Carputer

[paddymarsden]

Working on this guys:

will post more info soon, pictures say more than words

needs alot more work but will have to wait till next weekend

 

[NeX]

your laptop screen is shagged lol

looking good mate if you need any help let me know cos i am working on one that is using all kinds of stuff like ECU interface and heater control interface etc

check www.mp3car.com too if you haven't already.

what are you doing for power? as in the supply board?

 

[Arnold]

Looks good mate. I got all the bits for mine from linitx.com

 

[frank]

this place is pretty good, for mini itx stuff
http://www.icp-epia.co.uk/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=14

 

[paddymarsden]

lol thats a £10 laptop from work hence why im using it as the carputer

the screen was £31 from ebay !

i allready have all the other bits so its costing me under £50 !

yea been on mp3 car for years

 

[Hugh]

Looks rather nice. Might have to look into one for my fiat as I've got a nice double din space in the dash to play with.

 

[NeX]

lol thats a £10 laptop from work hence why im using it as the carputer

the screen was £31 from ebay !

i allready have all the other bits so its costing me under £50 !

yea been on mp3 car for years

lucky ######, what size is that screen? do you have any links for it? is it touchscreen?

 

[paddymarsden]

Nex.....believe me i was stunned when i won the auction below:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=230292545376

one reason why i won is because it finished at 10am on a sunday ! im so glad i made myself get outta bed.

it is touchscreen yes, its a liliput screen here is a link to more details and if you want to buy it new they are £140

http://www.lilliputweb.net/ts629.html

 

[NeX]

Nex.....believe me i was stunned when i won the auction below:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=230292545376

one reason why i won is because it finished at 10am on a sunday ! im so glad i made myself get outta bed.

it is touchscreen yes, its a liliput screen here is a link to more details and if you want to buy it new they are £140

http://www.lilliputweb.net/ts629.html

the dude spelt lilliput wrong hahaha, well you are a lucky ###### anyway

 

[pixieness]

What are you going to use it for?

 

[paddymarsden]

Sat Nav using autoroute or something similar
Vehicle diahnostics

But mainly a Media centre:
Music
Video (not while driving)
Games (not while driving)

Im a techie so i have access to all the equipment and can do it for well under £50

 

[pixieness]

Oh right... I see... bless :grinning:

 

[Arnold]

Mate you got a Autoroute / Windows compatible GPS receiver? I got one off ebay and it didn't work on Autoroute. Don't even know if it worked full stop actually

 

[paddymarsden]

Oh right... I see... bless :grinning:

Its quite a popular mod you know and useful.

Yes Arnold i have a TomTom bluetooth GPS and it works quite well

i just need to finish getting the software setup

 

[Arnold]

You got a bluetooth dongle or something in your set up?

 

[paddymarsden]

yup, Road Runner that im using as the front end comes with all that fuctionality built in also there are loads of plugins

Thank god for open source

 

[paddymarsden]

Update :

Still got alot of work to do on the bezel but its a working progress

 

[Retepetsir]

Looking good Paddy

 

[joesouthgate]

Looks good mate (Y)

 

[NeX]

that looks awesome i wanna see it painted

 

[paddymarsden]

cheers guys, yea it should look good painted but its a right pain to sand, its nowhere near finished.

not sure what finish i want on it yet..might just go black.

 

[NeX]

belt sander on the larger parts might make it easier

 

[pjg1979]

Nice one Paddy, great idea as well you've been watching too much Pimp my Ride, lol. I was thinking of doing the same with a PDA which my Dad no-longer uses as it comes with a wireless fold away keyboard which can fit in your back pocket.

Having a laptop in your car would there be no need for a Car Stereo?

 

[solarice]

cheers guys, yea it should look good painted but its a right pain to sand, its nowhere near finished.

I usually find, once my finger prints have been sanded off, im nearly done :laugh:

could always trim it in something to avoid the sanding though

 

[paddymarsden]

i did think of trimming it but guys....the contours are a nightmare and im not sure it would fit properly if it was trimmed.

i need to get one of those tiny tiny belt sanders but ill have to see, a big belt sander is too big and i have three other sanders that should do the job it just might take time

well in theory you dont need a head unit no but getting radio on a pc in a car is rarther difficult, so having a head unit makes it so much easier.

I will be selling that head unit soon as i dont need a dvd player anymore having a pc in my car.

 

[solarice]

yeah i could imagine getting the contours would be difficult with material...could always flock it...though it'll look cool painted aswell.

 

[paddymarsden]

yea, it actually looks good in the photos !

ive just been looking how much 'finger' sanders are and they are roughly £25 which might be worth investing in one.

 

[NeX]

have you got one of those "mouse" sanders? they might be detailed enough.

or just days of hard work and blisters lol

flocking it would look awesome actually, and it would cover up any imperfections, painting it would mean you would have to get it really perfect.

if you are selling the head unit then what is going in the headunit space?

 

[paddymarsden]

yea good point about the flocking

im getting another head unit with a rear aux input

 

[NeX]

yea good point about the flocking

im getting another head unit with a rear aux input

fair doos

i wanted to keep my head unit too because sometimes i wouldn't want the computer running or have to wait for it to boot

 

[paddymarsden]

yea and that, could allways use Hibernate though ?

i like to think of it as redundancy too.

 

[NeX]

yea and that, could allways use Hibernate though ?

i like to think of it as redundancy too.

well i have this really nice powersupply, it monitors the car's battery and if it gets too low to start the car then it shuts down the computer and isolates it (some computers leave the usb power on even when they are off) and when you switch the ignition off instead of cutting the power to the computer it does a soft shutdown or hibernate. its really good but i am still worried it may drain my battery.

my car has no locks, and when the battery dies you can't get into the car. i have a fail safe but it is a ######, and if you are in the middle of no where its impossible, so i don't want the battery being drained. tho i am working on a leisure battery system... run out of room for the battery tho lol

 

[pjg1979]

In my Micra I have a split charge relay going to 2 20ah batteries in the boot, might be an idea for you? I bought the batteries for £25.oo a piece and the cost around £7.oo. I did this so when I go to places like silverstone the extra batteries can power a fridge to keep the beers cold, but in your case to power the Carputer...

The split charge relay comes with 5 cables:

Black - Ground
Pink - Switch (I connected this to the Positive contact of the DC socket)
Light Green - Car Battery (fused)
Dark Green - Positive (Secondary Battery)
Red - Positive (Secondard Battery) you could have this to your carputer?

 

[NeX]

In my Micra I have a split charge relay going to 2 20ah batteries in the boot, might be an idea for you? I bought the batteries for £25.oo a piece and the cost around £7.oo. I did this so when I go to places like silverstone the extra batteries can power a fridge to keep the beers cold, but in your case to power the Carputer...

The split charge relay comes with 5 cables:

Black - Ground
Pink - Switch (I connected this to the Positive contact of the DC socket)
Light Green - Car Battery (fused)
Dark Green - Positive (Secondary Battery)
Red - Positive (Secondard Battery) you could have this to your carputer?

is that a low ampage trickle charge system?

i have a split charge relay somewhere, came with the towbar electrics

 

[micra oli]

luvin this project peice, amazin. keep us all poated on it, cant wait to see the finished product...

 

[Paul Smith]

What filler stuff did you use on the fibre glass?

 

[paddymarsden]

i think it was p38 body filler, i didnt have chance to do any at the weekend just gone, will try get more done this weekend and more pics up.

 

[paddymarsden]

little update, spent some time on it today, needs more filling and sanding but i put it in primer so i can see where to concentrate the filler and sand down etc...i think its starting to look pretty good

 

[jim_bling]

looking great mate will look the bees knees when its fully finnished

 

[paddymarsden]

I didnt find any time to work on it today as its FREEEZING and wet.

I still have to work on the GUI to get it spot on so will probably do that tomorrow, here are some pics of it in the car, remember its not finished yet.

 

[joesouthgate]

looks really smart mate (Y)

 

[pjg1979]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet, Excellent work there Paddy.

So your going to have a computer linked to it, will you be using Windows Media Player so you can have graphics on the screen while playing music?

 

[micra oli]

looking good, any updates?

 

[paddymarsden]

 

[richj]

How have you got on??

 

[paddymarsden]

im afraid its still like the pictures above....i had it in for a test drive and there is that annoying whine coming from the altenator so i think i may try to install a seperate batt for the ice.

I think it will be well into the new year before its finished....Good news it that ive asked people that i know if they can recognise what it is looking into the car and they cant tell its a computer/screen. That solves the theft element hopfully.

need to sort out a special holder for the laptop too.

 

[richj]

have you considered a fan less via itx board?

I recently built a computer for a yacht - needed to be powered by 12v and needed to use as little power as possible. I used one of the epia 5000 boards. Not good enough for dvd video, but as power isn't a massive concern for you, a epia 6000 board will play dvd's/run sat nav / video / etc...

I measure the 5000 board at a peak of 2amps during boot (with a 10" lcd). It idles around 1.2 ish. Thats around 2 days from a decent car battery, or over a week for the yacht. I would imagine your laptop +screen are pulling more like 4 amps?

The boards are around £20-30 if you are interested. You will also need a power supply & maybe a regulator depening on the power supply £25ish.

 

[paddymarsden]

Been working on the front end this weekend as ive finaly got Centrafuse!

Centrafuse is one of the best GUI's you can have, here is a quick screenshot.

 

[jim_bling]

thats looks mint paddy mate spot on i like it

 

[imp124]

very nice, i like the surround that it fits in, take it its all touch screen etc