Handling Systems Exposed to Extreme Temperatures?

NeoMagick asks: "I live in a rural town in the Pacific Northwest, and I'll soon be picking up a Shuttle system which will get mounted in the trunk of my car, and patched into probably an Alpine or Pyle in-dash LCD panel. This last week temperatures have gotten up to 105degF, and have been known to get to -10degF in the winters. I'm wondering if any /.ers have had issues with computers in cars in such extreme temperatures (overheating? freezing?), and if so what they did to solve such problems."

Comments

Electronic equipment in more extremes

[GoRK]

You think your car can get hot? Try trying to run a switch/router/etc in a metal enclosure 200 feet up on a grain elevator in the texas panhandle. 75% of the year, the metal will be either too hot to touch or have about 1" of ice coating it. Generally the cold is not a problem as the components (as long as they dont actually stop running) keep everything warm enough not to have any low-temp problems. The heat is another story.

Since the box must be sealed to the weather, we have to use heat exchangers -- they are devices that mount through the sidewall of the box. They come in varietys that range from what amounts to huge peltiers when air cannot possibly be exchanged all the way down to what amounts to very tiny split system air conditioners. They're fairly expensive to run when it gets really hot, but they will cool the inside.

The main problem you're going to have in your car is the initial startup of your electronics. Your trunk is going to have no love from your car's climate control systems. Hence if it's 110 or -20 degrees outside and your car sits out for 8 hours while you are at work, *everything* in the trunk will reach the ambient temp. So, you might have to pre-heat your computer case in the winter or pre-cool it in the summer even before starting.

shutting down?

[paradesign]

do you have to remember to shut down the stystem everytime you shut off the car. it could get annoying if every time you had to wait 30 sec to fully kill vehicle power.

on the other hand, if it could run with out the ignition being on, how fast would it drain the battery?

would there be any way to write a script that automaticly shuts down correcctly the system when you shut off the car. I know there are systems for turbos that do a simmilar thing. when you shut down a turbo automobile, especially if you have been driving hard, you are supposed to let the engine idle for 2-5 minutes before killing power. this is to let the hot oil out of the turbo and let every thing cool down properly. there aare turbo timers that continue to run your engine for a desired length of time without a key in the ignition, shutting it off for you. this lets you get out of your car and get on with your day without waiting around for your turbo.

could a similar system be adapted to shut down your automotive pc? how do people deal with this now?

i am interested in doing something similar now, and the shut down prodedure is my main concern.