In Car PC

[Retepetsir]

I've just ordered a 7" Widescreen Touchscreen TFT....... mohahaha :upside:

Watch this space, I should soon have an in-car computer with DVD playback, GPS, Wireless Internet, Bluetooth Interface, etc.

Be it in my current Micra or my next vehicle :kungfu::unclesam:

 

[Ian]

nice one, what type of board profile you going with? Mini or a nano ITX seems like a good choice

 

[James]

Did Nano ITX ever come around? I only ever saw pictures of a demo board on the net, never anywhere to buy them!

 

[Ian]

yes, you can get them now according to a nerdy friend of mine.

 

[James]

Where? :devil: ideas whirring...

 

[Ian]

ill find out later when he logs into MSN.

 

[NeX]

yo James you saw my nano mobo at the box hill meet remember?

Retepetsir, look at www.mp3car.com and check out the ODB-II section

it has usb interfaces that interact directly with your ECU so that you can get information like speed, air/fuel, RPM, Gear, etc... sooo useful

i'm planning to get one from the US but its over £200! for a cable!

if you get it working properly you can legaly replace your gauge pod with a screen and have your dials on thet

 

[James]

Yours was Nano?? I thought it was just Mini! I see, where did you get it from?

 

[NeX]

the car one is a mini but the tiny pc was nano, i have a pic

i get them through work from Taiwan

 

[Retepetsir]

I'm an electronics engineer at heart, I wont be using one of the dedicated mini via motherboards...... :devil:. I'm also trying to save money, and those boards can get rather expensive!

I've been given a perfectly good laptop with 1.6ghz Pentium M processor, 512mb Ram, 60GB hard drive, etc.

I'll be modifying the power circuitry (i.e. no invertor required, just hook it straight into DC power supply), bypassing the screen and pretty much thats it. I will then link up a system in order to turn on the computer with the ignition/when required, and place the interface in the dash (probably under the steering wheel).

All I then need to do is hardwire in a USB extension hub to somewhere like the glovebox (for addons, external hard drive, GPS, etc), install the GPS dongle in the dash, link up the screen to the laptop, link in the audio to my headunit, install a DVD player in the glove box, etc, etc.

I'll then make up a mounting system underneath the seat to hold the laptop and include cooling, etc.

The laptop was free, and I've got all the other bits and pieces, so add the cost of a couple of cables, plus fibreglass, and other materials to the cost of the screen, and I have one rather cheap but good car system!

A decent mini/nano system would set me back several hundred £££

Edit: Nex, how much do you get them for?!

 

[NeX]

I'm an electronics engineer at heart, I wont be using one of the dedicated mini via motherboards...... :devil:. I'm also trying to save money, and those boards can get rather expensive!

I've been given a perfectly good laptop with 1.6ghz Pentium M processor, 512mb Ram, 60GB hard drive, etc.

I'll be modifying the power circuitry (i.e. no invertor required, just hook it straight into DC power supply), bypassing the screen and pretty much thats it. I will then link up a system in order to turn on the computer with the ignition/when required, and place the interface in the dash (probably under the steering wheel).

All I then need to do is hardwire in a USB extension hub to somewhere like the glovebox (for addons, external hard drive, GPS, etc), install the GPS dongle in the dash, link up the screen to the laptop, link in the audio to my headunit, install a DVD player in the glove box, etc, etc.

I'll then make up a mounting system underneath the seat to hold the laptop and include cooling, etc.

The laptop was free, and I've got all the other bits and pieces, so add the cost of a couple of cables, plus fibreglass, and other materials to the cost of the screen, and I have one rather cheap but good car system!

A decent mini/nano system would set me back several hundred £££

Edit: Nex, how much do you get them for?!

sounds cool, oh yea and Via is whack! lol but they are the only ones that do mini stuff

the boards cost about £160ish, not totally sure cos we buy them in bulk and I add on one they are soo useful when space is an issue but lack power... they are made by a company called Axiomtek

the mini pc in the pic has 512 ram, 40gb hd 800mhz processor and has a sound card, relay board and wireless mouse reciever and all in a space not much bigger than a coke can

you're doing well to get a free laptop are you going for some sort of docking station system that alows you to take the laptop out of the car and then just slot it in?

oh and BTW these mini boards run on 5v

 

[Retepetsir]

sounds cool, oh yea and Via is whack! lol but they are the only ones that do mini stuff

the boards cost about £160ish, not totally sure cos we buy them in bulk and I add on one they are soo useful when space is an issue but lack power... they are made by a company called Axiomtek

the mini pc in the pic has 512 ram, 40gb hd 800mhz processor and has a sound card, relay board and wireless mouse reciever and all in a space not much bigger than a coke can

you're doing well to get a free laptop are you going for some sort of docking station system that alows you to take the laptop out of the car and then just slot it in?

oh and BTW these mini boards run on 5v

Yep, docking station is the idea, but I'll see how it goes

One of your boards is tempting, but by the time I've added the cost of the PSU, memory, hard drive, etc I bet it works out quite a bit.

I didnt actually realise you had one installed (should have looked when we were in Brighton!), where is it, what have you done with it, etc, etc. Got pics?!

 

[smurfman]

Retepetsir, look at www.mp3car.com and check out the ODB-II section

it has usb interfaces that interact directly with your ECU so that you can get information like speed, air/fuel, RPM, Gear, etc... sooo useful

I love the in car pc idea, is the ecu on all k11's obdII compliant? when I had a fiat someone was doing a similar thing in their cinq but the ecu couldn't be linked

 

[NeX]

Yep, docking station is the idea, but I'll see how it goes

One of your boards is tempting, but by the time I've added the cost of the PSU, memory, hard drive, etc I bet it works out quite a bit.

I didnt actually realise you had one installed (should have looked when we were in Brighton!), where is it, what have you done with it, etc, etc. Got pics?!

yep did a big post about it a while back but its still a work in progress at the mo,

the pc is in the boot, its mounted on the underside of the amp mounting board so its hidden.
it has a mini ITX board with a 1.3ghz via pah! and 512 ram with a 160gb sata drive. 7" touchscreen liliput screen, slimline DVD laptop drive in the front that is slot loading.

the PC has a relay board attached to it which turns on the lights etc also the doors, amps boot poping etc.

there is a web cam at the back as a rear view camera and a wireless network adapter for war driving. there is an RJ45 connector in the glove box so a laptop can be ported in. also there is a 7 port hub in the glove box which runs the relay board, DVD player, touchscreen, usb keyboard etc.

i have modded a sony cd steering wheel controler and spliced it with a usb keyboard with porgrammable hot keys. now the controler controls the cd player when the PC is off and controls what ever you want on the pc when the pc is on. at the mo its wired up for music control

there is an cleaver PSU which runs 12v and monitors the battery to provent discharge also it swtiches off the amps when the pc boots to provent the speakers poping. it can also boot the pc when your cranking the engine using a system of capacitors

the computer has a desktop lock thingy attached to it and a keyring reciver on my keys so that depending on how close my keys are to the car the pc might do different things eg lock the doors.

the pc itself is running a custom built program that runs instead of explorer.exe the program can do anything

at the moment i'm working on a way to talk to the pc using a PDA with a wifi card but i don't know how to program in C...

pics hmmm let me see,

the screen will be mounted in a pod in the centre of the screen

I love the in car pc idea, is the ecu on all k11's obdII compliant? when I had a fiat someone was doing a similar thing in their cinq but the ecu couldn't be linked

i think so, i have yet to look into it properly (tooo much on at the mo)

should be because they are post 1993 ish which is when the standard was introduced i think...

 

[Retepetsir]

Okayyyyyyy, thats a bit more complicated than mine!

I wont be going too ott as I may well be ripping it out to put it into my next car.

I was planning on running Road Runner as a front end for the system, what do you use?

Talking about programming in C, I'm just getting to the advanced stages, as I will need it for my student placement year (eek!).

Also what sata drive did you use, a normal 3.5" jobbie? I would have thought it was a bit susceptable to bumps, etc?

The RJ45 connector is a good idea though, and I'll also have wireless just in case .

I'm looking at keeping a wireless keyboard/mouse combo handy just in case they are needed, but I will see how it goes.

Is it all up and running yet? Would be good to see it . I bet it cost you a fair wedge though!

I'll have to see what happens with mine, it depends how much time I get really as I'll be in full time work in a few weeks. However, I am looking at mounting the TFT in a similar position to where you stated, so that's good .

Edit: There is a serial comms lead available for the ECU, and its only around £40, there is also software available to take advantage of this. However I wont bother with a car like mine, I'll leave that for my next vehicle

 

[NeX]

Okayyyyyyy, thats a bit more complicated than mine!

I wont be going too ott as I may well be ripping it out to put it into my next car.

I was planning on running Road Runner as a front end for the system, what do you use?

Talking about programming in C, I'm just getting to the advanced stages, as I will need it for my student placement year (eek!).

Also what sata drive did you use, a normal 3.5" jobbie? I would have thought it was a bit susceptable to bumps, etc?

The RJ45 connector is a good idea though, and I'll also have wireless just in case .

I'm looking at keeping a wireless keyboard/mouse combo handy just in case they are needed, but I will see how it goes.

Is it all up and running yet? Would be good to see it . I bet it cost you a fair wedge though!

I'll have to see what happens with mine, it depends how much time I get really as I'll be in full time work in a few weeks. However, I am looking at mounting the TFT in a similar position to where you stated, so that's good .

Edit: There is a serial comms lead available for the ECU, and its only around £40, there is also software available to take advantage of this. However I wont bother with a car like mine, I'll leave that for my next vehicle

yea it does EVERYTHING lol

my front end is my own personal creation i made it in delphi and i used pics of my car to indicate the car's status eg the boot flashes if the boot is unlocked etc. it also has buttons that directly intereact with the relay board so you just push the screen to turn the lights on etc.

wow good luck with C mate, i have great respect with anyone who can use it properly... tho if you do get the hang of it then there is nothing you can't do with a pc

yep it is a western digital 3.5" because they are the best i use them in everything and they never let me down. also i have some portable drives with WD in them and they are very shock resistant but I also wrapped it in foam and gave it its own personal fan as it gets hot with its foam jacket on lol,
it should be ok for shocks but the main problem is temp. they use liquid bearings and in cold weather the drives can lock up and not spin fast enough to operate. but they don't suffer any long term effects from it.
I also mounted the drive sideways so that the platters are only effected by cornering and not up and down movement

the RJ45 port is a crossover one because setting up peer to peer wireless is a complete #####! i was going to have an access point instead but then linking a point to point is a ##### too lol

if you check mp3car.com they have come up with some very clever ideas for inputs, but yea i have a keyboard just incase lol

lol no where near running at the mo, i have had it running just to test it and everything that was in the car worked but there is still alot to go, and it may all have to come out again if my car is a write off grr! its comming upto about £500... 250ish for the screen 75 for the main board 25 for the psu 100 for the dvd player etc it all mounts up

i'll let you know how the TFT mounting goes cos i cut a hole in the dash for the wires and i haven't installed the mounts for the TFT yet... i wanted it to go where the radio is but it just isn't possible. it would be so much easier with a face lift dash

really? where can you get these ecu leads from? any links? thanks mate

 

[Lori]

I've just ordered a 7" Widescreen Touchscreen TFT....... mohahaha :upside:

Watch this space, I should soon have an in-car computer with DVD playback, GPS, Wireless Internet, Bluetooth Interface, etc.

Oooh sounds interesting. What exactly does it do? Is it just like a PC?

 

[Retepetsir]

Oooh sounds interesting. What exactly does it do? Is it just like a PC?

Pretty much, I'll just customise it for how I want to use it. For me its a cheap way of getting GPS, etc into the car for not much money.

Nex, sounds good dude!

I've always thought 3.5" drives were not preferable, hence using a 2.5" drive via the laptop, but I guess if it works, it works!

Crossover cable is a good idea, I might just try that out.......it depends how far I want to push it really. I'm not going for total integration, as I dont really need it, but just basic functions.

I'm sure I read about some Serial interface ECU links on Micraholics, but you'll need to have a look yourself as I havent been there for ages! Someone was also writing their own interface software to use the information gathered via this cable from the ECU.

 

[NeX]

Pretty much, I'll just customise it for how I want to use it. For me its a cheap way of getting GPS, etc into the car for not much money.

Nex, sounds good dude!

I've always thought 3.5" drives were not preferable, hence using a 2.5" drive via the laptop, but I guess if it works, it works!

Crossover cable is a good idea, I might just try that out.......it depends how far I want to push it really. I'm not going for total integration, as I dont really need it, but just basic functions.

I'm sure I read about some Serial interface ECU links on Micraholics, but you'll need to have a look yourself as I havent been there for ages! Someone was also writing their own interface software to use the information gathered via this cable from the ECU.

cool thanks fo the tip re the ECU

i think that actually the bigger the drive the more resistance to shock it will have because there is more margin for error on a larger platter. but then laptop drives are designed to get bashed about i'm interested in trying out the perpendicular toshiba drives that they run in Ipods as they seem really hardcore i have a few lying around but the only interefaces come from america

it will be good to see how the laptop withstands shck. you might want to add rubber bushes to the frame you build just for that extra security...

how are you turning the PC on? in my experience all laptops need to be opened to get at the power button so you will have to switch it on before docking it... unless there is a power button on the outside...

 

[Retepetsir]

cool thanks fo the tip re the ECU

i think that actually the bigger the drive the more resistance to shock it will have because there is more margin for error on a larger platter. but then laptop drives are designed to get bashed about i'm interested in trying out the perpendicular toshiba drives that they run in Ipods as they seem really hardcore i have a few lying around but the only interefaces come from america

it will be good to see how the laptop withstands shck. you might want to add rubber bushes to the frame you build just for that extra security...

how are you turning the PC on? in my experience all laptops need to be opened to get at the power button so you will have to switch it on before docking it... unless there is a power button on the outside...

The frame I make up will include air cushioning for the laptop, hopefully to reduce shock, although it shouldnt really be a problem anyway.

The laptop power circuitry will be modified for in-car use, and I will hook the switch on circuit up to a dedicated interface in the dash, so when the interface (i.e. switch) is activated, specific features on the laptop are too, i.e. power on, hibernate, main power cutoff, etc, etc.

Just depends what I have time to do really!

 

[NeX]

The frame I make up will include air cushioning for the laptop, hopefully to reduce shock, although it shouldnt really be a problem anyway.

The laptop power circuitry will be modified for in-car use, and I will hook the switch on circuit up to a dedicated interface in the dash, so when the interface (i.e. switch) is activated, specific features on the laptop are too, i.e. power on, hibernate, main power cutoff, etc, etc.

Just depends what I have time to do really!

ah, i see. clever

i suppose you will need to add a port to the laptop so that you can still remove it or will you have some kind of relay thing in the laptop?

 

[Fordy]

you can get a obd cable and software etc from http://www.blazt.biz/

 

[Retepetsir]

ah, i see. clever

i suppose you will need to add a port to the laptop so that you can still remove it or will you have some kind of relay thing in the laptop?

It will be interfaced through the docking bay that I got with the laptop, but I'll see how things go!

 

[NeX]

It will be interfaced through the docking bay that I got with the laptop, but I'll see how things go!

i see good luck