Car PC

[Kelvrick]

Kelvrick, some people here swear by the laptop, some don not. The advantage of a laptop over a regular PC is the available battery. You can use it to play a role in your power off scheme. And of course you can take the laptop out and work the bugs out if and when. However if you want absolute "factory" type of work, you've gotta build your own and take advantage of the smartness of a Carnetix power supply... which you may wire in such way that you can totally turn on or off the system from your ignition key. I would say go with the custom parts.

 

And no, there will be no room over the spare tire for a laptop...if you have a full size. I should probably show pix of where and how I mounted mine.

 

Thanks for the input. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

 

I have 3 more days of tax season and then I can start working on this baby. When I have some time, I need to figure out if the voompc (ampie) case is going to fit in that side storage spot. If it doesn't, theres no reason for me to save room because either way its going to prevent me from having a full-sized spare. In that case, I'll be using an m-atx board to save like 250 bucks on the motherboard and get a beefier PS like an OPUS 150 instead of the M2.

[BMac1203]

My miniITX board was only $174, lol so where are you getting these outrageous prices? If your miniITX boards that you're looking at are anywhere near $250 more than an mATX, please tell us so we can point you to better prices.

 

Also, you could put your PC in one of the side spots in the trunk like I did. That's just my mock-up, not a finished design in my pics, but you get the idea.

 

Check my pics, if you haven't.

[Kelvrick]

My miniITX board was only $174, lol so where are you getting these outrageous prices? If your miniITX boards that you're looking at are anywhere near $250 more than an mATX, please tell us so we can point you to better prices.

 

Also, you could put your PC in one of the side spots in the trunk like I did. That's just my mock-up, not a finished design in my pics, but you get the idea.

 

Check my pics, if you haven't.

 

I see plenty of mini-itx boards for cheaper, but this is how much the one I want costs. If you can find me a better price, I'd love to buy it there. Geforce 6150 is basically the best graphics chipset you can get on a mini-itx or even most micro-atx cases. It supports the 749 pin cpus so I can get a 25watt turion. Has vga and dvi, 2 ide slots, 4 sata slots and CF to sata..

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813170012

 

I have a wagon, so the side storage is slightly different then a trunk of the sedan. Once I start designing, I'll be sure to post pictures/drawings for you guys.

[BMac1203]

Just curious, why do you want all that stuff? (Not being mean)

 

Youll have no use for DVI (atleast if youre using a touchscreen).

I think that's overkill for needed graphics. Im using a via chipset, and does everything better than I could have hoped for.

Although its nice to be able to put in a CPU, that's more money, more heat, and prolly draws just a little more juice.

 

It's a great board, not gonna lie, but I think it would be better suited for PVR system, not car system.

 

A bunch of guys run 600mhz boards, and can't tell the difference between something like my 1.3ghz

 

If you want overkill, youre good, but I just don't think its worth that money, you just wont ever need those features.

 

My .02

[Kelvrick]

Just curious, why do you want all that stuff? (Not being mean)

 

Youll have no use for DVI (atleast if youre using a touchscreen).

I think that's overkill for needed graphics. Im using a via chipset, and does everything better than I could have hoped for.

Although its nice to be able to put in a CPU, that's more money, more heat, and prolly draws just a little more juice.

 

It's a great board, not gonna lie, but I think it would be better suited for PVR system, not car system.

 

A bunch of guys run 600mhz boards, and can't tell the difference between something like my 1.3ghz

 

If you want overkill, youre good, but I just don't think its worth that money, you just wont ever need those features.

 

My .02

 

I like overkill is probably the best answer.

 

Otherwise, It looks like I'll be getting this little guy here

 

The seller is including a 1.3 celeron M, and a 512 stick of memory for $240. I'll probably pick up an 4 or 8gb flash for the operating system and maybe some old laptop drive for storage.

[Kelvrick]

I have a very similar board, but it is only a Celeron 600.. still fast enough.

 

I have been having a hell of a time finding a case for it however. I even tried to have a custom one made, but that was going to be $200+ and a nightmare to design one in a format compatible with the milling machines...

 

I am going to stuck it up and just hack up a cheap plastic box for it. None of the mini-itx cases will work for it tho.

 

I would recommend not installing your OS onto a flash card unless you are prepared to figure out getting the EWF filter to work with Windows XP. Flash cards have a limited number of write cycles, and installing a regular version of XP will fry the card pretty quickly.

 

Supposedly iPod drives would be the best way to go as they are more durable than laptop drives.

 

Interesting. I'm goign to have to research the ipod stuff some more. How does the speed compare?

 

Are you guys using regular versions of XP, or XPlite?

[f1anatic]

Let's talk about boosting the GPS signal. My GPS is mounted (in a sedan) on top of the middle child seat latch (between the middle headrest and the 3rd brake light). I am using the BU-353 and I often find it loses signal. True that - in downtown's urban canyon which doesn't but sometimes it may happen even on city streets. I want to improve; boost the signal. One way is to mount it elsewhere inside the car ? But where ? The other is to mount it outside but...where except the roof ? And the USB cable is THICK (and short) ! I could have tried the trunk...but it is aluminium...

 

While looking to speed up XP's boot I cam up with this

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=235571

 

I must say I have downloaded Tune_XP_1.5 and it reduced my boot time in half. However it is still in the 35 second range. I wish I could run Centrafuse as a system shell...but I am afraid to mess up something. Is there a way to make explorer NOT start at the startup without adversely affecting the PC ? (well I know where to go make it an automatic, manual or disabled process. But I have never done it and I am very afraid).

 

Last but not least...I have trouble with my wireless card. Every time I pop it in...it makes the boot time...LOOOOOONG !

[fishbone]

I'd hook it up where there are no significant metal obstructions. My old man has one of those mouse Microsoft GPS receivers, he has it mounted on the dash. It has yet to drop the signal but granted this is farmland, not Chicago where you've got tall buildings and such.

Speeding up XP boot times ... the best way to do it is disable unneeded services.

Read this:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

By far no the only one, I glanced over it and it's solid, good advice.

There's also some merit in clearing the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder [delete it's contents, NOT the folder itself] periodically and/or tweaking XP to limit how much crap it dumps in the Prefetch folder.

Don't mess with the explorer.exe process.

Another thing that affects boot times somewhat is the speed of the hard drive. Prior to SATA in laptops, most laptops came with crappy slow 5400rpm drives. When I got mine 2 years ago that's the first upgrade I did. I moved from a 5400rpm to a 7200rpm. Boy did that make a difference! Also, how much RAM do you have and what is your swap file set to?

 

Your wireless card makes your boot time long because most likely you have shared drives, yes? Meaning you have another system in your home and you connect to it's shared resources. Files, drives, partitions, etc. It tries to map all the shared drives and connect to them. Being how XP is defective by design in some areas, it's dumb enough to keep trying and gives that priority over everything else. If you want to cut down on boot time, try disconnecting from your network shares.

[fishbone]

Agreed, it's got the latest SIRF chip in it. Very fast, stable and great reception.

[Kelvrick]

I'll be getting the same one (BU-353). I'll be running a wire up the side of the back of the wagon to mount it on the inside of the roof next to the rear window.

[mach_six]

Agreed, it's got the latest SIRF chip in it. Very fast, stable and great reception.

 

I got a bluetooth GPS receiver based on the FTech solar MediaTek MT3 chipset for my PDA phone. It's gets more satellites than my other GPS unit based on SirfIII.

[BMac1203]

I placed mine on that support spoken of as well. Seems to work ok. Fishbone mentioned not placing it near metal obstructions, but if I remember correctly, it has been said that placing it on solid metal is a good thing.

 

f1, PM me, Ill send you what you need to do to NOT run explorer at startup and run CF as system shell (not the fake way that CF has you do it)

[gfxdave99]

F1, from my experience with my old garmin I played around with using the external antenna on the rear shelf and then tried it out on the trunk. I would say compared to the garmins internal antenna my signal was about 2x as good on the rear deck but like 6-7x as good when the antenna was outside of the car clear of obstructions. If you really want to get good signal you are going to have to mount it outside of the car.

[fishbone]

f1, PM me, Ill send you what you need to do to NOT run explorer at startup and run CF as system shell (not the fake way that CF has you do it)

Why the secrecy? Has it been discussed already? Otherwise I'd love to hear it.

[NSFW]

Like this?

http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/849/

[andrew.anderson]

Like this?

http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/849/

 

Good info.

[BMac1203]

Hah sorry, didn't mean to be secretive, just no one else has expressed interest in Centrafuse here, so didn't post the info.

 

If you want to run CF as shell, it's different than normal due to having to disable CF's warnings about driving while using your system, etc.

[Vsick]

Does anyone have a picture of the navi bezel on a 05?

 

I am trying to decide whether or not I should buy the navi bezel and try and use it as is, chop it up if I have to. Or get the standard bezel and chop it up with a 700ts.

 

Just got my car saturday, I think this will be my first project for the car.

[f1anatic]

there's no navi bezel on the 2005. If you mean 2006...look around...it is the same as 07...08...

[Vsick]

Congrats on the car, and welcome to the carputer club!

 

My suggestion: get the standard bezel and custom fabricate the screen into it. (http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/400638837lHBGTW) are some pics from my job.

 

The factory navigation bezel opening is too small for the screen, and you would need to figure out how to fill the hole where the factory navi buttons go. In the end, you will be playing around with filler anyway, so just do it from scratch with the standard bezel.

 

Also, I would recommend not hacking up your stock one as you will probably end up putting the screen in and out of the car several times until the project is complete. I know I have and it is nice to pop the cubby back in when I take the screen out.

 

 

thanks......I'm going with the standard bezel.....probably will go with the xenarc 700ts or maybe the tsv

[BMac1203]

Standard bezel? Making it yourself then?

 

The Xenarc, as mentioned, will not fit in any OEM bezel.

 

Either way, good luck!

[Kelvrick]

Well, I've spent a good chunk of company time so far, but here it is.

 

I couldn't find a skin I really liked on mp3car forums (aside from the Kuo) and so decided to make my own. I tried to keep with the red/white lights of our interior and the whole subby theme while keeping things pretty simple. The main menu is finished so far and I haven't even started on the rest of them yet.

 

I think most of the buttons are self explanatory. Music goes to the music screen where you see the playlist and you can move around the lists a little more. Video loads up windows media player classic. GPS will load the iguidance skin. Backup cam will be done last as I don't see how I'll do it yet.

 

It has time, date, total memory and cpu usage up top, then the mp3's total run time, time left and song title.

 

Vol up/down, mute, minimize and day/night skin switch on the row of buttons under that. The last row of buttons is previous track, next track, play/pause, shuffle and shutdown.

 

The subaru logo up top goes into utilities.

 

The first screen with the light red/pink shading is mouse over color and the next screen shows how a button will look when pressed. The buttons on the bottom go through similar color/overlay changes.

 

 

http://home.comcast.net/~kelvrick/buttonover.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~kelvrick/buttonpress.jpg

[el5y]

looks nice!

[Kelvrick]

Just finished the audio_player.skin and created a night version.

 

Done working on the skin for now. Eventually I'll get to the GPS and Video skins, but thats for another day.

[f1anatic]

Looks great. I would have asked you to give me your skin...However I built my system around Centrafuse. May not have been the smartest choice.

 

what's the use for the CPU and RAM info ?