My First Car PC Install - Research and Planning Stage

[spadival]

Let me add a few more names.

1. monty9991 - Ludhiana - Alto.
2. sys_whiz - Oiginally Hyderabad, now in Boston - Baleno
3. spadival - Pune - Baleno
4. Gigy - Mumbai - Baleno
5. Abhi182 - Chennai - Corsa
6. netarchie - Mumbai - Fusion
7. Ankur - New Delhi - Innova
8. shldn - Mumbai - Indigo

[monty9991]

Originally Posted by spadival

Let me add a few more names.

1. monty9991 - Ludhiana - Alto.
2. sys_whiz - Oiginally Hyderabad, now in Boston - Baleno
3. spadival - Pune - Baleno
4. Gigy - Mumbai - Baleno
5. Abhi182 - Chennai - Corsa
6. netarchie - Mumbai - Fusion
7. Ankur - New Delhi - Innova
8. shldn - Mumbai - Indigo

is that all?? or its still goin on!!!

[monty9991]

new update I made a circuit on com port of my carputer and now controlling my carputer with my pioneer remote control which is on my steering wheel I can change songs like i use to do on my pioneer DEH-p8650.
and downloaded DXF effect for winamp which enables you to control 3D surround, HyperBass and few more things.
and now i feel that i dont need a additional DSP. the SQ is improved by almost 50% i guess it just feel ultimate

[sys_whiz]

Originally Posted by monty9991

new update I made a circuit on com port of my carputer and now controlling my carputer with my pioneer remote control which is on my steering wheel I can change songs like i use to do on my pioneer DEH-p8650.
and downloaded DXF effect for winamp which enables you to control 3D surround, HyperBass and few more things.
and now i feel that i dont need a additional DSP. the SQ is improved by almost 50% i guess it just feel ultimate

Hey that cool. Can you post some more details about the circuit like the wiring diagrams, com port pin outs etc...

[vebmetal]

Quick question about car PCs - do you have to wait for the PC to boot like with normal Windows? So it would take a couple of minutes before you can start playing music, GPS etc. right?

[shldn]

No, most of the time Hibernate or Standby option is used for shutdown, so the resume time on startup is on an average 20-25 seconds, sometimes quicker ( dependant on memory size, h/w & s/w config etc.)

Very rarely is a full cold boot used every time for startup unless the user has a genuine reason for doing so.

[vebmetal]

So you have to put the system on hibernate / standby manually every time before you turn off the engine (i.e. battery)?

[shreyasma]

Originally Posted by monty9991

is that all?? or its still goin on!!!

1. monty9991 - Ludhiana - Alto.
2. sys_whiz - Oiginally Hyderabad, now in Boston - Baleno
3. spadival - Pune - Baleno
4. Gigy - Mumbai - Baleno
5. Abhi182 - Chennai - Corsa
6. netarchie - Mumbai - Fusion
7. Ankur - New Delhi - Innova
8. shldn - Mumbai - Indigo
9. shreyasma - Bangalore - Santro

cheers:

[shldn]

Originally Posted by vebmetal

So you have to put the system on hibernate / standby manually every time before you turn off the engine (i.e. battery)?

No, that is configured either in your frontend or in the windows power options. Your Automotive DC-DC PSU handles the rest. You simply turn off your ignition, lock your car and walk away .

[vebmetal]

Ahh, ok. so the power supply has some kind of battery? (i.e. to power the system for those few seconds that it needs to get into hibernate).

And also what's the first picture of? Sorry for my ignorance. I am a complete noob when it comes to carputers. It's obviously some specialized software for carputers, but is it a OS or a program that runs on top of Windows?

Also, what would be the basic minimum one would need to spend to get a carputer going? (only music + touchscreen + WiFi - gps bluetooth to be upgraded later) and is there a secondhand market for these? I would like to foray into this, but without too much investment. Once I get a handle, I would then go for the good stuff I guess.

[spadival]

Originally Posted by shreyasma

9. shreyasma - Bangalore - Santro

cheers:

Ohhh.. u are the Santro guy over at MP3Car.com - Your source for mobile computing solutions! - Home! Welcome to the Club

Originally Posted by vebmetal

Ahh, ok. so the power supply has some kind of battery? (i.e. to power the system for those few seconds that it needs to get into hibernate).

I guess its a capacitor or something that keeps the power alive for a few seconds till it shuts down. The first picture is that of Centrafuse (Flux introduces Centrafuse™) . There are free software available as well. You will find all the info you will need at MP3Car.com - Powered by vBulletin

Also, go thru this thread on how to make a budget CarPC from old PC lying around in your house -> http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-do...ics-setup.html

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by vebmetal

Ahh, ok. so the power supply has some kind of battery? (i.e. to power the system for those few seconds that it needs to get into hibernate).

It might be draining car battery for 30 - 40 seconds that it might take to hibernate the PC.

[vebmetal]

Well, according to this guy, who made a carputer from a Mac Mini, this is how his system works:

This is the power supply I am using. This thing is actually really cool - it regulates power to the mac, simulates button presses, monitors my car’s battery, and does a load of other stuff that makes it a perfect solution. When I turn on my car, after about a 6 second delay it turns my mac on. When the car is off, it provides about ~500m amps to keep the computer in sleep mode. That way I don’t have to wait for it to boot each time. The power the mac draws on sleep mode could run off my car battery for several weeks, but if battery drops below 10V, the power supply will cut power altogether.

Thanks for the links, spadival. Will read up and ask more questions!

[shldn]

Originally Posted by vebmetal

Ahh, ok. so the power supply has some kind of battery? (i.e. to power the system for those few seconds that it needs to get into hibernate).

It runs off the car battery for that time.

The power supply provides a delay which allows the PC to perform its shutdown operation smoothly without abruptly shutting down.

[vebmetal]

Originally Posted by spadival

Ohhh.. u are the Santro guy over at MP3Car.com - Your source for mobile computing solutions! - Home! Welcome to the Club

Do you mean this Santro? I must say when I saw the "case" of the computer I went .


On another note, I imagine a carputer voids the electrical warranty of your car (unless maybe professionally done), and what about fire safety issues?