Car Puter

[Pernod]

Well today I finally got one of the last peices that I need to make my Carputer a reality...

I now have an inverter, a 'radio freq based remote', a headunit with AV in, an old computer and a car...

So I was wondering if anyone else has tried to do similar?

[lamby1986]

great. when you do it, we want the pics. should be awesome.

[Cosmo Dude]

My problem is that my 929 came with a one off radio/cassette unit and it leaves an 8" wide gap to fill and most monitors are up to 7" and beyond 10".
Oh well I'm not looking seriously ATM but if I look then I will find.
I did see a van today driving 'round watching his roof mount, it wouldn't be that difficult for the cops to see that :lol: People like that need a camera on the front of their vehicl so they can be entertained by the pictures on the screen and watch the road as well. ****tard missed three green lights :roll:

[Dogo]

im planning on sticking an xbox in my car with digital 5.1 surround. does that count ?

I looked at a carputer and decided theres no way im watching windows boot every time i get in the car. its just not worth it when all I want to do is listen to music. Games and movies in a car get boring very quickly and give every1 a headache anyway.

gps might be nice but i know how to get to work and back :wink:

an xbox running xbmc with mp3s and music dvds on HD will do me just fine


good luck to ya tho! show us pics once done.

[ROB-80E]

I just got a laptop and rigged it up so that all the sound can come through my stereo when I want.

Only time I'd think about putting a system in my car that is permanent, is when I can get the internet on the rd, anytime, and it doesn't cost a fortune on mobile phone costs.

[Mazda_Brian]

You can get Unwired in Sydney and Melbourne and it's pretty resonably priced, you can also hook the modems up to the car battery, and have perminant on, internet at will, and MUCH faster speeds than dialup.

B.

[Pernod]

I must admit, the boot up time for windows is still a concern...

If I make it hibernate each time, it goes from power on to music in 15-20 sec which is as quick as I can get it, but I'm hoping to make it turn on when the alarm is beeped, so It'll be going by the time the car starts... Not sure precisely how yet though.

I'm starting with just music, but over time hope to grow it. My wish lis is a roof/dash mount screen, and an infrared camera running to it (via pc makes it easy) for further vis of people during night driving. Might take me a while to get that one going!

I'm not worried about internet, I actually work for Vodafone so my work phone does everything I could need in that respect.

X-Box is a good option, but costly(ish). All of the bits I've got I've collected over time for almost nothing (about $50 all up) :-)

The main thing is the challenge really, otherwise I'd just by a mp3 head-deck etc.

I'll post pics of the progress once I get going.

[Pernod]

Originally Posted by Mazda_Brian

You can get Unwired in Sydney and Melbourne and it's pretty resonably priced, you can also hook the modems up to the car battery, and have perminant on, internet at will, and MUCH faster speeds than dialup.

B.

Oh yeah, its called Woosh over here and its what I'm using. I love being able to just grab the laptop and modem and head wherever (cafes, etc) and keep surfing etc!

[Cosmo Dude]

Starbucks have a similar deal with TCNZ and Telstra for the WiFi hotspots, probably in most shops world wide.

I take mine with milk, no sugar and a helping of Centrino :lol:

[Pernod]

Nice, I'm an espresso type of person :-)


BTW, "TCNZ" is considered a swear word in a thread started by me ;-) lol.


Well, tonight I tested my inverter - and all was working even better than expected... briefly, but more on that shortly.

I managed to find on trademe.co.nz a really cheap inverter ($15 NZ!). THe reason it was cheap, was because its an american inverter that only puts out 115 volts.

This would be useless for most uses, although computers generally have a switch on the back that switches between 240 and 110 volts!

So anyway, I plugged it in, powered it up, oplayed around for a while - everything was going perfect.

So I brought it back inside, and decided to see if I could ge tthe sound drivers reinstalled (as I just reformatted the HD)...

I plugged it in, and hit the power switch... nothing happened?

Strange I thought, it worked fine in the car, and that was only running of 110V - I wonder why its not going now... and that was when I remembered that I hadn't swithed it back to 240V.

So Now I am the proud owner of a cooked Power Supply, and I'm in the process of bidding for a new one on trademe.co.nz...

So the Car Puter has been delayed again...

[Pernod]

Just found this link which shows a cool install in a '97 323F :-)

THought it might be of interest to people?

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...threadid=28324


And another...
http://www.cardomain.com/id/londonese

[GrimReaper]

eeeh...puter? puter in norwegian means a pillows.... :?

grim

[lamby1986]

carputer - the amalgamation (adding) of the two words car and computer. thus carputer is an in car computer.

although you may be on to something with that car pillow idea... :roll:

[GrimReaper]

hehhe, cool!

[chicaboo]

Grim,

"Computer" er kortende til "Puter" på engelsk fra av og til, eller "datamaskin" på norsk.
Oj ja, en annen ting, du har vært å si "DOCH" i siste, det er faktisk "DOHC". Jeg finnes det ganske morsomt og deilig selv om når du tar det feil i slikt som det. Hehe, men jeg ha det vanskelig med det norskespråket liksom også.

Gav.

[zerwex]

I am working on a new install at the moment. Still waiting for some parts to arrive, but it will contain:

-CarPC
-7" TFT Touchscreen
-Pioneer HU
-Cadence amps
-Cadence subwoofers
-Cadense speakers
-Xbox w/ chip & HD

The computer will have wireless network so I can transfer files to the car while parked outside. And the xbox will be in a local network with the car computer. That way I can transfer new games to the xbox without removing it from the car.

I can post some pictures when all my components arrive, hopefully in 2-3 weeks.

[lamby1986]

Chicaboo: if i interpret that correctly, do you call a computer a "datamaskin" ~= datamachine ?

[chicaboo]

That's right Lamby,

Norwegian has the most beautfil innocent nature about it. It is actually not so unusual for me to totally guess words that I don't know based on that principal. Eg: Tannlege (tooth doctor) = Dentist.
My favorite running joke in Norwegian that never gets taken very well is "soooo, what do you call a gynocologist?"...

Gav.
BTW: Datamachine is exactly how it is pronounced aswell.

[lamby1986]

woohoo, i was right, although it was kinda obvious [that much anyway]

and you call him "unlucky"

[Pernod]

Zerwex, Some Pics would be great!

I'm trying to do mine on a budget, so its taking some time, and wont have any display to start with, But I'd love to see some pics and info on how you put it together :-)