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parts for car-computer?

F

Fryguy8

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2001
Messages
1,707
looking for some suggestions for parts for a car computer (looking for a normal machine, with an indash lcd unit as the head).

Looking for suggestions for things like:
12V DC input power supply
Dealing with booting/shutting down
keyboard/mouse product/mounting? (trackball??)
mounting the actual computer, enclosure suggestions, protecting from the MUCH more varied car environment

Any other advice people can give would be great. Some local company around here wants to do computers in their workvans to keep track of random stuff.
 
I haven't built one before, though I have research this alot and planned to do this in my car.

Basically, you want low power consumption if you want to be running on battery power sometime (honestly, do you only want to be able to use it when your car is running?). You have to deal with crank power drains and spikes, so get a good DC-DC PSU.

For low power consumption, stay clear of 7200RPM drives. Hell, stay clear of 3.5" drives and go with a 4000RPM laptop HD. I'd use an Intel CPU as from what I've read, AMD CPUs drain more current. What this is saying is basically... don't go overkill so you can conserve on power. Build something that suits the task.

Wish I could help more, but I have lots of research to do myself.
 
i was thinking something along the lines of an athlon xp mobile in a shuttle case, using an ac inverter (not sure of exact usage pattern at this time).

Any links to computer power supplies that are 12VDC input instead of 120/220VAC?
 
Fryguy8 said:
i was thinking something along the lines of an athlon xp mobile in a shuttle case, using an ac inverter (not sure of exact usage pattern at this time).

Any links to computer power supplies that are 12VDC input instead of 120/220VAC?
Click to expand...


There are some online, so you should be able to find some. I don't have any links off-hand.

Think about it.. a computer uses 12V and 5Vs (and 3.3, but whatever). Your car runs on 12Vs... why go from 12V to 120V back to 12Vs? Kind of pointless and redundant if you ask me.
 
If you don't need a lof of processing power you could look at one of those VIA processor based boards. They're cheap, have everything onboard, and use very little power. I think some even have an LCD controller on 'em.
 
zandor said:
If you don't need a lof of processing power you could look at one of those VIA processor based boards. They're cheap, have everything onboard, and use very little power. I think some even have an LCD controller on 'em.
Click to expand...
An LCD controller? Really? Never seen one on a mini-ITX board.

Here's what we're talking about.

Just had an idea: why not use a CF card for the hard-drive? That will use very little power, and will be all you need for data entry.
 
lorcani said:
An LCD controller? Really? Never seen one on a mini-ITX board.
Click to expand...

Sure. At least that's what I think they mean by "The VIA EPIA TC also offers support for a number of LVDS embedded LCD panels."
Some of the other EPIA boards do too.
 
Here is some more info for you. Take for instance you want to keep the computer in the trunk but want to have access to loading CDs/DVDs up in front. There is no way in hell you're running an IDE cable more than 48 inches. So here is my solution. Get a cheap IDE slot load DVD drive (or an expensive slim CDRW/DVD drive) and a $15 USB 2.0 to IDE adapter with an additional amount of USB cable.

Viola! That should technically work.

However.. what are the distance limits on displays cables? Since it's composite I doubt it'll matter though.
 
oh.. a car isn't 12 volts.. the alternator is 14.4, the battery is 12, and the voltage varies somewhere in between that when the car is running and can fall below 12 if the car is on battery power only... so you can't run a mobo for example straight off of a car battery... i think people use laptop psus... i think laptops use 12v, maybe...

what do these need to do? aare we talking running winxp, and surfing the web? or is it somethign taht could technically be done with a palm pilot..?

you might be able to ask places what they do.. police have comptuers in their car, maybe fire dept.. probably ambulances.. then we got ups, and fedex.. they all use comptuers in cars.. and those companies always seem to use laptops or industrial tablet pcs... actually we had verison come to work to do stuff with th ephone lines, and they had a tablet pc...

you might be able to boot a comptuer off of a memory card though.. maybe i don't know... screw cd drives, not in a car...

that's all i have for now.. i think... they might just need treo600 cellphones though..
 
True... UPS, FedEx, police and ambulancea all have computers in their vehicles.. BUT, they are not just regular PCs or a mini-towers in their trunk. They are special propriety computers built exactly for that purpose. UPS, for example, uses those electronic clipboard type computers.

I can't imagine a PC in a trunk would be a safe thing. Imagine driving over railroad tracks and potholes! Think about this... when you purchase videocards, hard drives, etc, they are all individually wrapped in protective materials. But, when you put them in a PC, it's metal-on-metal and no padding whatsoever. Your motherboard is literally bolted to a metal tray! Hard drives screwed to the rails! PCI/AGP cards standing up! Shake your PC case and see what I mean. Rattle, rattle, rattle...

Any PC can work in a car. It's a matter of how long it will last while being bounced around in a trunk. PCs would rather stay home on a desk.

Maybe you should buy a cheap, used laptop, remove its LCD screen, and use an external LCD monitor in your dash. Laptops are built with mobility in mind.
 
Fryguy8 said:
looking for some suggestions for parts for a car computer (looking for a normal machine, with an indash lcd unit as the head).

Looking for suggestions for things like:
12V DC input power supply
Dealing with booting/shutting down
keyboard/mouse product/mounting? (trackball??)
mounting the actual computer, enclosure suggestions, protecting from the MUCH more varied car environment

Any other advice people can give would be great. Some local company around here wants to do computers in their workvans to keep track of random stuff.
Click to expand...

There are many things u can do First of all is finding the power solution:
You can use an Opus 150w which cost about 160 that converts DC/DC which is what cars run of off. You can also goto a cheaper solution which is an ITPS and AC/DC convertor what u do with that is plug this component into the power cable on your computer then run into the ITPS which controls the Auto Shutoff/Startup of your computer. The latter is a much cheaper solution probably about 80 altogether. Finally there is using a power convertor and a shutdown controller which is optional. You have to manually turn the power convertor on everytime u startup the car. It is the cheapest way but has more hassles to deal with. The ITPS and opus do it automatically which is a great conveience.

Next you have to find out what kind of pc your going to use. Most Car Computer owners use an EPIA Nemehiah that is about 1ghz and has onboard video but the mobo is super small and runs pretty quite, plus they require little power. You can only run 1 7200rpm hard drive or 2 5400Rpm drives i believe and a cdrom.

Keyboard solution is pretty easy just use a wireless one (you can also do wireless internet). And for a mouse the best and most common way is by using a Touchscreen which varies from 200-400 for the Monitor with the touchscreen embedded. There are few brands that you can choose from those being the most popular Lilliput and Xenarc. Both these screens come in 7" and larger models which will fit in the double din part where your stereo goes. They run on a 12v molex connector which must be run to your computer. There are ways to autostart them with your computer but i believe u have to manually power on the screen each time.

The biggest issue with car computers is power which i discussed some solutions above. u need to place your computer in hiberation when the computer is shutoff due to powerloss. this will allow you to boot up back where you started when the computer was last on. If you don't want to use a touchscreen u can use a trackball-mini or something and get a cheaper screen.

Car audio is probably the killer because if u don't have a 4 channel amp u need to buy one which costs a lot. u simple plug from input to the amp and it'll work nothing big. Most people get audigy's for this for better sound

Mounting i discussed above. You can also use bondo and mold your own by removed the screen from its housing or by getting an arm that attaches from your car seat bottom to the screen itself. you can then move it around.

Temperature is another big thing. i've heard of some a few times when the computer would melt or not function properly in hot or cold environments, thats why most get an EPIA, desktop cpu's are pretty much out of the equation unless u keep it cool.

I'm not an expert but u can catch me on aim, or by asking questions and i'll reply back. also check out mp3car.com for any further questions too.

Phil
 
Qwertyman said:
Car audio is probably the killer because if u don't have a 4 channel amp u need to buy one which costs a lot. u simple plug from input to the amp and it'll work nothing big. Most people get audigy's for this for better sound
Click to expand...

why exactly do you have to have a 4-channel amp again? :confused:

Worked just fine for me, i didn't use an amp
 
AMD T-type said:
why exactly do you have to have a 4-channel amp again? :confused:

Worked just fine for me, i didn't use an amp
Click to expand...

what did u plug the cpu audio into then?
 
Qwertyman said:
what did u plug the cpu audio into then?
Click to expand...

o_0
ummm, right into the back of the HU

I mean, your HU would have to have a line in, but if you are building a car computer then most likely you have an aftermarket head unit, and if you have anything recent, a lot of them have line in anyways
 
I'm not worried at all about integration issues, I'm simply worried about getting a working functional computer that isn't going to suck and blow up a week later due to poor environment.

Touchscreen is a very good idea, as is using a 4000rpm laptop harddrive (I'm sure they make adapters to mount this in a 3.5" bay? I plan on going w/o a CD-ROM, and whenever something needs to be installed/maintenance, just plug in an external temporarily or whatever, as I have SERIOUS doubts about a CD-ROM drive functioning in a car environment.

As for case/power, shuttle with some middle-end proc (or an athlon-xp and I use a mobile part) would be nice, but what about cooling? Trunks are going to get QUITE hot sitting in the sun, and QUITE cold in the winter (condensation issues?)

As for PSU, I think I'm just going to get an AC inverter and use a standard PSU. Less hassles that way and it will probably end up being cheaper. The AC Inverter will also take care of voltage regulation (at least to some extent).
 
only thing with an invertor make sure u get modified sine wave, that will help to lessen feedback that may happen with invertors.
 
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