CarPC

[Bochek]

i just realized why mine looks different, you have the whole center console out the radio suport and all, i only took off the face plate, and mounted the monitor to that but same idea. and yea, your textured abs or whatever looks like my foam lol. same effect i guess, just fill in the gaps.

im jelous of your actual pc. mines only a pII 500mhz a far cry from modern technology. but it gets the job done. megasquirt will be installed next weekend (hopefully) depends on if i hold off for this comming weekends meet or not, i want to have it ready for racing soon tho.

oh well, just gotta get 'er done.

-Bochek

[jschrauwen]

Thanks Adam. Oh, had to remove the whole center consol ...... well, actually, I got a second one from the junkyard along with a second glovebox for $10.00. The PC and Megasquirt should reside in the glovebox. Do you have a serial connection on your PC as well? I wanted the ability to constantly run Megasquirt (Megatune) in the background, while I either played a CD/DVD or surfed the net or listened to AM/FM or if I was passively going to my GPS. Having something powerfull enough to have 3 or 4 major programs going at the same time was my goal as was to have the Megasquirt integrated with it. To be able to access all of it via a high quality touchscreen was a big concern too. The touchscreen was nearly half of the cost of the total project. It's not until around the $400.00 + mark is where the brighter/better quality display come in and the touchscreen just adds onto that again. Adam, if you're retaining a HU than you should be fine with a PII for the Megasquirt. I, on the other hand will have no HU whatsoever - just a touchscreen display for everything. If that poops out I'm f%@k'd ...LOL

[DJ]

Hey, i'm just curious, what exactly are you using the PC for? Couldn't you have gone with a laptop for less money, find a way to easily mount it and get microsoft streets and trips with GPS reciever for $100. Then you would have way better specs including a 15.4" widescreen. And if anything went wrong ,it would be way easier to take out of your car to repair. It wouldn't be all nice and built into the dash or have a touchscreen...but still an option.

[Bochek]

ive got no hu at all. it runs plenty fast after a few tweaks, ms and mobile impact running together, even windows media player and megasquirt will work and not cause any lag. i have also run WMP MS and streets and trips and it just sorta gets to the lag point. oh well i got a friend that has a PIII 500 processor that will plug into that mobo, i dont see myself having a problem overclocking it to about 650 mhz wich will be a nice improvement from the PII 400 overcloed to 500.

Anyways, im gonna try to mount up my MS and get it all wired this comming weekend. any luck getting your's going?

Bochek

[Custommx3]

Bocheck,

If your running XP on your CarPC, might I suggest you use Nlite to scale down your windows install and remove all the unneeded crap that comes with it. http://www.nliteos.com


DJ,

The carpc was originally created for playing MP3s. I use mine for GPS, DVD, Mp3s, Videos, weather, games, megasquirt, wireless internet, ect. Im sure I missed something. If you can do something on your PC @ home, you can do it on your carPC. Just have the added bonus of GPS, and engine management.

[jschrauwen]

Hey, i'm just curious, what exactly are you using the PC for? Couldn't you have gone with a laptop for less money, find a way to easily mount it and get microsoft streets and trips with GPS reciever for $100. Then you would have way better specs including a 15.4" widescreen. And if anything went wrong ,it would be way easier to take out of your car to repair. It wouldn't be all nice and built into the dash or have a touchscreen...but still an option.

Hey DJ, how've you been? How was the drive back fom MOM? Did you and your g/f finally thaw out after that chilly day?
I had laptop residing on the passenger seat to do the Megasquirt functions but it finally up and died (monitor/power supply issues). As Barry mantioned , haveing a CarPC can do just about everything and then some things more than a home PC. I've been thinking of updating my ICE for some time now since it's still the original stuff I installed over 11 years ago. It still works quite well, but I'd like to bring it into the new millennium with having a DVD function. Since I didn't have a viable way to utilize Megatune, wanted to update my HU and sound system, a CarPC seemed the logical choice. As Barry said, no only do I have all of those functions, I no longer need a laptop any longer, have currently a 100 Gb HDD and can install up to a 200Gb if needed, I can at any time update any portion of the PC (something that's very limiting to a laptop) with new hardware or software as well as replace any individual component if it breaks down or even upgrade it when it's needed. Unlike a pre-made single or double din in car entertainment system, if something inside one of those cases breaks, it's a real PITA to get fixed. Now I'm no PC geeky and the closest I ever got to inside a PC case was to install a couple of NIC cards and broken power supply - that's it. This has pretty much been a steep learning curve so far, but i'm still enjoying it. I don't think I'll ever get as deep into some of this like Barry or other IT type people, but it's all still very new, very fresh, very challenging, very different ( and that's me all over ...LOL) and very much still untried territory for the parts where I live. Not one of the shops in the Belleville/Trenton area knows anything about the small form factor PC's, about Micro ATX's, Micro ITX's or Nano ITX's and all of that stuff. I have to drive 3 hours to get parts, service and support. Hey but it's all good. I can't wait to be able to slap in my favorite DVD and play in 5.1 surround sound with the new amp and speakers too.

[jschrauwen]

My CarPC worklog;
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84863

[Custommx3]

Nice avatar @ mp3car!

[jschrauwen]

Nice avatar @ mp3car!

dohhhhhh!!!!!! I can always change that if you like.

[Nd4SpdSe]

Couldn't you have gone with a laptop for less money, find a way to easily mount it and get microsoft streets and trips with GPS reciever for $100. Then you would have way better specs including a 15.4" widescreen. And if anything went wrong ,it would be way easier to take out of your car to repair. It wouldn't be all nice and built into the dash or have a touchscreen...but still an option.

Money wise, there's no much of a difference anymore. Back when I started my project 4 years ago, it was much, much cheaper so go the CarPC way, but everything was custom too, there was no market for it like there is today. Plus, it always comes down to each individual person's needs in the computer.

Mounting a laptop in a small car like the Mx-3 would eat up alot of space because of the keyboard. Going with any type of monitor, even my 15", there's no keyboard to get in the way. This wouldn't be a problem in a wide car like a police Crown Vic, Impala, etc, where they have plenty of room between the front seats, our cars are too small to accomoditate a laptop and mout without largely being in the way of the front passenger.

For repair, I hate laptops because they are a pain to repair. The only thing that is changable using over the counter parts and by the user is usually the RAM and Hard Drive. The rest are proprietary components in which the laptop would need to be sent off for repair or replacement. A CarPC pretty much uses standard components, or much more of them as compared to a laptop. The user can replace parts as they need, for repair or an upgrade.

If properly designed, it would be just as easy to take parts out. Sometimes the cables can be a pain, but that would be a problem as well since if you would have the laptop mounted, you'd want the cables nicely organised and mounted as well. Plus, a laptop is a little more theift-prone than a CarPC. Those of us who did our own CarPC could more likely pull out components in a matter of minutes. A theif doesn't know the car, so they would have a hard time or almost impossible time to remove it, or just make it not worth their while, take too much time and get caught. A laptop and stand, unscrew and run away. Maybe some bolt cutters to cut the Kensington lock, but there's not much in theft prevention with a mounted laptop.

[jschrauwen]

The PC is just about ready to be installed into the car. I had to make a few adjustments along the way to some of the hardware components. I still have to get a few bugs out of the RoadRunner front end to recognize the RadioSHARK am/fm tuner. As well as a few other front end link issues to resolve yet. I'll probably make another trip to the puter shop to get those bugs worked out since some of this software stuff is a little beyond me. For those familiar with PC/notbook components, here's my finalized component list;
LV675X | PM 1.5GHz | Samsung 1GB DDR | Toshiba 100GB HDD | WIFI | BU353 | RadioShark | Radeon 9250 | mp3car Transflective | DSATX | CD/DVD-RW | Travla 138B | RR | Win XP

Since I'll attend the odd car meet and would like a little entertainment while I'm there, I thought I'd add a little more viewing extra's - http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... IBSA:CA:31

Unfortunately it's in a grey colour, but that can always be changed to black later. Hopefully I should be able to start the install in another week or two when the last component of the audio portion is delivered. Here's the audio component list that I've settled on too;
Performance Teknique ICBM5.1 | MBQ 6.5 Comp's F&R | MBQ 3.5" x2 Center | JL 10" x2

[Custommx3]

Nice work!

Unfortunatley, I have to switch projects

The carPC is finished on my end as well, but Im going to put it in the MS6. Im looking for a dash compartment for an mazda 6. If anyone sees one @ a junkyard, let me know. I may get you to pick it up for me

[jbaysinger]

I'm new to the forum and just saw this thread. I've already decided my next car audio install will be a CarPC, regardless of what car I'm putting it in. I'm just coming up to speed on all the new stuff, as the last time I looked into the CarPC stuff was about 4 years ago when it was just starting out. WOW there's been a lot of progress in the field since then!

Any progress reports on this project? Is it in the car yet?

I'm also curious, you said you were putting a slot loading DVD drive under the DIN panel. Are you going to have clearance problems with the shift lever when inserting or pulling discs?

Has anyone seen a CarPC with a dual monitor setup? I'm thinking about an install very similar to this one, but with a second monitor, probably display only and not touchscreen, up on the dash above the HVAC vents. This monitor would probably solely be used for the GPS display. All control functions would be down in the stock DIN location. Any thoughts?

Looks like a fun project. I hope to be joining you in the next few months.

[Nd4SpdSe]

The carPC is finished on my end as well, but Im going to put it in the MS6. Im looking for a dash compartment for an mazda 6.

My buddy is putting one in the map compartement in his MS6, his LCD is just squeezed in there right now, but he's waiting on the guy to finish the actuator setup on the mazda6 forums, but I think he may not cause the actuators are loud, but i'm like "who cares", there only on for a few seconds.

I'm also curious, you said you were putting a slot loading DVD drive under the DIN panel. Are you going to have clearance problems with the shift lever when inserting or pulling discs?.

Slot load drives load as a car cd player, just put the disc in the slot and it sucks it in. If your refering to a tray-load cd drive, I've got one in the lower din, and the tray clears the shifter in 5th gear

Has anyone seen a CarPC with a dual monitor setup? I'm thinking about an install very similar to this one, but with a second monitor, probably display only and not touchscreen, up on the dash above the HVAC vents. This monitor would probably solely be used for the GPS display. All control functions would be down in the stock DIN location. Any thoughts?

Oh, I have seen LCD screens mounted above the center vents, and in the center console, so why not both? Should be really simple do to, the hard part would be video. I dont believe dual-VGA outputs exists on mini-itx system. I should be possible to add a pci video card, would have to use a 90* adaptor to keep the system slim, if the sytem has a pci slot. The next option would be to use the s-video output, i believe they usually have one, but the quality is significantly less, but should be enough for GPS.

[jbaysinger]

Oh, I have seen LCD screens mounted above the center vents, and in the center console, so why not both? Should be really simple do to, the hard part would be video. I dont believe dual-VGA outputs exists on mini-itx system. I should be possible to add a pci video card, would have to use a 90* adaptor to keep the system slim, if the sytem has a pci slot. The next option would be to use the s-video output, i believe they usually have one, but the quality is significantly less, but should be enough for GPS.

Yah, I have a rough idea of how I want to do the top screen, would probably fabricate a hood of some sort. It's going to be tricky to get it to look right next to the hood for the gauge cluster. Lots of fine tuning, I'm sure.

I figure the big problem is going to be getting two independent video sources. It'd be great if the S-VID output from the Mini ITX boards was independant, but I have a feeling that it's a redundant display of whatever is on the VGA output. I was hoping there might be a MB out there that had a dual monitor setup built in, but I think I'm wishing too high. I'm hoping I don't run into problems using a PCI board, as I'll also need PCI for WiFi I'm assuming, tho I could go the PCMCIA route for that I suppose. Probably depends on which makes more sense from a power consumption standpoint. Also looking at integrating sat radio (still split between XM and Sirius), GPS of course, and bluetooth for integration or at least display functions for my SLVR. I'd love to be able to control an alarm system, and might try some engine display or engine management stuff if it's available for non OBD2 cars.

Like I said, I'm just starting to look at what's available. I need to sit down for a bit and put together a good list of requirements for the system, then I'll be able to focus more on components and acutal system design. The suspension bushings on this car have priority right now, but hopefully I'll be able to start building a PC for it in the next few months.