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Complete PC instead of a Car Stereo
An anonymous reader submitted linked to a PC that fits in your
car stereo slot. It's a bit spendy at $1k, but its got CD/DVD, PCMCIA, USB,
Keyboard, Mic, Headphones, VGA, more. And besides being
powered by your car, it also has built in GPS. Lots of interesting
hacking ideas here for people who prefer to spend more time in their
cars then me ;)
Although the Empeg (now known as Rio Car) isn't Intel-based, it runs on a decently powered StrongARM CPU, and includes a nice screen as well. Runs Linux, and I believe is somewhat hackable.
Since they've stopped production, they're selling off the last ones really cheap - $399 for 60GB version. If you want a nice, hackable in-car computer to hack around with you might want to snap one of these up before they're all gone.
You could try to do it yourself if you dare follow this link or in spanish It's simple a conversion from car 12v to the voltage needed by the mainboard. (no monitor yet).
I have a computer in my car.
No display, but it's got plenty of music. I got a cheap 300w Power Inverter for something like $50 from Wal Mart. Plugs into the cigarette lighter.
From there, I have a P166 in a tiny little case under the passenger seat plugged into the inverter. The computer has a network card and a Sound Blaster Awe64. Line Out from the sound card runs to a Ground Loop Isolator (to eliminate the interference buzz from the inverter, $14 at Radio Shack), and from there, connects to my car's factory radio via one of those CD-Player Cassette adapters.
The computer has no display, and is controlled via PS/2 keypad. Around 370 mp3-format songs are loaded on the Western Digital hard drive, which has proven remarkably hardy in all kinds of driving conditions. It also has a built-in NIC, so I can upload new songs.
Cost? About $200. (Computer was around $70, wires - $20, inverter - $50, keypad - $10, GLI - $15, Sound Blaster - $10, Cassette Adapter - $3.) Much cheaper than the above novelty, and much more flexible and expandable.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
...and save your stereo slot.
My stereo slot is very very important to me since I like really really loud music. But I also wanted a computer in my car so that I can have mp3's piped through my stereo. I have the World's Smallest PC with it's audio output going into my car stereo. As a screen I am using a 5" LCD screen very sloppily mounted in the passenger side sun visor. With a happy hacker keyboard and a wireless trackball... I don't need to leave my car.
It's "There're", not "There's". There's would be There is. ;)
:)
But you're correct, he is pretty retarded
It's very similiar to the non-commercial open-source dashpc project. The link is: dashpc.com. It's been slashdotted before. I think it was called "dashboard linux". The code for it was just submitted to sourceforge recently.
Something about this "commercial" vehiclepc seems very fishy though...
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
This does seem pretty neat, if used for things like Police cars, ambulances, etc. For regular people though, I just see it as yet another way to cause an accident. Cell phones are bad enough...
They mention using navigation software and GPS. This pretty much leaves Linux out unless there is a good navigation package for Linux of which I am unaware (and I've looked long and hard, beleive me).
The closest I've been able to come is using older versions of Delorme's MapNGo under Wine, but that is still rather twitchy.
I've pestered Delorme to make a port, but they don't seem interested.
www.eFax.com are spammers
This is good. Previously, the best commercial computer-in-car setup was the Q-PC.
Otherwise, many people have just hacked an old PC to work in their trunk or under the passenger's seat, see MP3Car's registry.
Hopefully my car will be on there soon. I'm going to try straping a wireless keyboard around my neck, and type with my right hand with a half Qwerty setup, with sound output only, for safety's sake. There's already software written for this setup-- visually impared people have to work with this type of setup every day.
Specs (truncated)
128MB SDRAM; Upgradable to 256MB
~One 144pin DIMM slot for PC100/PC133 SDRAM
~10GB UDMA hard drive
~24X Max. CD-ROM drive ( swap for dvd / cd-rw )
~56k modem & 10/100 ethernet
~Intel 82810E built-in full motion video accelerator w/ 4MB shared video memory
~Supports 1280 x 1024 pixels resolution at 24bit color
~S-Video / RCA composite Out ports
~Speakers and Audio: Built-in 16-bit stereo (Sound Blaster / Adlib compatible)
~Built-in speaker
~microphone in / line out port
~IrDA
~Peripheral Connections: Two USB, one 9-pin serial port, one 25 pin parallel port (EPP / ECP) PS/2 mouse & keyboard ports
~Dimensions: 157mm x 146mm x 45mm (6.18" x 5.75" x 1.77") & approx. 950g (2 lbs)
* One Year Manufacturer Warranty
* No Operating System Included
1) The OBD-II computer system that manages the engine does have great troublecode information. However, it's stored as a code which is not human-readable. There is a dongle and software called "AutoTAP" that will let you see what the OBD-II system is doing in real time, but that requires a laptop or other PC to be hooked to the car. The AutoTAP also allows the operator to upload new ignition timing and injector parameters, as well as transmission shift points, to further tune the car's performance.
2) The car has an onboard display in the dash that displays:
Oil Life in % of estimated life
Tire Pressure Warnings
Various fluid level warnings
Fuel mileage and estimated range-to-empty
3) No firewire. :(
4) No voice control, but it does have steering wheel mounted controls for the stereo which also feed into: THE HUD.
5) Yes, the car has a Heads-Up-Display. This is my favorite part. It displays current MPH, along with blinker status, Hibeam indicator, and fuel warnings. When you hit one of the buttons on the steering wheel to control the stereo, the HUD displays what you're doing - I love being able to change the radio station without having to take my eyes off the road.
6) No alarm tiein, other than the factory security system.
I dig the car - it's fun to drive, has lots of room, gets decent mileage, and has lots of geektoys. I'm working out how to interface an old laptop into it so I can have MP3 and other multimedia tied into it. I don't want to lose the HUD functionality - it's one of my favorite features. Now, if some manufacturer would figure out that all of these features are what people want...
I have built two computers, one for myself and the other one for a friend.
Regular Case with inverter/300watt
Garmin Trakpac 35
An Analog LCD with Case. http://www.flat-panel.com
Wireless Keyboad with the mouse built-in.
DVD with Sound Blaster 16. Manual switch form
the car deck to the sound blaster. No ground loops.
Creative Labs DVD hardware decoder for the DVD movies.
Perfect Setup........