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Car Pc!!!

davil

Myself and a friend are building a PC into his Mazda 6.
He requires GPS as he travels around to sites a lot with his job. Obviously he wanted MP3 functionality (who doesn't). We thought about it and we're going to put in WIFI functionality too so that he can pull up outside his house and download the latest weather reports, RSS feeds, podcasts, you name it.
Also it'll be handy if he's ever near a WIFI area he can use it to send emails, browse the web etc. etc. - again the possibilites are endless!!!!

I work in I.T. and I do a lot of web application programming in PHP and a bit of VB here and there, vbs, batch scripting etc. so I'm going to write a custom GUI and implement voice recognition and text-to-speech. Also we intend to integrate a mobile phone either via bluetooth or ripping one apart and building it into the project. We're gonna put a large antenna / maybe more than one on the back of his car - any thoughts on radio antenna licensing etc.?? anyone out there have any previous experience with radio licensing or problems inherent please give us a shout.

We've already decided we need NAVTEQ maps for the GPS after a lot of research by Gary.

We know it's a lot to take on but it's a good hobby for the two of us.

Please check out the blog at
http://car-pc-ireland.blogspot.com/
It's not exactly full of info at the minute as we are very busy with work etc.

Please feel free to comment on any aspect.

Anyway that's just a quick note about it.... there's so much more brainstroming we have done and some great ideas came out of it but I'll post as much as possible over the coming weeks.

Please take a look.

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Comments

DirkVoodoo

Sounds interesting.

And if they get this "Dublin wireless" thing going in a few years, PCs in cars wud be pretty handy.

Shame its a mazda 6 tho!:D

Anti

Deadly, have seen this on alot of the bigger forums like andantech and toms and extremeprometia. But have not seen one with a custom GUI or text to speach.

Good luck with the project, and if your stuck on anything feel free to come back and ask.

davil

Thanks lads... I'll keep you posted....

Oh and about Mazda 6 - it could be worse... I have NO car.... not yet anyways. but then I'll be getting some heap of junk soon, and putting in a similar system. Sure subscribe to the blog if yiz get a chance.... the more subscribers the more chance there is that I'll actually put any info up on it.

Thanks again

Darth Maul

I know someone selling a Karputer like this http://www.karputer.co.uk/karputer.php?page=icepac
complete with screen and GPS, not sure what he is looking for it.
but could find out??

davil

If you check our blog you'll notice that we have already bought all the parts, including a 10.4" touch screen. also the specs are far superior. But thanks all the same

po0k

Just after getting insured myself, have a miniITX board that just needs a car-rated dc-dc psu and I'm sorted.
Thinking Free or OpenBSD and wiffie too.

AdMMM

You're going to be suspending the Hard drive with elastic bands???!!!!

Hal1

Try this site, it has all sorts of in car equipment and in car pc's.

gline

have a car pc myself, pentium m based running vista.

its not bad, got gps, touchscreen + 15" tft for the back seats, external hdd for the mp3'z and videos and bluetooth keyboard with built in trackball etc

the worst part of installation is the wiring

i wouldnt worry about knocks and bumps, im using a Sumicon rig and it is fine, can handle the bumps. also would you now opt for dvdrw drive??

davil

|.Murderer.| wrote:

You're going to be suspending the Hard drive with elastic bands???!!!!

nah we decided against that in the long run after Gary did a bit of research on the shocks that a laptop HDD can take. It's now mounted in the box on rubber grommets or whatever you call them.

davil

Hal1 wrote:

Try this site, it has all sorts of in car equipment and in car pc's.

hardly custom if you don't make it yourself ;-)

aidan_walsh

This is a project I have considered taking on myself in the future (i.e when I get a car

), and while I had also initially thought Wifi like yourself, I began to think about a 3G PCMCIA datacard instead. It removes the reliance on being in a Wifi hotspot and should still provide more than adequete speed for what you would want if you're pulling mainly XML data and occasional audio. Of course, this will come with subscription charges, and the practicality is pretty much dependant on how often he is likely to be at a hotspot he can use.

davil

aidan_walsh wrote:

Of course, this will come with subscription charges, and the practicality is pretty much dependant on how often he is likely to be at a hotspot he can use.

Yeah that's the problem. For a start, 3g is just that bit too costly for the time being. and to be honest he'll be down the backroads and bogs of beyond... the land where time has forgotten. Dublin really isn't going to feature much. nor Drogheda even. so 3G is a non runner straight away. The wifi is mostly for transferring stuff from home. I'm setting up an automatic system that knows when he pulls up in the driveway and immediately starts transferring RSS feeds, podcasts etc. When it's done the car PC will shut itself down. It's as simple as that. plus when he's in free hotspot areas it will work fine. Also I hope to implement an email server so that the PC sends as much data as possible as it is passing WIFI points and when our email server has a full intact email it sends it on. Obviously this is ambitious if not impossible but that's the plan anyhow. Don't forget voice recognition so he can dictate emails on the run.

AlmightyCushion

Cool idea. Must keep an eye on this one.

davil

New images of custom housing online now!

davil

Please check the site again for new pics of the screen and its custom mounting etc..

http://car-pc-ireland.blogspot.com

Anti

How do you find the temps for the cpu in a woden box?

davil

It stays at around 33 degrees I'm told.
With a dedicated stress test (8 hours) it never went over 40.
Even on a hot day it doesn't go up too high.

The system temp can be up to 35 degrees
On the day of the stress test the system temp was 41 degrees.

unseen

Nice job!

One suggestion only. Change the sata hard disk with a Compact flash disk card+ide adapter or solid state disk if you have big wallet. 4gb CF costs ~50euros. It will be slower BUT you wont have corrupted data in the near future. The disks we use at our home pc's is not designed for use in a car that travels! They have moving parts and they are sensitive to chuckholes!

Good luck

davil

Yes we had thought about that but just decided against it because of the space a HDD would give for MP3s etc. It has been fine for months now with the rubber bushings and to be honest Gary has no sensitive info on it so if it fails, it fails. I already have an 8GB Compactflash card that I'm not using so if it does fail I can always give him that and he can get the adapter. Thanks for the advice though. Any suggestions are always welcome.