Scratch Build – In Progress RX8-CarPooter - July 27th 2009 - Software: WIP. Hardware: Nearly done.

Aight so I'm going to be stuffing a computer into my RX8. This is my first project log, so bare with me.

Basically I want to at least achieve the following:

- Play music without worrying about battery life
- Use GPS to navigate to/from places and locate myself
- Read car computers' data, RPMs, MPGs, Throttle, etc etc etc
- Route phone through the car speakers, will be hooking up a microphone obviously
- Record both back and front of car

Pics of RX8:

Hi-res: http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car1.jpg
(The gay little windbreaker is long-gone, pic is a few months old)


Hi-res:http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car2.jpg

I've got some gear on the way:

- OBD2 connector
- 160W PSU - autostarts with car, and shuts down with car
- GPS dongle
- Case
- 7" Lilliput touchscreen

I haven't decided on what cameras to use nor how to hook em up, will worry about it later.

The rest I'm going to improvise with a shuttle computer I have on hand.

Current gear:

-Shuttle motherboard
-E2180
-2Gbs OCZ DDR2-800 (will probably only put 1gb)
-Lightweight Vista Ultimate install (I've tripped it down already)
-Bluesoleil (phone interfacing)


I know it's not much, but I wanted to get something up so I would remember.

I'll get pictures of where I want to route everything through tomorrow, as well as pics of the current shuttle computer.

 

rx8! keeping an eye on this. (mainly because your putting a PC in a ROTARY engined car)

 

Sweet, looks like this could be good, I love the idea of a car-puter!

 

Cool idea. I'll be watching this one!

 

how much of the dashboard you ripping out?

 

Nice car, got a feeling it'll look a lot nicer in a while

*subb'd

 

Nice car !

 

Sort out your pictures please - too big.

 

Look just fine on my laptop.

 

I thought the whole point of the new image resizing thing was so it wasn't necessary?

Edit: Images fixed up to make Bindi happy

Part of the center dashboard will be coming off and the entirety of the center console.

Once I get the screen I'll start to figure out where to put it, but I'll start running wires this weekend and going to rip console out tonight to see how much room I have to play with, should be enough.

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Here's a list of parts on the way:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004Z5IZ - Microphone (will more than likely either paint it black, or rip it apart and integrate stealthily)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PKX2KA - GPS

http://store.mp3car.com/M2_ATX_160W_Intelligent_DC_DC_PSU_p/pwr-015.htm - PSU (very simple to plug in, keeps battery from being drained, turns on/off with ignition)

http://www.scantool.net/elmscan-5-usb.html - OBD2 to USB (this will be routed through the center console)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=200275953621 - Screen (not sure how to mount this one yet either, will figure it out once I get it and can hold it up at different angles to see what suits me, it will be removable, I don't want to give anyone a reason to smash my windows in)

I'll most likely need a bunch of extender cables (USB, 3.5mm, Serial), but for now this should do

I haven't decided on a case yet, I'll be using the shuttle's current enclosure for testing purposes until I figure out just where I want to put the comp. I'm 99% sure I'll stuff it into the truck, just not sure how yet.

I've been trying out some carputer software, Centrafuse, lookin to see if anything else is worthwhile.

Will have more pics tonight

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I'll be ordering "dash cams" sometime soon as well, I'm thinking of getting some cheap webcams and just ripping them out of their enclosure and make them harder to spot from the outside, or at least look like they're really cheap.

 

Thank you for the pics! We don't mind big, but super duper size is crazy.

I want to watch this - I want one for my car too.

 

I'll do like I did for future pics, I'll have a display pic at 800 x 5XX and then a link to the humongous version

I've ordered a pair of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826606007

30FPS @ 1280 x 960 is a decent res, I'll probably use 800x600 for file size. The webcam's actual sensor look to be small, so should be perfect for tearing the plastic off and just using the sensor mounted somewhere.

I'm trying to decide on a sound card, I do enjoy rich sound and the car has a 300W Bose system, so I'm thinking of getting either an X-Fi XtremeAudio or XtremeGamer to take advantage of good quality speakers.

I'm just not sure if there's any other difference apart from the XtremeAudio not actually offloading audio processing. I don't really mind that, I just want same quality as the Gamer version. Any thoughts on that?

 

The promised pics of car + comp

Here are the pics I said I'd add for the console, didn't get too much time to really take pieces off, will look into removing the center dashboard tonight and take pics.

Does anyone know what form factor Shuttle motherboards are?

#1

Hi-res: http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car3.jpg

That's the current shuttle PC, I'll be pulling out the video card and the TV-Tuner currently in there obviously, the motherboard has a VGA and DVI port.


#2

Hi-res: http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car4.jpg

That's the center console I'll be routing everything under, it goes from the front all the way to the trunk, so it's perfect for this.


#3

Hi-res: http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car5.jpg

You can see directly into my trunk here


#4

Hi-res: http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car6.jpg

There's power cabling halfway through the console, so I won't have to stretch power cables that far


#5

Hi-res: http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car7.jpg

Plenty of room here to route cables neatly


#6

Hi-res: http://www.tech-burrow.com/bittech/car8.jpg


I accidentally dropped one of the screws for the console into the e-brake well

So yea, any thoughts about that sound card? I might just get the Gamer one to be sure.

 

Shuttle PCs have their own form factor, they usually fit in mATX cases (with a little work ), but they're not a recognised standard dimension

 

Hmm alright, so I should be safe with a mATX case? Cool, thanks.

Case is now ordered and on the way:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154087

 

Shuttles are a custom flexATX form factor iirc.

 

This is one I'll be watching. I want to add a computer to my IS-250 once its out of warranty

 

AFAIK this doesn't void the warranty. Since I'm not actually modifying anything, just tacking on

They can't legally void your warranty unless they can prove 100% accurately that X-nonstock part caused problems/failures.

 

your systeme won't fit in the new case because of the expansion slots

but very nice idea i will also watching your mod

 

Which expansion slots? There won't be any add-on cards except maybe the Xfi, but I'll ditch the backplate for a low-profile one if I do get an Xfi in there