Project: Car PC

[Six6siX]

How about the picoPSU-60 WI, runs on anything between 6 and 26V.

Getting better spec wise with the wide input range. However:

-No delayed shutdown or ignition control
-No prevention of deep discharge situations
-Relatively low power output (60W) compared to M2-ATX @ 160W
-No amplifier control

Price wise, for an extra £10 or £20 (average) you can get an M1 or M2 respectively which would still do a better job and be able to cope with upgrades.

So although, yes you could use the 60WI, IMO, the PicoPSU's are more suited to indoor DC/DC applications.

 

[MarkLP]

How about the picoPSU-60 WI, runs on anything between 6 and 26V.

No, the car PSU has to regulate the volts that it allowed through it and should have the shutdown features else your going to have to disconnect the cable to the battery each time as it still draws milliwatts. Which the M2-ATX does

 

[Cyber-Mav]

could have been a lot simpler if you had used something like this:

that was my car pc, a p3 1ghz, 256mb ram, 40gig drive. had external psu with around 60w power consumption.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

After reading this, there are two things.

Firstly, on the install you've got 1 intake fan. Wont you also need another fan, or vent for the air to get out again?

Secondly, the mount looks very home made in silver. I'd have it black so it matches the screen more.

 

[Begbie]

I'm planning on doing the same when I get a new car. Planning on getting one of those little gps receivers aswell and mounting it on the back window somewhere aswell. What software you going to be using?

Looking great!

On thinking about doing this myself, how far can usb cables be run?

 

[Cyber-Mav]

usb cables i believe have a said limit of 5 meters.

 

[tigerstyle]

usb cables i believe have a said limit of 5 meters.

best get stretchy ones then

I reckon they could be pushed further, but still 5m should do most cars, I wonder if you'd see a speed reduction or complete data loss though if you went for 6/7m?

 

[Dogbreath]

You can get USB extenders to take the distance up to 50m or so over Cat5.

 

[MarkLP]

The thing is, I didn't want to spend more then I had too, which is why I used components I already had. I've spend nomore then £120 on this project which I think is quite good for what I'm getting.

 

[Glaucus]

Just won a LCD touchscreen from HK, got all the other parts. Hope it works and arrives fine *bites nails*

This threads going to be very helpful.

I'm going to install the lcd in the sun visor. out of sight and easy to glimpse at hopefully.

 

[MarkLP]

My PSU hasn't arrived yet. Hopefully will soon I go away on Saturday and want it in and ready for then

 

[[TR]SweetSpotOz]

Did you ever get this finished?

Yeah, I know, thread revival...

 

[ChoÞÞer]

just been reading this project, looks amazing! i hopefully be doing the same to my car when i get it!

 

[MarkLP]

oooh sorry, swear I updated this

Yep its all in working fine. Would prefer a different way of mounting the TFT as its abit of an annoyance i've found, ohwell!

I've had no problems at all with the hard drive (vibrations) quite surprised really as my car has 40mm lowering springs and 205/40/17 tyres.

I'm willing to answer any questions really that anyone has? Don't really know what else to say!

Mark

 

[Begbie]

Nice work, getting new car this month and this is high on one of the things to be done!

 

[agw_01]

Hmmm, I've got a P3 system lying around... tempted to do something like this. I'm always getting annoyed with scratched CDs.

Just need to find a TFT screen small enough to fit in the sun-visor.

 

[Jez]

Hmmm, I've got a P3 system lying around... tempted to do something like this. I'm always getting annoyed with scratched CDs.

Just need to find a TFT screen small enough to fit in the sun-visor.

They are available all over ebay, tbh with how worthless computer stuff is now there is little point using a crappy old system, you might as well use one capable of playing proper divx files etc smoothly without any bother.

 

[MarkLP]

i haven't had one judder with my system, which is quite surprising. You'll have to be careful what you use as the PSU is only 160w!

 

[georges]

You do, yes. There are lots of little tricks you can use to speed up booting tho (have a look at the digital-car forums that were linker earlier if your interested)
A lot of people on there have theirs booting in 20-30 secs

If they run on XP, hibernate is great.

 

[Confused]

I use mine in Standby - it's back up and running within 5 seconds.

Even with an un-optimised Windows XP installation, it still boots to the desktop in ~30-40 seconds, although that only happens on very rare occasions!