Car PC/Mac

[biggles]

Hi all,

Anyone else here contemplating putting a regular computer into his 75/ZT? Or if you have done it already maybe there's room for improvement?

Being ab IT guy myself this is something I have been thinking about doing for some time. I also like Macs, so if there is anything going into the car it should of course be a Mac.

However, my Mac affinity is mainly for home use only - in my work I mainly work with windows, Linux and other Unix systems so I just might have some
insights there as well.

/Erik

[mantianak]

I've been slowly working on a car pc. There's some interesting sites to look at.

http://linitx.com/
http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/
http://www.minipcuk.com/
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects.asp <-- expensive p&p (even for a connector!) but great examples and ideas.
http://linitx.com/product_info.php?products_id=917 <-- psu made for a car
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=25#p2406 <-- Even displays can be used

So far I have a Commell motherboard (http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/SBC/LV-670-LVDS.HTM)
2.4GHz pentium
512mb
40gb 2.5" drive
DVD writer.

There's a lot that can be done with car pc's. I'm not sure if linux or windows would be better in a car, what do you think?

[biggles]

Just now I am in the designing and parts collecting phase of the project. This is the design specification so far:

Hardware:

* Apple iBook G4 (1 GHz) with dead display. Reinstalled OS X 10.4 on the system disk using another Mac and installed VNC server. Booted up the iBook on the new system and configured the graphics vi VNC to mirror the internal display to the external VGA port. I decided to retain the original ibook case complete with keyboard and trackpad for ease of manageability but I will have a go at removing the display panel and drilling some ventilation holes in the lid to avoid cooling problems.

The only real worry with the iBook setup is that the nature of its laptop tuned ATI Radeon 9200 will cause it to refuse the custom 800x480 resolution timings for the typical 7" in-car TFT. I'll see if there is some dealer in the vincinity that might have one to try with.

Using a laptop complete with battery gives some bonus features - you can actually just cut the power to it when switching off the ignition and the use the regular power management timers to have it go to sleep and eventually shutting down. No need to worry about the computer draining the car battery!

* FM Radio: The only solutions for the Mac seems to be the Griffin Radio Shark http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/radioshark/. According to an articel on http://www.macvroom.com the Shark can be gutted, placed in a better box and connected to the regular car antenna. No RDS though and the software is far from adapted for in-car use, but there seems to be a good possibility to cook your own control hack for it.

* Audio interface: Here I am not at all sure what to do. I have the Harman Kardon stuff in my car which requires high level input. If I can live without a fader function, I can simply connect a simple power amplifier to the headphone jack of the iBook and wire it to the HK amp.

I hope I am correct in the assumption that I really do not need a high current superduper amplifier if it only is to be connected to another power amp? Do I need the same power rating out of that power amp as that from my current Symphony unit?

* Display. There seems to be a plethora of 7" touch screen displays out there and there seems to be plenty of room in the center console with the Symphony removed. But how do I make/where do I buy a bezel that makes the installation at least look a little bit classy?

* Control interface. There is of course the possibility of using a touch screen but the proposed media center software (Apples Front Row) doesn't seem to support it (or at least I don't think so). However there are some excellent media remote solutions that might be used. Steering wheel control would be nice if one could manage to build an interface for it.

Software:

* Apple iTunes for Music playback, controlled via the front row software.

* iTunes library can be Rsync'd via WLAN

* Various hacks.


Quite some project really, but the only real problem as far as I am concerned is the bezel for display mounting.

Opinions anyone?

/Erik

[mantianak]

There's some other posts about the bezzel facia.
http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...read.php?t=508

I think some people are chipping in to buy bulk as they are really expensive. There's a picture of one I've custom made (mark 1).

What kind of display do you have?
Audio and picture wont be a problem for me as my monitor has serveral inputs for both. I'm sure most displays do.

Audio jack from carputer -> display unit -> amp in boot -> speakers

Video RVA output form motherboard -> display RCA input (phono)

Hope this helps.
I'm away for a few days so look forward to reading peoples thoughts on this when I get back.

[biggles]

Originally Posted by mantianak

There's a lot that can be done with car pc's. I'm not sure if linux or windows would be better in a car, what do you think?

I think that Linux probably has more tweakability potential, but as usual some application support might be lacking. I personally feel more comfortable doing hacks with Linux.

For my car project I would like to try a Mac though and that is mainly because I want seamless integration for my iTunes based music library and because it has a pretty nice media center front end built in. Aside from that, the choice of Mac is probably not one that would save work.

[biggles]

Originally Posted by mantianak

There's some other posts about the bezzel facia.
http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...read.php?t=508

I think some people are chipping in to buy bulk as they are really expensive. There's a picture of one I've custom made (mark 1).

What kind of display do you have?
Audio and picture wont be a problem for me as my monitor has serveral inputs for both. I'm sure most displays do.

Audio jack from carputer -> display unit -> amp in boot -> speakers

Video RVA output form motherboard -> display RCA input (phono)

Hope this helps.
I'm away for a few days so look forward to reading peoples thoughts on this when I get back.

I was thinking more in the lines of using a pure display rather than a full-fledged double-DIN HU. Something like this:

http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/44

The advantages of this approach would be:

* VGA input (or DVI if I get a DVI equipped Mac/PC instead of the old iBook), rendering better image quality. Having a higher resolution desktop scaled and processed to composite or S-video PAL usually results in a noticeable degradation in quality.

* Pointing device input. I don't believe a can get mouse/digitizer information passed on from the HU to the computer or can I?

* Complexity. If possible I would like the computer to handle all aspects of the operation of the system. Adding a full HU would add a management layer on top of the computer interface.

The disadvantages are of course obvious as well.

* I do need to come up with an amplifier solution. Something like this might do the trick? http://www.electronickits.com/kit/co.../ampl/k143.htm

* I need to implement the FM receiver.

* If there is a working bezel for double DIN available I don't need to put a lot of effort into a custom one for the display.

[biggles]

Oh, I forgot:

* I am on a budget here. The double DIN HU:s I have seen so far have had rather hefty price tags.

[Keith]

Done it already using CarX over my Hi Line Bordmonitor using a Compaq Laptop

http://carx.dl.am/

[biggles]

This looks kind of interesting for fitting a 7" screen to the 75:

http://store.mp3car.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=72

If one looks at this PDF

http://www.mp3car.com/products/BMW_B...CsTc_bezel.pdf

describing how to fit a 7" Xenarc display to that bezel it seems as part of a PCB protudes downwards a cm or so at the bottom of the bezel and placed in a 75 that would possibly mean that it intrudes into the space of the AC control unit.

Is there room to spare on the top of the AC control unit or could there be a problem getting the stuff to fit? I haven't yet removed my HU to have a peek.

Am I also correct assuming that one has to modify the mounting details to fit the 75?

/Erik

[Keith]

Yep completely useless mouting are in the wrong place, fitted Xenarc will foul the ATC panel and all the switch functions on the xenaarc are lost

$250 for a piece of plastic!! where are these people dreaming these prices up from