In Car Computer

[Shmed]

Hey Everyone,
Sat at work trying to make my millions, and have priced this up. Just doing some market research.

Micro computer in the car to play music, DVD's, PC games, to do work/surf net whilst driving , or in jams, as a Sat Nav system with a 7" TFT touchscreen, 80GB HD, 256MB Ram, GPS Receiver and GB Infomap software, Windows XP. Also can be configured to shutdown/stanby/hibernate when ignition is turned on/off, or switch on periphery devices (such as screen or amps) when PC power on.

Looking at prices in the region of £900-£1000 fitted, but am trying to scope whether it's worth it. If response is positive I'm gonna fit one in my own car, and will get parts fabricated for professional install. Will post pics when I get round to it (when it's warmer).









Would be available for less without installation, but am testing the water first.

[Driftlimits Performance]

Micro computer in the car to play music, DVD's, PC games, to do work/surf net whilst driving , or in jams, as a Sat Nav system with a 7" TFT touchscreen, 80GB HD, 256MB Ram

Sounds a little like a modified xbox! I'm sticking one in mine, loadsa cool tricks, linux etc. Stick a 120GB hd.

How would you connect to the net on the move? Surely not through a mobile phone? £££

[MegatronUK]

Sounds a little like a modified xbox! I'm sticking one in mine, loadsa cool tricks, linux etc. Stick a 120GB hd.

How would you connect to the net on the move? Surely not through a mobile phone? £££

Xbox-Linux, in-car? I was the first to do that ... was in Edge magazine, on Slashdot and all sorts... here... have a look: http://www.target-earth.net/pn/html/ind ... 6ce2c84851

My new setup in the Supra has ditched the Xbox and gone with a mini 'Espresso' PC... 900MHz Via cpu, sound, svideo, 40gb 2.5" drive, usb etc.. Its the size of a small paperback. All controlled with a wireless remote control - it really does work fantastically. I'll try and get some pics soon.

[Driftlimits Performance]

I was the first to do that

[Mr.Burns] Excellent [/Mr.Burns]

You can help me out then! lol. please!
I've got xbox and a mod chip. Nearly working, got a bios on there but apparently I need a dashboard to backup games etc. Then I came across this linux jobby. Now, I'm not all that clever at this stuff and only read a little on it, so if you could shout me in the right direction that would be sweet!

This modchip I have should enables me to play any region disc, backup games (once I've got the dashboard) and hopefully network it to the pc. what benefits would I gain if I had linux on there? And I still want to be-able to play xbox games.

Gonna have a looky at that link....

If the infos really good I throw you some imoc stickers!

[MegatronUK]

You can still play games with linux installed on the xbox. I've got a 40gb disc.... Linux is installed in the last 32gb so that it does not interfere with the first 8Gb that the xbox and games use.

I don't know about backing up games on the xbox - never done it. But it works fine. One point, if you want to use xbox live (i know, its going in a car!) wire a switch up so that you can turn the modchip off.

Basically, the benefits of installing Linux are, well, you can do anything you can normally do with linux, simple as that! I had mine really cut down so that it had booted into the media gui i was using (freevo) in about 40 seconds. From there i could play games, videos, music etc... all with one pad and without rebooting or having to load any other apps up.

[Shmed]

How would you connect to the net on the move? Surely not through a mobile phone? £££

Was thinking in the way that laptops do, through the 3G cards. Agreed it would be costly, but it wouldn't be for downloading p0rn etc. Just to resolve those 'who did this song' arguments

Like I say, it's just a theory at the minute, I'm sure that would be one crease to iron out. Cheers though, the more ideas and views the better the product!!

Keep 'em coming!

That looks pretty impressive Megatron, how much did it all set you back??

[MegatronUK]

The screen was the top end Pioneer AV unit when I got it a couple of years ago.... its dropped a few notches down the list now... but was £899 list when I got it... got it from Hendon Car Audio for around £670.

The Xbox was £150.. plus £20 for the chip, which i soldered myself, and a spare 40gb IBM disk I had. That was the old setup, powered by a 300W invertor and a remote switching wire to the switch on the front of the xbox (top left, and bottom right pins shorted)

The new setup uses the Espresso mini PC... £150 with 64mb and 4gb disk. I got a 256mb dimm (£50) and a 40gb laptop drive (£50). Its running a VERY small isntall of Win XP, just for the better suspend/hibernate features that XP has. The wireless remote was £18... from digitalcar.co.uk forums. To be honest, its a much nicer setup than the Xbox - it runs from a small laptop 12v supply, so no nasty invertor... its tiny and small.

The other bits and pieces still use the Pioneer av head unit (AVHP6400), but with an extra Pioneer MEHP9000 minidisc/slot cd head unit in the second DIN slot below.... a 12 disc CDXP1250 Pioneer changer, two Infinity Reference 7502 amplifiers feeding 655cs Reference components up front and 6502 Reference coaxials in the back. The PC just connects to the aux-in of the av head unit to display and via a good gauge stereo jack to phono cable for sound.

Everything mixes through the av head unit, and through the amps to the speakers. No speakers are driven directly and all volume is controlled by the rotary control on the front.

Sound sweet

btw.. Paul, you don't happen to work at Malvern, do you?

[Shmed]

That makes for a very impressive system, is the headunit touchscreen or does the remote work as mouse? Do you not have the X-Box fitted anymore then? The power supply I was looking at using is a DC-DC unit with conditioning to prevent the unit switching off when datrting car etc. Quite costly, but allows ignition controlled start up.

btw I don't work in Malvern, I live in Bromsgrove but work in Kingswinford (Dudley). Why? You seen a white MR in Malvern?

[MegatronUK]

The headunit predates sensible priced touchscreens... they were all £1500+ when I first put the system together.

Yeah, I've removed the the Xbox and power invertor... they take up too much space - at the moment it in my bedroom with an extra long joypad extension cable The invertor was quite neat in that it held enough juice to keep the Xbox powered while you cranked.

The mini pc is much better in that the laptop psu wires straight into the battery for a 12v feed... no convertors to mess around with.

The remote can be mapped to almost anything with a piece of software called 'girder'. But the front end I use (frodoplayer) can be used without a mouse - I have all the features mapped to a single button. It's quite intuitive, and you don't have to look at the screen or controller to use it

I lived in Malvern for a year and then Worcester for a couple of years and often saw a white MR2 buzzing around were I worked (DERA/Qinetiq)... thought it may have been yours.

[Shmed]

Nah, only had mine for 8 months. Cheers for the ideas, will research further. I was thinking of just using the XP front end and touchscreen with a wireless keyboad detachable from the glovebox flap and perhaps a trackball locatred somewhere.

[MegatronUK]

The best thing I can suggest is to try and get a setup where it is as simple as possible to control - if it needs a keyboard, mouse, joypad etc... forget it. Either touchscreen-only or trackpad-only, with voice input for text, or a single remote controller. I think thats the way to go, tbh.

[Shmed]

Ahh, hadn't thought abaout voice recognition, then again, with road noise and the likes, it can get quite frustrating, especially with less than perfect elocution.
May stick with just touch screen, or some kind of PDA/ tablet PC input system with stylus. Saw a wireless mini keyboard with built in trackball which could work, but I can't find one in England.

Do you know if you have to pay a subscription with APNA?? GPS receivers?