well. The pc is a sff Dell Gx-series, P3-667 with 256mb, 10G drive, and I picked it up from a local computer surplus place for $150. For a screen I am using a composite 7" running from an Ati Rage 128's TV-out. Power comes from a 400w inverter, and controls are done with a Remote wonder and a mini trackball. It handles mp3's, dvd's, and GPS with Streets and Trips 05 very well. Here's a pic of GPS running on a composite monitor, Text is not perfect but it is legible. Running any of the front ends like media car though looks superb.

 

ok so you're using a composite screen and its working? lol i was under the expresion that it isnt readable at all because i have my microvision mounted and i want to use thta for now untill i can save up some more funds for a better screen for the computer but yea so ur just using a home pc powered by an inverter tahts a good idea lol hopefulyl i can styll use this microvision screen it lookss soo good mounted in the dash lol do u have a picture of how your screen is mounted?

 

font size will hurt u with navigation .. depending on what software you use. MS S&T is alright but isn't what i wanted .. i tried Routis 2004 with the microvision in my car and since yo ucan't change the font size, it sucked.

 

One site with some good information and tutorial is the ogg project... just do a search for that and it should be in the top 5.

 

S&T doesn't have the slickest user interface, but it does work well and lets you change font size. My screen is mounted to a homemade slide out mount, and fits in where the factory EQ used to be.

http://www3.telus.net/vhead/Dcp01810.jpg
http://www3.telus.net/vhead/DCP01811.JPG
http://www3.telus.net/vhead/DCP01812.JPG
http://www3.telus.net/vhead/DCP01813.JPG
http://www3.telus.net/vhead/DCP01831.JPG

 

Did the carputer thing last winter...overrated and sooooo 90s....

Yes it is a cheap alternative to a gps, dvd, mp3 drive, etc and looks cool but honestly it's a bigger pain in the rear than it should be. First you end up running wires all the way around your car 4 times if you do it nice...fm modulator if you go that way, power, wireless sensors for keybaord, mosuse, or for touch screen....etc etc

the worst part is though it takes so long to boot up, yah theres special carputer os's out there (google search) but they still take long to load up, I scrapped the whole thing sold it for parts and bought a new HU and gps down the line...youll end up spending whatever a bottom line gps will cost after youi factor in stupid cables/connectors/etc...just my $0.02

 

very true, when i first attempted it, i questioned it's practicallity.

however, if done right, it can be worth it. My goal is to make it as seemless as possible ... define what you want out of the carputer and only have those features.

I am using xp embedded as my O/S and will be moving over to windows automotive (CE 4.2) late in the summer. Boot with flash and "ready-on" (version of hibernation), is under 10 seconds ... CE will probably cut it down even more.


So there are ways.... just depends on how mcuh time and effort you put into it.

 

where can you get that drivesoft that the show on pimp my ride

 

i heard drivesoft really sucks

 

windows automotive whats the bigg difference between that and xp???

 

well, what kind of XP are you comparing it to?


xp pro is one huge operating system and xp embedded is the component version of xp pro ... meaning, with xp embedded, you can build your windows operating system from the ground up with only the components of window you need.

windows automotive is just windows CE with components specifically for an automotive environment.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/emb...e/default.mspx

 

I remember researching this awhile ago. Best setup I could put together was a slim case equipped with a VIA motherboard and 1ghz VIA CPU. Doesnt put out much heat and is enough to power movies and music.

Really the only thing you have to worry about is the amount of shock it will receive inside the car and especially the heat. Using a notebook harddrive will make it handle movement, but heat is still an issue.

 

actually, right now i'm running a custom board with a VIA 1GhZ fanless processor. I've been trying to crunch it but the temprature stays relatively cool.

as for shock problems, i'm running the o/s and apps off a 512mb CF card. With solid-state memory, i shouldn't have any issues. Also, i know that flash has a limited amount of write-capability, but with EWF (enhanced write filter) enabled on the flash card, it will greatly minimize any writing on the card and help to keep it from getting bad sectors.

I'm going to be using the notebook drive for storage.

I've also been running hte notebook harddrive for a while and amazingly, it's not heating up that bad either.

I am sure though, once in side the cabin , the system will start heating up. I did get a fan to help ventilate it.

 

Well the one thing that really drived me away from this idea, is hot summer days. The car can easily surpass 150F temps, which means the cpu could easily fry. Winter on the other hand, it'd perform well with no problems. Theres just a lot of things that could make it not work, but most are easy to fix.

 

same thing crossed my mind when I began working on it. If you wantd to get picky, there's alot of "rugged" hard ware available for extreme temprature. But i think the bottom line is there are alot of people getting away with just regular stuff (from my 2 yrs. experience at mp3car.com forums ..... people just don't complain about that amazingly).

To curb heat problems , like you said, is do-able ... vents and fans. The fanless processors give you an edge too and if you actually put in fans it'll be even better. Keep in mind, the system will only be running in tempratures YOU can stand ... if your ECU/CD player/ other electronics in the car can survive, the pc should have a good chance

the hardest part is getting your carputer to be practical .. i started off with a desktop in the trunk 3 years ago and man that was not workin lol

 

I was thinking about getting a car pc just to play my videos off my dell. Do anybody know of something cheap and would it work with my performance teknique monitors.

 

well if you have a dell computer/laptop already + monitors ... u are pretty much set.

since you want to only play videos, you can use the composite out (yellow RCA output) if you have it on your computer/laptop and have your monitors connected to that. Then, bump your resolution down to 640x480 (so you can read the text even though composite screens make it sorta fuzzy) and have media player auto-load at startup.

Get a 350-400W power inverter to power it ... and get a mini keypad, trackball mouse, or keyboard to interface with it.

That's the cheapest solution off the top of my head ... inverter will cost you 20-30 bucks. Videos won't be affected whether you have a composite or VGA screen anyways. good luck

 

I was going to get these monitors but the guy said it wont work with my alpine iva - d310 and my performance teknique. Thats the link I was getting these for the back so I dont have to do headrest. Or should I buy all my new monitors from them to go with my alipne if it would work? http://www.xenarc.com/product/1530yr.html

 

that xenarc monitor is HUGE ... puttin it in the maxima? That screen is also VGA and flip down.

there's no reason to get VGA if you aren't going to interface with it. VGA / Touch screens will benefit you if it's in the front and in your/driver's view. Otherwise, anyone in the back doesn't care unless they want to play games or watch videos ... and it won't get any better than a composite screen.

Just find a regular flip down screen. You shouldn't be paying over $250-$300 ...

 

Yea I have an 2004 maxima 3.5se I just don't want have the same set up like everybody on the web. Thats why I was doing that setup, what do you think about performance teknique do they have good monitors. Or should I go with another company if you know any good sites where I can look at monitors i'm look for 7.2 and a 15

 

what's your budget?

 

Lets say i'm going to do something you have not seen yet. It does not matter to me I just need them to be crazy good for my movies and gaming

 

Yeah I just got my new dimension 4600 dell pc. Im going to mount it in the trunk and run a mouse and a keyboard to the front of the car. Did you find any good monitors or links to some hot place with some crazy *** monitors????

 

FYI, I just mounted my monitor today and started a thread not that long ago on the 6th gen forums...

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=402728

I guess I'll see if it stays there. Wasn't sure if it was ICE/AV related so I started it up there.

Either way... there's a lot of good info on this thread, and I'm too lazy to recap anything, so don't get particularly pissed if you don't see me arguing/agreeing with anything that was posted before.

The short version:

The monitor is a 7" Lilli touchscreen. It was a BEAR to mount back there because of the width of the case, but nothing that the rotozip couldn't fix.

Altimat took care of the fabrication end of things, and he did a superb job.

As far as the screen goes, there are two camps when it comes to touchscreens... some people hate them because they're inherently less bright and more troublesome than regular TFTs, and some people like them because (with the right software) it makes input soooo much easier. I'm happy so far with the way things are going with mine, and hopefully I can work out all the kinks soon enough.

The PC itself now is just a laptop (IBM X31) serving as a testbed for most of the software that I'm using. The advantage is that you can always take it with you, and it's easier to troubleshoot things or sync the box with a machine inside the house without having to carry a desktop back and forth.

Audio is straight from the laptop to the car via a PAC AAI-NIS into the head unit. The other input in the PAC adapter is used by the sat radio receiver that I have, and once I've worked out the issues with my XM Commander box, I'll probably use the PC for XM radio as well as drop the standalone unit.

Hmm... what's left? My plan is to do input strictly via the touchscreen... but that might not be realistic. The criteria for selecting software to use is based entirely on whether or not it plays nice with a touchscreen (on-screen keyboard, big icons, etc) and so far everything that I've been using seems to work just fine...

My front-end of choice now is Frodo (frodoplayer.com), although that Road Runner (open source version of MediaCar) is getting my attention as of late.

I tried every GPS software imaginable, and it was either terrible for touchscreens or just wasn't user friendly (a must when you're driving, I suppose ). The best, hands down, is Map Monkey -- a port of Destinator for the PC from Ninja Monkey that just took off on its own. It has voice prompts, plug-ins and add-in software to allow for voice control, auto zoom based on speed, and a whole bunch of other features.

Not sure what I left out... I guess if anybody has questions just let me know... I'll probably be on and off over the next few days and the system needs A LOT of tweaking, but I guess it's progress, and that's good...

 

map monkey requires like $50 for the D3 SDK license + another $50 for the D3 N. America maps, correct?

input via touchscreen is great, but how many times are you going to look at teh screen? voice recognition is the way to go IMO

 

first, cehck the length of your video cable (computer -> monitor).


mine didn't work when I ran it from the trunk to the front "cleanly" ....

 

Basically... but if you want to stay legal then you have to pay. You can get the maps for cheaper, the important part is the D3 SDK. And as far as I know, you can spend twice as much on other software that won't work as well...

Before I stumbled into MM, I was using MS Streets 2k5, Street Atlas USA, and a couple of other programs. Either the interface was just terrible (just trying to use Street Atlas with a big screen and a mouse was painful) or didn't work as well as you'd want it to while driving. At least with Map Monkey things like route recalculation and zoom are automatic, and it has a big-*** on-screen-keyboard that you can use if you need to.

Plus there's a lot of community support for those apps as you know, and the integration between the front-end, navigation and support apps is very good.

Well IMO it's good to have both... keyboard/mouse input while on the move is just dangerous. Touch is bad, but sometimes requried... because the machine might have a hard time if I say things like "Kosciusko Bridge"

 

hmmmmm

i've tried the MS software and Routis .. definately routis is better than the MS software. I've seen screenshots of mapmonkey but i haven't gotten my hands on it. My plan originally was to get the SDK for D3 and build my own GUI similar to mapmonkey. For now, I'm using routis. I know if I had Iguidance, they have a file that can be used to customize font, color settings, etc.


you're right about the input. touch/voice is the best combo to go.

your project looks great

 

If you're using EWF, I hope you have a second drive to store media. Otherwise, it would be a pain in the @ss to have to hand write disk commits with your important data transactions. I've got a 200MB XPe image with Winamp, Codecs, and SNES emulator for my carputer image. Now all it needs is some "headless" shell as a dashboard.

 

yeah, of course! 2nd drive is 20mb 5400rpm 2.5" harddrive.


why headless? don't want a screen?

 

Yeah im going to look in to the wireless keyboard and mouse but I have to wait to put it in getting my two 12" apline type X subs in .

 

i made 1 of these and opted out for an xbox

 

Headless, as in a custom interface without any windows controls. Like on some of those new mp3 jukeboxes that you see in bars.

 

ah .. your own shell / GUI! good luck with that bob!