The other carpc plan, still on a budget.......

[minik1971]

I have used 2.5mm headphone jack to rca adaptors. Running through a noise suppressor, the quality is quite good no humming or whining when car is running, although I do get a slight hiss sound when no signal is going through it, like when amp is on but pc is off. The rca feeds go straight into a 4 channel amp that powers the factory speakers at this stage. I think if you look at some pics from the previous page you'll see the noise suppresor and rca adaptors.

 

[minik1971]

Well me and my family went camping on the weekend, one of the things we planned to do when getting the leggy. All went well, kids loved the long trip to play Nintendo 64, the pc died twice due to vibration on the gravel roads, the video card and pci cards came out. Working on a way to secure them better. Also worked out the video card I have outputs NTSC by default, now worked out how to change to PAL and it is working fine now. Met a couple of guys from geek my ride last week too. More changes to happen soon. Watch this space!

 

[minik1971]

Well I haven't done much in the past couple of months with the carpc. I have had ongoing problems all of which are rather annoying at times. The pc resets itself from time to time for no apparent reason, I think it has some corrupt sectors on the hard drive. Also when cornering hard (wife says I should slow down LOL) the pc will reboot, I think this could also be a hard drive related problem with lateral forces. Also the touchscreen will push on the spot where the cursor is when cornering hard to the left, easy fix leave the cursor on an area of the screen that isn't a button. So with all this in mind I have decided to get a compact flash card 8gb and load windows onto it. I will use an cf-IDE converter and keep all my music and videos etc on a usb stick. I am hoping that the solid state set up will solve a lot of my running issues and hopefully I can speed up the boot times with some hacking of the OS.

Also after seing matchtheclown's set up I really need to get motivated and install the screen into the dash.

No other changes although I still have to get myself a hybrid tv tuner card so I can listen to the radio!

 

[Tom]

Haha oh wow multiple screens AND an N64, nice

 

[csj]

Well I haven't done much in the past couple of months with the carpc. I have had ongoing problems all of which are rather annoying at times. The pc resets itself from time to time for no apparent reason, I think it has some corrupt sectors on the hard drive. Also when cornering hard (wife says I should slow down LOL) the pc will reboot, I think this could also be a hard drive related problem with lateral forces. Also the touchscreen will push on the spot where the cursor is when cornering hard to the left, easy fix leave the cursor on an area of the screen that isn't a button. So with all this in mind I have decided to get a compact flash card 8gb and load windows onto it. I will use an cf-IDE converter and keep all my music and videos etc on a usb stick. I am hoping that the solid state set up will solve a lot of my running issues and hopefully I can speed up the boot times with some hacking of the OS.

Also after seing matchtheclown's set up I really need to get motivated and install the screen into the dash.

No other changes although I still have to get myself a hybrid tv tuner card so I can listen to the radio!

Just keep in mind that a CF card will have very limited lifespan with an operating system loaded on it. A better, yet more costly, option would be a 16GB SSD 2.5" hard drive - no moving mechanical parts and faster loading times. That way, you could also have the system hibernate when you turn the car off, and restart time would only be slightly longer than with the separate battery/sleep mode you're running now.

I would also highly recommend you get a carpc case to cram the hardware in for protection. That way things won't get shifted and come loose when driving on uneven roads. At the very least, fabricate some mounting bar thingies to secure the graphics and sound cards (as well as other parts that look like they can come undone in transit.

Apart from that - awesome setup! I really need to stop theorizing over my CarPC build and actually get something done.

 

[minik1971]

Well I have actually got a metal strip that screws down to hold the pci cards and graphics card, no problems since putting that in. The compact flash theory you refer to is quite correct although using Hibernate Once Resume Many set up and some embedded windows software from microsoft should greatly increase the life of the card. SSD are so expensive still, I should be ok once I tweak the OS setup so that it isn't writing and rewriting all the time. Turn virtual memory off etc, there is quite a lot of good information out there on this set up which I will research prior to running it up.

I have thought about a more secure way of mounting the whole set up and I think it will be attached to the boot floor on the underside. Part of the reason I haven't changed it yet is that I am not completely happy with the current set up and once I do mount it working on it will become harder.

You really should build a carpc so we can see how someone else does it in one of our cars.

Thanks for the feedback, watch this space hopefully I will have the cf set up later this week.

 

[minik1971]

Well it has been ages since I did anything in this thread, I removed my carpc about 8months ago for various reasons.
But only last week I bought a new carpc this one is a mini itx mounted in a Voom case, looks just like a car amp. So far the new pc has cost me $140 for pc with case and car psu, $70 for 2.5" Sata 250GB HDD and $30 for 1 GB ram. System has been run up with xp sp3. I am currently working on properly mounting that 10" screen that I never quite did get mounted last time round.
I will post updates as they happen.

 

[minik1971]

Well I finally got my screen mounted. Need to also make a new surround to mount the aircon controls in now then the console is done. Amps need to be mounted and wired up too and the carpc to be bolted in under the passengers seat. I have a small problem with the usb and vga cables as the plugs hang down under screen and are in the way a bit so I will get a right angle adaptor for each of them from jaycar later today. I am pretty happy with the way the screen mounted and the covering. The touchscreen and pc are all running fine, all I need to do with them is get my music and video collection copied over to the hard disk drive.

 

[matchtheclown]

Looking good mate!

 

[minik1971]

Well I made a fascia for my aircon controls, not completely happy with it but it will do for the time being. I have the pc under the seat all good there, mounted 2 amps to a piece of mdf mounted on top of my spare tyre. Put new speakers in front and rear, all good now. I have only copied a small amount of my music to the hard disc drive at the moment, the car pc psu seems to work a treat, pc doesn't reset with ignition turn over. The amps also turn on and off nicely via the pc psu. No engine whine or hissing, very happy with the current set up but I am considering purchasing centrafuse 3 to use as the software in the car. I will post pics soon.

 

[minik1971]

Ok small update. I bought Centrafuse 3 Auto, I had a small amount of trouble getting the bluetooth to work but it works now.
I bought a small tie clasp microphone and have it mounted high on the A pillar.
I have usb wifi dongle. Still need to add more songs to my hard drive but all is working now.
Here is what it will do.
Hands free phone, dial numbers from screen including all of my contacts once I add them in.
Play videos.
Plays Music obviously.
GPS navigation although I am waiting for my usb gps reciever but I have the full maps for Australia.
Check emails*
Surf the Web*
View photos.
Check the weather forecast*
*requires WIFI connection

The software will also allow me to use an IPOD, XM radio, AM/FM radio but I either don't have these or lack hardware for doing these things at this stage. I will post some pics and possibly a video to show everyone after when I get back home.

 

[matchtheclown]

Sounds good. What mobile do you have?

 

[minik1971]

I have a crappy Telstra T6 nothing flash at all but it has bluetooth and HFP (hands free profile)

 

[minik1971]

Well here are some pics of my install and a 2min video of it working.

 

[Nitephyre]

Looks good, have you got any pics of how you fit the climate control module? I'm trying mine down there but it's a VERY tight fit

 

[minik1971]

It is tight mine is basically sitting there and then the fascia fits around it to keep it in place. Still not perfect but I will get to it one day.

 

[Nitephyre]

Heh, I got mine in, had to use some "persuasion"...