Car project - car-puter

squarehead94

squarehead94

squarehead94

Associate
Joined
25 Nov 2011
Posts
1,355
Location
Cumbria, United Kingdom
Evening all, so after much planning, I think the nexus 7 incar media centre is a no go, seems too difficult. however, I've though of something else, something much cooler :P
In car computer. Either raspberry pi, or a fully fledged Micro ITX system. I was thinking of buying this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2DIN-IN-D...shboard_Installation_Kits&hash=item19d61c77e3
I know coming from china you may think its tat, but the monitor is genuinely decent, samsung 7" up to 1080p res, and its an all in one kit, as far as i know you can even put a micro itx based pc inside that box and hook it all up. I have a Zotac Zbox ID12 currently, I cant find out anywhere whether this is a micro itx system though. they are tiny. if it isnt, an oldish intel based micro itx system will be good enough and cheap enough (under £60 for full thing) and I'd consider windows 8 on it, and see if i could fit a tiny ssd in there, a 1.8" will probably be best. if a 2.5 would fit in there, bonus as these are readily available and cheap. 60gb is 38 quid.
Basically, I'm just looking for advice, does anyone have a car-puter, and what do you guys recommend? a micro itx system will probably be used to run windows tbh, id look at windows 8, being fast, and good for touchscreen, this would be an ideal setup. or a good linux touchscreen distro. Heck, if i can get android on it, it would be mint as I can run all my apps then, but windows would be badass for having an actual pc in the car.

Anyone got a carputer in a double din bay and got any recommendations or input? i'd appreciate it.

Thanks

stephen
sorry for external link, but this is a product not sold by OCUK, and I cant see it anywhere else, if its against rules fair enough, its a 2DIN IN DASH 7" Samsung HDMI Touch Screen Monitor Mini ITX USB kit.
 
Last edited:
A Car Puter always seems like such a good idea - right up until 2 weeks after you fit it, the novelty wears off and you realise all you actually want, or would ever use in a car, is a decent media system with navigation capability. All the extra stuff is gimmicky and you simply don't use it when driving.

Save the hassle and buy a decent audio/nav system instead thats designed for car use.
 
yeah, im kinda realising now itll be a bit of a ballache when i just want to jump in the car press one button and bam - radio. ive got navigation with navfree on my galaxy note - I just wanted to have something cool in the car tbh.
 
[TW]Fox;23535642 said:
A Car Puter always seems like such a good idea - right up until 2 weeks after you fit it, the novelty wears off and you realise all you actually want, or would ever use in a car, is a decent media system with navigation capability. All the extra stuff is gimmicky and you simply don't use it when driving.

Save the hassle and buy a decent audio/nav system instead thats designed for car use.
Click to expand...

Did you copy and paste this from a reply you made previously to a similar thread?
 
see im in a catch 22 as windows 8 seems dog **** for a desktop os, ideal for touchscreens or for those that want fast boot - simplistic, niche market kinda thing. with a carputer being touchscreen, itd be ideal, but i hear its pretty locked down so connectivity might not be great. also, it means I couldn't run my android stuff. I think android would be better simply because there is great nav free software, music and apps are easy to install, and i could run android off of a small device consuming less power. im just really worried about the gimmick wearing off lol
 
squarehead94 said:
but the monitor is genuinely decent, samsung 7" up to 1080p res
Click to expand...

No, it's not 'up to 1080p' at all. It's 800x480.
It may accept a 1080p input, but it will scale it down to 800x480.
That's not an unacceptable resolution for a 7" screen by any means, but it's not 1080p. Don't be fooled by the marketing.


Also, with regard to the comment about it being resistive, it may actually be better for an in car system. They tend to be a bit more durable than capacitive and you don't have to worry about how your finger hits it, ie it will respond to a finger nail, or with gloves on.
 
Last edited:
I went down the in car pc route years ago with my Audi A8. I used a 12v powered mini-itx system but I have to echo Fox's comments. It was fun for a week but after that I pulled it all out.
Far too much of a ball ache waiting for it to boot, resetting it if it crashes etc.

Get a good, modern headunit.
 
Rilot said:
I went down the in car pc route years ago with my Audi A8. I used a 12v powered mini-itx system but I have to echo Fox's comments. It was fun for a week but after that I pulled it all out.
Far too much of a ball ache waiting for it to boot, resetting it if it crashes etc.

Get a good, modern headunit.
Click to expand...

I've done the car-puter thing and would never do it again. As Rilot says, get a good head unit and possibly keep a android tablet in the glove box.
 
!bluetonic! said:
I've done the car-puter thing and would never do it again. As Rilot says, get a good head unit and possibly keep a android tablet in the glove box.
Click to expand...

I also echo this! Ended up changing to a decent head unit & amp.

Saying that, it may be different with the Raspberry PI as it is an all in 1 unit with an SD card, so no need to faff on.

You need to be pretty god to fabricate something that will fit in and look good against the dash though!
 
I remember thinking this would be a cool idea when I was about the OP's age (assuming the 94 relates to a year of birth) - so ~10 years ago. I still think it's every bit as much of a bad idea now as it was then

The android head units starting to appear on the other hand? They show promise
 
I've still got a PC in my car, but then again, I've had one in all my cars since 2001 - when the only option for having plenty of music etc was to put a PC in there.

As/when it stops working, I doubt I'll go to the effort of replacing it, and instead think about investing in a modern head unit - they've come on leaps and bounds in the last few years.
 
I think there's potential for car pc's, essentially that's what the higher end manufacturer systems/headunits are after all, it's just that most people do it with cheap hardware, so screens that don't handle the glare at all well and software setups that take an age to boot or have buggy/limited functionality, and it takes skill to do it decently, both in terms of software modifications and physically integrating it into the car nicely, the first I can do, the latter not so much :p

With an ARM based Linux systems it's quite possible to get sub-1s boot times, and that's into graphical applications, but that takes knowledge of the the system and access to the source code, but you could get a basic media setup working like that if you wanted, of course there's the issue of navigation options for linux being limited at best. Android might be doable to get things like google nav but the boot process isn't very good in terms of time, but probably could be optimised to get closer to linux than it is now.

All the rest of the info you can get/display/control is of limited use really, neat/geeky occasionally but mostly just unused.

So I mostly agree with Fox, just buy an off-the-shelf system unless you really want the project aspect of it...
 
When you look at what is available off the shelf carputers don't make sense anymore from a practical perspective. I'm sure they still make interesting hobbies though!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom