Slashdot Mirror
Install An Xbox/Linux Media System In Your Car
AltGrendel writes "Bored during those rush-hour traffic jams? An enterprising UK geek has installed an Xbox/Linux system in his car. With a mod chip, Freevo, a LogiTech Wingman, and a 40 gig hard drive, he has access to music, video, and games during drive time. Details and pictures are here."
And we thought cell phones were bad. Just wait 'till we all have full multimedia systems in our cars.
Other than to just do it, what's the point?
For most people, these entertainment systems in cars seem useless. I don't know about you, but I don't hang out in my car. There are much more comfortable places to be. So, if I'm driving, what good is an X-Box?
For parents, it might make sense, to keep the kids busy. Other than that, it's just more geekiness for geekiness' sake (not that that's really bad, it's just useless). Unless you're a showy bitch with a ridiculous stereo and shiny wheels, then it's a genetic defect.
Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
Because if he's playing while driving, he's going to need it.
How the hell did you mod the steering wheel to the passenger's side... details man details!!!
Those things are perfect $200 media servers. Even if it dies early from the hostile environment of a car, they are cheap to replace.
How the heck can he drive that thing?
mirror
The subject says it all...
...
I don't think it is useful at all to be able to
watch a movie while you are driving
... a way to use his car's steering wheel for racing games, and a way to make his windshield the TV/monitor screen. I hope when he does this, he will remember a cutoff switch, so he doesn't go barreling down the highway at 200 kph, as if he were being chased by the police, or something.
"Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
I thought haveing cell phones were bad, but now I have to drive next to a guy thats trying to get a frag in Halo.
...and claim the site is slashdotted, at least make sure it is slashdotted.
A poor unimaginative troll.
I put up a mirror.
before it get's /.'ed
How do I put it up as a bitTorrent now??
I can gzip into a single file but I don't know how to start it up for bitTorrent. I have BT and know how to download torrents..
Let's beat the rush and torrent sites in the future..
He is a wreck waiting to happen!
but then realised how cumbersome the setup is. Anything short of a custom LCD driver and navigation buttons is terribly unnecessary, in my humble opinion. Commercial solutions, even for MP3 stuff, are preferred by myself.
He lives in the UK. They drive on the other side of the road (from places like the US and Canada) and their steering wheels are on the other side of the car (from places again like the US and Canada).
"Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
system CRASH! ;-)
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
It's not like the X-Box is small, for starters. I can put together a much smaller system from parts.
Heck, I could conceivably make a decent and very small sound system out of a Zaurus.
And best of all, Microsoft doesn't get one cent from me.
Let me get this straight - you can play video games, watch movies and listen to CD's while driving but you may NOT use the phone?
why play Wreckless on Xbox when you can do it in real life?
This site is pretty light on details. I have seen more in depth explantions on HOWTO bake a cake. If this guy did this himself, he must have been way to tired or un-motivated to document any of it.
A damn cool project though. I'll bet MS would be proud to see thier XBOX used in such a versitle way. They should get some bright ideas from this.
Has anyone compared this to a broadly equivalent mini-itx setup, in cost or spec? It just seems that an xbox probably has some unnecessary systems...
Friends with whom I installed my first LCD and keypad-driven in-car MP3 player were really impressed at the time, but it was considerable work, and there was lots of software tweaking involved.
With Freevo's help, and some off the shelf components, this guy has a whole different level of cool going on without significantly more work.
When people point and look and ask questions, they're going ask what software it's running, and they're going to hear Linux. In the mindspace of youth, it's cool stuff like this that competes with all the fluff in WinXP (it really is pretty), and challenges the assumption as to which is cooler. Projects like this will win us more teenage users than Clippy could ever hope to.
Kudos John.
I have the entire site gzipped into a single 5.1meg file.
Where can I upload it for someone to mirror or torrent??
I am not setup to run a torrent server..
It's amazing how he moved the wheel to the other seat so that when you are in the drivers seat, you have your hands free to play games. very nice.
He drives with a stick shift. Does he have a third arm or something?
Car entertainment centers are bad news...
My cousin had a in car DVD player in his Audi A4, and he greatly regrets this purchase. While driving on the highway during a sunday afternoon he was momentarily distracted by a fight scene in the latest Vin Deisel flick and in that split second his car hit another.
After several surgeries he has regained his normal functions (his left arm was severely injured) but his car was completely destroyed. He has vowed to never install an entertainment system again and his new bmw 330i simply has a standard cd player.
If this is the kind of destruction a in-dash dvd player can cause I would hate to know what kind of horrible accidents will happen due to xbox gaming or linux core dumps distracting one's driving!
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Now you can both play F1-sims AND drive IRL at the same time!
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
GameTab - Game Reviews Compilation Site
Here's a picture of Mr Goat's car.
Please contact Mr Goat if you'd like your exhaust pipe stretched to this diameter. He will also install an X-Box/Linux media system.
...for articles like this one. 'Cause whenever one of my friends accuses me of being a computer/video game/music/whatever geek, I send him or her the link to such an article. Works every time! :) Even though they say that it's pretty geeky just to know about stuff like this...
:)
Go-go Gadgetto-XBox!
-- Power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
I think they drive on the right, along with the rest of Europe. Can't tell for certain, never been there myself.
When you rear end me, I WILL sue you, you inconsiderate moron.
HAHAHA! Very imaginative response. Somebody, please mod this one up. C'mon, I'm burning karma on this request...
Here are two mirrors as I'm sure this photo-heavy site will start suffering soon:
Mirror One
Mirror Two
"I filter at +6, and have yet to miss out on an important comment." (#822545)
I mean, it sounds geeky, until you realize the only thing special about this is the fact that he's running Linux on the xbox. The in-dash screen is DESIGNED to be hooked up to an Xbox (or PS2, or Gamecube, or whatever else you have.) In other words, it's not even a clever hack, the guy just bought some rather expensive car stereo equipment and linked it together in the way the manufacturer recommends. And I can run Linux in my car on a Zaurus anyway. Not too special.
Libretto cost me $450. And the fact that it hibernates perfectly using nothing more than the bios makes it perfect for the car (you can leave it running, if a short stop, or just hibernate it and you come back up with the same song that you left with in the playlist.)
Windowmaker, a couple of custom hotkeys, and a few little custom scripts make it all work quite well. And with the wireless card, it also makes a swank kismet stumbler.
As it's going to get pounded, here's a mirror
in car entertainment centers don't kill people. Morons who try and watch movies while driving kill people.
The same moron will die when he tries use WAP to buy a book from Amazon while cruising the Autobahn at 120
Honestly though, if your "cousin" had died while doing this, i'd recm'd you submit his story here. I'd sure vote for him.
-malakai
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
It would rock if lane-splitting was legal in more states.
Dude, the traffic situation in London seriously sucks for everyone. Just becuase somebody can't afford to move closer to work does not make him a "numpty" (whatever that is). There are lots of reasons people don't have a choice but to suffer through the situation they are in, this guy is just making the situation a little more enjoyable.
Unless you know this guy personally and can definitivley say that he has another option available to him, you can't go slingning mud in his direction.
this certainly much easier and cheaper than buying a mp3 deck for your car!
but wait, that wouldn't involve linux, casemodding or car boxen, you know, nerdman's kryptonite.
He could have easily afforded one for the amount he spent on this POS "entertainment system"
You mean those minivan commercials with Bugs Bunny showing the benefits of the "new" model of minivan--with the built-in LCD DVD player (you know, for the kids) LIED to us?
SHOCK!
Now maybe they can mod up a remote control so you can operate your now hidden HVAC controls....or is there a linux chipset for that?
"he has access to music, video, and games during drive time."
I hope he doesn't plan on watching many videos or playing many games while driving.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Basically, what you have to do, is create the torrent and then "download it" over the files... Bittorrent will realize the files are complete, and it will seed without downloading obviously...
I haven't found any linux software to generate the torrents...
You can use MakeTorrent for windows...
I forgot to mention that you don't need to zip a file, there can be 1 torrent for multiple files..
at first i just thought it was another lin geek taking it too far, but it actually looks pretty sweet.
however isn't it illegal to have a screen in the front capable of playing video? i thought that stuff was only allowed in the back due to driver distractions
I mean having a monitor is OK, but HUD, that would ROCK!
And just think about once you get past having the necassary stuff on the HUD, and get into the simulated effects.
Yep, X-Box is OK, but I want a HUD, with Falcon 4.0 installed.
You know you're a geek if you've ever replied to a tagline.
Slashdot loves X Box
Really (Xbox is a superior system)
I feel for your cousin - hope he gets better.
Car entertainment systems are common place in places like Japan - most people however have the common sense to only turn it on when its stop and go traffic where frankly you could do both.
Its just like anything - I'm an amateur radio operator and personally I'm not into manually matching hf antennas while traveling at freeway speeds - so I don't - if I have to make a major change I'll pull off to the side of the road. I don't think they should ban antenna matching networks in cars though or force people to buy expensive automatic tuners.
And another attempt to smuggle in a Matrix Reloaded spoiler.
I find it interesting that Slashdot is listed before CNN ;).
In many jurisdictions, it is a violation to have a video display device like this capable of being viewed by the driver. If you get pulled over, the officer IS going to take a look around inside and probably give you a "fix it" ticket to get the multimedia system out of there.
However, I have noticed that the laws haven't exactly stopped a lot of people. Seems like almost every day I'll see someone with a monitor in their sun visor or someplace else. And speaking as one who knows, don't get in an accident while the multimedia system is on. Depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances, that could be seen as some SERIOUS negligence, or possibly even as criminal negligence. And if the plaintiff's attorneys find out... well, your insurance policy probably won't cover what they'll be looking for. Just leave multimedia in your home.
IAAL
I would rather be a numpty that an elitist twat.
How'd he move the steering wheel to the wrong side of the car..thats what I want to know!
I don't know if it's legal in the UK, but it's probably illegal in California (for obvious reasons). We may have some strange laws, but this is one I agree with.
Calfornia Vehicle Code 27602
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html
"Quick, Sam! Hide the booze! And the LCD!"
Oh this is really fucking nice. The next thing I want to see is someone fiddling with an XBox in their car while I've got 3 kids in the back driving home from McDonald's.
The fact of the matter is that people are easily distracted and there's no argument that this guy won't be messing with this while he's driving. Maybe I'm just too old to realize the novelty of this but with the screen in direct view of the driver I can't feel safe about this.
i dont care about that cool lcd screen... i want to see how the box is installed in the car... where...? how are cables hidden and stuff...
Everything looked great until the Avril Lavigne showed up. Avril? No thanks.
This will end up in the courts. If you think not, check out this new bill approved in NJ. Though this article doesn't give all the details, the new ban prohibits eating, drinking, cel phone use, faxing, and reading while using your car. Information can be found here.
I'd just like to point out that this week Best Buy is selling 200 gig drives for under 200$US after rebates. Great deal for a drive that size.
I am 90% sure my mate works with the guy who made this.
He has told me all about it recently all down to it only needing a 15W inverter (or 15 is in my head because it costs £15 for the inverter, it was yesterday) for the power.
If it is, then the bloke lives on the south coast somewhere near Poole, Dorset. He doesn't work in or near London.
My mate also mentioned he used a logitech controller to control it which is another reason why I think its the same bloke. Another is he mentioned Sourceforge for the linux he ran on the xbox. I had to explain to him what sourceforge actually is.
My mate also got an xbox recently and I installed his modchip for him yesterday. I think he wants to do something similar with his own.
so he doesn't go barreling down the highway at 200 kph, as if he were being chased by the police
As if he were being chased by the police?
The coolest voice ever.
That's amazing. I can't imagine what I would do if I saw my mate's friend's car on Slashdot. Fsking Cool!
Google sez this.
This is manly bad car layout. The reason for the problems here is not in the users mind. They take the eyes of the road to find the switch. Basicly if you had to look around to find the blinkers and the other controls you would cause the same stuff up.
adjusting vehicle or climate controls (2.8 percent)
Same as CD players. Voice control or some other means so that users don't have to look down would fix this.
Dont have the break down of this:
Other specific distractions included talking with other occupants (10.9 percent)
But Talking with other occupants is the same as using a mobile phone.
eating or drinking (1.7 percent)
Yep never a good idea. Hot coffee/tea/drinks the worst follewed by fatty foods. Reasons Simple fatty food grease you hands(even butter can do this). And Hot drinks gets you self burnt as well has crashed.(And most people are smart enought not to do this)
cell-phone use (1.5 percent)
The test have been done on this one the affect is the same as driving drunk. Your reflexs is just as impared. Same reson why test to detect how tired you are. Are being develped. Driving come done to thought and reflex.(ie some people sould never get a licence reflexs too slow)
smoking (0.9 percent).
Is not good idea smoking takes a hand off the stearing as well as a fire risk. Basicly smoking in bed or in car is just as bad both cases you can be out cold with a something to light it up(car seats/carpet are both flamable some more than others).
Basicly it is common sense why complain. Banning it helps the road toll by lot. In other cases improving law on what cars can be on the road will help too.
I find it funny australia it is against the law to use a cell-phone in hand but a hands free kit is fine. But study have proven that hands free makes no difference to the percentage. So basicly Car rules Don't talk to the driver unless you really have to. Don't eat or Smoke when driving stop to do that. Get a car that you don't have to take you eyes of the road to set the enivormental. Prefeard set right before you move off.
And dont play with the redio while moving. If you need the radio to stay a wake you are driving equivent to beening drunk. Dont use a mobile on the move your just driving drunk again. And give up smoking you body will be better for it. And this will drop you risk by about 30 persent.
It is not a right to drive and a car is a weapon that can kill it is not a toy. People alway forget this. Now if every ne did this the road crashes would go down.
limos have the screen for two reason number one the limo driver can not hear what is be talked about so cannot steal info number two will not be affected by the chat in the back seat. And on top of this limo drivers have no reason to use the phone. Also limo drivers are ment to change drivers when they need to eat not put the customer at risk.
I find this funny it is just another case of the rich been safer.
I don't know about other states, but in Virginia, a media setup where the driver can possibly see a screen that can, by design, show DVDs or television is completely illegal. Even most media systems that could, because of their components, display such media (IE, the cd player in BMW 5 series cars), has to prevent the user from playing video.
I'll tell you how cool when I found out whether it is or not. :)
he drives his car. I really want to drive my car with a joystick. Seriously. Why not?
I am curious as to how the guy prevents the hard drive from getting screwed up and how he prevents the discs from getting scratched.
The XBOX is quite fragile. Wouldn't putting it in a moving vehicle while the hard drive and DVD are spinning be asking for a drive failure, or at the very least a scratched disc?
What kind of bullshit is that? It'll be illegal for me to take a swig from a bottle of soda while I'm driving, but the asshole smokers can root around in their pack for a fresh butt and light up, eyes off the road the entire time? And what if they drop the lit cigarette? They're busy trying to find that while the car is still moving! Fuck New Jersey-- it's not like this'll bring down their ridiculous car insurance, so why bother?
if you look closely you can see the gas pedal is all the way over on the right... and the gauges are still correct sooo its a LEFT HAND DRIVE HONDA... hmm japan?
I keep reading through all these posts about legistlation and just have to wonder how this system is different than the gps nav systems found in lots of automobiles across the country. Granted, the gps nav systems dont have emulators or mp3 players but as someone who has used them, the little tracking display can be quite mesmorizing.. especially in the wee hours of the morning. If anything, I would suspect people would pay more attention to the navigation system than a dvd playing, which could be compared to listening to a radio. \
--
|-_-| . o O ( bEef!)
... if it weren't for the XBox.
-Dae
"Alle reden vom wetter. Wir nicht." - SDS Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund.
j00 4r3 3n73r1ng l337 w0r1d.
...because I thought the Logitech Wingman would be one of those big ass flight sticks. I just naturally assumed that he replaced the shifter with it. Still cool though.
I got a nice surprise when i followed through to the article - it was QUICK - much faster than anything else posted - does this mean we have found a cure for the /. effect? or is this an anomoly? ;))
either way congrats to the admin (so far
liqbase
It's ENGLAND, man. First of all, they drive on the left, not on the right, as the idiot below me posted. Second of all, european cars have the driver side on the right side of the car. Oh wait, you're one of the slashdotters who just look at the pretty pictures and don't actually READ THE FRIGGIN ARTICLE!
If he really wanted cars to crash, he would have installed Windows on it, not Linux.
when you can play halo while driving your car, drinking that frappucino from starbucks, and eating that hamburger from McDonalds ...
now THATS multi Tasking!
I'm not one normally to argue with "advancement" such has putting Linux on a PS2 or even Linux on an XBox but this goes beyond the completely useless. Have you heard of "Chindogu"? (sp?) It belongs there.
An entry level CD player car Radio costs less than an XBox 2 to 3 times over (box only). I don't even count the accessories. Plus, on a more humorous note, putting an XBox in your car would drive the fuel efficiency way down, because of all the added weight to drive it around hahaha.
Trolls dont like to be Flamebait, because they burn so well. Protect our Troll heritage!
This could really be hacked into some kind of GPS navigation system would that still be illegal? Nav systems are an option on expensive cars now are they illegal too?
Here is my setup: Hardware: Pentium II 400mhz 256megs of ram 80gig HD Voodoo 3 pci video card. Creative Labs DVD accel. video card Kworld USB TV Tuner with custom wired antenna. DVD 16x drive. 802.11b wireless USB card. Installed on back dash. Garmin GPS serial sensor. Mint!!! Looks like a mouse. Datalux 10" touch screen off ebay. With full 360 hardware mounting clamp. USB, serial, etc cables 10 feet up to the front dash of the car. SB Live into Alpine 7959 tape deck. Canadian Tire power inverter. Cheap, Cheap! Software: Windows 2000 Power DVD Holleywood DVD player CDEX mp3 ripper. Microsoft Streets and Trips 2003 Microsoft Map Point 2002 Winamp v3.0. Love the backgroud displays. Mame v.62 Doom Shareware virtual keyboard with speech. For keyboard input. Great software. Voice notification for maps and gps. Putting the system together was some time. Not a lot, but the system is a full Windows system. It blows the shit out of anything on the market. It nice to connect to my mp3 server in my house. I download new mp3's or backup some mp3 which I ripped from the car. I can also connect to my main system which runs Linux and the apache server. Backup data and anything else. The environment: The system has been installed in my car for two years. Previous laptop was installed for 5 years. NOT ONE FAILURE. I can not believe it. Nothing has gone wrong. I live in Canada, so I can expect the temperature range of -30oc to +35oc. I would of thought that the dew would get to the componets. Nope, no problem. I also have the power to change anything I like. Other commericial systems you are locked into their operating system and software. With a regular computer. You have the freedom to do anything you want. The hardest thing, is the LCD display. It's also the most costly. If you look on ebay, you can find something cheap. I paid $200US for mine. You can put together some really cheap......
Where's the net radio eh?
:/ )
gps? voice spoken directions?
I'm sorry son that's a poor effort.
It's not big, it's not clever.
( and I'm not funny this time of night
A blog I run for the wealth
Now not only can you watch the Junkman and Gone in 60 Seconds, you can be part of the action! Leave it to the British to do this. This explains their street system, though - they model the streets after how the majority of the people randomly swerve. And just think, driving through New York, if you're stuck in traffic near one of those WiFi spots, he can use XBox Live!
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
Not to mention standard software &c., he is using a voltage inverter.
To those who don't know what these are: they convert the car's (roughly) 12V to mains voltage so the XBox's PSU can drop it down again to the voltages the XBox wants -- probably 12V again.
This means that when he starts the car, the XBox will turn off.
You need a DC-DC converter in order to stop the machine turning off when you start the car, as the car's 12V can drop to as low as 7V.
Look at my page to see how to build a DC-DC power supply. I've had a speaking, GPS-enabled Linux computer system running in my car for a couple of years. I turn when I get in the car, and only turn it off if I will be parking for over six hours, even though it takes about 25 seconds to start up.
(And another thing: if anyone is tempted to build one of these using standard PC components, please don't use a full size keyboard!! You can pull the keyboard controller out and link in your own buttons directly. It just looks daft having a full size keyboard. Not mention ergonomics...)
http://blog.grcm.net/
Yeah, I believe Australia also drives on the right side as well. Maybe a big F U to the Brits that sent them there as prisoners originally?
Oh and Japan and most Asian countries drive like the British. There's something to be said for imperialism.
Good work and looks cool but some new car manufacturers already offer this kind of setup. If you buy a Toyota landcruiser you can buy an optional XBox entertainment center. It is a flat screen that slides down the middle of the car and offers people in the back the ability to watch DVDs and do some serious gaming :)
I might go crazy in my Landcruiser pretending to drive a Warthog when I hear the Halo soundtrack. Yehaaaaa... crash... flip!!!!
He'd better not leave the screen poking out when it's parked - that'd just asking for some asshat to smash his window and try and nick it. Even when it's in, the unit still looks too shiny to thieves for my liking...
I don't think XBox Linux is a useless idea at all...it has some great potential uses.
;-)
;-)
Consider that an XBox goes for around $400 AUD (probably 'bout $200 US, depending on how the market's doing on a given day.) This means that you can get yourself a very nice 700 MHz setup, fully hardware compatible with PC architecture (after some tweaking anywayz) for peanuts compared to what you'll pay for a fully fledged PC. The XBox's games have proven what a 700 MHz processor is capable of, especially with NVidia's graphics card, and it's no joke. The system is more than capable of serving as a Web/mail/news server...or another potential use is that you could have yourself a 4 node low-end render farm for home 3d animation work for $1600 or so AUD, with particularly munchy video cards as well ($800 US, assuming the pricing is roughly equivalent over there). Not too damn bad, if you ask me.
Given how compatible the XBox has proven after modifications, it's a great way to put together a dirt cheap system with all that legacy doorstop hardware you've got gathering dust in the spare room, too. Web servers, proxy servers, low-end word processing/office work, legacy gaming, car/mobile computers/entertainment systems/GPS, the aforementioned graphical use in numbers...buy one and set up an entry-level Web-surfing computer for Grandma...She'll love the fact that she can watch her favourite movies on DVD on it as well.
Some people need to dig down into their feeble little minds and pull out some creativity, methinks.
Didn't you here it yet?
Next month they will start a huge transition in Britain to move to the right side of the road.
The first few months the new rule only applies to heavy vehicles (trucks, etc.).
If the experiment is successfull, they will change it for the rest of the traffic as well.
Yeah, I believe Australia also drives on the right side as well.
Our steering wheels are on the right side of the car, but we drive on the left side of the road
Two wheels, man.. two wheels... more fun than an Xbox anyday...
a
When a passenger of the foot, hooves in sight, tootel the horn trumpet melodiously
I used to work with the person who made this, he did until recently live/work in the midlands no where near Poole, Dorset. However he has moved back north now.
I know its the same bloke as its the url he gave me and also have seen the system working.
Does anyone know if you can get a LCD screen like this fora car that is touch sensitive? It seems like such a pain to have to get a game pad or get some remote, it would be so easy just to touch "movie" and then "play" or to look through MP3s or something like that.
Didn't anyone see Sunday's episode of the Simpsons. Kinda reminds me of homer's car. :)
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
You know, with an HDTV projector in the back seat projecting onto your windshield, you could play vice city and not realize that there was no reset button. which would be fun until you couldn't restart...
M$ sucks! ;)
*** For a better tommorow, change your life today ***
Shaving!
Easy and fun. Great theme for car improvement.
I have an XBOX, PS2, and a DVD in my 02' Jeep Grand Cherokee with 3 monitors and an 3-way Kenwood A/V switch. Would anyone be intersted in seeing pictures? I was considering posting them.
Thanks!
EngBen
It is the guy.
I've asked him to find out if there is any more info since the site is a bit sparse.
I've asked him to find out if there is any more info since the site is a bit sparse.
I would be interested to see how some of this comes together. I have a friend who has aspirations of putting a small profile PC in his car. He might be motivated to switch to an XBOX after he sees what can be done with it.
Your friend can follow a nice format laid out by this guy who has thouroughly detailed How to get the lowest score on the SAT.