PC in your C

[dinkus 10]

Anybody put a PC in their C?

 

I really want MP3's in my car and I can't be arsed with burning CD's all the time, so fitting some kind of hard drive would be good.

 

At the moment I've got the option of an ipod, or fitting one of these beasties somewhere http://www.ramms.co.uk/sitxmbds.htm you can get them to fit in the space of a head unit if needs be.

 

I'm thinking hook that up in the first aid kit place and plug it into an amp in the boot, with one of them LCD screen head unit size things in the dash. Need some kind of controller tho. hmm...

 

Any thoughts?

[Henny 0]

check this out... ;) 8)

 

Guess what's going in my car over the next few months when I get chance... ;) :D

 

http://users.skynet.be/media-car/index.html

 

You may need to sling that into google's translate facility to get it all to make sense, but you'll get the general idea from that site... 8)

[STORM 2 0]

didnt 'Skynet' take over the world in that Arnie film? :wink:

[dinkus 10]

I thought Skynet were the bad guys in Robocop? :)

 

I've seen a MkIV Golf with a PC behind the dash and a 13" TFT where the passenger airbag used to be, but I don't want to cut the car up to do it.

 

After thinking last night, I was thinking a Mini ITX mobo where the first aid kit goes, with a wi-fi card, then use an iPaQ to link to it with remote desktop to control it.... not sure how much cheap iPaQ's are tho... hmmm.

[dr_mat 0]

It'd be cheaper to use a custom-built mp3 storage/player device plugged into your existing ICE than to build a PC in. Less cool, admittedly...

Such as an ipod or whatever.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

You can buy hard disk headunits already....... but the advantage of the PC is VAG-COM on the move.

[dr_mat 0]

For the ultimate in in-car live system monitoring, how about bolting a small video camera under the bonnet, or on the suspension wishbone and having a small LCD in-car?

Perhaps hook this into a PC system, so you can VAG-COM, mp3 and watch the inside of the wheel and the suspension all at the same time..?

You can get wireless TV cameras about the size of a matchbox for about £35 now...

[dinkus 10]

yeah the ipod is the easiest and cheapest way to do it, but I have issues with anything Apple and it just doesn't satisfy the geek in me.

 

Now the mini wi-fi camera and VAG-COM thing sounds VERY cool :D :lol: Where can you get these aforementioned cameras? I've wanted to get some ip addressable cameras for a while, but when I last looked they were abotut £150 each.

 

Plus with this system I can use my proper DJ software that has a full on cataloguing system and can generate playlists based on a whole set of criteria. I'd also be able to haul the MP3's over to the iPAQ to listen to on the move.

 

If you were going to get really sad... err I mean cool, you could then use the wi-fi cameras to record movement around the car and catch anyone dinging your doors. Although that would mean the PC needs to run all the time, so you could get some battery drain issues.

[dr_mat 0]

The cheapest cams are not IP addressable - you'd need a PC with video capture card (which is essentially what an IP addressable cam IS!).

Have a scan around on ebay for wireless cctv cameras. Imported from HK for about £35-40. They work for a pretty good range, actually.

 

You will have a hard job powering a PC full time without the engine running, btw. A friend was forced to do it for a work project (admittedly with a full size PC AND a 15" CRT!), and the biggest problem was blowing fuses. A fully charged car battery would only last about an hour, too..

 

A 64Ah battery should supply enough current to keep a small PC running for around 60 hours tops though, at approx 200 watts, assuming 90%-ish efficiency in your power inverter and power supply etc etc.

[dinkus 10]

Ohh ok I thought you meant 802.11b camera's rather than general RF. Got me all excited for a bit there. For that price you might as well use USB web cams and run the cables through the car. Could stick a hub behind the dashboard and you'd get a better picture too.

 

As far as power goes, my plan was to hook up the ignition power to a serial port (not directly!!) to give the PC a hibernate signal, then when the ignition is turned back on the PC comes back to life without having to wait an eternity for it to boot. If you only have a few apps running it should be fairly stable, and you can always use the iPAQ to do a proper restart on it if needs be.

 

Being able to use the cameras as part of the security system would be nice, but I don't see any easy way of doing that at the moment. As you say, you would get 30hrs tops out of a battery and you don't really want to come back to your car to find a dead battery. You may be able to hook up some low power sensor to shut the PC down when the juice gets low, but sounds like too much effort to me.

 

I wonder how hard it is to make up those scrolling glass type covers for cameras like they have on F1 cars to keep them clean... :)

[Henny 0]

For the ultimate in in-car live system monitoring, how about bolting a small video camera under the bonnet, or on the suspension wishbone and having a small LCD in-car?

Perhaps hook this into a PC system, so you can VAG-COM, mp3 and watch the inside of the wheel and the suspension all at the same time..?

You can get wireless TV cameras about the size of a matchbox for about £35 now...

 

I've already got the camera in my car... and a wireless one in my R/C car so I can drive it from the comfort of my car and watch where it's going on the TV screen! 8) ;) :lol:

[h100vw 0]

I've already got the camera in my car... and a wireless one in my R/C car so I can drive it from the comfort of my car and watch where it's going on the TV screen! 8) ;) :lol:

 

Too much time and money :roll: :wink:

Get yourself married to prevent both of the above. :mrgreen:

 

Gavin

[Henny 0]

quick tip:

 

Base the PC around a mobo which has a "suspend to ram" function in the bios... ;) you can then wire a small relay onto the head unit's power aerial/aux power outlet which will turn off the PC when you turn off the head unit which will drop the power consumption to almost nothing (around 150mAh IIRC) and it'll switch back on in around 10 seconds too when you turn on the head unit... 8)

 

Gav? :P :P

[h100vw 0]

:lol:

[Sanj 0]

This is exactly what I was going to do, I've got the mini spy cam and now I'm lookign to build a PC into my car, would it not be eaiser to just remap an XBox considering its a PC platform, stick larger harddrive into it and there you have it!! :wink: Any thoughts??

[insomniak 0]

why not mod an x-box or PS2 both can be made to cope with MP3's tho its probaly easier with the xbox

[Henny 0]

why not mod an x-box or PS2 both can be made to cope with MP3's tho its probaly easier with the xbox

 

'cos X-box/PS2 won't do all the things I want it to do without serious modifications.... putting together a cheap PC is something I can do in a few minutes with stuff I've already got kicking around at home! ;) :lol:

[dinkus 10]

Yeah, like Henny said, a PC is much easier to cobble together. Then you can get emulators and get it to run X-BOX AND PS2 games and have room to spare to run every single NES game ever made too :)

[insomniak 0]

how about this -

http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/3688/

[dinkus 10]

yeah I was thinking some kind of mini ITX based system, not sure exactly what, but I'll see what will fit.

[insomniak 0]

from the same site - http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/ice-unit/

[dinkus 10]

sweet, I shall read that later.

 

I want mine as a stealth install with no hacking of beloved Corrado tho :)

[SoundsAlarming 0]

karpc.com

[Hans G60.nl 0]

well i got something.... you guys would really like... carputer ...

 

http://www.slook.nl/corrado/main_frames ... _id=468917

 

pics thumbnailed-vr6storm

 

for the rest... follow the link to the dutch corrado forum !

[chris CORRADO 0]

i think the funniest thing in the first picture is that HUGE roll of duck tape on the front seat....!!!! LOL we know how it's all held together..... :lol: