Hi guys...

Just got my 2003 TJ II AWD Sports and would really like to get:

1) Satellite navigation
2) Camera/reversing sensors
3) MP3 player

So I am thinking why not install a carputer with a touch screen DVD, with a GPS system and a front and rear camera - would be cool!

LOL and tap into the ECU too if possible - and a rad@r detector - but that would be illegal - and I never speed :badgrin:

Has anyone attempted a project like this cos any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Talk to VRX_MY02... he's done it all

and 2much started it all i htink :D

why not just get a XDA II or a Plam, they can be fitted with GPS module, and they do all the things you said..... plus, a lot simpler/cheaper to set up and you can take it around for other purposes (eg. i would take it to the lectures and watch porns all day.....)

yeah i'm looking into it atm.... goto mp3car.com and have a look there... you'll find all the infomation you'll need!!!
also check out http://www.neltronics.com.au/SmartRider%20Car%20PC.htm
This retails at around $3500AUD which is abit of a rip.. you can build a system like that for around 1700 max....

yes, i am considering it for the next car, shouldnt be too hard, just a computer with a indash screen, if i do it i will get a top end sound card though, dont wanna loose too much quality :D , but it depends on cash and wat parts i can obtain for no cost :cool:

Talk to VRX_MY02... he's done it all

and 2much started it all i htink :D
:shifty:...........:D

I did it ages ago, but like most i put in my car the fun fades and i remove it, anyway, had a micro computer under the driver seat running off a 300watt inverter, thats right 300watt. xga touch screen with winamp, white pages on cd and sydway street directory on cd.
worked pretty well for how i did it, but it got boring. all up the system cost me 700, but that was mainly the tft and software.

I also setup a computer in my Gemini :D :doubt:
Had a P120 running off a 150W inverter, interfaced to a 4x4 parallel keypad and 40x4 parallel LCD, all self programmed. This interfaced with Winamp and music was loaded via RJ45.

Might post pics later if anyone is interested.
Worked awsome, except for the boot times... but stick a decent machine in there and things will be nice.

I'm thinking of doing it again, with a dash mounted TFT, pushed by a AMD2800 with Radeon 9800. :D Might also bother with surround sound. It turns out quite cheap when you compare it to dedicated consoles... +upgradability!

$0.02.

Car PC's.. I've seen a few people look into it.. the urge faded when mp3 head units came about. They're expensive and space consuming. Also, PC parts don't really like all the vibration that comes from cars, hard drives especially.

To specfically acomplish what you're after though..

1) Satellite navigation
Try something like this (http://www.ja-gps.com.au/garmin_quest_1.html) or this. (http://www.vdodayton.com/index2.aspx?nid=2&color=blue&status=n1) Not real cheap I'm afraid. This is one area the in car PC might be a winner

2) Camera/reversing sensors
A camera wouldn't be hard to setup but expensive and kind of pointless (learn to park ;)).

The one exception here might be to use the humble webcam. If you hack a webcam to remove the IR filter you can mount one on your rear bumper with a few IR LED's and you'd have rear parking sensors with nighvision capability :)

NFI how you would find proximity sensors, interface them with a PC then find approprate software for them.

3) MP3 player
MP3 headunit! They're pretty damn cheap these days. The output of most soundcards is fairly weak, you would have to amp it.

GPS / covered by your sat/navi system
DVD / Another area that would be covered by a computer, but waste of money otherwise imho :)
ECU / I think the best you could do is tap into the ODB-II interface and watch the car stats
Radar / Never seen one that 1) worked or 2) could interface with a PC

Wouldn't it be easier to get a laptop, a car charger and just mount it in the glove box, saves space, and an inverter and the hassle of having lots of wires running everywhere. And with a really really slow laptop you can just run linux and it'll be fine. so all you need to worry about is how much resources the sat nav is gonna take up.

Plus when there are dodgy people around you can just pull it out of the car in 2 secs.

I think car-puters are pretty much novelty factor too. Like, cool if that's what you want to do, but for myself... anything that has ANY connections with Microsoft ain't going NEAR my car!! Some kind of portable/dashmount gps would be ok though, but to be honest, I don't even think I'd do that! I know all the places I go pretty well! Lot of money just to be able to say I did it. But yeah, I don't mean to be negative! Good luck with it if you go ahead! :D

After seeing VRX_MY02's setup in Melb for MM04 I wanted one :D

Seriously its very very cool especially with a touchscreen, but for me personally I would rather put the money elsewhere.

But its still very good and probobly cheaper than if you were to buy a nice LCD screen with DVD these days.

I did it ages ago, but like most i put in my car the fun fades and i remove it, anyway, had a micro computer under the driver seat running off a 300watt inverter, thats right 300watt. xga touch screen with winamp, white pages on cd and sydway street directory on cd.
worked pretty well for how i did it, but it got boring. all up the system cost me 700, but that was mainly the tft and software.
an inverter?? very inefficent - your going from 14volts to 240, then back to 12?? your car is already around 12volts - exactly what a motherboard needs... you could build a power supply that will give you +12volts, +5volts, +3.3volts, -12volts and -5volts from your car's power supply... the -12 and -5 rails dont really need to be high current - and in some cases can often be left out... to get all the positive volatges, you can get varible voltage regulators - just put the right resistor to get the voltage you want - wack a heatsink and maybe a fan - you'll be set - research dc-dc convertors

i've looked into doing this... i was gonna get a mobo with onboard sounds + video, build a powersupply and then stick it all under the seat. LCD screens also use 12volts (provided it has an external powersupply) in some cases, once again - all you'll need is to wack a regulator in to filter your cars power supply and it'll power the LCD.

i looked in to dc-dc regulators... found the inverter was a much easier/cheaper option. Also, they couldn't guarentee that a dc-dc would provide a smooth supply.

But on the other hand, im sure there is a way, and yes, it would b much more efficient.

There are already made 12v power supplys made for cars. Expensvie though. But i guess if you are looking at buying an inverter it seems a viable option. Making your own you would have to know what you were doing because of the varying voltage of the battery.

http://www.zantech.com.au/zantech/power-supply-atx-12v-dc/

Thank you very much for all your comments.

I must say the PDA option with perhaps a nice DVD/MP3 player with inputs and a camera would be a nice option...

And I guess less boot up time - less likely to fail and less likely to get stolen...:badpc:

Hmmm - now all I need is some funds!
:roll:

If you are wanting cheap solution, quick bootup times, and dont mind having an inverter or doing some power supply modding, have a look at an xbox in car. With modchip installed boots in about 3 secs and you can wire up an lcd for $50 to display your songs. Put in a harddrive and you have got yourself quite a nice music player :D

Xbox/playstations etc can't handle vibration handling as pda's laptops and carpooooters...

Fine if your not moving, but give it some bumps and some decent 30 hz tones :doubt:

On the other hand, I reckon it would be worthwile if you could easily remove/install it. So if you wanted to throw it in there you could, otherwise just leave it in the bedroom.

Peace

Tim

Say you were to go and put an X-Box in your car, would there be an option to absorb the shock in some way? Foam or something to encase it maybe? I dont know, just curious. :badgrin:

Seeing that an xbox basically is a computer (with a dvd drive, harddrive etc) it can stand whatever a carputer can stand. Heaps of people have done it. Bit of shock absobing wouldnt go astray if using the dvd drive but you would most probably be boot mounting it and just ftping your music on to the harddrive.

You could house it in foam spl styles

Carputers use shock resistant hard drives like laptops

No reason why you cant put one of these in an xbox ;)

I'm gonna stick by my iPod and stacker me thinks :)

Yes an Xbox is essentially a computer anyway. Your critical component is the hard drive. DVD/CD-ROM doesn't work too well on the road, so if you're planning on loading a DVD, do a CD rip to the hard drive first before driving on.


I've got some extra tips for those wanting to go the carputer route. Having a lot of memory and creating a RAMdrive will permit the hard drive to work easily. So I guess each time you load up an album it will copy the mp3 (or watever format you like) to the RAMdrive therefore the hdd can go to sleep again until it is needed. Even better would be to have a "liveCD" Operating System setup where it copies runtime system files to your RAMdisk and set temp directory to the ramdisk as well, and then don't forget about dealing with virtual memory. This way the hard drive is not required except for loading purposes.

I've also thought about using USB drive keys, but I think they could be a tad too slow, but hey experiment is the key!

I'm gonna stick by my iPod and stacker me thinks :)

iPod is the easy way :)

I've found the stacker useless, at times I just want to play a CD which isn't in my car. So an iPod with all my albums would be extremely nice :0

However as with the carputer, you can do many other things with that, like GPS and weather tracking :)