PC in a car

davkav

Ok prob a stupid question but has anyone tried putting a home PC into a car. Spec dont have to be too high just want to be able to play dvd's and mp3's on it. Its the power thing that has me baffled. The power to the hard drives adn dvd-rom wouldnt be too hard to sort out its mainly the power to the motherboard thats really the prob, anyone any ideas or triwed something similiar that might be of some help.

quarryman

what you need is one of these. it plugs straight to the mobo and is powered by the cigarette lighter 12V.

You don't need a powerful setup. A min-itx board is perfect since they are small and require minimal power.

Another consideration is input. A lot of people use a touchscreeen as a mouse and keyboard is awkward if you're driving.

davkav

sweet man that's exactly what i was lookin for nice one much appreciated!!

Rew

Iv a case here that designed to fit in to a car and has all the PSU stuff integrated. It accepts an ignition sense as well to turn on and off the PC.

quarryman

for sale? I'd be interested.

Rew

Nope but you can buy one here (where we got it) price might put you off though...

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=3#p1132

The OPUS MPX.ITX.12 Mini-ITX vehicle case is designed specifically for Mini-ITX motherboards for use in a vehicle. The case is constructed of heavy gauge aluminum and can withstand the shock and vibration encountered in a tough mobile environment. The case comes with cables, mounted dual PCI riser card and a mounted 2.5in hard drive adapter.

The DCX3.1209 DC-DC 90W vehicle power supply is included, and has programmable circuitry to protect your battery and computer, and will gracefully put your PC to sleep when the ignition is switched off.

Dimensions: 343 x 235 x 73mm (13.5" x 9.25" x 2.9"); Built in 90W vehicle power supply 7.5-18V input; 2 PCI Slots (Riser included); Slimline Optical Drive supported (slimline ide adapter required); 2.5" laptop sized hard drive supported (adapter included); Motherboards supported: VIA EPIA, V, M, MII, CL, PD.

£250 (GB£)

quarryman

arrggh. bit on the expensive side. I'm using a touchscreen setup in my room at the moment but was considering putting it in the car. i'll probably make a case somehow.

Rew

Some pics...





More info on the special PSU:

The OPUS Solutions SFX DC-DC smart power supply is designed specifically for vehicle PCs, and includes programmable circuitry to monitor and control various functions of the power supply operation. The SFX also kindly monitors your battery voltage to prevent against deep discharge. When correctly connected to the battery and ignition switch on your vehicle, you will be able to turn on your Mini-ITX using the ignition switch (the SFX will wait until your engine has cranked). When you switch off the ignition, the SFX will gracefully put your PC into your choice of shutdown, stand by or hibernation modes, after a programmable delay time (up to 1 hour). Switch back on again before this time is up and the shutdown will be automatically cancelled. The input power is protected against transients, load dumps and even double battery voltages during jumpstarts. Compatible with all Mini-ITX motherboards, including Insight Pentium 4 boards.

Specifications: Input Voltage Range 7.5 - 18V DC; Output +/-12V, +5V, +3.3V @ 150W; Operating Temperature Range -20°C to 65°C; Ignition/ Power switch current drain: 20 mA; 15A ATO Replaceable Input Fuse (blade type); 20 pin ATX power cable, 3 x HDD and 1 x FDD power connectors; Dimensions: 100mm x 125mm x 63.5mm.

Rew

quarryman wrote:

arrggh. bit on the expensive side. I'm using a touchscreen setup in my room at the moment but was considering putting it in the car. i'll probably make a case somehow.

You can buy the PSU for £130 but TBH your better off going the whole hog...

Id be intrested in a touch screen for the car for MP3's (no vids) but I was thinking id have to come up with a custom Linux setup with a skined MP3 player that all starts up and shuts down nicely.

You could stick a WiFi card in the machine for doing transfers between the house and the Car which would be very cool

Boro

Ugly fecker isnt it?
Just out of interest, what would you use one of those for in a car that something like a laptop wouldnt be good for?

Rew

Good question, in theory you could get a much more custom/neater job done with this unit then a laptop. Laptop isnt as easily integrated into the cars electrics as well.
Teh same site does little LCD displays for about £20-30 if you could come up with some buttons it would be alot cheaper then a touch screen...

quarryman

Rew wrote:

Id be intrested in a touch screen for the car for MP3's (no vids) but I was thinking id have to come up with a custom Linux setup with a skined MP3 player that all starts up and shuts down nicely.

a good site for a freeware option i use is www.mediaengine.org.

has shutdown options and plays most file formats etc. worth a look.

Rew

Cool.

The difernat touch screens would be intresing as well, one that fitted in to the radio bay/ISO mount and foulded away would be very cool. Iv seen screens that do it but no touch screens.

Rew

Rew wrote:

Cool.

The difernat touch screens would be intresing as well, one that fitted in to the radio bay/ISO mount and foulded away would be very cool. Iv seen screens that do it but no touch screens.

Found one!

http://www.xenarc.com/product/700IDT.html

Mantel

Go old school, go amiga. I mean who wouldn't want to play turrican or golden axe in their car!

http://home.tu-clausthal.de/~utaba/A600/A600-e.html

Rew

So the perfect in car PC:

Screen: Xenarc 700IDT ($600) €450
Case + PSU: OPUS MPX.ITX.12 Mini-ITX vehicle case (£250) €362
Mother Board: VIA EPIA MII 12000 LVDS 1.2Ghz (£125) €180
RAM: 512mb single stick €76
Optional Optical Drive: Panasonic CW8123 Slotload Slimline Combo CDRW/DVD (£69) €100
Disk: 100GB 2.5" Fujitsu €178

Thats alot of cash....

Jammer

if mad mike can power a 40" plasma from a few car batteries, then u cud power a 1.2GHZ chip fine

lomb

cheapest and neatest way to do it is buy a 2 year old laptop with a bad screen for a few hundred and stick/mount it in the boot. this can easily be powered off 12volts, and is compact, then buy a screen for passanger compartment.

lomb

Rew wrote:

Good question, in theory you could get a much more custom/neater job done with this unit then a laptop. Laptop isnt as easily integrated into the cars electrics as well.
.

i dont believe that for one second, wheres the problem get a 12 volt charger for the laptop, run the vga out to the dash from the boot and u could have a usb hub under the dash too with a booster for the cable run- for peripherals. can use a wi kboard and mouse. no probs, get a cheap laptop with a dud screen of an ebay powerseller for a few hundred and a din screen and u are good to go.

Rew

Wouldnt like to try us a keyboard or mouse to change songs or albums while driving

You may be able to power it off the 12 volts but what about powering it up and down based on the ignition?

Old laptop means your going to need a new harddisk. So you still buying a touch screen and a harddisk then doing some custom electronics to start and stop the machine. You have to come up with some custom way of securing the gear in the boot... Admitidly you may be able to do it cheaper but def not neater or easier. Teh case above looks alot like a CD changer. The prioces are high now but Mini ITX stuff is coming down in price as people start using it. You get more expansion options (DVD players, any 2 full size PCI cards + PCMCIA fom some Mini ITX boards.

lomb

there is the option of putting it into sleep mode from the keyboard. also the wake up on lan may be configurable somehow if u give a pulse to the network port so thats easy. u can get a usb external harddisk for it persumably. at the end of the day its all money. not going to get any change out of a grand either way. and if someone rips/steals ur setup u wont b a happy camper.

Capt'n Midnight

Toshiba laptops use a 15V psu, not sure if you could connect it directly to the 14.4V of the "12V" in a car - some older IBM's were similar - if you get a laptop that runs from 12V or less then you could use a voltage regulator (high power 7812 or similar or in parallel ) to keep the voltage down.

Other brands tend to use higher voltages so you would probably need an inverter. - Laptops also use lower power, thier HDD's are usually designed to take Higher g's than desktop ones too. IIRC a car altenator is something like 400W so you aren't going to be running a heavy duty PC on what is left over from charging the car battery n' lights n' stuff.

Might be worth mounting the laptop in foam or at lest the drive if you use a case to adsorb the impact of our roads. don't forget plenty of airflow.

Might be possible to mount the laptop under the passanger seat so no long cables needed - watch out for immobilisers and make certain that nothing can be seen from out side.

as for on/off synced to the ignition, until the engine is running the battery won't get above 13.8V and should be just over 14 afterwards so a simple voltage comparitor might do this..

Gangsta

I'd like to this too, iv on old pc lyin about. but how do u connect the pc to the car sound system?

Rew

Still comes down to using custom electronics and a keybord short cut every time you get in to the car. The PSU is £130 for good reason, did you read the list of things it does and protects against. Its expensive but at least everything is designed for the job so less messing about. Keyboard or mouse in the car is really discrete or convenient. If the price came dow a few hundred over all id def go for it.

Rew

Gangsta wrote:

I'd like to this too, iv on old pc lyin about. but how do u connect the pc to the car sound system?

Id say you would need an amp in the car.

Gangsta

Rew wrote:

Id say you would need an amp in the car.

got a link anyone?

Rew

Dont know much about them but im sure you could pick up abasic one cheap enough. Unless you have great speakers you dont need anything major here's one for example:

http://www.midwestelectronics.com/product_info.php/products_id/52

There's loads on EBay as well.

Gangsta

hmm....not too familiar tbh but, with wat would you connect the two together (PC and amp)? ya speakers are grand.

Rew

Take the sound card output via the 3.5mm jack and split it to RCA/phono left and right (Y splitter shape yoke, with a red and white conectors) the amp will take the red and white conectors and the speakers should clamp in to the outputs. Never had to do it though

Amp will be powered by the cars 12V.

Rew

Speaker conections on the left power on the right



RCA inputs on the left and all the settings etc on the right.

lomb

have u considered a laptop with dodgy screen powered through an inverter and placed on a sliding tray under the seat

cormie

or how about a power inverter that will give a normal wall socket plug connection in a car by converting the 12V to 240v... something like that then just plug in a 4 way adaptor or however many plugs you need and enjoy on your usual set-up!

Gangsta

http://www.tmz.com/wrx/carcomputer.html

nice intructions.

also mp3car.com is a good board for this kinda stuff.

davkav

Rew wrote:

Id say you would need an amp in the car.

why not connect the outputs from the pc straight to the speaker cables and only have either the radio or the pc on at once, yeah you'd have to do a diy job on the wires but done correctly you shouldnt have any difference in sound.

cormie wrote:

or how about a power inverter that will give a normal wall socket plug connection in a car by converting the 12V to 240v... something like that then just plug in a 4 way adaptor or however many plugs you need and enjoy on your usual set-up!

you cant just do that the power from the car would be eaten away

---

This was what I had in mind, see i've a load of old compters in my wardrobe some ancient ones like a pentium 1 @ 70Mhz and 64mb ram. It runs on 130W so what 'rew' linked to at the start, would that not be the best idea, therefore all id have to buy is a toucj screen for the dashboard??? Would be the cheapest idea seen as the comp is only worth about €20

lomb

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=177&item=5165893620&rd=1

lomb

http://www.cartft.com/carpc/catalog

Gone West

no a 12v to 240 inverter works fine. they are variable in qulality so get a good one. make sure not to exceed the max amp output though!

Rew

davkav wrote:

why not connect the outputs from the pc straight to the speaker cables and only have either the radio or the pc on at once, yeah you'd have to do a diy job on the wires but done correctly you shouldnt have any difference in sound.

Doubt the PC on its own would have enough power to drive the speakers. Same as when you plug speakers in to a regular PC at home, you plug the speakers in to the wall and they have an internal amplifier.

Gone West

no a 12v to 240 inverter works fine. they are variable in qulality so get a good one. make sure not to exceed the max amp output though!

Rew

FuzzyLogic wrote:

no a 12v to 240 inverter works fine. they are variable in qulality so get a good one. make sure not to exceed the max amp output though!

Yeah there grand but there definate over kill for any long term instalation.

Car 12v->Inverter 240V-> PC 12V

Gangsta

lomb wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=177&item=5165893620&rd=1

r u suggesting to just use the tfts? hmm wud be difficult to wire to a pc wudnt it?

lomb

nah use the broken one with a few keys missing on the keyboard and broken screen for use as the mobo, cpu harddisk etc mount this under the passanger seat. and buy a seperate din screen for the radio area. the laptops are for nothing basically. could remove another hard disk out of the other laptop and use it as additional storage possibly.

ozmo

I tried this a few years ago with a 386 motherboard and cpu. I made a custom psu +12v +5v -5v which ran from the battery - I hacksawed the numeric keypad from a keyboard and inserted a lcd where the numlock lights were ( i was lucky all main circuitry was there) - used libraries from mp3.org to make a dos program which played mp3s and scrolled the display - all great fun and all but it sucked juice, psu was too hot to touch and ran the car battery flat in 20 mins.
disaster. Those 7812 7805 regulators Eat power.

Anyone going the laptop route should take great care to cushion the hardisk - they are portable but wouldnt survive 100's miles of irish roads while running.

g'luck.
ozmo.

ozmo

Rew wrote:

Found one!

http://www.xenarc.com/product/700IDT.html

aparently that one is a spring loaded - not motorised.

What about this one - its a TV and monitor and is only $240.

This site is trade - but must be elsewhere
http://www.allproducts.com.tw/manufacture98/sce/product3.html


some really cool looking ones here - integrated into visor etc...
http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/Index/1/3catalog_id/22000000003844/3point_id/23000000149681/3action/2GetPoint/3action/2DoFreeTextSearch/3query_id/22141547848/3point_id/23000000149681/3action/2GetPoint/3page/2search-ProductSearchResults/3pointpg/21/3prodpg/21/3prodview/2on/3page/2search-ProductSearchResults/3query/2Car%20LCD%20TV/3product_pg/21/3copyfrom/2/3point_search/2on/3search_what/21/3product_search/2on/3supplier_search/2/3article_search/2/3query/2Car%20LCD%20TV/3copyto/3offset/20.htm

Gangsta

You can get the following on ebay:

Slot-loading laptop DVD drive : 50
Laptop to IDE connector: 10
IDE - USB connector: E5
USB extension cable: E5
RCA cable: E5
Sony xplod 4channel 880W amp: E43


coupled with a screen and power supple (couldnt find good ones on ebay)
Xenaric flip down 7": E343.50
OPUS 90W DC DC power supply: 122.40

Total: 583.90 YOYOS

Not a lot tbh, lemme know if I've left anything out.

Rew

ozmo wrote:

aparently that one is a spring loaded - not motorised.

What about this one - its a TV and monitor and is only $240.

Its a not a touch screen though so you would need a sperate input method for the pc which wouldnt suit while driving (unless your lomb then a keyboard and mouse are grand ).

Its def not as nice looking as some of the other touch screens but its very neat and wouldnt attact attention. A few people seem to have integrated the touch screens with new facia panels that they get custom made but Iv no idea where you would get that done. Would depend alot on your car as well so if you change cars the system wouldn't be very portable.

Rew

Gangsta wrote:

You can get the following on ebay:

Slot-loading laptop DVD drive : 50
Laptop to IDE connector: 10
IDE - USB connector: E5
USB extension cable: E5
RCA cable: E5
Sony xplod 4channel 880W amp: E43


coupled with a screen and power supple (couldnt find good ones on ebay)
Xenaric flip down 7": E343.50
OPUS 90W DC DC power supply: 122.40

Total: 583.90 YOYOS

Not a lot tbh, lemme know if I've left anything out.

Assuming you want to use this with your old PC that you mentioned, im not sure thet the PSU will be compatible with it. Its designed more for the mini-ITX stuff wich has very low power drain.

Zascar

I met a guy a few days ago who had one of thse timy little Acer convertible tablets built into his car. Really cool cause you can use it as a normal laptop or flick the screen around and use it in tablet form, really cool. He has it totally set up, so the sound goes through his stereo, and he can hook up an xbox for the kids i the back. He also ha a large antena in the boot to pick up wireless networks wherever he goes. nice...

quarryman

This is the screen i use. I have it set up at home with a Mini_itx board and a 200GB hard drive. Plays all my MP3s and movies and runs off Win 2k using Media Engine. I use a Shuttle case to house everything and the 220W Shuttle PSU to power it all.

Works perfectly. To put it into my car I just need a 12V PSU here.

People are talking about using a laptop, how are you planning control the music playing when driving. A touchscreen is the best option IMO.

Rew

quarryman wrote:

This is the screen i use. I have it set up at home with a Mini_itx board and a 200GB hard drive. Plays all my MP3s and movies and runs off Win 2k using Media Engine. I use a Shuttle case to house everything and the 220W Shuttle PSU to power it all.

Works perfectly. To put it into my car I just need a 12V PSU here.

People are talking about using a laptop, how are you planning control the music playing when driving. A touchscreen is the best option IMO.

I know its expensive but id def go for the PSU I posted and save your self the hassle

jozi

You could also get a ir remote control. Winlirc acts as the server, that page also has links to program that can use it, you mount a ir reciever somewhere where it's hiden but still recieves signals from the remote.
There are numerous remotes you can use each button can be programed to do a function with Uice like mouse movement, launch programs from assigned buttons etc. I have it at home and it works great with winamp anyway, fresh windows install so nothing else programed just yet.
An old laptop could work with it, (without mouse or keyboard or expensive touch screen,) remote control and reciever and some sort of tft dash mountable screen.
Some headunits have a line in so thats just a wire from you line out to the headunits line in.

Jozi