Slashdot Mirror
Mac mini in a Volkswagen
pyramis writes "Matt Turner has installed a Mac mini into his Volkswagen as an integrated audio/video system. He's distributed the I/O ports around the cab for convenient access and installed a remote power button right into the dashboard. Cool pics of all of this, plus a detailed article on that cool power button."
Slashdot meets Pimp My Ride...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Mini-mini: mac mini in a mini cooper?
"Looks like his webserver was RUNNING on the Mac Mini!" Hahahaha, oh MERCY. My aching sides!
I predict the hardware might be buggy.
--ARTICLE TEXT:
GTi - MacMini
Well, it kept me from posting regularly, took about two weeks to plan and occupied nearly every night for about three weeks, but the big project I've been promising to post on is done...finally. I actually finished it last week, but wanted to make sure I had covered all the bases and that everything was working properly before putting the car back together and photographing it (thanks to Ryan for the quick shoot).
When the dimensions for the MacMini were announced, I immediately got to work figuring out what the best way to integrate one into my own car would be. If I was going to put a Mac in my car, I wanted to make sure it had all of the functionality that it would have in a home environment while still maintaining an easy-to-operate interface so that distractions could be kept to a minimum. So the researching, planning, sketching and disassembly of my cars interior (to see what would fit where) began. After taking the thought process to every extreme imaginable, I decided on the following equipment list:
- 1.42GHz MacMini with 512mb RAM, Superdrive, Bluetooth and Airport Extreme
- Xenarc 700tsv 7 USB touchscreen monitor with VGA and dual composite video inputs
- Cirque EasyCat USB trackpad
- Griffin PowerMate assignable USB control knob
- Lacie 8 in 1 USB flash card reader
- Belkin USB 7-port powered hub
- Belkin USB four-port bus-powered hub
- Belkin Firewire 6-port mini hub
- Alpine PXA-H701 Multimedia processor with RUX-C701 controller
- MonsterCable MCPI300 300watt power inverter
- Female USB, Ethernet and Firewire ports
- 40gig iPod dock
- Griffin RadioShark USB FM/AM tuner
Over the next few days, I will be putting up a post on each general aspect of the install to more closely cover how I did what where and any problems I encountered, as well as the solutions I came up with for these problems as they arose. More detailed pictures of the process will accompany these posts as well, for those interested in the more technical aspects of the install - such as removing the power button and indicator from the MacMini and relocating them to the switch panel in the dash, extending the Apple power supply's cable to locate the "brick" in the rear side panel of the car, fabricating the brushed aluminum trim bezels and rebuilding the glove box interior to accomodate the MacMini. So, enjoy and please check back over the next few days to check out these posts and two new iPod dock installs from last week...
www.mp3car.com is a great site if your looking to get into these.
Mirrordot link
Coral cache
I predict in 20 years, half the articles on slashdot will be cool cyborg mods (to the human body).
"I slipped the mini under my frontal lobe, so that latencey to the computational region of my brain is minimized, it is powered on my body heat, and the coolest thing, is that I have an IO port on my forehead so that I don't have to deal with the irritation of reaching around to the back of my head to plug in my peripherals."
is the back of a Volkswagen still an uncomfortable place?
Before the hack, it was mediocre. Now it's multimediocre...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I'll be impressed when he can fit it into this.
What?
What I am interested in finding out is how the computer fairs after a nice hot summer. An August component causulty report would be kind of interesting. Well I understand that the Mac mini does have too much in terms of fans, that car does have a black interior. I can only imagine what would happen if you tried to turn it on when the car tempetures reach 140F in the sun. But I guess if he is far enough north, he shouldn't have too many problems...maybe an Idaho or Minnesota summer.
The views expressed are mine own and do not express the views of my employer.
500 Server Error
The web server encountered an error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. If this error persists, please contact the webmaster, and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
Matt Turner may have turned his Mac mini into a Volkswagen, but we've turned his Web site into a Yugo.
Oh, well, at least there's MirrorDot.
I'm afraid I don't quite understand.
Let me see if I can break it down for you:What's so goddamn novel about throwing an underpowered, overpriced Mac inside a dashboard?
Well for starters, its a very well done hack. Second, the poster shows that it can display maps, and quite probably can aide in navigation. Third, the mac can store a very large music library, and comes with the ease of itunes. Forth, he made a very nice dash/overall car mod to include a ipod dock, a power outlet, and many shiny buttons...
If one were interested in getting a portable media center for his car, he would have many options that involve spending less money and/or getting more bang for your buck. Why, for the $500 he spent on his fashion accessory that can't play games, he could've gotten a Dell desktop with approximately double the speed, and expandability to boot, plus he would've instantly been able to use the vast array of Windows and Linux software available.
The mac is shiny. And playing unreal at 94 mph along the freeway is not something I want to be doing...
Proof once again that Macs are nothing more than an item for trend whores and label sluts.
I had a Dell for one year before it fried. Bough another, same deal. The costomer service/documentation sucked. On the other hand, I have now had a mac Powerbook for the last two years, and its providing better functionality than any other machine I have bought. When you buy apple, you buy quality. Think of an apple as a Lexus, and a dell as a Ugo. Sure, the Ugo will get you from point A to point B, but it is made of inferrior parts, tends to fail, and lacks any style.
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
Yeah, that really drives me crazy. I mean, I don't mean to steer the conversation in any way or another, but those jokes just don't turn my crank. They signal to me, rather, that Slashdotters prefer automatic over manual posting. The way this place is coasting along in neutral mediocrity, well, it makes me sad. We should change gears around here, and make an agreement to speed up the humor and put the brakes on predictable comments.
His car, a GTI 1.8T, can be reprogrammed (chipped) to run the turbo at higher boost, in addition to running octane-specific timing maps for more power. Stock is 180 hp, but the ECU can be reprogrammed for around 215 hp on 91 octane, 220 hp on 93 octane, and 235 hp on 100 octane.
There is already aftermarket ECU reflashing software (e.g., http://www.giacusa.com/) for the 1.8T. However, it would be cool if he could rig the Mac Mini to switch between different performance programs. That would be a true hack.
As I was reading this I was thinking how far could one take this? I remember reading on Slashdot a week or two ago that people managed to use WiFi while driving (I forgot how fast)... Then I met inspiration, in a city like Philadelphia (commerical WiFi may be better suited but work with me), for instance, where there will be Municipal WiFi, if you had other friends with a Mac Mini in their cars or even Macs at home you could in theory have Video chat with your friends- for free in car.
Imagine having an iChat icon pop-up while driving, let's ignore the immidiate safety risks and think about the "cool factor," you accept and your friend is right there in real time staring at you. It seems like something out of a movie, huh? But it's a really possibility. Especially with iChat AV's adoption of H.264 as its codec of choice (less bandwidth and better quality).
I wouldn't think it'd be hard to figure out where to mount an iSight or to just make a custom case for it to be mounted stealthly in your car. You could even use it as a security system. If your alarm goes off it firesup and sends the stream to a police server. You could even have GPS installed to let the Police know where the crime is being committed.
I think the possibility for uses of the Mac Mini in cars is amazing and hopefully we'll see things like this in the near future.
Here you go. With photos even.
THE CNX-P1900 DUAL OUTPUT 140 WATT INTELLIGENT DC-DC POWER REGULATOR
Compatible with the Mac mini, as well as P4 system cases from Travla!
The retail price of the P1900 is $99.95. Target availability is April 2005.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
I'd like to understand where your vehemence is coming from.
Was your mother an Apple Lisa, and didn't give you enough love as a child?
Did a Powerbook kill your father?
Did you have an untimely breakup with an iMac?
Did Steve Jobs come to your house, kick you down the stairs, pee in the corner, and then burn all your childhood toys?
I mean, really. Apple is just a company and the Mac is just another computer. It works well for a lot of people, myself included. Why go insane over it?
> >Slashdot meets Pimp My Ride...
>It should be called Geek My Ride!
Whatever, as long as it isn't Pimp my Geek.
Ah yes. Let's read this post again.
"I spent 150$ on parts for my 1.0ghz flex PC. It is not quite as small, and it is not quite as fast. Nor is it as -ahem- hip. But it was a fraction ov the cost."
So, let's see. You have a PC that's not quite as small or as a fast as a Mac mini. But you didn't pay that much for it?
I could get an old G3 iMac motherboard for $75.00. It wouldn't be as small and it wouldn't be as fast. It wouldn't have as much memory or anything like that. But it would be cheaper.
So I'm a little lost. Are you saying that you can get less machine for less money? I think the proper response, in that case, is "Duh."
"It is a fanless mobo design and boots a flash drive - cant get much quieter then silent."
True. But the cheapest Mac mini comes with a 40GB drive. Are you implying that your $150 PC has a 40GB flash drive? I doubt it. So your machine doesn't have as much storage, I don't know what it has for memory, it's not quite as small, it's not quite as fast, but it was cheaper.
"Yes, it runs linux."
So does the Mac mini.
Did you manage to fit KDE or GNOME or X-Windows or something that gives you a graphical interface on your flash card to go along with linux? Does it even have a graphics card? Or do you have a computer which doesn't have the same graphics capability, doesn't have as much storage, is not quite as small, is not quite as fast, but is cheaper than the Mac mini?
Heck, I have an old HP41C calculator that I picked up at a swap meet for $5. I guess that beats out the $150 flex PC, except for the running linux part.