Carputer Project

[viperguy]

well i decided to bite the bullet and install a computer in my wrx, system so far consists of a Viewsonic VOT132 (quadcore 1.6Ghz Atom with an Nvidia 9400 on-board graphics). I ran some decent gauge wire from one of my amps under the passenger seat (permanent power to the battery via 4 gauge cable) and routed that to the trunk with a cigaretter lighter socket wired to the end of that to provide power.

on the +12 side i inserted a car horn relay (good for 30 amps but should only be drawing 5 or 6 max) with an RF triggering system (just a garage door remote really) so that i can apply power to the carputer and have it turn on remotely for admin purposes. Power is provided via a 150 watt car laptop adapter from jaycar as the puter runs off 19v DC.

Screen will be an in-dash motorised touch screen fed with a vga signal, just ebayed it yesterday so will hopefully turn up next week. Have already routed a couple of usb's up to the glove compartment as well as an audio cable to go the aux in on the headunit.

Costs so far:

Computer: 570 (with no OS)

Screen: 1100

Jaycar power supply: 90

remote turn on thingy: 50

Level of unnessecerity: priceless

[Swindog]

That is awesome...and what purpose will it serve?

[petrolheadjman]

Looks impressive!

Where is the computer going to sit?

and what OS are you thinking of running?

[viperguy]

 petrolheadjman said:

Looks impressive!

Where is the computer going to sit?

and what OS are you thinking of running?

Computer comes with a vesa mount which i will mount somewhere in the boot of my wagon, and I'll probably run a copy of win7 i have kicking around, puter is plenty fast enough to support win7, and will probably dual boot linux for war-driving

as far as purpose goes, 95% will be music player, Music videos and movies when parked up, some war-driving, car-mounted video camera capture as well as OBD logging/track day GPSing, bluetooth handsfree calling is another option using the car stereo. Automate my intercooler water sprayer perhaps...really just going to get the hardware in and see what practical uses i can justify it with

[Guest the_return_of_the_jedi]

im suprised there isnt any iphone apps for those functions haha

[petrolheadjman]

screen is touch i assume? will be hard to get linux to work with that wont it haha?

[Guest boostin]

Probably a silly question, but wouldn't it be easier to butcher up a laptop?

[Scoobydoo]

Get an iPad

[viperguy]

 petrolheadjman said:

screen is touch i assume? will be hard to get linux to work with that wont it haha?

nope, they supply linux drivers

[viperguy]

 boostin said:

Probably a silly question, but wouldn't it be easier to butcher up a laptop?

not really, a touch screened laptop would be more expensive

[petrolheadjman]

Well good luck, hope to see photos and updates on how you go!

[Divine]

I agree with the photos, sounds awesome

[subieboy]

 Divine said:

I agree with the photos, sounds awesome

+ 1 I have been thinking about various ways of doing it for ages... most of the ready made "kits" are a bit dear...

[deathz0r]

Everything can be done with Linux and DIY. Sounds awesome.

I need to do this too. I helped do my mates one in his Accord, looks sooooo mint.

[petrolheadjman]

 deathz0r said:

Everything can be done with Linux and DIY. Sounds awesome.

I need to do this too. I helped do my mates one in his Accord, looks sooooo mint.

A lot of hair pulling can be done with linux too!! (before i had a car i was the linux nerd haha)

But i guess you would get that with any operating system.

[viperguy]

i would probably shy away from linux myself, I've often had a tinker with it to see how the development is going, but for ease of day to day use and setup windows still wins for now, particularly with regards to hardware accelerated graphics playback and codecs, I know linux has full support for it but it doesnt quite work that easily out of the box

that, and there are 1 maybe 2 carputer specific front ends designed for it

...besides, would you really want to keep typing into command shells on a 7" screen ;D

[subieboy]

 viperguy said:

i would probably shy away from linux myself, I've often had a tinker with it to see how the development is going, but for ease of day to day use and setup windows still wins for now, particularly with regards to hardware accelerated graphics playback and codecs, I know linux has full support for it but it doesnt quite work that easily out of the box

that, and there are 1 maybe 2 carputer specific front ends designed for it

...besides, would you really want to keep typing into command shells on a 7" screen ;D

try Ubuntu.. plug n play on every pc I ever installed it on...

[viperguy]

could have luck with the netbook remix as a usable interface, dont remember getting mplayer happy with mkvs and 1080p .movs i use a lot of though

[aim]

Oh linux thread! Ubuntu really does have a very large support for hardware out of the box. Flash is nothing special, neither is hardware acceleration on ATi hardware. I use Ubuntu 24/7 on my laptop and Desktop, the only reason I boot into windows is to make use of my 5870 and do some solidworks rendering.

Touchscreens work fine in linux, have done since 2008.

[kingersman]

ubuntu is great same with kubuntu.. only reason why i went back to windows is due to gaming

[Guest the_return_of_the_jedi]

pics or it didnt happen

[Guest keltik]

How do you plan on creating a shutdown controller and handling voltage drop on startup?

[viperguy]

 keltik said:

How do you plan on creating a shutdown controller and handling voltage drop on startup?

shutdown controller will probably be via one of those usb I/O boards which gets a feed from something which shuts off with the ignition, and startup is fine, when cranking my battery drops to 10v which the dc/dc converter i have seems happy to cope with

[Guest keltik]

 viperguy']

[quote name='keltik said:

How do you plan on creating a shutdown controller and handling voltage drop on startup?

/quote]

shutdown controller will probably be via one of those usb I/O boards which gets a feed from something which shuts off with the ignition, and startup is fine, when cranking my battery drops to 10v which the dc/dc converter i have seems happy to cope with

Ah yup, got any more details on that I/O board? Im in need of one.

[viperguy]

progress so far-ish, on the right is the power supply, on the left is USB, audio, and vga cables, at the top is the isolation relay connected to the remote turn on module. Have been tinkering with the front-end recently while i wait for the screen to show up, my favourite at the moment seems to be Centrafuse

 

The computer itself

 

have just been sussing out bluetooth features (via a usb dongle i had laying around), mostly using iphone for audio playback, but just about to test out pc phone control. The idea being phone stays in pocket but can use touch screen to select contacts and make a call and use pc for speakers/microphone.

Edited December 6, 2016 by viperguy