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.
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.
mirror
... 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 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..
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.
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.
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.
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!
Well, not only that, but the Xbox is ungodly large. I wouldn't want to have to find a spot to put it in my car.
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
GameTab - Game Reviews Compilation Site
...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.
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)
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
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.
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!
"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.
....what's the point? .....
entertainment systems in cars seem useless....
If you've ever been stuck in rush hour traffic moving at an average speed of 3.2 mph, then you can appreciate the usefulness of having a pr0n player handy right in your car.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
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.
Here in sweden we drive on the right side of the road, if I'm remembering correctly, the UK is the only country in Europe that does not use the right field to go forward.
--- No, english is not my mother tongue.
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
Haha... wait till we see the guy trying to spike the ball in Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball, waitig for the light to hit those perfetly shaded polgons just right.
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...
Talking about the coatse.cx guy?
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.
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!
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.
cell-phone use (1.5 percent)
The test have been done on this one the affect is the same as driving drunk.
Talk about generalizations. There's no such thing as any universal "affect of driving drunk". As some of us might have noticed, there are different levels of intoxication, and I don't think anyone is stupid enough to think it's one and same to drive after drinking a can of beer or after bottle of booze at the verge of passing out. Not to mention that affects of alcohol are rather varied from person to person.
So, where, exactly, on this damn diverse scale does the hypothetical cell-phone usage end? Why not just say that it impairs reaction time instead of babbling some stupid halftruths that have no real-life measurable value?
If you've ever been stuck in rush hour traffic moving at an average speed of 3.2 mph, then you can appreciate the usefulness of having a pr0n player handy right in your car.
And I'm sure your fellow drivers wouldn't appreciate you driving with one hand... =)
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 you're still conscious, it's all yours.
...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
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!
What, you don't drive stick?
- Peter
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......
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...
Damn, I'd better go and mod my car now
it's in my head
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.
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
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...
Some of us have very comfortable car seats, air conditioning, awesome sound system etc...
The seats in my car are the best seats i own by far, if i could put one on a rotating stand then i would sit at my desk in one..
A car sound system is often easier to tweak to your needs because you always sit in the same position relative to the speakers.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Fucking Yanks. Why do you assume everything comes from the US? It's been quite interesting to note that quite a few recent things like this have had nothing to do with the US at all It is a Rover 200 or 400 series car. It isn't Japanese but a model which was produced from a Honda-Rover collaboration. THe owner is British, te car is in the UK. Geddit?
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
Only the really crap drivers use Auto boxes in the UK. A car with an automatic gearbox is virtually unsellable.
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
Because it is a British car you moron.
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
You mean there's life outside the US?
Nah, you're talkin' crazy...
Oh, so THAT's why the drag racers use automatic transmissions, right?
My car has an auto-stick (Tiptronic) and works flawlessly. It's also faster than shifting manually.
Perhaps the people in the UK just have a lack of taste? Or is it a lack of money to buy a decent car?
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
And I'm sure your fellow drivers wouldn't appreciate you driving with one hand... =)
:-)
I'm not talking about "driving". I'm talking about putting your car in park like the 1000 other cars around you. In fact, you're free to use both hands.
If I were the front passenger, then the driver, if so inclined, could keep both hands on the wheel.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
What about the driver's stick? I can definitely work on that. (Well, from the front seat anyway.)
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
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.