CarPCs?

Stein

Stein

Stein
How many people would be interested in an in-car computer if I was able to start making them?

How much would you be willing to pay?

What features would you want at those prices? (GPS, touchscreen, hard-drive space, backup-cam, etc)

I was trying to design an energy-efficient media center/home-theater PC, and I realized that it was small enough to fit in a glove box or a small enclosure the size of a car amp. I'll be custom-building the case/enclosure for the system as well. What should it look like? I can make it out of all-acrylic or steel, but probably not aluminum.

What do you guys think?

 
The $900 (second down) is sort of what I'm doing, only the parts I've picked out look higher quality.

I think I can do a 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 4gb of DDR2 ram, 32gb Solid State (flash) drive, 7" touch-screen, and a slot-load DVD burner for like $6-800.

edit: if I do 2gb of DDR2, 16GB SSD, and a normal DVD drive (drawer instead of slot-load), I think I can take $100 off.

 
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Well the SSDs are already about the size of a compact flash card so going laptop sized would actually be bigger and require more energy.

I also don't know how easy it will be to find a 40gb SSD, as they're generally 2^x GB (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64GB etc).

The 64GB SSDs are twice the cost of the 32GB SSDs though. And before you ask, all of the capacities that are not 2^x (like 40gb) are more expensive than the next-highest 2^x size.

Like a 48GB drive is $175 whereas the 64GB drive is only $150.

 
i'd thought of getting a cheap/used laptop and just running it to a 7" touchscreen

power and audio would be the main issues

 
I'm also trying to figure out the best way to get SPDIF to RCA (or is there a better plug I should use?).

SPDIF (analog or digital) can handle up to 7.1 channels, as can HDMI (although HDMI won't be used in the car
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These would be smaller than a laptop shell though, being about 6x6x2-4"

 
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yeah, but more expensive than an ebay special. like "6 month old toshiba with cracked lcd" kind of ebay special

 
I've always been interested in possibly building one of these ... let me know if you actually get around to it!

 
Well I'll only get around to it if there is definite interest. I may build one as a media center with the ability to be brought into the car (all I would need to do is figure out a way to hook it up to power, I believe the motherboard takes 19V)

 
I have been thinking of making one for a while now. I actually had a prototype system running. I had an old laptop with a broken battery, no screen or keyboard for my mobo. I was using a 10" touch screen with GPS and stuff. It was kinda cool, but I didn't have a huge amount of use for it. (besides it was a hack job...)

For a hard drive I was using a 120GB laptop drive, because it was the closest hard drive in my reach... I have pretty much everything ranging from 1 to 160GB laptop... Audio I was running to a splitter I made to my radio. I have an aftermarket head unit.

I really want to build one out of an atom based pico ITX board. Most of these boards run on the regular 12v, 5v, 3.3v power supply. You can get 12v power supplies for using in cars. (or you can make them if you have the parts, it is actually pretty easy)

I already have a 30GB iPod mounted in my car, and music is the main thing I'd use a PC for. The second thing I'd use it for is navigation, and I always carry my n810 in my pocket. And since that has GPS I just stick it in the mount and I have navigation. So until I have time for another project, carPC isn't something I really need.

 
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i'd run straight up itunes with giant font. and i'd tether my iphone for data anywhere. i think it'd be sick to be able to download an album in the middle of a road trip or something. mobile email? hell it would be right on my dash

 
^^ well ya, having 3G would be a good reason to have a carPC. If I had 3G service I would probably have made my last installation more permanent.

 
The big thing I would use is the ability to be tied to my obd2 for tuning and clearing code changing maps.

 
That's a sick idea, I can't believe I didn't think about that
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987687, or any other linux users for that matter, do you have any idea how easy it will be to get open-source tuning software to run on linux?

I'm off to google to try to figure it out myself.

edit: it seems there's a program called Freediag that looks good, but then again I have no idea what I'm looking for (and it is command-based, which is not good if you want to be able to reach over and hit some buttons from the driver's seat).

edit again: nGhost, which I haven't read much on yet but it looks like a whole linux distro, seems to have OBDII and media capabilities!

 
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I have an older windows laptop that I could use for this. 80g hdd, screen is broken, and the battery doesn't hold a charge very long. I guess all I'd need is a keyboard and touch screen right? What would you guys do for power and such?

 
Well, you could either use a 12V DC to 115V (that voltage is correct, right?) AC adapter, find a 12V car adapter/PSU for your laptop, or run a line to your fuse box for it.

 
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