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Planning Car PC

Discussion in 'Modding' started by DarkLord7854, 22 Dec 2008.

  1. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    So I've been toying with the idea of building a car PC, I don't want to buy gauges and crap for stuff I can directly pull from the car's main computer, not only that but I want to add in a GPS as well so I could have everything I need all on one screen with potentially the ability to record the data being displayed. It'll also double as my music player, am tempted to add a cellular interface to it so I can stream internet radio on the go, but that might come later.

    I'm currently still in the hardware planning stages, since I need something relatively low-power and compact, but I want it to run XP or Vista.

    I was thinking of an Atom-powered base, maybe even get the XP eeePC or something cheap like that, rip it apart, add in GPS and the OBD USB adapter, create a new housing for it, and stuff it in my trunk, wire up a touchscreen LCD in the front of the car that's easily concealable so some idiot doesn't smash a window to steal it.

    This way I don't have to really mess with parts and putting something together with low heat.

    I'd go off of this:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220441

    Screen:

    http://www.logicsupply.com/products/70atpc_of

    or

    http://store.mo-co-so.com/index.php...ducts_id=128&zenid=sef9pdsfkgq48oiu8ir99pqb16

    I have no clue which to get, but I can get the GPS last as I think that'll be the least of my problems:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2042830358 1294545180&name=GPS Receiver

    OBD connector:

    http://tunertools.com/proddetail.asp?prod=ST-421201


    So... thoughts? Suggestions? Disses? (j/k on that last one :p)

    UPDATE

    Project Log started: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=162002
     
    Last edited: 23 Dec 2008
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  2. mirciu

    mirciu What's a Dremel?

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    you should check ebay for screens, you can have either lilliput or xenarcs. or go to mp3car.com and check their store. or their forums. you will find a wealth of knowledge . you can buy an intel atom mini itx board, get a m4 atx power supply or an opus 320w and you should be golden. they have battery protection and startup/shutdown controllers builtin
     
  3. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    Wouldn't those draw a bit more power though? I'm trying to keep power consumption at an absolute minimum.
     
  4. mirciu

    mirciu What's a Dremel?

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    it depends on what battery you have, but you can check out the maximum draw of the motherboard (it has on board graphics) add that of the lcd you could do aswell with an opus 180
     
  5. tominated

    tominated What's a Dremel?

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    might wanna look at mp3car.com. I am making a car pc (completely in dash - no computer in the boot) and the guys there have been my inspiration and help with the project
     
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  6. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    I'll be adding a bluetooth dongle and wireing up a microphone, might be able to route calls from my phone through to the computer microphone and car speakers
     
  7. tominated

    tominated What's a Dremel?

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    a lot of car pc front ends have that ability built in. If they don't there is usually a plugin for it
     

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