Carputer Project

[viperguy]

yeah riderunner can be a bit of a mission to get set up right but works ok with some time an effort sunk into it

[viperguy]

Well with christmas holidays coming up and a big 2-week south island trip all planned and booked, Ive decided to give the carputer project a refresh in the form of a brand new build for GPS and entertainment duties on the road.

This will consist of a mini-itx motherboard powered by an Intel Core-i3 3.3ghz CPU, with a 550MB/s SSD (yes MB) and some speedy RAM which should give the thing a real kick in the pants as the old computer I was using was a bit slow to really meet the expectations we all have today with system responsiveness etc (I\'m primarily doing the new build for an extremely quick booting system out of hibernate, on par with a CD player starting up).

The old PC just didn\'t have the processing power or system bus throughput to facilitate this, being a 1.6ghz Atom (pretty much comparable to a high end cellphone nowadays, considering they can emulate windows XP easily enough).

So just waiting on parts and will throw some pics up when built, the rest of the system should stay pretty much the same at this stage...but just as some info, the motherboard chosen is an intel DQ77KB, chosen because it has SATA 6gps ports (as a SATA 3gbps port doesn\'t have the bandwidth to max out the SSD drive) it also has a DC socket for its power supply, so runs straight off my existing car laptop power adaptor.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dq77kb.html

[viperguy]

Well motherboard was out of stock so swapped over to this nifty number:

http://www.gigabyte.co.nz/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4601#ov

Not much difference besides the fact it doesnt have on-board power so will have to buy one of these...

http://www.mini-box.com/M3-ATX-DC-DC-ATX-Automotive-Computer-car-PC-Power-Supply

Which isnt all that bad as it natively ties in to the ignition system in the same fashion headunits do, so switches the carputer on and off automagically with a number of customisable options regarding delays and fancy things like adjustable low-voltage cut-off etc which the old system never had which left me with a flat battery a stupid number of times, so will be happy to implement that.

[Divine]

Wow this has been going for a few years

[Timmah]

 Divine said:

Wow this has been going for a few years

And what\'s awesome is Viperguy is still updating this thread. Massive kudos for him.

[viperguy]

heh cheers guys, i figure the info might be useful for some other crazy person that decides to go down the same path. I know a lot of people are going down the tablet or phone route as the hardware and capabilities have progressed so far over the years, particularly with the likes of google maps and the media capabilities of modern devices.

For me though i like the idea of an embedded system that is just always present in the car to just turn on and use, rather than a phone you have to clip into some holder and change to some car mode then remove every time you leave the car just so you can have your phone with you, or a tablet to get some screen real-estate which doesn\'t integrate easily into the dash without a heap of fabrication issues or be a theft magnet hanging from your windscreen (or fall off in the twisties, this is still a Subaru forum after all .

Going down this road also lets me re-purpose the hardware as another HTPC, or snappy little desktop machine, if I ever get sick of the carputer.

The downside though is with all the tablets and phones being used for this now, the development on PC front-ends has rather been put on the backburner, so not exactly an exciting time to get into it on that front, but they certainly came far enough to still be valid today, just not as many options under active development to pick and choose from as there used to be.

[viperguy]

well hardware has all shown up so PC is all put together for the most part, just need to wire the car power up properly. Pretty picture below of the system:

only real issue putting it all together was the SSD caddy hitting the fan, but nothing some robust shaving couldnt fix, case also has an external molex power connector so I wil use that to supply power to the case rather than drill a big ass hole in it for a multipin connector.

So thats the 4 wires exiting the case, +12v, ACC, ground, and the power supply also has an amplifier turn-on lead, so I will use that to drive a relay to switch power to the LCD screen in the dash so that it turns on and off with the system.

Remaining items are make/buy a molex to P4 cpu power connector and install all the software, then its just install the PC and re-incorporate all the USB devices etc I have in the car.

Edited December 6, 2016 by viperguy

[viperguy]

Well CPU power cable is all made up and working fine:

System had its first boot off the power supply at lunchtime, so that was a benchmark. Now just need to program the delays and things into the power supply and try it out for realsies once the car is properly wired up.

Edited December 6, 2016 by viperguy

[viperguy]

Well fun weekend pulling the car to bits and re-routing/installing cables:

System seems to work all as intended with the ignition triggering, just more little odd jobs to do like install a powered usb hub in the glovebox for connecting things to the system as well as charging phones etc.

One other thing I want to do is put a bypass switch in the dash with an illuminated button, so that I can both disable the system from turning if i dont feel the need, as well as see if it is currently running (light will run off same feed powering the screen which gets switched on and off with the carputer) this switch just needs to be put in line with the ACC feed to the carputer power supply to control whether it thinks the key is on or off.

Edited December 6, 2016 by viperguy

[Timmah]

Where have you mounted the Carputer? Under a seat I guess?

[viperguy]

its just in the boot basically where the old one is, I\'m going to mount it on the back of the sub so it\'s out of the way so cables dont risk damage and frees up some boot space and since its all solid state I dont really care about vibrations.

In use it has definately met expectations, plenty of speed to provide an extremely fluid experience so all-in-all I am happy with the upgrade.

[viperguy]

Well mounted carputer to back of sub, just screwed a metal bar/plate to the sub box and used a strip of industrial velcro. Removeable and secure... *thumbs-up*

Pic up in the weekend.

On a side note, have killed a few rattles in the wagon during the upgrade by beefing up the rubber stops on the rear hatch, tightening a swaybar bolt, and gluing my boost guage properly ;D

[ADIKT]

This is cool - really wish i had the time, knowledge and patience for something like this!

[viperguy]

Comes together pretty easily with the right hardware tbh.

Only real issue I have now is a bit of a voltage drop on the power supply lines, I might need to source my permanent +12v from somewhere more direct than the supplied feed in the dash, as I seem to have quite a lot of voltage drop on that line during cranking so the carputer always dies.

I did find out that the ACC feed actually passed essentially 0 current (about 0.1mA if i remember correctly), its merely a voltage signal to the hardware to say the ignition is turned on, I had always kind of thought it was the other way around such that permanent +12v was just for a tiny supply for devices to remember settings, and the ACC was the main feed activated when you turned the ignition on.

But no, permanent +12v is for "standby memory" as well as main draw when equipment gets the signal to turn on from the ACC line.

So I\'ll probably rewire my permanent +12v to my amplifier feed which has a 2 or 4 AWG feed direct to the battery which should have much less of a voltage drop, in theory anyways ;D

[viperguy]

Well just because I like zombies, there's actually updates to the Carputer saga!!!

 

As I was in need of a new project, I decided to go with Carputer MK3, this time around based on an Intel NUC which due to its tiny size will now live in my glove box. For a couple of reasons, easy serviceabaility and and totally frees up the boot.

 

No major changes to the system besides re-routing cables, but I did need to get a new carputer PSU as the NUC only has a DC input, but I sourced a PSU that still ties into the ignition, but tells the NUC to turn off via USB and the NUC just turns on when its gets power via the DC jack.

 

New items are a centre console USB port and 3.5mm input for guests to charge their phone or play audio via the Carputers line in jack. Still the same software running the show, just a bigger capacity SSD (well a 256GB NVMe M2 stick), also experimenting with dual-booting android (as well as Android via a Virtual Machine which could be embedded into my carputer software) now that Android Auto doesn't need a compatible car or headunit to work since I'm itching to have native Google Maps functionality.

 

Some nice additions Ive been playing with are that I've automated the media syncing process using Eventghost so that when the carputer boots (or resumes from hibernate) it pings the server via WiFi and when it gets a response it then runs a batch file via Robocopy to mirror my music video and music directories from the server to the carputer. If there are no pings (like when starting away from home) then it just times out after a minute or so.

Edited December 5, 2016 by viperguy

[Batbaruman]

liking the sound of this. had goals of carputer in my old car but never really did get around to it. wish them old pics were still up

[viperguy]

my old pics of the project? probably died due to me dropping my imageshack account, happy to stitch them back in if you want.

[thewabbit1]

20 minutes ago, viperguy said:

my old pics of the project? probably died due to me dropping my imageshack account, happy to stitch them back in if you want.

if you could that would be awesome

[ADIKT]

On Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 10:38 PM, Timmah said:

And what\'s awesome is Viperguy is still updating this thread. Massive kudos for him.

6 years! 

[viperguy]

Just as a start before I get the retroactive ones back up, heres a comparison of the old carputer vs the new NUC one...

Edited December 6, 2016 by viperguy

[Johnnynz]

Wow Viperguy is back!

 

Long time no see, welcome back.

[viperguy]

and some new shots, interface wise at least of android...

the new power supply attached to a plate for insulation and adhesive purposes (i double-sided it underneath my headunit behind the screen), the supply has 4 connections (visible bottom right): ignition sensing, permanent 12v, ground and an anti-thump connection which is meant to turn your amps on, but since my headunit does that ive used it to drive a relay which powers up the LCD screen

out with the old...

Edited December 6, 2016 by viperguy

[viperguy]

this is a nifty gadget I've included in the system now, its a USB powered access point (can run in multiple modes) but i have it set as a regular access point so that the car has a hotspot for people to connect to and use Shairport (link here) to airplay music to the carputer, at least until Apple breaks it with their next update...not bad for like $45

 

and in the background next to the old carputer is a new USB hub I had to put in because the NUC doesnt have as many USB's as the old machine (I also liked the idea of only having one USB to plug in and out any time I removed the carputer)

 

and heres the centre console connections i mentioned:

Pretty self explanatory, just need to silicone them in place...also shown here is the hackery i put in place to drive the carputer, the out of place electric mirror control interfaces with the carputer....Up is music, down is music videos, left and right skip to the next song/video, dont really have a use for the other buttons but they dont really work proper anyways due to how the whole assembly physically is wired so im still on the hunt for a decent control interface...ive been looking at something like this

http://www.3dconnexion.eu/products/spacemouse/spacenavigator-for-notebooks.html

for a multiaxis usb peripheral, but its a little bulky to really live there so im considering an IR based steering wheel remote like you can get with headunits, like so as an example since the NUC has a built in IR receiver:

but havent given that too much thought yet...

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by viperguy

[viperguy]

On 5/12/2016 at 6:11 PM, thewabbit1 said:

if you could that would be awesome

done like a done thing

[thewabbit1]

16 hours ago, viperguy said:

done like a done thing

 you bloody legend. That is such an awesome project. If this was reddit i'd give you gold