Car Pc

[max0 5]

I work in IT and always have several projects on the go at work, be it a new alarm/phone system etc. Ive recently been thinking about building a in car PC. Why? Well for not much money i reckon i can build a pc with a touch screen and code some software to allow it to do the following....

 

Sat Nav / Tracking where ive been etc via goodle maps

 

Speed Camera Detector

 

War Driving

 

MP3 / Music Player

 

Film Player, dvd, mpeg, divx etc etc

 

TV

 

Checking Emails / etc on the road. Could possibly use a old mobile phone and use GPRS as a backup incase of no hotspots

 

Tracker incase someone steals the car.

 

USB web cam for inboard footage for trackdays/Sunday drives/Back seat action

 

I dont think it would be that expensive to do, using open source software and coding it my self. Reckon a few days to get it up and running.

 

The system could be updated using wifi from the house so need to remove it etc or have wiress to the car and i reckon it would cost about £200-£250 for all the parts (main cost been the screen then the transformer) maybe less as I have loads of kit kicking about.

 

And yes i am a geek.

 

Comments suggestions welcome

[welshpug 1,626]

incar megasquirt tuner!!!!

 

* other mappable systems are available, please contact your localretailer for details.

 

 

[scumbag 0]

Very interesting! Could be onto something here. I thought about this ages ago, as people into this kind of thing would welcome the chance to buy one thing instead of a multitude of gadgets suctioned to their screen!!!

 

Will be following this!

[S33GAV 0]

Reckon a few days to get it up and running.

A few days to get all the above implemented and working?!

[scumbag 0]

hey look!!! http://www.pricepc.com/images/car-pc/projects_cyber.gif

 

Looks Puggish interior too!

[scumbag 0]

BTW that was from here. Same vein http://www.pricepc.com/html/carpc.php

[max0 5]

A few days to get all the above implemented and working?!

 

depends what OS i base the system on. im still toying/researching the idea at the moment

 

the video play back dvd, divx etc / audio mp3 playing and recording so i can use it as a dictaphone / wifi wont take longer than a hour.

 

if i use windows sat nav, blue toouth to use it as a car phone wont take much longer. If i go for linux OS it could be a total bitch to set up but would be a lot faster and reduce costs.

 

There are so many uses its crazy. Phone, displaying pics. sat nav, audio, video

 

You could even get 4 webcams and have 4 cameras recordind different angles.

 

found a mini motherboard/cpu for £70, mmmmmm tempting...ive got a 20 gig hard kicking about, a wifi card, web cam...

Edited December 28, 2006 by max0

[axnutty 10]

I have done something similar (if a lot more low tech) in the past. I bought a second hand Xbox and fitted a 200GB HDD and then chipped it (just rewire the board) and then ran Linux OS with a XBMC interface.

 

Basically I had a load of MP3s, ability to play back anytype of media file, and had a DVD player. In addition to this I have over 70 odd Xbox games saved on it all as well. (The Xbox has a network socket on the back so can be just network to the home PC anyway) This was all hidden and ran off an inbuilt power adapter. In the back I had 2 250Watt 6x9s and a set of Bandpass Jenson 10" subs with 2 Sony amps powering it all.

 

Screen wise to save money I used a 7" flip down monitor (which when folded up looks like the cheapest s*itiest Japanese radio youve ever seen! Which in my eyes was quite a nice theft deterient ) This just sat in the standard DIN

 

TBH I found watching films impossible (I did enjoy Pirates of the Carribean on a drive down to London at 5 in the morning on a very quiet M1 but besides that forget it!) Music playability was brilliant - but the need for playlists I personally found a must - unless you enjoy listening to albums in full. My passengers told me that playing Xbox games were particuarly brilliant (probably took their mind off my driving :roll:)! Theres also something quiet funny about playing a racing game and turning it up for life like tyre screeching noises as you go past the McDonalds massive at 10mph if that makes you laugh.

 

Basically I found it all brilliant fun but frankly after 6months I begin to tire of it and have since removed it all. The Xbox resides in my room but all the ICE is sitting dormant in my garage - infact it nearly ended up on eBay tonight but I was too lazy

 

The other things I was always worried about were:

 

#Leaving the car anywhere.

#In winter it gets bloody cold and damp in a car at night, plus the constant jarring from the suspension just doesnt do HDD any good.

#Filing up at a fuel station, nipping out of the car etc etc etc, means powering up and powering down...Unless you want a flat battery...and even then on initial start up of the engine - the resulting power surge would throw the Xbox offline sometimes.

#My only other gripe was the lack of periphral to control what was going on. In my case I was stuck using the standard Xbox controller (although plans were afoot to drop the D pad and back/select buttons into the dash facia) or Xbox DVD remote (which was alot better).

[max0 5]

I have done something similar (if a lot more low tech) in the past. I bought a second hand Xbox and fitted a 200GB HDD and then chipped it (just rewire the board) and then ran Linux OS with a XBMC interface.

 

Basically I had a load of MP3s, ability to play back anytype of media file, and had a DVD player. In addition to this I have over 70 odd Xbox games saved on it all as well. (The Xbox has a network socket on the back so can be just network to the home PC anyway) This was all hidden and ran off an inbuilt power adapter. In the back I had 2 250Watt 6x9s and a set of Bandpass Jenson 10" subs with 2 Sony amps powering it all.

 

Screen wise to save money I used a 7" flip down monitor (which when folded up looks like the cheapest s*itiest Japanese radio youve ever seen! Which in my eyes was quite a nice theft deterient ) This just sat in the standard DIN

 

TBH I found watching films impossible (I did enjoy Pirates of the Carribean on a drive down to London at 5 in the morning on a very quiet M1 but besides that forget it!) Music playability was brilliant - but the need for playlists I personally found a must - unless you enjoy listening to albums in full. My passengers told me that playing Xbox games were particuarly brilliant (probably took their mind off my driving :roll:)! Theres also something quiet funny about playing a racing game and turning it up for life like tyre screeching noises as you go past the McDonalds massive at 10mph if that makes you laugh.

 

Basically I found it all brilliant fun but frankly after 6months I begin to tire of it and have since removed it all. The Xbox resides in my room but all the ICE is sitting dormant in my garage - infact it nearly ended up on eBay tonight but I was too lazy

 

The other things I was always worried about were:

 

#Leaving the car anywhere.

#In winter it gets bloody cold and damp in a car at night, plus the constant jarring from the suspension just doesnt do HDD any good.

#Filing up at a fuel station, nipping out of the car etc etc etc, means powering up and powering down...Unless you want a flat battery...and even then on initial start up of the engine - the resulting power surge would throw the Xbox offline sometimes.

#My only other gripe was the lack of periphral to control what was going on. In my case I was stuck using the standard Xbox controller (although plans were afoot to drop the D pad and back/select buttons into the dash facia) or Xbox DVD remote (which was alot better).

 

Ive got a chipped xbox too. But i dont want that in the car You can use a USB keyboard and mice with a £5 connector btw to control the xbox or any other usb thing. Ive got a old pc kicking around i might start "testing on" Do you still have the screen and the power converter?

[axnutty 10]

http://www.littlepc.com/ <- Maybe worth looking at that.

 

and have a look at this which is a mid development shot of one of the instals from a lad on the axoc. Which I think is taking things quite far! I think his car battery set him back £200 odd (1200amps) - personally I can see it being a nice thing to have in the back of your ax if you do the whole Cruise thing....but frankly I dont see the point going this far - but thats just my personal opnion.

Edited December 29, 2006 by axnutty

[max0 5]

http://www.littlepc.com/ <- Maybe worth looking at that.

 

and have a look at this which is a mid development shot of one of the instals from a lad on the axoc. Which I think is taking things quite far! I think his car battery set him back £200 odd (1200amps) - personally I can see it being a nice thing to have in the back of your ax if you do the whole Cruise thing....but frankly I dont see the point going this far - but thats just my personal opnion.

 

yeah i totaly argree personal that isnt for me. We have thoese dell TFT screens at work

 

those little pcs are nano itx i think, the mother boards are 12cm by 12cm.

 

 

Ill give you a shout when ive done my shocks, im based in northallerton, but work in york so not a million miles away.

[axnutty 10]

Yes I still have the screen and inverter, as I say Im up for selling for them , infact I photographed them tonight to bung on ebay but never got round to it. Its not a touch screen though.

 

I had forgotton about the whole USB thing!!! I had been toying with the idea of a webcam at somepoint, but never went ahead with it.

 

Northallerton

 

Know it well...spent many an hour sitting just outside at South Otterington infact, mesmerised by Walkers Garage and the 'Grale line up - sad I know

Edited December 29, 2006 by axnutty

[max0 5]

Yes I still have the screen and inverter, as I say Im up for selling for them , infact I photographed them tonight to bung on ebay but never got round to it. Its not a touch screen though.

 

I love it when a plan comes together like that add me to msn if you want andrew__hey@hotmail.com

[Doof 11]

Been there, done it, ripped my hair out and bought a CD player.

 

To be honest all the time and effort just isn't worth it, your better off spending 200 quid on a tomtom if you really want satnav and 120 quid on a CD player that can play mp3 cd's. Just copy 6-8 albums per CD and you never need to change CD unless your going on a really long drive,

 

For me the killer was the worry of it getting nicked. You either leave the TFT screen in and put a sign on the window saying "steal me" or you take it with you, in which case your lumbered with carying said touchscreen with you, and its not something you can pocket.

 

Seriously, it is kinda fun getting it going and theres loads you can do but I found mine a dangerous distraction and not worth the time and effort.

 

PM me if you need some advice, or add me on msn doofio222@hotmale.com

[max0 5]

Been there, done it, ripped my hair out and bought a CD player.

 

To be honest all the time and effort just isn't worth it, your better off spending 200 quid on a tomtom if you really want satnav and 120 quid on a CD player that can play mp3 cd's. Just copy 6-8 albums per CD and you never need to change CD unless your going on a really long drive,

 

For me the killer was the worry of it getting nicked. You either leave the TFT screen in and put a sign on the window saying "steal me" or you take it with you, in which case your lumbered with carying said touchscreen with you, and its not something you can pocket.

 

Seriously, it is kinda fun getting it going and theres loads you can do but I found mine a dangerous distraction and not worth the time and effort.

 

PM me if you need some advice, or add me on msn doofio222@hotmale.com

 

My MG has a MP3 cd player head unit and i have a ipod with a itrip which is wicked, you just tune the radio into a blank station and your away.

 

The worry of it getting nicked and the hasle of hiding wiress and mounting the screen might not be worth it as i cant really watch movies etc whilst driving.

 

Ive got a spare old PC kicking about and might have a play later tonight and set some of it up (OS,wifi card, web cam, media player) and then i know what spec machine i would need. A cheap USB GPS reciver are about £30 from ebay. A cheap Laptop might be the best of both worlds, then if i think its a waste of time ive still got a laptop i can use around the house/garden, and it removes the half of the head acke of installing it all and is easy to remove for secuirty.

 

Ive added you to msn as intrested in how you powered yours and what screen you used.

 

cheers

 

Andy

[number2301 1 1 Cars]

I've had thoughts about this kind of thing before, although the Sat Nav and car phone bit never occurred to me. I came to the conclusion that a 205 is not the place for it , its more of a luxo barge kind of thing, big BM, Rover or maybe even one of those fancy suspension Citroens.

[Hilgie 16 2 Cars]

For tonnes of resources about this, have a look at this website:

http://www.mp3car.com/

[max0 5]

well ive been planning/researching this for a while now

 

The brief is to

 

1. Run on 12v (without a expensive power pack/transformer)

2. Have GPS to log locations every now to see where the car has been & use as a tracker in case the car gets stolen.

3. Be able to talk to the out side world via a TXT messages to my mobile phone, and gprs

3. Run Linux - as windows isnt flexible or stable enough for this.

5. log gps of open wireless networks.

6. be small and slient to be hidden away in the car

7. Be cheap incase it gets stolen

 

For the price of £35 with the help of ebay I have all the parts I need to build a low spec car pc.

 

The Hardware

 

1. Nokia 5110 old mobile phone £5

2. Rockwell GPS board £10

3. Motorola WR 850G v3 wireless router. (Yes you read that correct) £20

 

The router has a 200mhz cpu, 8mb of ram, and 4 megs of flash memory (which can and has just been flashed with linux www.openwrt.org) The version of router i got also has two serial ports on the board to enable the phone and gps unit to connected with a bit of work with a soldering iron.

 

I installed openwrt on the router this afternoon and its working fine, im using it to write this

 

So just got to set up the phone and gps now.

[fencer 0]

hmmmm so someone got to work before I did! have been planning this before I got my 205!! lol! My Setup idea was to remove the vents in the centre of the dash and also the coin tray, have the upper dash modded with fibre for the TFT to fit and look as if its part of the dash (called it a TFT pod)

 

For the "Tower" i thought of either putting it in the driver side glovebox or else under the center console.

 

The only thing I never had a solution too was the CD rom drive since I couldnt find any shock proof ones.

 

Btw, if you like i've found a seller selling some cheap touchscreen TFTs and they do look good. I bought my radio from him and never gave me any trouble.

[Guest Cally]

I have seen a guy do this on a forum before, built the mouse into the gear stick lol.

[stevec205gti 0]

If you've not already discovered it, this forum will probably answer any questions you've got.

 

http://www.digital-car.co.uk/forum/index.php

 

I've bee considering fitting a car pc to my Galant as it has acres of dash and boot space, and also space for a double DIN unit at a sensible level in the centre console.

[MikeHunt79 0]

I built a car PC for my university dissertation thing, including a homebrew PSU and coded some funky frontend software. Any questions, fire away.

 

There's loads of people who have done this in the states. It's a bit easier as they have huge dashes so they often have 10" touchscreens in the dash which is nice if you've got the room.

 

I gleaned most on my inspiration/info from http://www.mp3car.com. This was a fair few years ago now, but the forum should be full of people installing carputers.

Edited June 30, 2007 by MikeHunt79

[johny105_y2k 1]

can i just say i hope you get this thing off the ground,

i wish i had the brains to do this kind of thing.

[Jer309GTi 3]

I built a car PC for my university dissertation thing, including a homebrew PSU and coded some funky frontend software. Any questions, fire away.

 

There's loads of people who have done this in the states. It's a bit easier as they have huge dashes so they often have 10" touchscreens in the dash which is nice if you've got the room.

 

I gleaned most on my inspiration/info from http://www.mp3car.com. This was a fair few years ago now, but the forum should be full of people installing carputers.

 

That was good fun, that car-pc Remember being parked up in Sunnyside cark park in Newquay watching Freddy Got Fingered, the amount of people walking past saying wtf?