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f1anatic

By f1anatic
in Interior/Audio

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Car PC Survey  

258 members have voted

  1. 1. Car PC Survey

    • I have a Car PC and I love it
      34
    • I want a Car PC but I lack the know-how or the money for it
      122
    • I gave up on Car PC: too much time/money/effort
      20
    • Interesting concept but I chose a brand name aftermarket infotainment unit
      15
    • A windshield mount GPS navi and an I-POd will serve me just as fine
      40
    • FTMW: This thread delivers !
      27

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Jerboa113 Grand Master

Jerboa113

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so.. we did it.. my friend and I last weekend sat in my car with a rigged up interface device and we were able to interface the computer directly to the car. We could override the interior light dim, pull info center data (all be it still raw data so far) check air bag on/off status and override the airbag light all from a serial connection to a PC.

 

We want to draw up some boards for everyone.. I think he may post more detail on this later.. would any of yall be interested in this? We will publish everything you need for free but we want to have a bunch of boards.. maybe 10.. drawn up so that we can cut our costs. All you would really pay for is the cost of producing the board itself..

 

The basic project is an info center wire harness to serial interface and software that will address the data and then software to pull said data into your roadrunner skin pages.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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executor485 Veteran

executor485

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so.. we did it.. my friend and I last weekend sat in my car with a rigged up interface device and we were able to interface the computer directly to the car. We could override the interior light dim, pull info center data (all be it still raw data so far) check air bag on/off status and override the airbag light all from a serial connection to a PC.

 

We want to draw up some boards for everyone.. I think he may post more detail on this later.. would any of yall be interested in this? We will publish everything you need for free but we want to have a bunch of boards.. maybe 10.. drawn up so that we can cut our costs. All you would really pay for is the cost of producing the board itself..

 

The basic project is an info center wire harness to serial interface and software that will address the data and then software to pull said data into your roadrunner skin pages.

 

YES!!! I want! How much are you looking at for the cost? You rock! How soon can we get this? :)

If I pass you on the right, I'm flipping you off.
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nemo Grand Master

nemo

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so.. we did it.. my friend and I last weekend sat in my car with a rigged up interface device and we were able to interface the computer directly to the car. We could override the interior light dim, pull info center data (all be it still raw data so far) check air bag on/off status and override the airbag light all from a serial connection to a PC.

 

We want to draw up some boards for everyone.. I think he may post more detail on this later.. would any of yall be interested in this? We will publish everything you need for free but we want to have a bunch of boards.. maybe 10.. drawn up so that we can cut our costs. All you would really pay for is the cost of producing the board itself..

 

The basic project is an info center wire harness to serial interface and software that will address the data and then software to pull said data into your roadrunner skin pages.

 

Holy shit how did I miss you were working on this? I want one now. What else could you control from this?

If you don't vote Trump, out, you're a bigot who hates america.
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Jerboa113 Grand Master

Jerboa113

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I'll have to get with sirhecubus more on this cos tbh its been kind of his pet project for my carputer. :lol:

 

Basically my goal for this thing was to eliminate the info center from the car and integrate it into the carputer roadrunner system. Everything the 05 info center does will be displayed on the carputer if we can get away with it.

 

Sirhecubus actually made a demo program in VB that looks nearly identical to the info center and will run in windows. He is still trying to work out the details of how to parse the data the info center is being fed by the gauge cluster, but we were able to interact with my car through serial. it was cool.

 

As far as ODBII stuff.. I haven't really looked into that so a/f and all that wont be available with this device.. sorry..

 

More to come however.. I think hes going to draw up a PCB plan and then we'll be able to get more idea on what it will cost to have a few of them made.. we could do a group buy or whatever if theres enough interest. I dont think they'll be terribly expensive.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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nemo Grand Master

nemo

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Good stuff. I am curious though, you are only doing this to an 05? I am assuming you are connecting the connector from the info display to this board?

 

So it wouldn't work on an 08?

If you don't vote Trump, out, you're a bigot who hates america.
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Jerboa113 Grand Master

Jerboa113

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it will work on all the 05-09 (to my knowledge) legacies. The 06+ will have reduced functionality because of things subaru took out of the info center interface such as the interior light brightness override and airbag lights. The info center data will still be accessible by the carputer. If you could find a way to get the air bag lights from the ceiling panel and connect them to the device theoretically it would still function.

 

When you turn your headights on this device will also be able to know this and switch to your night skin if you want it to.

 

I actually found out about the deleted features in the 06+ by a mistake from a salvage yard vendor. He was supposed to send me a navigation screen and the jerk sent me an 06+ info center.. oh well. it gave us something to play with at least.. and the harness was there so we got to see what pins were missing.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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Jerboa113 Grand Master

Jerboa113

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looks good. Believe it or not I'm still fanatical about using the oem bezel. :lol:

 

some new info we found in the last year or so has been very beneficial in that and has lead me to believe we can still make it work, but that's still a while off. Stil dunno what to do about the oem button hole. I'd really like to get oem button assemblies and put them in with a serial interface and map theirt function to the carputer but.. that may be way more costly than is reasonable.. I guess the backup is just a usb hub like we had originally planned.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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NSFW Grand Master

NSFW

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I can see a USB hub being pretty useful... I stuck a USB hub behind the factory radio, ran a short USB extension cable out of the center console, and tucked it between the console and the passenger seat. It works but I'm not real keen on having it loose in the car like that. My GF keeps a small umbrella tucked in there below it, which keeps my USB cable out of the seat rails, but still...
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Jerboa113 Grand Master

Jerboa113

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heh, I have a usb extender cable that runs from my front seat to the trunk for my gps anennta that is still in the car. It doesn't do anything but if I go on a trip I can easily hook it up to my laptop.

 

We actually drew up a working prototype usb extender device that would sit under a screen in the factory nav. bezel. I have it at my house somewhere. It has leds on it and all to light up at night and everything. We have to re-tool it to make it fit however.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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NSFW Grand Master

NSFW

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Random observation: it gets pretty toasty in the spare tire compartment. Outside temps were 80ish on my drive home tonight, mostly freeway driving, and the sides of the compartment were hot. I think a lot of the heat is coming from the mufflers.

 

Anyone know if sound deadening material makes good insulation? I want to try something adhesive before I bite the bullet and put fans in. The laptop didn't have any issues but I'm not real happy with the temps in there.

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Jerboa113 Grand Master

Jerboa113

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my carputer sat on top of the spare tire in a wooden platform I made to match the oem foam piece. I had some lockups that I thought were heat related so I put in larger fans, however the lockups were later found ot be a driver problem with my gps antenna. (it was the gps software that was locking up.)

 

I thought about cutting louvers into the trunk floor and putting fans in to circulate air into the spare tire well but I never bothered.

 

I believe dynamat extreme or any kind of aluminum sided insulaton would have some heat rejection properties however if you're really worried about it. I think next time I'm going to try to fit my carputer under the passenger seat or even in the glovebox.... if I do anything.. I dont want to revisit the trunk again, its too involved imo.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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nka Community Regular

nka

Posted
Posted

You should be able to use this and love it :

http://gadgetspower.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/88978.jpg

 

Processor: Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz, FSB 533)

 

Memory: DDRII-400 512 MB / 1 GB

 

Storage: 80 GB

 

Chipset: 945GSE + ICH7M

 

VGA: On-board Intel GMA 950

 

Networking: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN, 802.11n WLAN

 

SD/MMC/MS slot: SD, SDHC, Mini SD, (Micro SD through adapter) ; MMC, MMC plus, MMC4.x, RS MMC, RSMMC4.x (MMC mobile through adapter);MS,MS PRO

 

Audio: Azalia ALC888 Audio Chip

 

Front Ports:

USB x 2

Card Reader x 1

Headphone-out jack (WO/SPDIF) x 1

MIC x 1

 

 

Rear Ports:

USB 2.0 x 2

Gigabit LAN x 1

DVI out x 1

Line-Out (L/R) with S/PDIF x 1

WiFi antenna

 

Accessories:

19Vdc, 4.74A, 65W power adaptor

Mouse

Keyboard

VESA mount

WiFi antenna

Stand

 

Dimensions: 8.5" x 7" x 1"

Net Weight: 2.2 lbs.

Gross Weight: 6.6 lbs.

 

OS: Windows XP Home Edition

 

Bundled Software: StarOffice and MS Works

 

Configuration and MSRP:

$349 1GB memory, 80GB HDD, Windows XP

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f1anatic Grand Master

f1anatic

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I recently suffered a defeat. I tried using Destinator maps and I hated them (the 2D font was too small, voice instructions sucked, I could not get rid of the written direction instructions) - the only cool thing was muting the music and more seamless integration compared to the iGuidance plugin. Hated that, reverted to iGuidance and now every other time I start it up, it would NOT detect my GPS. Should I exit Centrafuse and fire up iGuidance, it would recognize it instantly. I guess I will have to re-install the plugin but I am tired of that now.
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Jerboa113 Grand Master

Jerboa113

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afternoon yall, I just wanted to bring this to your attention in case you need any pieces parts or projects.. I have some laptops for sale... they would be great candidates for an on the cheap carputer. I actually kept one of them (laptop #5 which isnt mentioned on the thread :) ) for myself for a potential carputer.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94799

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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