As for easy contol, why not hack the now almost commonplace "Media Control" interface on keyboards? I've got a Logitech Cordless keyboard and the media contols are great, there's stop, play etc etc etc.... you could take this bit out of the keyboard, and if your lucky chop out the rest of the keys.
......aaaaaaand this first spam post in this topic! j/k!! i didn't (fully) realize how great bit-tech was until the forums went down . and this topic has been great about keeping on topic too. thanks for the compliments to us linear! /me downs down to linear oh, and linear, are you still planning on doing yours? i've been looking for ya in the chat room some, but haven't seen ya..... and phat, i was thinking about that, but i still kinda like the 15 button controls for that winamp plugin because it's designed SPECIFICALLY for win-amp and can launhc winamp, etc, plus each of the 15 buttons can actually do about 3 different things so that's about 45 functions right there. (plus, i've read about keyboard hacking, and you've got to map out nearly every key to find the ones you actually want to use, which could become very time consuming)
Why thank you! OK, few things. I've been away from this thread a little bit sicne i know squat about amps for cars and stuff but, i know that on most cars, someplace there is an "option" plugin for a extra device, ie: cd-changer that dont come standard. on my moms Volvo, there are ports hidden deep in the car for a tv input, cd changer, mini-disc, and other things. Even if you ahve a (sorry) crappy system, im sure SOMPLACE there will be ports for a cd-changer. Might want to try and find em... And, someone said about a HUD with an old lcd... Hope your not planning on having visulitations going while your driving!! *CRASH!* And if your just gonna use a simple LCD from MO or someone, make sure in the back, or someplace, you can still access the vga port. If somehting goes wrong, you want to be able to get home, plug in a screen, and still get to windows...
green soda, it's definitely a crap system i've got (hence, the reason for this project! ) but now that you mention it, the higher models of my car came with a cd player in them, but they were below the same radio/tape player that i have, so my radio must have those ports you're talking about (though i'll probably still eventually upgraded to a nicer cd player, especially since not even the tape part works - just the radio . i'm gonna need to pull it out of my car to look at it. <secret>i don't know poop about amps and stuff either </secret> actually, i WAS gonna use an old lcd, but decided against because i WOULD get distracted, and my parents would kill me as far has keeping the vga port "accessible", i'm gonna try to wire everything up so i can easily disconnect all cables so i can take it in the house if need be, but i also plan on (eventually) having wireless networking in it so i can just access all the files on my main rig and add more songs, playlists, etc. about using an amp's rac inputs versus a cd player's inputs: on the cd player, you simply change the source (i.e. set it to aux instead of radio or cd) and then you can listen to the pc's mp3s. but how do you do it if it's connected through th eamp instead? </audio n00bin3ss >
alll right: i just made a quick trip to wal-mart to see what they had and here's what i've come up with: i'm going to try to use an inverter. this one says it's built to help avoid the common static problems people have when putting a pc in their car. in case there's still static, i may pick up one of htese babies to get rid of any other static. amp-wise: i'm not sure about this part. what i need to know is what's the difference between a 2 channel, 4 channel, and even 5 channel amp? is that referring to the number of speakers in your setup? head unit/cd player-for now, i'm going to try to just use the *poopy* radio i've got for now, then upgrade later (haven't picked on which one i'll upgrade to yet though) i'll worry about the other parts (lcd/vfd, wireless NICs, etc.) later.....
Lovah may have inadvertadly answered the control question with a post in project logs, this acctaully looks perfect for use in car - http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/
i think(some one correct me if im wrong...)that the channels means how many "tracks" you want. A simple amp will have 2 channels, ie:Left and right. some of the nicer ones though can have a HT type effect with 5 channels (front L/R, center, rear L/R). I think that you can connect multiple speakers to each channel, but im not sure. Ask the guy there! Not that he'll know anyhting about it, but you might get lucky!
yeah, I could be wrong about this too, but I think channels is the number of positions of the speakers, like 5.1 is front center, front left and right, rear left and right and a subwoofer, the .1 is either the sub or the front channel, can't really remember, but an amp works the same way. as for an LCD, I would recomend a small 5 inch LCD if you have the money, believe it or not you'd be lot less distracted with that, if you can see what you are doing, you can get it done a lot faster than just fiddling around with a controller or a knob trying to do something that you can't really see happening. Some states have different laws and all, but most states don't allow for an LCD that is angled toward the driver, or at least one that is intended for the driver, they generally won't pull you over for it, but if they do pull you over they can site you for it. My LCD has a rocker switch wired into it, when I get started I just set everything up the way I want it, switch the LCD off and giddy up, rarely do I ever fool with it after that, but if I do need to I just mess around at a stop light. also, the inverter you saw at wal mart is not a bad inverter, I have two of them for running stuff like drills and the like, you need to be careful with the resistance on it though, use nice thick wires for a long distance, even though they have fuses as big as the ones in my house, I've burned out two of them just by frying a lead right on the PCB, but wal mart is great about replacing them, even if you tear the package open and mess it up yourself. by the by, cheers for the compliment, it means a lot to me being as I'm a new member and all.
Small LCDs are quite expensive mind, often well over £250, £300... Anybody think of a method of installing a normal 15" TFT and somehow masking it so you only see a few inches of it? (Would only work if you write the UI software to work with it too obv)...
what i would do is have a standard head unit with pre outs connected to a half height eq set int he dash with a source selector on it plug the head units pre outs into the eq, plug the pc into the eq as well this give you 3 outputs for the frequencys sub (sent to a sub amp) mid (send ato a amp & se this up for the mid range speakers in yoru car) high (set this up correctly & you have a output for you tweeters) much nicer soloution
the lcds i'm talking about using are like the kind that connect to your serial port (they're similar to a vfd). here's an example and about the channel stuff, the info on this amp kinda helps explain it (somewhat). it's a 4 channel amp and it says that it "Can be used for 4 speakers, 2 speakers and a subwoofer, or 2 speakers ".
I thought I'd throw my 2 bits in on this one. Right now I use an old Thinkpad for my system. I use it for work, so it's always in the car with me anyway. I've got an inverter (also from Wal-Mart) to power it. The noise from the inverter depends on your car system as well. In my old crappy car, all I hear is static. In the mini-van, I can't hear a thing except for the fan that's in it. In terms of getting the signal to the speakers, I'm just using a tape adapter that you would normally hook up a discman with. Just pop the tape in, and plug it into the speaker-out on the Thinkpad. It's even cheaper than buying an amp, but an amp will definetely be a part of my next system I actually make. Once again, as with the inverter, I'm not getting the same audio quality I'd get from a really good car stereo, but I've only spent about $40-$50US to get it working, so I got what I paid for. On the subject of amps, channels refer to the number of outputs the amp has. A 2 channel amp will have 2 physical connections for speakers, 4 channel will have 4, etc. You can wire more than 1 speaker on each channel, the # will depend on your amp. With 1 speaker, your amp is running them @ 4 ohms, 2 speakers/channel gives you 2 ohms. Most amps are stable @ 2 ohms, the higher end ones will go to 1 or even .5 ohms. As for control, you've certainly got lots of choices. One cool option I've used is my gamepad/joystick. Someone probably already mentioned this (i tried to read all 3 pages, but i might have missed it)but Winamp has a joystick plug-in, so your direction pad controls <- and ->, and the buttons control start/stop. Mounting a keypad in a custom console would be my first choice when I start mine. I have a question about displays. I know places like earthlcd make pci adapters for lcd's, but do they work with all lcd's, or just the ones they sell? Could I rip out my 12.1" from this Thinkpad and hook it up to my pc, or is it all proprietary? I could always buy a 5" lcd, but when you have a 12" screen for free....it's hard to justify. Any ideas?
If you have all th stuff needed to run the TFT, I'll pass on the HUD idea I had since your probally closer to realising it than I am. The control aspect is tricky, but I'll talk to somone and see if he wants to share some insight. As for the amp, cars traditionally haven't followed in the path of home theature. The channels are usally for front and rear with a 4 channel system so that the front and rear passagers can have different volume levels. The 5th channel is usally for a subwoofer. They can get even fancier with things like bridging, more sub channels, or even extra channels for 'regular' speakers. But I had another thought on an approach to piping in the music. Some external CD units come with a couple options to get the music into the system. There are those head units that simply do NOT support any extra inputs. The CD units get around his by having a box that plugs inline with your antenna nad creates an FM modulated signal for your radio. Because it is plugges inline, there is no worry of interference as more wattage can be pumped throuhg a wire than through air Also, these usally have good sound quality. These are not the cheapy, crappy things you can buy at an audio store that you plug into a portable audio device, and it creates an airborne signal. This is an (expensive) example of one.
But what about the new nicer cars with the LCDs built into them (im talking Mercades, BMW, and Lexus here...). Those are DESIGNED to face the driver. Although they ahve a different meaning, it could turn into a display for a PC. A state cant ban a feature in a car. Im sure if he gets clever enough (assuming you use a REAL lcd), you can make it look like it SHOULD be there.... And when i was talking about the channels, i wasn't talking about HT, but SIMILAR to it. Like what Splynncryth said, there typicaly (even on cheap cars) are 4 channels, for Fader (front/back) and Balance (left/right). The nicer ones will also have room for subs and extra speakers.
all right: first of all, i just wanna thank everyone for helping me out so far! ya'll (yes, i just said ya'll) have been a big help so far. i'm hoping to (officially) start this project soon, but i've realized im going to need a job to be able to do it where i'd be happy with it. so i'm going job-hunting tomorrow (wish me luck!! ) but i HAVE been working some on this project already (nothing major though). right now i'm trying to deal with the boot-up/shutdwon times. at first i had windows xp, but someone said they had win98 stripped down running on theirs, so that's what i did. the nice thing i found is that with winxp, it took a while to shutdown, but with win98, simply hitting the power button turns the pc off IMMEDIATELY without screwing anything up. start up time is 57 seconds (i timed it! ) but i hope to get it even further down via 98lite micro which can get it to 19 seconds (according to their site) i think if i can get my hands on a nicer hard drive, that might help too (wouldn't it?) (i also heard disabling usb in the bios helps boot time?) i'm also planning out the controls/lcd placement (i'll get a sketch up sometime soon i hope). quick (opinion) question though: lcd or vfd - which one should i get?
Just a thought as i'm also looking into putting a PC in my car when i get one instead of using a 15" tft and wasting all of that space why not use one of these http://www.cctvstuff.co.uk/tft.htm happy modding EDIT: You'll need a video out though so that'll probably meen something like a G400 or something (I think they have video out, correct me if i'm wrong)
Personally i'd go for the VFD, not only because i have one and think it's great but because it isn't affected by light as much as an lcd due to it making it's own light and not just manipulating the ambient light
Whould that also apply to a HUD tupe of deal? The basics of a HUD are simply to reflect an image off of somthing transparent. The resulting virtual image looks like it is floating somwhere.
This thread (and a few other things) pushed me to finally do this. I had a old 550mhz Laptop sitting around. I removed the screen connectors and rotated it about 90 degrees and put it in the middle of the font seat under the dashboard. Installed win98 (its has a 5 gig HDD so it leaves me about 4.5 gigs for music/movies/whatever). I have a USB network adapter that I use when I want to transfer stuff over. I went and bought a mini keyboard from Frys, works nice keep it in the back of the passanger seat, and the only person who uses it is whoever is sitting in shotgun. In the process of install a IR reciever so I can use my Remote with it. Winamp boots up with windows, auto loads a playlist and starts playing. Boot up time is slow, but I just hibernate it and coming back from hibernation is like a 2 sec boot up. I also use one of that tape adapters from walmart it works fine, has long has I don't have the cord next to the power cord, or I will get some static. I'll start a project log tomorrow when I can take some pictures and stuff.
98 boot time: To make 98 (or any vr. of winblows) startup faster in a setting like this, where you will only be using one app, you can change the shell to somthing other then explorer.exe This WILL NOT load the taskbar, or your desktop icons, but will open up any other programs. This could prob get your startup time to be about 20sec or less. Windows will still be up, (ie: mouse, and desktop, and you can still work with windows), but it gets rid of some of the things that 98 is famous for slowing down in boot times. Also, you can get rid of all the start up things using msconfig. If you want steps for any of these, or more info, say so, i check this thread all the time. Hope you get the funds to make this work!
