DeX

Anytime I post pictures of my in-car computer My inbox always gets bombarded with questions on how and why. So here is a thread to tell you how to put together your own carputer.

First we'll start by discussing what a carputer can do.
GPS - This enables you to get turn by turn directions on how to get anywhere on the planet. As long as you have the maps loaded for that area and all areas along the way. Usually they're specified by province or state. Contrary to many questions, there is NO CHARGE for GPS. It connects to available satellites and there is never an internet connection or any other type of fee based setup needed. Once you have the hardware and software, you have everything you need for GPS.

Internet - Yes, you can get the internet while mobile in your car. You can do this either by getting something like WiMax which is sold by Rogers here in Canada, don't know what it's called in the USA. This is basically an always on mobile modem and you pay about $40 a month for the service. Your second option is to just get a Wi-Fi receiver and put it in your car. This way you can connect to any unsecure wireless signals (wardriving) and use the internet while you have the connection. Your third option is to buy a cheap cell phone, put only a data plan on it, hook it to your computer via USB and use it as a modem. This way you're always connected and people are doing this for about $10 a month via Boost Mobile's data plan.

Sirius/XM Satellite Radio - Listen to satellite radio directly through your car PC.

Bluetooth - With this you can connect to your phone via bluetooth so when a call comes in you can hear the caller through your stereo speakers and talk through a microphone hooked to the computer. This is currently under huge development and only works with a very small list of phones.

Traffic Cameras And Updates - There is an addon that allows you to view live traffic cameras on your screen and get updates so you can avoid congestion on any streets you may have thought about taking. This requires a constant internet connection to download the camera images.

Weather Updates - Same as traffic updates, you can get weather updates for your area including the forecast. This also requires a constant internet connection.

Videos - Simple, you can watch videos on the screen.

Music - Simple, you can listen to music through your computer like a stereo.

On Board Diagnostics (OBD) - You can get real time reports of your vehicle's health by hooking a OBD reader to your computer. You can even do some tuning if you have the proper software.

Vehicle Tracking - You can track your vehicle's path on recent trips or even real time. You can also see the average speed, top speed and other things if you want to keep an eye on the mechanic who takes your car for a spin. This also requires a constant internet connection to upload the data en route.

Vehicle Electrical - You can use your carputer to control anything and everything electrical in your vehicle from the windows, locks, lighting to an adjustable suspension, ignition, anything you can think of.

If I think of more I'll add them.

Okay, let's move on to the hardware which is needed.

Motherboard - You can use any type of motherboard you like but personally I think the best to use is one with a Mini-ITX form factor. It is very small and the accompanied processors draw very little power which is key when operating a computer in this environment. The board I have is the Via Epia M10000 but there are many more Mini-ITX boards out there.
Added by 2K1_Toaster - Via has embedded boards (almost all ITX) and some that draw as little as 11W total (CPU and RAM) when fully powered. A Pentium 4 Extreme Edition can draw over 200W for the CPU alone as a comparison.

Power Supply Unit (PSU) - Again, you can use any power supply that can handle the maximum draw but any desktop PSU is DC-AC power which requires you to use an inverter to convert it back to DC again. To avoid this you can simply use a DC-DC PSU made for mobile applications such as this. Also it would be wise to find one with a startup/shutdown controller otherwise you will have to push a button everytime you want your computer to turn on. With the startup/shutdown controller, it does this for you. Once you turn the key it senses the 12 volt supply and sends a signal to the computer to turn on automatically and the reverse for turning off. The PSU I currently use is the M1-ATX and will soon be upgrading to the M2-ATX. But there are many more DC-DC PSU out there and most have startup/shutdown controllers, referred to as smart PSU.
Added by 2K1_Toaster - For a via board, any dc-dc will do. For larger CPU's you will need a DC-DC that can handle it on each rail (5v, 12v, 3.3v).

Random Access Memory (RAM) - You can pretty much use any RAM that'll fit into the board, I just have a simple 512 stick of DDR400 RAM in mine. It's made for a desktop application but it doesn't matter. And you don't want to go too high with this, the reason I only have 512 is because when the computer shuts down it has to write the image from the RAM to the disc and when booting up it has to read the image. So the more RAM you have, the longer it will take to shut down and startup your computer.
Added by 2K1_Toaster - RAM will only delay the hibernation sequence. If quick boot is enabled the time is negligable. If quick boot is disabled, then it must check every bit of RAM, but not with quick boot. Hibernate is the only one that writes to the hard drive. Standby keeps it in the RAM so no delay, and shutdown just purges it all at once with a hardware clear, so no delay.

Hard Drive - Again you can use any drive you want but for low power consumption go with a 2.5 inch (laptop) drive with a lower RPM. I have a simple Samsung 80 gig 5400 RPM 2.5 inch drive in mine.

Central Processing Unit (CPU) - If you're using a regular motherboard you can go with any CPU you want. But for most of the Mini-ITX boards the CPU is integrated and cannot be removed. Mine is soldered to my board, it's a 1ghz processor.

Sound Card - You don't absolutely need one, on board sound is pretty good. I've been using it for a year, but now I'm getting sick of it and would like something a little better. There is a PCI slot on my board which means I can use that or you can also get an external USB sound card which is more popular. But no, you don't need it.

Video Card - Someone might want to argue this but I see no reason for one. On board video is fine for a 7 inch LCD screen running 800x600.

Case - There are carputer specific cases like the VoomPC case and the Ampie case, the one I have. You don't need these, you can make your own, it just makes the install a little cleaner and more appealing unless you are a metal craftsman or can somehow mold lexan with your hands.

Screen - Some people choose to go with options like a screen removed from a laptop. But there are also screens (sort of) specific to mobile applications. Some require some modifications or fabrication of some sort but there are an array of screens available from companies like Lilliput and Xenarc. I have the Xenarc 700TSV and it works great. The size is up to you, there are 7 inch, 8 inch and 10.4 inch available as well as a lower quantity of irregular sizes. A lot of the screens in the $200-$400 range have a problem with glare on the screen in bright conditions so there are sunlight readable options however they range in the $500-$700 area.

Wiring - You'll want to run at least 4 gauge to the computer and then branch wires off there as needed. Consider that amps will require at least 8 gauge while the computer is at least 10 gauge and then any external devices such as USB hubs as well. See image below for what happens when you use insufficient wiring or you choose to run wires to the cigarette lighter as opposed to your battery. Image copyright 2K1_Toaster:


Amplifiers - If you hook your computer to the aux in port of your aftermarket CD player, you don't need amplifiers as this will bump up the signal enough to send it out to your speakers. But if you bypass the deck completely, you will need an amplifier for your subwoofer and also a 4 channel for your 4 speakers. Or 5 channel if you have a center speaker as well.

Subwoofer - I've heard my computer without the sub and it's terrible. Lots of treble. Maybe this isn't the case when using a preamp like a CD deck but I don't do it that way. Up to you if you want to forgo the sub.

Software - You'll need an operating system such as Windows, Linux or Mac. I use Windows so I can't help with the other 2 options, and I stripped it down using a D.I.Y. from www.mp3car.com. Then so you don't have to navigate the user unfriendly Windows environment, some of the gurus at www.mp3car.com have made up some front ends to provide a much easier user interface with each button mapped to the correct part of Windows Media Player or Winamp or whichever program it's supposed to manipulate. I use Roadrunner as a front end, it seems to be the most popular. Once you have the front end it's kind of dull. You can change where the buttons are on the screen and/or the colours of your software by changing the skin. There are hundreds of skins to suit your needs at www.mp3car.com.

I think that's all the hardware I used. Now you've got all your parts bought, let's start putting it together!

This section will show you how to take your computer from all its individual boxes and put it together in a test environment to get all the required software installed and make sure everything works properly. Put together the motherboard, RAM, hard drive, everything you need for it to work properly. The only thing you won't add to it yet is the PSU since we'll be powering the computer without this PSU. Instead of using your DC-DC PSU, hook up your motherboard to a regular household DC-AC PSU and also get your screen hooked up. Your screen should have come with a AC adapter so you can plug it into the wall for now. Everything hooked up? Great. You may notice you have your power supply plugged into the wall and into your motherboard yet your computer is not turning on. The reason for this is you don't have a power button hooked to this computer so you can either hook one up or alternatively, simply use a screwdriver or something metal to short the two pins on the motherboard for startup. In your motherboard user manual it should specify which 2 pins you need to touch together to jumpstart your PC. Once you do this it should startup and notify you there is no operating system installed. I'll assume you know how to install an operating system such as Windows XP onto a computer so go ahead and do that. If you need to, you can hook up a CD drive to one of the IDE ports on the board for now during the install. Your computer may resemble the picture below....this was mine:

So now that you have an operating system installed I will assume from here on it is Windows. I personally have no experience with Linux or Mac on a car PC, maybe someone else can do a writeup with the software regarding that and I will include it here. So now that you have Windows installed, you can go here and it will show you how to strip out most of the unnecessary parts of XP you may never use like print sharing. Now that you have Windows installed and stripped, you need to install a front end. This is an application which allows you to navigate car PC specific screens as opposed to the unfriendly Windows environment. You can use Centrafuse, Frodoplayer, or what seems to be most popular is Road Runner. They can be downloaded here. Simply click the front end of choice and install the files onto your machine. Once you have the front end installed, now you need to select a skin to overlay your front end which will choose where the buttons are on the screen and how your interface looks/works. Some main menus of different skins are provided below:




These are just 2 examples of the main menu screens for 2 different skins. There are loads of skins out there and they can all be downloaded from the forums at www.mp3car.com for free. Though sometimes users choose to make a donation to the author, that's possible too. So now you have Windows installed, stripped, a front end installed and also a skin chosen and installed as well. Some front ends have a configuration utility you can set up prior to running your front end, like Road Runner has RRConfig which allows you to set values for most of your preferences. Once you have everything set the way you want it, run your front end and make sure you can add music playlists, listen to music, change volume, tracks, basically make sure everything works the way you want.
If you want to run GPS as well, you'll need the GPS hardware and software mentioned above. Simply install the drivers for the GPS receiver, plug in the receiver and install the GPS software and maps of your choice. Once doing this go back to the configuration utility for your front end and set up the GPS section. Save it and run your front end again, you should be able to choose the GPS option and have your GPS software embedded inside the front end as if it belongs there. Perfect!
You may also want to get your Wi-Fi, bluetooth and other things working while you have your computer hooked up in your house. Troubleshooting in the car without a stable internet connection is a terrible idea. Leave that for the small stuff later.

Now onto the install:
I'll assume you have your PSU, hard drive and RAM mounted to your motherboard and installed in some sort of case. Mount the case in your vehicle......glovebox, dash, under seats (bad idea) or in the trunk. Step back and admire your work so far! Now we need to power it......somehow you need to get power from your carputer to the battery so find the wire coming from your PSU which says 12v and run that to the battery via a 10 gauge wire (assuming a DC-DC PSU).
Added by 2K1_Toaster - Use as thick of a wire as you can. 10awg is good for via setups. For a full blown desktop processor which is not recommended you may need 8awg as a minimum. I use 4awg and it is much better to be safe then sorry. Wiring is always very important.
Then find the wire coming from the PSU labeled SWITCHED and run this wire to another wire in your vehicle that only gets power when the key is turned. Make sure to solder all connections and DO NOT, under any circumstances, secure them with only electrical tape. Use heat shrink tubing and a soldering gun, you don't want your car to catch fire after your fresh install. So now your computer has power and is ready to sense an input when the key is turned. Let's send the video to a screen so we can test it out.
Mount your screen where you like it, this may require some fabrication. Once you are done this, run a SVGA cable from your computer to your screen making sure to avoid running it near any power wires. Also run a USB cable from the screen to the computer if your screen is a touchscreen. So now the screen is hooked up, we just need to give it power. Depending on your type of screen you may not want to run the power wire from the screen to the battery, this could damage it beyond repair. To determine whether or not you should do this, you need to know if your screen requires a regulated or unregulated signal. How do you determine this? Well most Lilliput screens come with a regulator you can hook onto it making it possible to hook it straight to the battery. However if you bypass this regulator you will want to do it another way. Instead run wires from the screen to the computer and power it using the PSU which regulates the voltage to 12 volts on engine cranking. You can do this how you like but to do this I plugged the cigarette adapter into the back of the screen and cut the cigarette adapter end off. Then with the 2 wires which were exposed, I extended them with some wire from Canadian Tire back to the computer. Then I soldered them to the correct wires on a molex connector I bought at a computer shop for $2. Then I plugged the molex connector into the PSU and presto...regulated power! And now when my computer comes on it will automatically turn on my screen as well! Rejoice! Alternatively if you have something like a Xenarc screen I'm told these have a built in regulator and therefore can and should always be hooked straight to the battery.
Okay, now we have the computer in the car working and displaying on the screen....we don't have sound. Your options for this are to either run a cable from the computer's sound output to the aux in on the back of your aftermarket CD player or to remove the CD player altogether and hook your computer's sound output to your speakers. Hooking it to your CD player is pretty straight forward so I'll explain option 2. Obviously the sound from your computer's on board sound is not going to be high enough to move the cones in your car speakers so you need to amplify the signal. And to do that.....yup, you use an amplifier. Any 4 channel car amp will do, I'd recommend about 50 watts per channel. And it can even be 2 channel if you like, I guess it doesn't matter. You want to hook a stereo Y adapter to the sound output on the computer to the front channel of your amplifier. Then hook another stereo Y adapter to the sound input of your computer to the rear channel of your amplifier. Then hook another Y adapter to the mic input of your computer and leave that hanging for now. Remember this is still hanging here, we'll come back to it. Now go into the sound properties on your computer and there will be a way to turn your input port into an output port and also change the mic input port to a subwoofer output port. You may have to download the newest drivers from the motherboard's website but it can be done. I know how to do it for the M10000 board but not any others so I will leave that research up to you. Without this you will only get 2 channels of sound which may be fine for a 2 channel amp but you will have zero bass which sucks. The sound coming out of the speaker port of a computer is all treble in my experience. Okay so you got the front channel hooked up and the rear channel hooked up and it sounds great except there's no bass right? Remember the Y adapter hanging from the mic input which is now a subwoofer output? One side of this Y adapter is a center channel output and the other is subwoofer. You will have to figure out which is which, best thing is to hook it up and you can swap it in the software later. So ANOTHER Y adapter and plug one end into one side of the original Y adapter so now you have 2 ports free on this adapter and one free on the original. This new Y adapter gets plugged into your subwoofer amplifier for bass and if you have a center speaker, you can hook the remaining side of the original Y adapter into a 5 channel amp with your speakers. Here are some diagrams to explain what I mean:

This is for a 2 channel amplifier which is NOT the way I just explained. However works just as well. Only a few minor changes.


Here is the 4 channel method I just explained. Instead of Y adapters, they use the black adapters in this diagram. Works just as good, probably more convenient. The only thing I disagree with here is that they depict using a single RCA wire to plug into the subwoofer amplifier for bass. Most of the sub amps I've seen have 2 plugins for the bass signal so instead of using a single RCA cable, I would suggest a RCA Y adapter to split the single mono signal into 2 ports to go into A/B ports of the amp. Either way, it's up to you.


Here is an idea of how to hook it up using an aftermarket CD player aux in channel:


Credit for the above 3 images goes to www.mp3car.com.

So now you have your computer working, it looks great on the screen and it sounds great. Let's get some cool stuff hooked up to it.
GPS - what you need to do is pick up a GPS receiver, I got a Holux 213 receiver from Ebay for about $70 to my door. Any receiver with a USB cable attached should suffice. It just plugs directly into your USB port though may require a USB extension depending on where it's mounted. So now you have the GPS software trying to use information from the USB port for its calculations and also your front end is trying to use the information for its calculations. To fix this run a port splitter such as Xport3 and it will turn your single physical port into 2 virtual ports so both program can use it. Easy peasy.
Bluetooth to your phone - I have a Blackberry and unfortunately this is not a supported handset with this software so I have not at all looked into how it works. If someone else wants to explain it I will add it here.
Wi-Fi internet - The only option I've used is by hooking up a Wi-Fi receiver to the computer which will log you onto unsecured wireless around the city. There is a program called Netstumbler and this little gem automatically finds and logs onto unsecure Wi-Fi as it becomes available. And when that signal deteriorates, it'll log off that one and onto a new one. To maximize your distance, you can mount a higher decible antenna to your car which will give you (as I read) somewhere around a kilometer range for wireless connections.
Videos and music - simply upload the media either via networking or a USB thumb drive.
OBD - I have not done this as I don't have a OBD-II reader but if someone has, feel free to post and I will include it here.


Let's get into some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

I have a really high pitched whining noise in my speakers and it gets louder as I hit the gas. How do I get rid of it, it's driving me nuts!
This happens to almost everyone, got me pretty good. This happens because there is something called a ground loop in your system. First thing, check all of your grounds and make sure they're secure. Then make sure you have your speaker wires moved away from all power wires at all points of the car, the power from the power wire can interfere with a clean sound signal. If that doesn't work, purchase something called a Ground Loop Isolator for $20 and put it between your computer and your amplifier. Works like a charm!

I have lines on my screen when it's on and it gets worse when I hit the gas. How do I stop this?
This is because you have the SVGA video cable running too close to your power wires. Try separating the 2 wires at all points, that should fix it.

Why not just use old desktop parts I have laying around?
Yes you can do that easily. And a lot of people do. But you'll have to hook it up to an unnecessary inverter and it'll also be a good idea to invest in a startup/shutdown controller to hook it into so you don't always have to manually start it up and shut it down. But it's definitely possible and cheap, just not as clean and low power consumption.

How much would this cost me?
If you have to ask you may not be best suited for this type of project. Or you may want to try doing it with old desktop parts which is a lot cheaper. My complete setup was somewhere between $2000 - $2500 including the amps and subwoofer. But I bought my parts from an online store, it could be half that if you get your supplies from Ebay.
Added by 2K1_Toaster - $2000 to $2500 is absolutely insane. I spent $600 for my ENTIRE setup. Many people do it for half of what I spent.

Where did you buy your hardware?
I got a lot of the common stuff like RAM and wiring from computer and performance shops here in Calgary but most of the specific stuff like the motherboard/case/screen I got from the store at www.mp3car.com.

I have a problem with my install.....
Don't ask me about a current problem with your install, check the forums at www.mp3car.com and you will find the answers that you seek.

I have a question about an install before I start it...
This I can help you with, simply post the question here so everyone else can see it as well. Sending me questions via PM keeps the answers from everyone else.

You said I can control my vehicle's electrical system, what does this mean and how do I hook it up?
Basically you can control everything from your doors to your ignition to your air suspension. Whatever you have installed, if it's electrical, chances are you can run it through your carputer. All you need is a little unit called the Fusion Brain. This unit plugs into your computer via USB and there are multiple inputs/outputs on the board to control anything via a relay. Basically plug in Fusion via USB, run a wire from the Fusion Brain to a relay and run a wire from the relay to your electrical item of choice.

Can I set up a carputer that will do everything you mentioned?
I've never seen it done but maybe it is possible. The restrictions for a project such as this are a PSU that will handle the load on all rails and a motherboard with enough USB ports for everything. To avoid the problem of USB ports it is possible to wire up a powered hub in the car.

Will this work in the terribly cold Canadian winters?
I live in Calgary, Alberta, probably the coldest place in Canada in the middle of the winter. It's -40 celsius here for a week at a time and everything in my setup works flawlessly EXCEPT for the hard drive. It has a hard time spooling, I'm guessing from the viscosity of the material inside. And the hard drive won't spool on bootup until it gets to about -10 meaning the computer won't boot. But with the components I have, all other parts work in this cold no problem. You can get a hard drive meant for this cold but I just deal with it. It's not bad.

You're awesome and I want to rep you!
Rep away!

I want to bear your children.
Send pictures and we'll talk!

I'm kind of tired after writing this out and don't want to think about it anymore. I'll post more information as I think of it and also lots of pictures to explain what I typed once I get the energy again. Expect it within 24 hours. Enjoy!

2k1_Toaster

You can also get complete software processing for your audio with almost unlimited band of equalizing. You can store terrabytes (1Tb = 1024Gb) of data that can all be had at the touch of a finger. No need for CD's or any of that crap anymore.

Also AM/FM/HD radio as well as Sirius and XM sat. radio are available as well.

With the Fusion Brain of course.

This is a bit misleading. Mini-ITX is just that a form-factor. I have an ITX board with a Pentium 4 Mobile on it. They make ITX (7cm x 7xm) boards that can take any socket 478 (Pentium 4 and Celeron) as well as LGA775 for anything from P4 (HyperThreading to Extreme Edition) to Core 2 Quad and anything inbetween including the P4M's, the Core2Duo's, the Core Solos, and so on. The motherboard itself draws very little power, however the CPU draws more.

Via has embedded boards (almost all ITX) and some that draw as little as 11W total (CPU and RAM) when fully powered. A Pentium 4 Extreme Edition can draw over 200W for the CPU alone as a comparison.

You can use any power suppy you want to that can handle the maximum draw. For a via board, any dc-dc will do. For larger CPU's you will need a DC-DC that can handle it on each rail (5v, 12v, 3.3v).

RAM will only delay the hibernation sequence. If quick boot is enabled the time is negligable. If quick boot is disabled, then it must check every bit of RAM, but not with quick boot. Hibernate is the only one that writes to the hard drive. Standby keeps it in the RAM so no delay, and shutdown just purges it all at once with a hardware clear, so no delay.

Again this is for via boards not for the ITX form factor. My P4-M is a socket 479 and I may change it at will and still only 7cm by 7cm.

the first sentence is 100% completely wrong wrong wrong. A laptop screen will never be cheaper than a standalone. Laptops' video controller is usually built into its motherboard. So when you take the screen, you have that only a screen. No connections can be made to it. You need a controller, and a backlight inverter. Together these can cost between $300 and $500 and are extremely difficult to pair with a screen.

Considering a completely competant screen is $200 for the entire bundle with a touchscreen (7" size), there is no way it can be cheaper.

Also "sunlight readable" or "transflective" screens are becoming more and more popular because instead of glaring the sun off of it like a mirror, the sun goes through the liquid crystal and bounces back off of a special layer making the sun act as a backlight meaning no glare. The brighter the sun, the brighter the screen making it always readable in direct sunlight. The only thing is that they are cost prohibitive. Meaning $500 to $700. Those that have it though say it is worth every penny.

I am surprised that you havent mentioned the cigarette lighter as a very very very bad idea.

Here is a good image for this:


Again this is very install specific and can also be processed (just as a HU's "loud" function works except with much more control on a PC). I have as much bass or as little bass as I want because I setup my software correctly. I too use onboard sound from an AC97 chip (most common and considered "bottom of the line"). Of course onboard sound will never win you world sound competitions as others with CarPC's have done without a HU. Check out redgtivr6 (Commonly reffered to as "Red") and Durwood on the mp3car.com forums for more info about world winning PC setups.

It is never dull! You can do so much with a skin! Just look at the FU (Freedom Ultimate) or any Freedom skins or any skin by CDRSkull. I can guarentee you they are not dull. SOme are not as flashy as others and that is all personal preference. I use a default skin just because I do not need such flash. Others may want the "bling".

Use as thick of a wire as you can. 10awg is good for via setups. For a full blown desktop processor which is not recommended you may need 8awg as a minimum. I use 4awg and it is much better to be safe then sorry. Wiring is always very important.

Semi-true.

For lilliput (and all ebay screens which are rebranded lilliputs) they want stable 12v. They come with a power egg to do just that. If you do not use the "egg" then the screen will be bright. It will burn out faster, and be prone to problems of noise. However it will not just blow up.

A Xenarc screen however requires unregulated car voltage. It has the "egg" built in, and if the voltage is regulated 12v the backlight inverters will be underpowered and cause premature burnout as well. It will seem dimmer when used with regulated +12v on the input.

Xenarcs auto-turn on and lilliputs can be hacked via their remote to do so as well.

Again all in the configuration...

Dont forget that SirfIII is the preferred chip to get. Also they are now making 5Hz units (they update 5 times a second comapred to 1Hz).

Could also be your source of not having bass. Believe it or not a GLI will "isloate" high and low frequencies that are too high from the mean. So really low bass or really high whines will be eliminated. A GLI is a last resort...

A cheap used desktop solution if done correctly will cost more than a new mobile solution. A M2-ATX is $70 and a DS-ATX is $220. (both power supplies) so you can see how if you went with a desktop it already cost you $150 more which can buy a new mini-itx board.



$2000 to $2500 is absolutely insane. I spent $600 for my ENTIRE setup. Many people do it for half of what I spent.

Local stores are always expensive. And so is mp3car. But you help support the community with them though. eBay is the best place for computer hardware like this, and NewEgg/TigerDirect are good for regular systems. NewEgg carries ITX boards.







Other than that this is a good start to a FAQ. Not a DIY, but a FAQ. More pics to be a DIY.

TRIZ

iTrader: (14)

Wow, he just ripped you a new one.

Glad to see you went ahead and provided some information on this project of yours!

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

An entire setup for $600? Hmm.. I may have to venture into the carputer area now..

2k1_Toaster

I didn't mean to rip anybody a new anything.

I would really like to see CarPC's go into more cars around here and the 7th gen's are so easy to put on into. The majority of his information was good. There were just a few discrepancies.

I am a relatively senior member and a new mod on the other forums so I like to think I too know a little something! I hope Maheriano doesnt take this the wrong way, just wanted to make things more clear.

2k1_Toaster

Screen: $200
Mobo: $100
RAM: $35
HD: $50
PSU: $80 (They have now dropped to about $70)
Amp: $40
Wires and such: $40
GPS: $45 (Software and GPS puck on sale big time!)
Total $590

I did however receive the Sirius receiver for Christmas so that is $50 (Mitch's Sirius-->USB Board) + $50 (SIRALP1 tuner), so I guess the total is closer to $700 now even though I only spent $600.

DeX

You didn't rip anything, most of what you said was just specifying that my post was specific to my install but if you read what I wrote again I specified that myself. I said, "...in my experience" or "...I feel". But it's all good, it's okay to clarify the point again. And the point about the skins not being boring, I meant the basic Roadrunner install without any skin is boring, and I'm not even sure it'll work without a skin. But as I said, to move the buttons around and make it more pleasing, you can install a skin over top of it.

Oh, and it's DeX on this side of the internet!

DeX

Can you explain this? If I understand correctly, I shouldn't have my Xenarc hooked to the regulated power of my M1-ATX.

2k1_Toaster

That is correct. The xenarc automatically regulates the voltage. So the Xenarcs can be and should be hooked up directly.

OMega

Using a car2pc setup makes this a lot easier.


Not on a honda obdII ecu. Best you can do as of now is rest the service code. Unless you have access to the actual service gear. Those cost big $$$.


The best way to deal with this is to use a amp line that has a ground wire. Connect your HU ground to one end and connect the other end to the amps ground point.

DeX

D.I.Y. revised and new points added. Also addressed all contradicting posts by adding them into the D.I.Y.

2k1_Toaster

You may want to find a screenshot of the default BMV2 skin without the infamous white box.

speedfoos

iTrader: (17)

Good stuff. Been looking at doing this for while and just need to get off my duff and get the parts. Another suggestion here.

For you bass heads, and really everyone, try to stick with a 2.5" laptop drive. They're designed to take more jostling around than your standard 3.5" desktop jobby. Being in the trunk, going over potholes, bumps, and small children, plus being pounded by all that bass from the new Lawrence Welk CD will take a toll on a 3.5" HDD. Just my .02. Good write-up by the both of you!

ryox82

iTrader: (4)

They are coming out with solid state options that are still a little pricey, but the vibration no longer would be a factor. I beleive they even make an adapter to use compact flash as an ide drive that you can install an OS on.

DeX

There's no need for this, guys are already powering their USB ports on bootup and booting from a thumb drive. But that would have to be a very stripped down version of Windows or just use Linux.

DeX

Like Toast said, you'll need a controller and backlight inverter when working with the screen from a laptop, do you have those? Basically what I'm asking is do you have a way right now of plugging the screen into any computer and having it come on? If not then you need to pick up the items mentioned above before you can install it into a car.

ryox82

iTrader: (4)

ssd...compact flash...thumb drive....same **** lol. I would think that using dsl distro would be best but I am not well versed with making linux work with a touch screen or if there are any carputer linux GUI projects out there. There are programs that help you strip a windows install down pretty well though. I had one that was under a gig that was optimized for gaming at one point.

speedfoos

iTrader: (17)

Well, for OS purposes, solid state or flash is doable. But if you wanted the car to have your full audiophile's mp3 collection (all legally purchased or downloaded of course!), solid state is just too pricey when we're talking about the size of your standard music nut's collection. Then add Divx flicks. I'm not gonna roll with less than a 200GB. I just have to figure out how I'm going to a) fund it and b) mount it.

ryox82

iTrader: (4)

well harddrives are rather cheap now. I know they make rubber grommets to help with vibrations. A bit of sound deadener would help as well. People use harddrives in much more rugged enviroments.

DeX

My 2.5 inch drive hasn't even skipped on me yet and I've hit some HARD holes in Calgary's roads on 18 inch wheels with 35 series tires and a 2 inch drop. Plus people always say they need their million gigs of music but you don't. I ripped every one of my CD to mp3 and also had even more of downloaded media and quickly realized I didn't listen to it all. So I deleted the songs I didn't listen to at all, the CD fillers. Then when I put all of them into the car I realized there were a lot of songs that just weren't car songs. Great songs, I love to listen to them at home but skipped over them every time in the car because I wasn't in that mood. So I'd say from a 10 gig media collection I stripped it to about 4 gigs when I put it in my car.

2k1_Toaster

I wouldnt call 10Gb a collection.

I had 200Gb of music and another 200-600Gb of videos. I only put some stuff on at a time though because I only have 360Gb in the car, and I do listen to most of it. I deliver so a lot of time I am in my car. And also it is good for other people. They come in and say, "do you have..." and you say "yes" because you have everything!

ryox82

iTrader: (4)

lol true that man. Hard to please everybody! For now I have a ipod cable hooked up to the back of my alpine head unit so that will have to do for now. The car is looking pretty clean but still rather stock. Wanna drop it and do some wheels when my current tires need to be replaced...i aint throwin away 600 worth of tires just cause they are 14 inch. Order of attack is probable

Upper strut bar
Tokico HP w/Tein or Eibach springs...lookin only around 1.5....daily driver
Ingalls stiffy
Wheels/Tires
Then maybe carputer...Just wondering where the hell to put that display and still have room for that head unit. I wish I knew how to fiberglass, I would do a center console mount.

2k1_Toaster

Why keep a HU? You can get just as good and actually better sound out of a solo CarPC. But in our 7th gens, the easiest thing is to use the factory pocket and HU area for a widescreen 7". It is perfect size.

Then that pocket by the cupholders, I dont know what it is supposed to be for, fits either a slim-dvd drive for a CarPC only setup, or a HU faceplate very very well. A HU doesnt need that huge box behind it if it has a detachable faceplate. Extend the contacts with some cat5 cable, and voila! Remote headunit where you could even mount in your sun visor.

DeX

You can extend the contacts and then mount your faceplate anywhere. Saw this at the World Of Wheels show, it's a Viper and he's using the rear view mirror as a mounting spot.

2k1_Toaster

^^^^^ pretty sure that is illegal for a driver car...

ryox82

iTrader: (4)

Yeah I agree with toaster on that one lol. I remember someone here doing a pretty sick bezel making it look just like a double din nav unit, only it looked like it was PART of the car. That is an option but then the only thing left would be where to bring access to the cdrom drive. Any engineers feel like making a scetch? lol

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

i spent $311 (including shipping) on:

$206 via C7 2.0ghz mobo/chip (ebay power seller)
$104 1gb ddr2 533 corsair & 160gb WD hard disk (newegg)

by this week:
$20 holux gps reciever 213
$240 [new] lilliput screen (where did u get it for 200?)

OMega

I had full size drive that lasted about 5years before it started acting up. Now I have a 2.5. It really comes down to how and were you mount it. Actually screens are the only component that I've replace more then once.

Str8UpCivic

how does the whole gps setup work? where did u get the receiver and software from so cheap?

DeX

I wrote about 5000 words to explain it and you still ask me how it works. You buy the receiver and the software and install both on your computer. Once you have everything working correctly (see D.I.Y.) then the GPS program will be embedded inside the front end and will look like part of the front end so you don't have to be closing/opening applications all the time. It transmits via satellite and tells you when to turn.
I got the receiver from Ebay, it's the Holux 213 and seems to be pretty popular with carputer enthusiasts. If you feel like doing research, you will find some others. And the software I downloaded from a torrent but I wouldn't suggest that since it's illegal. You can buy iGuidance or Destinator from places like amazon.com. Also a guy on the forums at www.mp3car.com made one called MapMonkey, it seems to work pretty well.