Sunday, October 29, 2006 - 11:42 am, by: Justin Cook(Justin)
Hi Rehan,
The Opus power supply takes care of turning on and off the computer. I currently use hibernation mode, and haven't had a problem yet, all works fine, only takes about 15 secs to boot up and get back into windows...exactly where it left off.
I also already have wireless, the usb device sits underneath the drivers side air vent (hidden of course).
I still need to buy a usb GPS device...shoudl have done it already but probably final thing I will get for now.
Maybe down the track 4GB SATA compact flash for the OS.
Sunday, October 29, 2006 - 12:25 pm, by: Benjamin Burgess(Jampac)
Full blown PC isn't really a good idea in a car, there very inefficent, and well draw a ton of power compared to a perpose built 12v car power supply and minitx mainboard. I'll be using the M2-ATX power supply, 160watt version. You really don't need huge processing power in a car, its not like you'll be playing doom 3 in it.
The system I have brought is the new Via C7 processor. Runs at 1.5ghz has sse3 for multimedia but only uses 25watts of power. You can get even lower wattage versions that use as low as 7watts. It'll be small enough to put in a case that well fit under the passenager seat. Best not to put it in the boot as you'll then be using really long analog vga cable which are effected by noise.
I'll be using no keyboard or mouse. I have a touchscreen monitor i've brought, and only thing that really needs a keyboard is satnav and destinator 3 has its own software based keyboard for touchscreen, but if I really need a keyboard, you can buy remote controls from ATI that are keyboards and mouses in one and very compact.
I'll probably be using frodoplayer as my main interface. It has nice big buttons for touchscreen use, and is built for 7-10 inch screens.
Sunday, October 29, 2006 - 05:03 pm, by: Rehan Bandara(Parsec)
How is the hard drive and dvd player holding up against all of that vibration? that's my biggest concern.
As for the full blown pc, i can still use a 12v car power supply on it. As for the amount of power it consumes, i don't really see why it would sink much more than the mini assuming i'm using a similar 12v power supply. Basically you're saying that the mini motherboard is sinking 100W less than a normal sized motherboard!
Correct me if i'm wrong, but you seem to be under the impression that a 160W power supply in a computer means that it will be using the full 160W.
Additionally, 160W is jack sh1t in the grand scheme of things. Your stock headlights use 110W alone. Most amps put out about 200W rms at 30% efficiency (give or take - giving them a consumption close to 1000W)
You are right about the long cable. I am most concerned about the noise pickup, and possibly any time domain reflection/shadowing issues that could occur from having an unnaturally long cable.
Has anyone looked into DVI touchscreens? It would probably be a safer bet.
The main reason for going with a full blown PC is, i want to be able to add PCI cards. Specifically, i would like to add a data acquisition card to get live telemetry off the OBD.
It also seems like less hassle to mount a simple touch screen, usb ports and the wireless sender in the centre console.
Does anyone know the maximum length on USB cables? I know there's a definite upper limit here in the order of ~10m.
Sunday, October 29, 2006 - 06:37 pm, by: Benjamin Burgess(Jampac)
160w is the max power of the supply, not how much it'll use, but that is broken down into what amps can be supplied for each of the supply rails. A desktop computer well use a hell of a lot more juice than any miniitx based machine. If you use a 12v supply good luck finding one of the right wattage and supply rail specs to power up an athlon or p4 system, they need a lot of juice to get going. You can use an invertor, but they just so inefficent, coupled with a regular PC power supply. The question is why do you need so much processing power in a car? Are you playing doom 3?
Problem is you start over loading the system in the car and your going to have to look into bigger alternators and batteries. Why not use a miniitx machine that is small and compact, and uses stuff all power.
You can add PCI cards to miniitx machines, they have 1 pci slot, and you can get double riser cards that make it so you can use two pci cards in 1 pci slot. To make it fit better in an enclosure you can get PCI riser cards that enable the pci card to run parallel with the mobo.
3.5" drives were never designed to take extensive amounts of vibration over time. Even 2.5" drives are going to be touch and go how long they'll last. Desktop based dvd drives, are going to be hopeless in a car, you really need to look at laptop dvd drives. Cars are very tough environments on electronics. There electrically noisy, hot, and constant vibration.
Sunday, October 29, 2006 - 07:01 pm, by: Rehan Bandara(Parsec)
The Opal systems are rated to 250W and do atx. That's well capable of powering an athlon.
One of the reasons is i don't want to fork out for a mini pc I have plenty of good computers lying around the house through upgrading of my home pc. I am skeptical about a deckstop computer using that much more power than a minitx machine. I can't see it asking for more than 50w in terms of what the processor and motherboard is demanding.
I don't think i will need to get a bigger alternator and battery. This power load is quite trivial compared to some of the heftier systems in the car (headlights, a/c fan, fuel pump, etc).
One of the reasons i want some computing power is to be able to run good live telemetry and acquisition off the obd or ecu sensors. add winamp and gps map tracking to that and i'll need a decent pc.
(i hate doom 3)
If you can add pci cards to the mini machines that's definatley a bonus though.
I guess we will have to wait to see how long it takes justin's hard drive to kick the bucket. At least solid state (flash) drives are coming down these days.
Monday, October 30, 2006 - 06:38 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Won't be a problem with cable lengths, I've come across heaps of KVM setups in server rooms with more than a car length of cable for VGA, digital, USB or PS2 connections, and never had any problems with any of them.
Monday, October 30, 2006 - 09:23 pm, by: Rehan Bandara(Parsec)
I considered the idea, but i think the demodulator may be quite rigidly locked in the hardware.
Part of the reason seems to be regulatory/FCC related.
I never say never though. It's certainly possible. The thing is, i can't see these poverty job cards making the task particularly easy. Would probably have to write your own driver set.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 11:13 pm, by: Benjamin Burgess(Jampac)
Here is my carpc so far.
This is the main box housing the mobo, 2.5" HD, CF drive, m2-atx power supply. Its nearly the same size as a car amp, just about 1/4 shorter than normal amp. Massive aluminium housing, should protect the components well. HD mounts on rubber to the chassis.
Next to the box is 3 of the USB devices I'll be using, zalman sound card, Garmin GPS18 and a TP-LINK wireless adapter.
My screen is still coming from hong kong. My parts from california only took 3 working days to get here, very impressed.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 08:13 am, by: Benjamin Burgess(Jampac)
That black hockey puck looking thing is my GPS antenna. All it needs is clear line of site to the sky, so really needs to sit on your dash. The wireless has no antenna, its built into the USB stick looking thing. I've tested it, works ok 2 floors down in my underground garage, so just going to stick that puppy on the rear parcel shelf.
I'm not sure yet were I'll put it, but maybe boot, have to see how it goes under the passenager seat, might cut the carpet under the seat so it clears better and is bolted to the floor pan.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 09:27 am, by: Rehan Bandara(Parsec)
Cool. I had my "GPS expert" friend tell me that gps wouldn't work in a car through the windows very well, which is why i was wondering.
Where did you score the housing from?
Let me know how it all goes. I was thinking about vibration isolation mounts of some sort, and i came to the conclusion that its probably better mounted towards the centre of the car than in the boot.
I'm not sure how much of a difference this is going to make in the long term in terms of hard drive longevity though.
I really like the housing though. It makes it much simpler to design some sort of simple shock damping system... even if its something as simple as big rubber mounts (like engine mounts).
Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 09:33 am, by: Benjamin Burgess(Jampac)
Its works great, but should be the front window as tint effects the signal. I've tested my garmin gps in multiple cars with destinator 3 using laptops and it works awesomely.
The housing is from the USA. Its called VoomPC. Yeah I'll probably mount the whole unit on rubber to the floor pan.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 09:38 am, by: Benjamin Burgess(Jampac)
As for fitting a PCI card using this case, I'd be tighter than a nuns. It would have to be a small PCI card. I'll get a photo tonight of the inside, so you can see how tight it is in there.
Sunday, November 05, 2006 - 01:51 pm, by: Benjamin Burgess(Jampac)
Bios cold boot time = 5 seconds
Boot time using hibinate from OS starting to load (no bios time) with frodoplayer playing music = 8 seconds.
Boot time using cold boot from OS starting to load (no bios time) with frodoplayer playing music = 32 seconds.
Yet to defrag, so may help the times.
These times have been done from a 5400rpm 2.5" HD. So not exactly a speedy drive. I'm having some issues with the compact flash card. I've had to order to a new adapter from america, which I hope fixes the problem.
Playing DIVX movies uses on average 40% cpu power. seen spikes of 55-60%. Was playing movies over wireless and it was tops, no jerkieness at all.
The screen shown is not the one i'll be using, it was a spare I had laying around, but its the same size as the one I'll be using.
Previous
I have plenty of good computers lying around the house through upgrading of my home pc. I am skeptical about a deckstop computer using that much more power than a minitx machine. I can't see it asking for more than 50w in terms of what the processor and motherboard is demanding. 
