Slashdot Mirror
Ultimate Automotive Computer Installation
ErnstKompressor writes "I came across a story detailing an awesome car mod out of the Czech Republic. The author undertook what must be the most impressive exercise in computer integration I have ever seen, installing an extensive Mac system with custom Cocoa software controlling nearly every aspect of a 1993 Tatra 613. On-board systems monitoring, navigation, entertainment, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, plus much more, are all rolled into a tight, extensible, package. Check it out."
It sure is much better looking thanany other carputer. It crashes less, and probably protects you in a bubble in the event of an accident.
I hope it has the bandwidth.... It seems to be fairly.. Crashed?
e s/ if it won't load for you..
I threw a copy of my version of the images at
http://www.sq7.org/temp/mirror/www.mujmac.cz/imag
-Colin
Colin Davis
I wonder at what point this becomes over-kill. I wonder was it worth all the work (e.g. is it that useful).
On the "bright side", however, I can purchase a Toyota Prius and get a lot of the same functionality without all the work (and with 60+ miles per gallon)... of course, then I can't brag I have a Mac in my car and can't add things to it... but you get the picture.
Let's just hope he's not hosting his site on that computer.
...the web server's radiator. Is there a AAA for Slashdotting?
Unfortunately the site's already /.ed, so I can't verify if it has remote access - I always wanted to ssh into a car and fire up my favourite text editor at 60 mph :-)
...running his web server? I sure hope not or he really did crash. This would be a first, slashdotting a moving automobile.
if the webserver is in his car??? Slashdotted him into a ditch, maybe??
Sure, the Aqua interface is beautiful, but when mounted in a walnut panel?
What is the problem? Why can't they let us pick green, or pink, or what this car owner would probably like: some shade of brown.
(p.s. I love the picture of the four programmers entering Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Notice how the front door is even Aqua blue?)
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Czech it out?
Sure, it drives, but can it run Windows? (ducks) Not to mention the potential driver conflicts resulting in fatal errors...
I mean, if he's a Mac user, why didn't he just stick it in the trunk of a Mazda MX-5 Miata or a Volkswagen Cabriolet?
Because where the guy lives he probably can't afford a car like that even if he saves for the next 10 years ?
Learn about pinball machines on www.flippers.be
I had an '83 Subaru GL. My friends would laugh when the hood was opened and they saw the spare tire mounted above the motor. Not sure if that's where Subaru puts them nowadays..
Trolling is a art,
Few words about Tatra
:-) - Click on any photo to get hi-res in new window!
:-) During the installation, I also added some more functions (communication with engine controller, on-board micrcontroller for basic telemetric data). Of course I could simply buy a head unit that supports MP3 playback and a dedicated navigation hardware. However I was not very excited about the prospect of spending several thousands euro for a dedicated hardware and then wait for the manufacturer to release the maps I needed (Czech republic in particular). Use of standard computer gives me much more freedom in the configuration of the system and potential upgrades - both software and hardware.
Although not as known as many other car manufacturers, Tatra is actually the second oldest automobile company in the world (with only Daimler being older). It was established in 19th century and throughout the years came with many innovations, that helped to change many things in the industry. Just one example, probably quite surprising: the famous VW Beetle was "inspired" by certain streamline Tatra cars (V570, T97) so much, that Volkswagen had to pay few millions of D-Marks to Tatra as a compensation for patent violations. During 1930 and 1940, Tatra created several amazing cars, like T77, T87, T97 and trucks like T111. After the communist revolution in 1948, Tatra specialized mostly in truck production and the passenger cars were only manufactured in very limited numbers to be used by ruling elite. T603 was produced between 1958 and 1975 and the T613 (designed by Vignale) was produced between 1974 and 1996.
A picture for those who still think Jaguar is a big car
I must admit, I have loved Tatra's since I was a little boy. My father used to work as chaffeur for one of local bosses and I spent a lot of time on the rear seat of a T603 when I was three or four years old. Later, as a student I owned one of T603s myself. For few years I move to more practical cars for few years (Honda Civic and Volvo 480 to be exact), but what my Dutch friends call a Tatra-virus was still deep inside me. So when I stared to work in Holland and needed a comfortable car for almost-monthly trips to Czech republic, Tatra was very high on my list of choices. After two or three months I found one in good condition and I did not hesitate a minute.
Exterior picture of T613-4 Mi Long
My car is one of later T613s, produced in summer 1993 for Frankfurt auto show (and not actually used much after that). It is a T613-4Mi Long version (M=power steering, i=multi-point injection, long = wheelbase 3150mm instead of standard 3000mm). A sedan, larger than Mercedes Benz S-Klasse, with 3.5 litre V8 air cooled engine (200HP, 300 NM), mounted above the rear axle. It was originally an "Elektronik" version, which means all the controls were fully digital with several computers (including one for voice output) and parts communicating with each other using CAN-bus. (Hi, Volvo guys, your S80 was by far not the first one, would you correct your advertising materials please?) This equipment was later removed (by factory) and replaced by more traditional standard wiring, but at the moment I have decided to buy it, I was already sure that a computer must come back. And so it did - I started to work on my installation in summer 2002 and by Christmas, I had a working installation.
Why?
The basic two reasons that led me to the installation of the computer were the replacement of CD changer by an MP3 player and a navigation solution, based on Route 66 application. I am pretty sure anyone who needs to make 1000 km trips every month or has ever been lost in Copenhagen can understand these two reasons
First time in the Tatra - still in the original case (although without all the plastic)
The first idea was to use an LCD iMac, and built it into the original dashboard. The base unit was supposed to be placed within the dashboard and the display with its holder outside. This idea had two basic flaws: iMac's 1
Connecting to ignition...Connection refused: too many users. Please try again later.
[mycar:~] bob% ignition
Connecting to ignition...Connection refused: too many users. Please try again later.
[mycar:~] bob% ignition
Connecting to ignition...Connection refused: too many users. Please try again later.
Damn you, Slashdot...
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
There's a taxi in Aspin Colorado called The Ultimate Taxi. He's been around for years and just keeps getting better.
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
Now *that* has got to be a great car to have in traffic jams. With just one click, Expose will move all the other cars out of your way...
With wi-fi, does that mean you can see a beowulf cluster of these on any sufficiently packed freeway?
/.ed...
I'd post something of content, but the site is already severely
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
...web server?
You do know that T613 has engine in the back, right?
where's the source tarball?
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Or, perhaps in another fantasy hero's life...
From an upcoming cancelled James Bond film:
007: What do you have for me today, Q?
Q: Well, I had a bugger of a time getting all the software mail-ordered, but I have finally finished this Macintosh powered car. It goes from zero to Sad Mac in under two seconds.
007: I think I'll stick with my Aston Martin, thanks.
You rang?
To the Batmobile!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
this kind of thing really frightens me. I play a game with my friends when we're driving down the local freeway... If a car is going slower than 100 km/h or is weaving a little bit, we bet on whether or not the driver is on a cell phone. The result? More often that not.
Do we need more distractions? Cars are for getting from A - B, and having the option to check email, the news, stock reports and hockey scores is just adding more distractions. Don't tell me that it's fine as long as the driver doesn't have access while the vehicle is in motion; the same dangers apply if a driver is distracted at a stop light. And kids watching SpongeBob in the back seat with the volume up, that's not distracting?
I just fear for my safety on the road is all. I can check my email when I get to work. Why is everyone in so much of a hurry?
Apple wants to build with their new iCar his own car-imperium. As always - Apple is first in this kind of stuff.
I've heard of hacks to force the brushed metal or Aqua look onto certain apps, what this guys needs it a way to force the "wood" look in GarageBand onto everything (I wonder if that's a new OS interface option or just specific to GarageBand).
- sig? who is this sig of which you speak?
I bet he really shelled out for that system. Mind you , all the software should help him thread his way through traffic driven by the usual zombies
and the GPS will help with those confusing forks() in the road which can be very awk-ward sometimes. I don't imagine his passengers will have normal regular expression when they get in the car for the first time
but I'm sure he'll mktime() to explain it all to them.
My highschool buddy has been doing this for a while now to a couple different cars - check out http://ashleypowers.com/
Then how exactly did he afford a Mac?
I wonder if he has some sort of speech synthesizing.. Then, if i painted it black, it would be the ultimate NightRider mod :P (He needs some flashing red leds to, to accompagny the voice) *metalic voice*:W h a t c a n I d o f o r y o u k i n d s i r ?
Dood: The shopping mall please.
*metalic voice*: I a m s o r r y, d a v....d o o d, I c a n n o t d o t h a t.
-D0h, where did I put my keyboard ?
Doolittle :
Bomb no.20 : To explode of course.
I doubt it, seeing as how he replaced his ENGINE with a POWERMAC!
You DO know that this is a rear-engine car? Unless you live in the US in the deep south, rear engined cars are commonplace. VW Beetle, VW Bus, Porsche 911, most Ferraris...
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Gives a whole new(old) meaning to the term: "It crashed on me."
...czech.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
Now, the first thing I thought of when I heard this was Racing Simulation. If he could find an open field and put in his favorite racing sim he could actually drive his car around and use his steering wheel as the controller. That would be sweet. Of course you'd want to have a stationary mode as well. It'd probably be better than most of the force feedback wheels.
The guitars sound good, now give me about 10db more on the cow bell.
It seems his webserver has even less horsepower than that Tatra.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
"Holy sweltering penguins! Someone's using Windows!"
"To the Geekmobile!"
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
oh yeah? then why do they always blow up when they nose dive off a cliff in james bond movies? ;)
It sounds like a brilliant idea. I'm almost surprised I'd never thought of that before. I'm always hearing discussion of which OS to use for "embedded" projects (in that I mean things outside the standard ordinary PC computer.)
Ever since coming out as the basis for the NeXT computer over 15 years ago, the objective-c based NeXTSTEP/OpenSTEP/Cocoa framework has been touted as one of the most amazingly powerful that a person can develop in. In the old NeXT days I remember hearing the [informal] statement that one programmer up to speed with NeXTSTEP could do the work of about 10 normal programmers. I took that with a grain of salt until I started trying to write some simple apps for the first time in OS X's cocoa.
It is so easy and refreshing in ways I couldn't express with worlds! Writing anything in C++ anymore makes me want to pull my hair out. Sadly, it [objective-c & Cocoa] is still rather obscure. But it would be such a wonderful world if we got to see a renaissance? FINALLY the GNUStep project is beginning to approach a level of usability. If embedded applications started to become a reality...
Oh, that's about as silly a pipe dream as hoping Howard Dean becomes President!
Murray Todd Williams
You do know that T613 has engine in the back, right?
If he's American it seems likely he's never even heard of Tatra before, let alone know where the engine is.
Having heard of Ledwinka is right out, even though he's without question one of the most brilliant automotive designers in history.
The article mentions the influence of Tatra on the VW, but rip all the plastic off the latest Corvette and what do you find?
Yep, that's right. Ledwinka's backbone chassis.
KFG
For example, some guy named Wally Rodriguez built a similar Mac-based system.
that someone will bitch and moan about the car only having one pedal, and someone else saying it doesn't matter, because its much easier for new drivers to use.
Slashdot should really consider mirroring the sites.
Adds nothing to actual funcioning of the car, save the stuff he added on.
Blar.
Oh great, now a slashdotting will take out a large section of highway
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
I don't care about all this stuff.. I just want a real audio deck that you can plug your ipod into. (Sorta like inserting a cartridge, just slam the ipod into the device and have it 'dock' with the stereo)..
Now THAT is the ultimate car audio solution. Ahh
WTF?!?!? If I'm understanding this correctly, you people seem to think that one can only have a BLUE (Aqua) colored desktop on a MacOS X computer? That is f&%*ing ridiculous! Of course you can change the color of a Mac's desktop. Mine is currently grey, but lately it has been red, orange and green. Also, MacOS X has a pretty neat desktop slideshow feature that is a minor obsession of mine. You can rotate through all of the photos in a folder (well, they fade in and out) on your desktop over a specified time period. For me, it's every 5 seconds, and it's random. I find myself spending an alarmming amount of time on Google Image Search finding pics to add to my slideshow folder. (Can this be done in XP?)
WTF is a tatra?!?
-DB
He just drove into a tunnel.
"These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
ain't talking about the desktop, sport, we be talking about the theme color, you know, the way the buttons are blue and the scroll bars are blue and all that
Maybe because movies aren't real?
Any computer installed in a car that doesn't access the cars onboard diagnostic computer seems like a waste. Realtime data from the car should be available to the operator.
I hope he's not hosting this site out of his car...
Airspace; it's all plastic. Well, plastic, and leaking oil.
American cars make great boat anchors, if even the sea will take them.
I wonder what the blue book value will be in 2 year...
insightful???? get tae fuck!
funny, YES
]damn the dude even "winks" of course this aint insightful
bah!*@%!
Not even close ...
Megacar
...and you still can't right-click.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
Speaking of hacking automobile computers, my lowly 2003 GMC SLE pickup has an "entertainment center" that has some Driver Information Center functions that I can't display, because I didn't pay extra for the deluxe SLT package (which has the control buttons). I think it would be cool if someone fixed up a "hardware hack" that would let me add a keypad so I could call up all the additional data on the dashboard display...
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
ill stick a disclaimer in here first, as i am usually misunderstood as being pissed off and flaming. im not. there.
.5% of the cars in the US were rear/mid engined. the hondas, chevy's, fords, mopars, and all the other cars that comprise 90%+ are front engined.
just the deep south in the US? where are you from? not the US, i would guess.
mr2's, 911's, ferraris, old beatles, sure. however, how many of these exist in the US? i'd bet a very small amount. id be surprised if more than
i have no doubt that europe has much higher numbers for the cars with frunks(front trunk), but that is not the case in the US. oh, and the new beatle is front now, tho they hardly outnumber the old ones, yet, ill admit.
i woudl assume the parent was joking, as well.
but to move closer to the topic, thats pretty impressive stuff in that car. it never ceases to amaze me how geeks like i hope to be can interface with engines and computers like that. anybody know where i can learn more about it?
use your turn signal! you people act like it's divulging information to the enemy
You can easily change the aqua buttons, tabs, scroll bars, etc. to what ever color you'd like.
Common sense is not so common.
Well, yes, you can change that to grey, and if you download shapeshifter, you can use all sorts of themes.
What is this, Trading Spaces?
Did anyone else notice that it takes 1 minute 20 seconds to boot his car? Granted there are cities where you can get booted in under a minute for illegal parking, but I digress...
Total time for me to plug in my iPod and hit play: 10 secs. In-dash GPS? Turns on with the car.
I know that this is a minor nitpick, and it's truly an admirable geek project. He may have even saved a couple bucks from buying off the shelf. Does this really work any better than the store bought equivalents?
aren't you the idiot? we're talking about widget colors here. That's pretty fucking pathetic that you can't change the widget set.
And sure, you can do a slideshow with the wallpaper in Windows, selecting how often you want the pic to change. I did that when I was using Win98, using some software. You might be able to do it with Active Desktop or something.
With X you can do whatever you want with the wallpaper. Back in 1995 people were running programs that have animated graphics (starfield simulation, rotating globe, etc) as their background (not as a screensaver).
The grandparent post is correct, up to a point. Although you can obviously change the desktop background image, the colors of interface elements (the brushed-metal apperance of Safari or iTunes, or the plain white of most other applications like Mail.app), along with other UI chrome (like the color of hilited buttons) is not available for change by the user.
Of course, using a basic install of WinXP, it's not particularly changeable either, barring downloading third party tools.
Gotta love the slideshow functionality. A good one for PC is ACDSee. You can have multiple instances so you can view $x slideshows at once, it's great for... um... yeah, you know. :D
http://swizcore.com/SS/macOSX.php
Looks like themes to me, boss.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
never heard of those cars before either - the things that one can learn from slashdot!
spend money here
Hopefully, this will benefit more than just cars. Strides in automotive technology have improved many other aspects of our lives.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Ummmmmmmm, yeah. I think of Holland and the first I think of is rampant poverty.
This particular Tatra is an ex-factory show car, super luxury executive model intended for someone with a professional driver that came "standard" wired for ethernet in the back seat.
The Miata is such a cheap little bugger you don't even get a back seat or a roof, let alone ethernet and WiFi.
KFG
The entire country of The Czech Republic disappears from the Internet completely...
If ever the US wanted to start a Cyber Attack, they would certainly know what to do.. post it on Slashdot!
It's all that C4 in the trunk!
...and don't get me started on the potential problems of 'threading' through traffic and the ever-present danger of 'race conditions'...
*bows*
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
now make a car out of a mac =X
Better not drive this car in California. It's a ticket waiting to happen!
Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform
Must admit that I find that the motherboard housing is done with more taste than some of the PC mods I have seen around recently. - Just my 5c
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
This guy's setup is pretty nicely done. It's the first decent Macintosh one I've seen -- it's all in the software, and this fellow has done a quality job.
There are some really impressive installations out there. You can see a lot of them on the mp3car.com finished project board. In case anyone is curious, this is my installation.
~GoRK
Picture this: You're cruising down the interstate, doing maybe 5 over the limit when a school bus sized SUV blasts by you. There is a woman in the driver's seat -- almost invariably these ought-to-require-commercial-licenses vehicles are driven by females -- and she's holding a cellphone to her ear with one hand & is facing backwards slapping the mucus out of a rugrat with the other hand.
You drive for miles down the road, expecting to see the burnt-out hulk of that SUV in the median, but you never see any evidence of a wreck.
I take this as proof that there is a higher power that looks out for fools...
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
Because where the guy lives he probably can't afford a car like that even if he saves for the next 10 years ?
I don't think so pal. Tatras were competition for Mercedes, Jaguar, Bentley, and Rolls Royce.
This car cost more than your house.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
gah...i got nuttin..
Money not found! A)bort, R)etry, D)eclare Bankruptcy
Am I the only person left in the world who:
You are attempting to read sigs. Cancel or Allow?
Airspace; it's all plastic.
Well, that and a couple pounds of graphite and a few scraps of balsawood, but then the same is true of every F1 car these days.
American cars make great boat anchors, if even the sea will take them.
Well, we haven't done so well lately. I've actually owned two Fords, but then they were both German. I'd take a Cord L-29 in a heartbeat though if someone would be so kind as to bestow one upon me.
As for leaking oil I've always found that the British are the masters of getting cars to do that. As well as leaking tops.
For a long time I couldn't understand why my cars from sunny Italy all had tops that never leaked a drop that you could operate with one hand at a stoplight and had heaters that could give you heatstroke in the middle of a Canadian winter; but all my British cars had tops that took three men an hour to erect that then leaked like sieves and heat that only worked in July.
And then I had a revelation. The Italians are used to being warm and dry and take that state seriously, whereas being warm and dry is simply a concept that has never even occured to the British.
KFG
only -1 for the position of the reset buttons (upper left towards the open space in the trunk). They need to be on the dash, or enclosed in the trunk.
-brady
I'd have suggested mounting the Remote Wonder instead of those other buttons. It's RF based with amazing range and the Mac Software is excellent and customizable down to the app. Plus, if he had made a small mount for it on the dashboard, it could be passed around to the people in the backseats to control the audio as well.
---- The geek shall inherit the Earth.
but to move closer to the topic, thats pretty impressive stuff in that car. it never ceases to amaze me how geeks like i hope to be can interface with engines and computers like that. anybody know where i can learn more about it?
Easy: Buy a 1994 and up VW, Audi, Seat or Skoda. They all have a computer interface port where you can interface with all the electronic gadgets in the car. Everything from the airbags to the stereo, the transmission (if it's auto), tons of engine parameters... basically everything that runs on electricity is wired into the central system.
And VW (who owns Audi Seat Skoda and also Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and Bentley) has always openly published the communication protocols and specs to their interfaces - very Open Source like.
Read more Here. These guys make an interface cable and software to communicate with your car. It plugs into your PC or laptop using standard RS-232 serial port or USB. I have a Turbo diesel Jetta and I can put a laptop in the passenger seat and monitor turbo boost pressure, anti-lock brake status, and even radio station information from the laptop!! I've always wondered why more hackers haven't been interested in these car brands since they have such open communication specs.... MAybe someone here can start a project on sourceforge to create a Linux client program to talk to my car?? (It's Windows only right now)
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Unless you live in the US in the deep south, rear engined cars are commonplace
Ahem... Pontiac Fieros are pretty common. So are Toyota MR2.
I don't live in the south - but I'm pretty sure they sold a few Fieros down there.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
(p.s. I love the picture of the four programmers entering Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Notice how the front door is even Aqua blue?)
huh? The doors at Apple are glass.
You must live in Alabama or West Virginia.
Yeah, everyone in the south is ignorant about foreign car manufacturers, so parent poster must be somewhere from the south. Stuck up yankee dumb ass.
MAybe someone here can start a project on sourceforge to create a Linux client program to talk to my car??
Give me a bit, I only got my vagcom Wednesday!
--2004 A4 3.0QM owner
Slashdot is like Playboy: I read it for the articles
Have you ever heard the term "Active Desktop"? Resoundingly despised, it is. Most people hate shit like that on the desktop.
Ahem... Pontiac Fieros are pretty common. So are Toyota MR2.
Too bad both fo those are piecse ofd crap!!! They braeke down ALL THE TIME!!! The chicks think they are total SUCK ASS cars!!! hjahjahahahah
Technically the ferraris you are referring to are probably mid engined :)
.. I know I know .. damn slashdot nitpickers)
.. and how could you forget THE THING? (since you mentioned a few VWs)
(yea, you meant engine behind the driver
In that case lets not forget the MR2 Spyder, the Boxster and Boxster S, and a bunch of cars over 100k that I can't recall right now. Oh yea
Oh yea .. and how could you forget THE THING? (since you mentioned a few VWs)
And don't forget the Karmann Ghia!!
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
'nuff said.
This Czech has done something similar, but approximately 10x more elegant and well-thought-out.
You can rotate through all of the photos in a folder (well, they fade in and out) on your desktop over a specified time period. For me, it's every 5 seconds, and it's random. I find myself spending an alarmming amount of time on Google Image Search finding pics to add to my slideshow folder. (Can this be done in XP?)
w nloads/create_powertoy.asp
ummmm yes
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/experiences/do
"The two most abundant elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." -Harlan Ellison
oh my gosh! did that guy noticed that his engine is stoeled?!!
Ha! Compare the distractions of kids in the back watching SpongeBob to kids in the back who are *NOT* watching SpongeBob.
You should get a tinge of fear every time you get close to a mini-van and realize how much the driver may be distracted in a car people can stand up and walk around in. I never used to until I owned one. I'm back to a station wagon now where people stay where you put them.
What that this thing did could a prius do? Is GPS optional on a prius? Even then, that option costs a *significant* fraction of his project costs. Does it have ethernet ports? No? Thought not.
All in all, this is probably the best mod I've seen in a long time. And no, I'm not a mac fiend, but a good hack is a good hack.
white goes with everything!
I refuse to take seriously any car computer system that doesn't drive the car.
"'Mac-ing' out one's car"
"These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
Chris Bergeron did very much the same thing in his VW Jetta. He lives in Georgia, US. He's shown it at several southeast-area cons.
http://www.dashpc.com/
I wonder was it worth all the work (e.g. is it that useful).
If you read the article, you'll realize that usefulness wasn't his goal. He clearly has a passion for his vehicle that goes beyond utility. It's not a transportation appliance.
Evaluating things by how useful they are could be a sign that you are not and may never be a hacker. But there is hope!
Consider doing things the hard way to learn, to do it differently, or simply because the opportunity is there.
At then end of a crazy project, do -not- ask yourself if the end result was cheaper than buying something. Do -not- ask yourself if you have created something useful. Just see if there's a shit-eating-grin on your face. If there is, chances are, you are a hacker.
My '92 Subaru Loyal had it there too. I think they still mount the spare on the engine, since it's a boxer engine. They tend to be lower than other types of engines, which is good since it lowers the center of gravity too.
Your friends shouldn't laugh, you have a full-size spare tire (not one of those tiny spares you're only supposed to use to get to the nearest garage) and it doesn't take any space in the trunk!
Does this add new meaning to the word "crash"?
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. - HST
That stuff is fuckin awesome!
He specifically mentions instances where he changed his plans to make paying attention to the road easier. One part in particular stood out... he used the griffin powermate instead of touch recognition because he doesn't think it was safe to take his eyes off the road.
"The native resolution of this LCD is 640x480 pixels, but its controller can interpolate various other resolutions. I have chosen 800x600 pixels, which is the minimal resolution, required by Route 66."
since when can you interpolate an lcd higher than its native res?
but rip all the plastic off the latest Corvette and what do you find?
Yep, that's right. Ledwinka's backbone chassis.
How about a link to back this up?
I smell BS.
Life is too short to proofread.
From the article it seems like he's Czech, but live/works in the Netherlands. The Tatra is a limo, and probably cost a lot more than a VW.
oh yeah? then why do they always blow up when they nose dive off a cliff in james bond movies? ;)
I know that was a joke, but rear engine == front fuel tank in most cars.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
All of the components are just way too big. If you use similar hardware, you'll waste all your cargo space.
Instead, use the following PC components:
1. mini pc, based on VIA's epia mini-itx motherboard. The best one to use is from http://www.mini-box.com - m-100 comes with a text LCD display and buttons that can be programmed. It runs on 12V DC and can be mounted in-dash or in the trunk where your cd changer would normally go.
2. Xenarc or Lilliput touch-screen 7" lcd monitor with SVGA and composite inputs. This is more important than big HD or faster pc. If you can't see text and maps clearly while you drive, what's the point of building one of these car pcs? Get all-in-one package from Alpine instead.
3. 20 or 40 HD 2.5" laptop hard drive. (#1 doesn't come with anything, not even a cf card)
4. 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter - #1 above won't let you connect a laptop hard drive to it w/o an adapter. compusa.com has them for $7.
5. Bluetooth usb adapter. I bought Belkin.
6. Bluetooth GPS receiver - no messy wires and you can take it with you (and use it with your PDA if it supports bt) I bought Belkin GPS receiver, you can get something else.
7. Blitzsafe adapter to connect #1 to your OEM HU (head unit/stereo) You didn't really think you could just plug your line out to your car's extra AUX IN port, did you? Mounts in the trunk right into where the changer plug went or behind your HU
Elfig.com is one of the resellers, esp for VW.
8. Wires to connect it all - RatShack
9. Windows XP, Winamp 5, one of front-end GUI for easy navigation. Look at carpc.com forums.
10. Linux (Gentoo, or another fine distro) put it on a separate partition. It's fast for playing movies, music, etc. However, it lacks bluetooth support and GPS navigation packages for it suck.
11. USB hub for other gadgets, like portable HDs, scanners, webcams, etc.
12. RAM - pc doesn't come with any.
How much does it cost???
#1 minibox m-100 - $400.
#2 Xenarc $500
#3 HD $100 to $300
#4 adapter $7
#5 bluetooth adapter $30 to $60
#6 gps receiver $300 to $400
#7 audio adapter $65
#8 varies
#9 $0 to $250
#10 FREE FREE FREE (+ many hours of linux guru's help)
#11 gadgets $20 to sky is the limit
#12 RAM $50 to $100
If you really hate M$ and don't want Windows on your car pc, look at dashpc.com
If you are going to get off your lazy ass and actually build and install this in a VW Passat, let me know.
You may smell as you wish, but it's simple history.
http://www.lightauto.com/ledwinka.html
http://www.corvetteconti.com/C5-Backbone.htm
And of course VW, FIAT and even myself have designed and built backbone chassis well before the modern Corvette adopted it.
If you wish to do more in depth research on this you'll have to rely on these things called "books." Not everything is on the web. I can highly recommend "The Bosch Book of the Motor Car: Its Evolution" to the casual reader.
L.J.K. Setright's book "The Designers" also has a lovely little chapter on Ledwinka and his contributions although this title is now a bit scarce.
By the way, the four valve, double overhead cam engine was invented by Ernest Henry for Peugot in 1912. The "unibody" was pioneered by Lancia in the early 1920s, whose chief designer spent an evening drawing up plans for virually every independant suspension system known to man.
In fact the only really serious technical innovation in automotive technology since WWII has been the microprocessor. The rest of it has basically boiled down to the simple availability of better materials. Lancia didn't have the carbon fiber the modern F1 car is made out of, but the construction of the modern F1 is basically the same Lancia's 1922 Lambda.
KFG
And I thought there was something on slashdot that would make my job easier... not just waste my time... Then i remembered where I was.
Isn't that rather like me telling you, "Have you ever eaten at any of the thousands of small-town shops sprinkled around the US?" To assume that the only "exceptional meals in the US" are those found at $100/plate restaurants is being just as arrogant and uninformed. Isn't it? The sheer geographic size of the US makes it unlikely that the average person could name some a specific culinary delights from each of the 50 states, though there's no doubt that each one has it's own specialties.
Likewise, have you eaten in one of the thousands of small places in Asia that serve a wide variety of different styles of food? You may have, but I haven't. Does that mean I dismiss it out of hand as bad? No, but for me, it certainly ranks as "irrelevant," because I'll probably never have the opportunity to eat there.
Same with the small cafes in France. I'm glad they're judged to be better than anywhere else on the planet, but until I travel to France, knowing that it's so great doesn't really affect me any more than your lack of knowledge about how good (or bad) a "Hot Brown" is when prepared in a small cafe in KY.
Contrary to popular belief, even though there are McDonald's covering much of this nation, there are other places to eat. Also, you should realize that the culture of the US is such that many people know little about what goes on in other states, much less in other nations.
You may think that's arrogant or self-centered, but for many US citizens, spending a bunch of time considering the nuances of culture outside of my back yard is just as important as French cuisine is to someone starving in an impoverished nation.
Tim
Shapeshifter is kinda like Kaleidoscope, but for OS X. You might need to build your own walnut panel theme though, since it's fairly new.
That is very cool. I must build one.
Is it just me, or was the Litres/Hour guage a little odd? Is that the standard unit of measure for consumption overseas?
-Another Stupid American.
What tender egos Mac users have.
It must really suck to be so insecure.
My personal favorite Mac-in-car mod is the Pathintosh (which looks much better than the Tatra Mac G4, IMHO).
http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=3111
It appears that the official Pathintosh page is down, but the specs can be found here.
While it's only a G3, it's plenty powerful for its purpose. It has plenty of RAM and is capable of running Mac OS X. A Pismo PowerBook might be the better option for those looking to do this for themselves.
the JoshMeister on Security
Proud owner of 5 money suckers + 1 wife.
Wouldn't that be 6 money suckers?
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
with quartz extreme in mac os x 10.2 and up, you can set a screensaver as the background, similar to what you're describing. (FYI)
it's simple history.
You said that the Corvette had "Ledwinka's backbone chassis". Not a "Ledwinka-inspired chassis".
You should choose your words more carefully. Obviously, the C5 is based on other designs, just like every other modern car. Recognizing that hardly makes you clever.
If you wish to do more in depth research on this you'll have to rely on these things called "books."
Case in point. You learn just a little bit about something, and you think it gives you the right to belittle others. The C5 does not use a double overhead cam engine, for example, and lots of important changes have been made to automotive design since the 1920's. A good example would be crash safety. Another would be the rotary engine.
Life is too short to proofread.
The rear doors are full sized and not wrapped around the rear wheels, add to that the shape of the trunk and you have a car that is extrodinarily long with seemingly no trunk.
--JLockard - "Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps." - Emo Phillips
So does this qualify as a modded car, or as a masterful case mod? As a car, it's a great hack, Detroit should steal it. But if this is a case mod it shows l33t m4d skilz. Drive this baby to the next LAN party, watch the gurls got nuts; "Hey baby, let's do some lagers in the back of my computer."
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
Actually...
The current Corvette is no longer on the C-5 platform. They're on C6 now.
From the article (Yes, I actually RTFA), this guy mentions he had to use a DC to DC power supply instead of an inverter.
The second idea was an inverter and the original 220V power supply. This almost worked. "Almost" because there was a 50Hz noise on the audio output of the computer, that I could not manage to eliminate. Fortunately the third idea - the 12V ATX power supply did work perfectly.
Way back in the day when the Diamond Rio was a rumor and MP3-CD players didn't exist, I had a computer in my car to play MP3s. I'm surprised this guy didn't search more for the solution to using an inverter - it's really quite simple.
You first have to make sure the inverter's ground prong on the outlet is actually grounded. A lot of cheap inverters don't connect it to anything so ground "floats". Open up the inverter and connect ground to the incoming 12v NEGATIVE line.
The next thing you need to do is make sure the computers's power supply and motherboard are also grounded to the vehicle frame. If you've got the system in a metal case, it's a simple matter of running a wire from a screw on the case to screw or bolt on a metal portion of the vehicle's body.
Even with all this grounding, you'll still probably get a bit of hum from a ground loop due to poor conductivity along the vehicle's body. Radio Shack sells an inexpensive (about $10 or so) ground loop isolator that will work perfect to get rid of the rest of the noise.
See, you don't have to buy an expensive dc to dc power supply afterall.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Clearly what everyone is missing is to have the car drive itself!
see here and here
Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
As for leaking oil I've always found that the British are the masters of getting cars to do that.
That is very true. Let us also not forget the wiring nightmares that the British have perfected. Based upon the remainder of your comment, you are obviously someone who has suffered the wrath of British car designers and, for that, I salute you. Salut!
Additionally, European Ford products are so vastly different than those of North America that they hardly even deserve the same name. The differences between European and North American Escorts (to name only one model) throughout its history is proof positive of this.
It's a G4 450. Not exactly cutting edge.
:)
Yet it still works wonders...what a testament to the bloodline
Enjoy your Mustang, Cletus.
You came in belligerent. You are continuing in the same vein. Any particular reason?
.and lots of important changes have been made to automotive design since the 1920's.
Recognizing that hardly makes you clever.
It does, however, make me recognize my debt to those who were.
The C5 does not use a double overhead cam engine, for example. . .
I don't recall that I, or anyone else for that matter, ever said it did.
You should choose your words more carefully.
Et tu?
. .
There has certainly been a lot of evolution of the ideas of the early pioneers. Yes. Materials techologies have made that possible. There has been refinement.
Another would be the rotary engine.
Whose priciples were first posited in the mid 1800s. Materials were lacking to build it, however. Wankel took those principles and built his first prototypes in. . . the 1920s.
Although it didn't see production until 1957, what with the intervention of a world war and all.
And the Corvette's engine was considered tecnically obsolete before WWI.
KFG
oh yeah? then why do they always blow up when they nose dive off a cliff in james bond movies? ;)
thats cause the fuel tanks commonly in the front of rear engine vehicles
What really got me was my Triumph GT6, a hard top, and yes, the top leaked.
And yes, when I turned on the windshield wipers the headlights liked to turn off.
Despite all of that I shall light a candle and hold vigil if Ford ever carries through with their threat to put Jaguar badges on a Taurus and make them in Dearborn.
KFG
I am so bad with directions, that I need computer to yell at me when to turn. Streets and highways in NJ are so screwed up, that I actually spent an hour once trying to get out of Jersey City.
from FAQ http://www.kraftvoll.at/software/faq.shtml
Q: Why is there no street navigation which gives turn by turn
directions?
A: Turn by turn directions are not possible with GpsDrive at the present
because no opensource data is available which represents the street
coordinates in a form usable for that purpose. GpsDrive currently
works with bitmap images rather than vector data.
This fellow specifically states that he uses buttons instead of a touch-screen because it didn't want to have to look away from the road to operate the computer.
He also says he spends a great deal of time in the car traveling across Europe for work. The two places he mentions are Copenhagen and the Czech Republic.
Reading between the lines, I'd say that everything but the GPS and the music player are for when the car is parked. He may not be near his office for a week at a time, perhaps. Being able to check email from his parked car may be more than just convenient.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Didn't anyone else notice he said the car had an air-cooled V8 over the rear wheels?
I couldn't believe I was reading that correctly, and had to re-read it 4 times. That is far more strange than his custom computer.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Tatras were designed for the Czech elite, sort of like an Eastern European Porsche.
There is a cult following around the make that celebrates its engineering quality.
This is no Trabant or Lada, in other words, but a vehicle with genuine appeal.
D
lots of much more impressive installs at mp3car.com
(Small Office / Mobile Office)
You DO know that this is a rear-engine car? Unless you live in the US in the deep south, rear engined cars are commonplace. VW Beetle, VW Bus, Porsche 911, most Ferraris...
Er, no.
You obviously do not know about engine layout, or about Ferraris. There has never been a rear engined Ferrari. You are getting confused with the mid engine layout, where the engine is in between the two axles. A true rear engined car has the engine behind the rear axle, like the Porsche 911 you mention. Just because the engine is behind the driver does not mean it is rear engined. The opposite example is the new Mercedes SLR McLaren, which is also mid engined, but the engine is in the front of the car.
You are also wrong about "most ferraris" being rear[mid] engined. Take the last 4 for example, only one is not front engined (456 front, 550 front, 360 mid, 612 front) Historically you will also find that the ratio of mid/front engined cars is not so high after all.
BFD. I've got a beowulf of Mexican Rolex pocket watches in my trunk. Want to see?
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Er, yes.
I obviously know about engine layout. Whether the engine is mid or rear mounted, it doesn't matter when you look under the hood - there is a front trunk regardless - which is what the thread was about.
I'm well aware of the mid engine vs. rear engine layout as I am the proud owner of a fully restored 1974 Porsche 914, and also a '95 993 C2.
Have a look at the sales figures for Ferrari - You will obviously see that obviously there have been way more 360's sold than 456's, 550's, or 612's. Obviously. I regularly see 360's driving on the GW parkway near Wash DC where I live, but seldom see a 550. 456's and 612's are collector's items now. I also see a few testarosas here and there which are mid engined.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
As an owner of a 993 I am very suprised that you have not made the distinction between a rear and mid engined car. Where the "trunk" is really has nothing to do with it. Ferrari has never made a rear engined car. Another pointer that you don't know what you are talking about - the 612 is not a collector's item, in fact it is only released in a few months. It is the replacemnt for the 456.
As an owner of a 993 I am very suprised that you have not made the distinction between a rear and mid engined car. Where the "trunk" is really has nothing to do with it. Ferrari has never made a rear engined car.
The trunk has *everything* to do with it - that's what the thread was ABOUT. Someone started by saying that the car's engine was replaced with a Mac because there was not an engine under the hood. That's where this discussion began. I'm well aware that Ferrari has never sold a car with the engine behind the rear axle - but they have sold *many* cars with no engine under the hood which is the point I was making - that it is not unusual for a car to have a front trunk? Get it now?
Another pointer that you don't know what you are talking about - the 612 is not a collector's item, in fact it is only released in a few months. It is the replacemnt for the 456.
Ok, so you think I'm idiot and a retard. I get the point. I was thinking of the 412, not the 612. My bad.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
I would like to thank you for you nice, even headed response. You make apple owners everywhere proud!
The kicker with this project (for me) was the custom software package developed with ObjC and Cocoa...feel free to suggest alternative development suites for Windows, if you can find any.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
He added all these gadgets to the car that the Mac can communicate with. Great. But all the Mac can do to the cars systems is monitor them! Big fucking deal.
Blar.
That is the canonical Check/Czech joke in my opinion. As for the others, yes, hahaha very funny...
-ccm
Too much Law; not enough Order.