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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.
... 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.
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."
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.
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!
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)
this is exactly why (in california, anyway) it's illegal to have a tv/dvd player/etc viewable by the driver when the car's in motion. I believe most commercial systems require the car be in park for the systems to do anything but radio controls, navigation, and such.
Not to be an asshole, but seriously - you'd have to be a retard to try to watch a movie (or play a video game) and drive at the same time...
My roommate's got a hacked system so it CAN play DVDs, but christ, he's not stupid enough to do it while DRIVING!
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
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
....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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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... =)
What he did was illegal and wreckless
;)
I guess you mean reckless because a wreck was actually involved in the story
When men used to be men
when you can play halo while driving your car, drinking that frappucino from starbucks, and eating that hamburger from McDonalds ...
now THATS multi Tasking!
He might even be smart enough to try to never watch Vin Diesel.
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/