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Originally Posted by vezj420 Wow, I was just waiting for the day someone would use a mini ITX for a car PC project in India! Good on ya, bro.... |
I think its already been done, look above for pics on the GPS system. He has yet to give the details but my guess is that its a mini ITX.
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Originally Posted by vezj420 I trust you should be able to put together the rest of the system on your own (ie. 2.5/3.5 HDD and some RAM). The beauty is, this is really all you need for a base, portable "multimedia PC".  Oh yeah, don't forget an LCD screen with proper input interface (mouse/trackball, keyboard, etc.). For my project we got a touchscreen LCD - which was cool, but you'll need proper input devices at least for setting up the system. |
I already have the whole thing assembled and running in my den for now. Primary input is through a 7" VGA touchscreen. I do have a small keyboard and a finger mouse but those will be hidden from view. I dont anticipate using those much after the initial install. I have a 40GB HDD and 1GB Ram in there for now. OS is XP which is NLITED and reduced to about 200 MB so its running pretty quick for now.
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Originally Posted by vezj420 Now, putting the system into a vehicle is another subject on its own  |
Oh yeah this is a huge problem. I dont want to just stick the screen on my dash, i will be moulding it into the fascia to look like it came as a factory install (atleast thats the plan LOL). Thats why the shape of the dash is a pain, too curvy. I have been doing some cutting and shaping and i have managed a decent opening in there. I have a G variant INNOVA, no airbags, so the PC will go into the space behind the dash where the passenger airbag usually is.
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Originally Posted by vezj420 The nice thing about miniITX boards is that VIA (and resellers) sell a DC-DC converter to snaps right onto the board, utilizing minimal space in the case (space-case!  ) The input for this DC-DC converter can be taken straight from the vehicle's cig. lighter. This is a much better method than using an AC inverter, I feel. |
I am using a much better DC-DC power supply from Opus Solutions, its installed inside the case.
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Originally Posted by vezj420 Finally, the cost factor - I'm not gonna list out crap, but to give u a rough estimate, my senior design project (with touch-screen LCD, which cost the most) cost us around $1500 US (roughly Rs. 67k).  |
hehe i am not even going to get into this, i have crossed that line and am not really counting anymore. I do know i dont want to spend a whole lot more on the audio aspect, i am no audiophile so a decent audio is what i want.
I pretty much decided to jump on to this project after looking at Centrafuse, it is really slick and scores highest (in my opnion) for eye candy factor. Other than that its really well designed and put together, its going to be a commercial app but for now the beta vresions are free to try. Download it and take it for a spin, its nice.
cheers.