I was considering adding a carputer to my truck then I relized, I live in Phoenix Arizona During the summertime the ambient temputures in my truck can reach 120-130, hot enough to melt some plastic (My old N64 partialy melted) The cooling system would have to run even when my truck is off and parked and would also have to cool the entire chasis. It can't use a whole lot of power as it wouldnt be fun to have my battery die every day . Anyone have any suggestions?
Sorry got to make a stupid suggestion here. Get one of those incar-fridges, then stick a shuttle in it, should keep it cool. Yes stupid, but may inspire a sensible answer from someone else.
run a duct from the window directly into the comp as an intake? you would need to rig up a powerful fan to use that setup when the truck is parked though.
Lol, never thought of putting a Shuttle in there, however, it won't work. Fridges are designed to cool stuff, which does not produce heat by itself. They are not powerful enough to cool a whole computer. IMO though, you could run a computer even at those high temperatures, just have some big fans sucking and blowing into the case. You won't need them on when parked as a hardware can be stored at those temperatures. Just keep it out of the sunlight. The idea with ducting the A/C into the computer is also very good.
take a look over at www.mini-itx.com that form factor would be perfect for a carputer, especially since they have comercial power adaptors for dc-dc for a car application. power usage of 60 watts or less, and some boards are even fanless. the ac ducting would be good, you'd just have to make sure not to use the duct in the winter(heater). sound like something you can use?
yeah, get one of those really low voltage chips and change out the heatsink for something beefy. Then set up a system so that you have a switch when the heat is turned on (presumably only when it is cold out ) it sucks air from outside. WHen the AC is turned on (presumably only when it is hot out ) get some air from that. Should be fine.
Thanks guys, I like the ducting Idea, ill look at the idea of attatching to my A/C. Probaly going to be mounting the computer inside of my glove compartment, i have a 91 Dodge Dakota. The glove compartment is useless anyways ( its slanted at a 45 degree angle so anything you put in it falls out whoever designed it should be shot) I'm thinking your right Me!$ster after looking around online for a few minutes even the lower temps supported by cpus are around 150 degrees (~65 Celsius). Board i think im going to be using is one of these Nano ATX Boards, 12cm by 12cm... smaller then a hard drive and can get up to 1gighrtz cpu speed and 1 gig of ddr400 ram =P. Specs are here. http://www.viaembedded.com/product/epia_N_spec.jsp?motherboardId=221. It's basicly made for Media Center PC's. Now to design and wait for the board to come out =P
most of your solid state components have no problem with storage temps under 120C, which is quite generous and well above the 130F you might achieve in a car cabin. how about leaving the windows open a bit - if someone wanted to steal your truck or its contents, a closed window isn't gonna slow them down. as far as power??? Are you planning on running the computer while the truck is off? If you have room, wire another battery into your electrical system, or upgrade the one you have ... I have a big 'ol 1200CCA battery in my caprice - the book recommends one just a bit more than 1/2 that
I'm in South Louisiana, and I don't have a problem. I did find that inside my dash was a pretty cool place for the computer to be.
Carputer is the first thing on the agenda when i upgrade my car next year. If you go ahead with it, please post a log! I'd love to see how it goes.
darn, im 23 and was thinking of doing something like that when i get a car, but then looked at my thermometer and its like 100 outside, i live in scottsdale, az
If you aren't going to open your glove box so much, you could probably put some insultation, like mylar, in there to keep the heat out. ...Assuming you will use a duct.
