Anyone played with Carputers at all?

[24V Renshaw 0]

My next car project is going to be a "Jay Renshaw VW" version of BMW's I-drive system. Basically I want to have a central touch screen that controls everything in the car. I am going to base this around a Carputer and currently have 0 experience of this sort of thing, so I will be self teaching as I go along. Just wondered if anyone has done some carputer stuff yet?

 

Jay

[DaveVR6 0]

Been looking into this for a while, u can get a 7/8" touchscreen for just over a ton, that fixs perfect if you can move the heater matrix down...

 

Have seen pics (i think on the vwvortex site, trying to find thread) of a guy that has done an awesome install in teh states

[24V Renshaw 0]

I have seen quite a few about. I am planning on using a 7" touch screen in the TT dash, removing the climate control panel and stereo completely and controlling it all through the carputer ;)

 

Jay

[DaveVR6 0]

oops forgot bout your TT dash, what sort of software you thinnking of using for talking to the climate control etc?

 

Theres so much other stuff you could do as well, camera mounted in the rear and switch on reverse to flick the display to the camera, GPS, audio, all sorts of engine/jounery monitoring, bluetooth to phones etc..

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I can't remember the one my mate used in his A4 but it runs two 7" screens for his Apline F1 and a few other car bits, sat nav, thumb print reader, VAG-COM etc etc

 

One thing we did notice with it is Carputers need good ventilation or they overheat and crash frequently!

[24V Renshaw 0]

Well I have a couple of options. Basically hardwiring to the control unit and using a Paralell port to control it (switching as if you are pressing the buttons) or possibly via VAG-COM.

I plan to have everything controlled through it. Audio, Video, SAT-NAV, Vag-com, Internet, everything. I was looking at getting DVD player, satnav etc.. and I thought whats the point I might aswell build it all in one upgradeable unit...

 

Jay

[24V Renshaw 0]

One thing we did notice with it is Carputers need good ventilation or they overheat and crash frequently!

 

No worries I can duct some of the aircon air to it up behind the dash in the big space normally occupied by the airbag. :)

 

Jay

[DaveVR6 0]

You thinkin of mounting the pc/laptop/whatever in the dash, or to the boot?

[24V Renshaw 0]

Up behind the dash.

I am going to use a proper mini carputer.

I have tonnes of room behind the TT dash.

 

Jay

[24V Renshaw 0]

I am going to put USB connections in the glovebox and a DVD slot in there too all completely stealth.

 

Jay

[biggrim 0]

Oh Henny!

[Jim 2]

May wish to consider a Mini ITX based system (if you search for that on Google you'll get some information about that) as it has very lean power requirements, and doesn't generate an awful lot of heat - in fact the CPU doesn't even normally have a cooler on it! :)

[saysomestuff 0]

pm'd you with some info mate

 

EDIT - if anyone else wants it just ask, it's too long to post.

[Guest]

your a lunatic Jay :)

 

Jim, idd, alot of them have passive cooling. I would like to stick a fan on one if I had it mounted behind the dash though, just to be on the safe side

[chrishill 0]

just a thought but behind the dash might be a bit of a nightmare if something goes wrong and you need access. probably wont happen very often and you being you it'd probably only take you 20mins to whip the dash out ;)

[Lippy 0]

interesting, will follow with interest

[destructiv dave 0]

Check out this website http://www.mp3car.com, for more info and some ideas.

[Yandards 0]

Nice one Jay, leading from the front again..

 

Going to be more of a programming project rather than the install to get it all working though.

[Guest]

Going to be more of a programming project rather than the install to get it all working though.

 

idd, I'm sure you'll have no problem with the install, its getting things talking to each other that will be the main time waster

[24V Renshaw 0]

Yeah I know it will be a long process, but I am happy with the car and this is a project I can play with out of the car (in the warm ;) ) and learn a lot about.

Then when its all working and running properly I can install it.

 

As for it being up behind the dash. its only 4 screws to remove the TT glovebox then you have full access to everything behind it.

 

Jay

[Henny 0]

biggrim, you called? :lol:

 

Jay? I've been playing with this idea for about 2 years now! It's UBER cool if you can build the screen in neatly... 8)

 

I've got a old Toshiba Libretto which lives a docking station on my glovebox lid. Admittedly I have to have the glovebox open to use it, but it's wired into my GPS tracker to give me GPS navigation (the tracker has the standard GPS signal output via a serial port) I bought this a while back as I wanted to see if I could get XP to run on it (you can!) as it's only a Pentium 266, but it's a fully featured laptop, just the size of a VHS cassette! 8) I'm going to do a new install soon, using a touch screen and another laptop (P4 2GHZ) I have which has a broken screen...

 

IMHO, you're DEFINATELY better off basing any car-puter around a laptop... preferably one with a dead screen which you can pick up off ebay cheaply enough. The main advantage is that it'll have all the cooling stuff built in, and you'll be able to re-wire the lid switch so that it'll go into suspend mode when the drivers side door has been closed after the ignition is switched off, and automatically turn back on again once the ignition is turned on again... ;)

 

Power adaptors are cheaply available to convert your 12V car system into the correct voltage to charge up the laptop, and you're only ever going to be trickle charging the laptop while the engine's off, so you won't kill your battery over-night... ;)

 

Added advantages are the PCMCIA cards are cheaply available, and if you can get a high spec lappy with a dead screen, you're gonna get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DVD, CDR and the like as standard already in a nice small package...

 

I'll dig out a couple of links I have for some rather nice software (it's french, but translated well into English) which you can use as front end software for your carputer which makes using it a doddle via a touch screen and works with all the usual PC programs like Win-amp, Media player, Win DVD Autoroute etc...

 

drop me a pm if you want any more details... 8)

[ardandy 0]

Could install windows media centre on it. Being running MCE for nearly 2 years in my living room and its great.

 

I was planning on buying a second hand glove box and fitting a laptop in that, def easier! Might not know about cars but computers I can do pretty much anything with.

 

The biggest hurdle is getting stable software.

[PhatVR6 0]

does this mean you'll be be able to fix your car when it breaks just by turning it off and on again?

[Jim 2]

After applying a few patches, yes :)

[mbaker8v 0]

does this mean you'll be be able to fix your car when it breaks just by turning it off and on again?

 

Only after you have closed all the doors and windows though...... :lol: