Genius. That's pretty cool.

 

Haha, i love when ideas work like that!

 

Great! Show us some pictures of it installed when you get a chance.

 

Will do, I need to get the car fired up first before I put everything in its place. That should be happening saturday hopefully.

 

I like how the display looks in your dash.

I've looked into doing this with both a Mac and PC.

It seems using a notebook is the best bet. You can leave the computer ON all the time, and it will just go into sleep mode and use hardly any power. Booting the comptuer every time you turn the key off and back on is a serious PITA.

You could hook up WIFI or even have a dock for a mobile phone, and be able to have internet connectivity.

I'd use iTunes. Always wanted to have the music screensavers or CoverFlow while playing music in my car. And it'd be the easiest way to browse your library. I can't stand how all headunits brows iPods... it takes forever.

Get a small bluetooth trackball and keyboard. You could even mount the trackball where the joystick is in the 7.

There needs to be more "out-of-the-box" double-DIN car computer solutions on the market...

BTW: the new Rockford Fosgate amps are really small and powerful.

 

you should let me water cool that little itx mb for you

 

You can buy power supplies that turn the computer on when the ignition is set to the on key.

I already have wifi and bluetooth currently hooked to the system. I do have a track ball that I purposely bought to try to jam it in the joystick area.

Definatly not an iTunes fan ... nor much apple prodcuts. Too much hype for nothing if you ask me. But I'm not going to start an "I" war now.

As for the amps ... I have found something that might work but unsure on how good it'll work. These are them :

http://www.autotoys.com/x/catalog/SU...ER_p_4593.html

150W 2 channel so I would need 2 of them .. but look at the dimension off them. And not to mention how cheap they are.

 

I am loving the set-up DB!

Nothing like making mini things for our mini cars!

By the way, will you right up a final cost and labor table? You know for us rotorheads that are math-phobic. :P

Also, why use Windows? It'll be a shitting pain in the *** when you get a Blue Screen... Why not use Linux? Its way more open sourced and should be easier to program for the functions relating to the car.

As for the standby mode, it would be a pain in the *** to set it up, you'd have to have something similar to a secondary battery to keep it in standby for extended periods of time or a relay that would switch the computer on when the Accessory switch is turned on with a manual on/off button if you want to turn it off while the car is on.

Just some ideas...

 

Lots of power!

If I were doing it I think I'd use an old laptop because they draw less power and the 2.5" HDD survives mechanical shock very well. I've pulled my IBM T40 off the table onto the floor several times by accident and it keeps on going without losing a beat. They also have a std. 15pin VGA connector for an auto-adapted screen.

Just thinkin'.

 

Me too, how do I set up a screen and sound system that plugs into my lap top?

 

either way you look at it ... a laptop will be too big and won't really look stock if you keep it in there. I like the option of upgrading stuff.

As for using windows, If you know what you're doing .. that blue screen of death can be avoided ... in my last computer that I've built at home ... haven't had that for a few years. And also more software can work with windows. I know there's that virtual windows and I have used it, and I know how "unstable" that is.

As for final cost, everything with amps and what not, will probably be in the 1000$, but you have to remember I went with stuff that is "unnessary" to other as some might say. You can get away with just a cheaper board, and just use the onboard sound. But you have to remember technology pricedrop down real quick. Like the stuff that I bought now has probably dropped in atleast 100$ since I bought them.

I still need to take an actual reading of how many amps the full current draw. I might be able to do that tomorrow and update it here. But I don't see it being that much as the processor is a low wattage version

 

When is the last time Windows XP or 2000 bluescreened on you? A clean install with just what anyone needs for their car should be fine. No bluescreens for years unless you have hardware problems... but then Linux would be crashing too. Plus, have you ever used Linux? It's not as easy as it's made out to be to learn the inner workings of. Linux crashes because of software problems too, it's happened to me many times.

Anyway, they make stuff to put your computer in your car... all sorts of things.

Power Supplies: http://store.mp3car.com/category_s/22.htm
Cases: http://store.mp3car.com/category_s/47.htm
Motherboards: http://store.mp3car.com/Motherboards_s/50.htm

I'm not saying you should buy it all from mp3car.com, but realize that there are parts made specifically for putting computers in cars.

Oh, and aren't you worried about condensation with that being in your air-conditioning system?

 

^ I actually know about that site and I am registered on their forum. For the bluescreen I have to agree about it being mostly hardware. Mostly related to video cards crapping out, or inproper cleaning of computers. CPU heating up will results in such things. As far as condensation, the box will be properly vented.

 

I just wanted to say very very cool man. i'm so jealous, i had my carputer completely setup and stealth installed in my old car for about week, and my car died. Your project makes me want to put all my stuff into my 7.

 

What about all the humidity running through the air system?

 

humidity won't really do anything .. its like taking a laptop outside on a humid day. Electronics can take more abuse than most people think.

 

but i wonder if it would start to rust tho... if due were to form if you have ac..

 

rust? There isn't much iron components on the boards actually, most of them are Stainless steel, aluminum and cooper. I shoud take one of the motherboard that I have laying around and drop it in a bucket of water and see if anything will even corrode on there. I highly doubt it though. To give you guys an idea, me and one of my buddies built a water cooler computer, and one of the attachments broke loon off the processor and pucking water across the whole board. The computer did shut down (Most motherboard have a shorting protection system or atleast the good ones), but once we pulled it out of the case, dried it up, the thing runs till this day and that happened over a year ago. Like I said they are more durable than people think. Or like I've dropped a digital camera in a river the one time, took it home dried it out, plugged fresh batteries in and it was alive again. Its always important though to not keep on trying to turn on the device once fooled. Thats what normally ruins thing. Because you keep on shorting out things.

Off topic, for that water cooled, we do have plan to using liquid nitrogen on it to see what we can actually max out the processor at. I've tried getting it locally, asking university's and stuff and they wouldn't sell it to us. Mean while you go to one of their events and they would have 2 bottles full for kids to play with (put a blow balloon in liquid nitrogen, or take a flower and freeze it, then watch it shatter) And then they tell us its unsafe for us to handle. Ah what a wonderful world.

 

It is unsafe for anyone to handle, however they are trained to use it. You accidentally get that on your hand, and no matter what your parents named you, your Stumpy for the rest of your life.

 

Ah chris ... but I'm crazy ... so i'm allowed

 

Sam, should try asking the university where they get the liquid nitrogen from. I believe anyone can buy it just need to know where to go. Locally we have a place called liquid air that I think anyone can purchase it from.

It's not like the university is a dealer of the product, so I don't see any reason for them to have extra sitting around to sell. Also they probally avoid being a middle man for liability reasons.

 

Hmm trying to remember I think the supplier for them was liquid air or something. I know i asked them and they said no needed a license or something I think it was. Heck they gave me trouble getting just dry ice asking me a million questions on it. Meanwhile down south its available everywhere.

 

Bumpo!


EDIT: ^^^ I saw dry ice at my grocery store in bags. Like 5lb bags.

 

due to canadian regulations we do not carry them in grocery stores or walmart like you guys do down there.

 

I saw this, and liked it..

http://www.revo-sys.com/proddetail.php?prod=BNZ-2DCARPC






It's a full Car PC inside a Double Din Unit.