Car Computer Project

Started the first phase of building my ultimate Car PC today. The painful Part, purchasing. Works out cheaper than buying some overpriced head unit that only has some of the feature i want. This way i can add the features i want as i think of them.

So far i have.

Fit PC2 (mini desktop computer, expensive part)
Bluetooth USB

Still to come.

7" touchscreen LCD.
GPS mouse.
DC-DC power reg
Oziexplorer maps
Centrafuse front end.
OBD-ii

Will post photos of install when i gets underway.

Interesting, can't wait to see the progress

I'm running a carpc. Only drama's I've had with mine is getting quality power supplies. I've gone through 3, M2's.

I'm using the lilliput touch screen. If you go for one of those ensure to ask for auto trigger, so that it automatically switches to the reverse camera. Mine has to be switched manually.

I'm using Tiny Xp, and Centrafuse with destinator GPS software. All work excellent.

Good luck on your project.

what hardrives are you guys useing?

tweak'e said:

what hardrives are you guys useing?

Click to expand...

Started off using a laptop drive, worked no probs around town but would lock up when offroading. Now using a SSD, can't remember the brand, I think it was a 16gig Kingston. No problems ad not much difference in boot speeds either way.

Biscuits said:

Started the first phase of building my ultimate Car PC today. The painful Part, purchasing. Works out cheaper than buying some overpriced head unit that only has some of the feature i want. This way i can add the features i want as i think of them.

So far i have.

Fit PC2 (mini desktop computer, expensive part)
Bluetooth USB

Still to come.

7" touchscreen LCD.
GPS mouse.
DC-DC power reg
Oziexplorer maps
Centrafuse front end.
OBD-ii

Will post photos of install when i gets underway.

Click to expand...

What you got planned for the radio?. I built mine a few years ago, back then there wasn't much in the way of quality. Heard that they didn't work to well, so I've never bothered. I don't like commercial radio that much, but getting the traffic report would be handy.

Also you'll will need an amp, the soundcard can't drive car speakers. I'm just using a cheap 2 channel job.

I had an OBD plug but couldn't get all the sensors working in Centrafuse. It will be interesting to see if you have more luck.

08KINGCAB said:

What you got planned for the radio?. I built mine a few years ago, back then there wasn't much in the way of quality. Heard that they didn't work to well, so I've never bothered. I don't like commercial radio that much, but getting the traffic report would be handy.

Also you'll will need an amp, the soundcard can't drive car speakers. I'm just using a cheap 2 channel job.

I had an OBD plug but couldn't get all the sensors working in Centrafuse. It will be interesting to see if you have more luck.

Click to expand...

At the moment, i am planning to mount the screen on a swivel mount that connects to the bolt of passenger seat (kinda like the old snake light), not in the dash. Better viewing as light changes that way. As such i am keeping the orig 6 stacker. Just going to use an FM transmitter from PC sound card to the cars radio.

I have heard from other guys that the fm radio things are crap, so instead of trying to pick up FM i will just broadcast my own.

Biscuits said:

At the moment, i am planning to mount the screen on a swivel mount that connects to the bolt of passenger seat (kinda like the old snake light), not in the dash. Better viewing as light changes that way. As such i am keeping the orig 6 stacker. Just going to use an FM transmitter from PC sound card to the cars radio.

I have heard from other guys that the fm radio things are crap, so instead of trying to pick up FM i will just broadcast my own.

Click to expand...

Maybe an Ipad would be a better way to go if your not planning on mounting in dash?

Although their a little pricey!

08KINGCAB said:

Maybe an Ipad would be a better way to go if your not planning on mounting in dash?

Although their a little pricey!

Click to expand...

And useless. Just a giant ipod touch and i have one of those already. I would be limited to the software apple allow me to use. (bit big brotherish)

I have a list of things i want this system to be able to do and the ipad can't do half of it unfortunately. to late now anyways, i already start buying parts for car-pc

For sound, could you not run a 3-wire cable along with the power cable that connects the earphone/headphone output of the computer to the aux input of the stereo?

does the factory stereo have aux?
I will look into it, if that is the case that is what i will do.

08KINGCAB said:

Started off using a laptop drive, worked no probs around town but would lock up when offroading. Now using a SSD, can't remember the brand, I think it was a 16gig Kingston. No problems ad not much difference in boot speeds either way.

Click to expand...

yeah solid state would be the way to go, no moving parts to get trashed over bumps and loose all ur data, bit more expensive but coming down in price.

I'm suprised that you're not seeing a boot up speed increase with SSD, I've got several Intel X25's here that I've been playing with on things from a 6 yr old Toshiba notebook with XP to a desktop running Win7 and the boot up speed is where I've noticed the most increase. General running has been similar against the some of the newer 10,000rpm drivers for the majority of the time, it's only when the platters spin up and spin down in power save mode that the general running speed is noticeably different for me. So far I haven't given them anything more major to do than boot up a small file server but they definitely have their advantages and with the costs coming down with each month they are becoming more viable to change over to some applications.

If cost is a real issue and SSD is too expensive there are alternatives for laptop computers which make plattered drives a little more usable, they'll never been as reliable in rough terrain as SSD but they can be made better than laptop manufactures make them by going external and mounting outside the laptop case with protection, but then space obviously becomes an issue.

If you're keen, we've managed to get a bootable Windows XP onto a thumbdrive. Can't for the life of me remember where I put it or the process needed, but we did it on one of those Asus EEEPc with the 10" screens.

The XP on a thumb drive procedure is fairly simple and one method is outlined here : Install Windows XP on a Mini-Note (USB stick method)

There is other ways but that was a site I saw early today when looking for something else Windows related.

I have to ask what is the advantage of using a car pc rather than one of the multimedia double din units available that run on wince 5.0? I can plug a hard drive in the usb and view photos, play movie files, dvd's etc, it uses an 8gig sdcard which runs oziexplorer and all the maps I could ever need, street navigation is on there, I can watch TV with it, it has bluetooth for handsfree on my phone, ipod functionality, a reverse camera etc. Best of all I don't have to build it, it plugs straight into the original loom and I don't have to mount a bulky pc somewhere at the risk of it getting wet and it handles corrugations brilliantly. (just got back from cape york and it worked perfectly) I guess I can't check my emails on the road but I have a small laptop if I require to do that.

Flexibility of running what you want. WinCe software is limited, but being able to run a full blown machine gives you access to run whatever you want. Also space. 8Gig is nothing for maps if you want to have a bunch of detailed maps without having to copy back and forth what you need.

Also you can use a bigger screen if you want.

vsteve01 said:

Flexibility of running what you want. WinCe software is limited, but being able to run a full blown machine gives you access to run whatever you want. Also space. 8Gig is nothing for maps if you want to have a bunch of detailed maps without having to copy back and forth what you need.

Also you can use a bigger screen if you want.

Click to expand...

Fair enough, make sure you install it somewhere high and dry. I recently found out how quickly the Navara fills with water when bogged in a creek.

My main reason is for the cost saving and fun of the build.

A double DIN unit like the one you describe retails for $1200-2000. then you need oziexplorer maps, external hdd, SD cards. Mine will cost me $1200 complete with software, bluetooth, gps, OBD-ii (for vehicle diag and readouts), ipod, phone. I will have the added advatange of being able to run anything win 7 will run, Win CE doesn't cut it. mounting my 10.4" (not 7" as D-DIN unit feature) HDMI screen so as the screen can be adjusted to any angle in the front to avoid sunlight, unlike fixed screen in dash.

The PC i have is the size of 2 iphones sided-by-side, so will be able to be hidden almost anywhere. fit-PC2 Specifications – fit-PC2

Biscuits said:

My main reason is for the cost saving and fun of the build.

A double DIN unit like the one you describe retails for $1200-2000. then you need oziexplorer maps, external hdd, SD cards. Mine will cost me $1200 complete with software, bluetooth, gps, OBD-ii (for vehicle diag and readouts), ipod, phone. I will have the added advatange of being able to run anything win 7 will run, Win CE doesn't cut it. mounting my 10.4" (not 7" as D-DIN unit feature) HDMI screen so as the screen can be adjusted to any angle in the front to avoid sunlight, unlike fixed screen in dash.

The PC i have is the size of 2 iphones sided-by-side, so will be able to be hidden almost anywhere. fit-PC2 Specifications – fit-PC2

Click to expand...

Fair enough looks good, mine was half that price that you are mentioning but I agree on occasion I do get a bit of glare off the screen, although I find the screen is plenty big enough for me, I have all the hema offroad maps for all over australia on one sd card which stays in the unit. It looks like a good project though and it would be good to have a bit more functionality.