HCL MiLeap as a CarPC Discussion

[Digital Vampire]

Could you explain the process of dual booting it.

Thankfully it is quite simple on Win7.
Just boot the MH214 from a USB DVD drive with Win7 DVD in it or from a bootable USB HDD or USB stick with contents of the Win7DVD. Select your first boot device (USB DVD/USB HDD/USB Stick) from the MH214 BIOS and off you go. I've used an USB HDD and have followed the instructions in the link below.

Tip: make your PDC 2008 (or any) USB hard drive a bootable Windows 7 install disk

During the initial stages of Win7 setup, make sure that you select "CUSTOM" option and point to an empty partition. I used the last one on MH214 since it was empty. Win7 installer will take care of the rest of the things. The install will take around 45 minutes and once done, would give you a boot menu choice of either Win7 or WinXP Home (default). Its pretty neat IMO.

Btw Chroma Belapur showed me the Tata Indicom stick and also a 2 gb pen drive. Wonder how else they would make it 10 items ??

They mentioned some USB light, USB Fan...nothing really useable..lol

Did you go in for the extended warranty ??

NO...The engineer in me have a hobby of opening up almost all hardware devices that I've laid my hands on to see whats ticking inside. That would most of the time VOID the normal warranty itself.. Fortunately I'm in the right profession (Hardware Design) which compliments my hobby.

[DerAlte]

1. Stickers whose removal may void warranty are usually different - never marked QC
2. The QC stickers must have been placed over the screw holes to prevent cockroaches from laying eggs!
3. Using a sharp blade, you can remove the sticker to somewhere safe, and put it back when you are done
4. Just make sure you don't do anything to warrant exercising the warranty
As they say "May the power be with you"!

[esteem_lover]

Sounds exciting, but 2 hours battery life is pretty disappointing if you cannot charge it in your car. Spending some more on a PSU & RAM on this is not really VFM.

[sushantr5]

If I am not wrong MiLeap has 19V DC Socket. Now if we wana it as a full time carPC then we need 12 to 19V converter? Finding out this could be a problem.

Another solution use invertor and then use laptop adapter. This can be cost effective solution.

[ph03n!x]

This is interesting- if only someone can tell if this can be fitted on a 2-DIN slot neatly, I will get this instead of a Premier FH-P800BT

[Digital Vampire]

Sounds exciting, but 2 hours battery life is pretty disappointing if you cannot charge it in your car. Spending some more on a PSU & RAM on this is not really VFM.

The 3 Cell battery shows runtime as 3.3 hrs, but I haven't tested it beyond 1 hr. 6 Cell battery packs are available on ebay but is more costlier than the MH214 itself...lol

I'm so far happy with just 1GB RAM even on Win7. Anyways I'm not planning to multi-task this puny little thing. See below of the car laptop adapter. Its cheaper than many thinks.

If I am not wrong MiLeap has 19V DC Socket. Now if we wana it as a full time carPC then we need 12 to 19V converter? Finding out this could be a problem.

Yes, the MH214 requires 19V DC much like any normal laptop. The bundled power brick is rated at 2.63A.
I'm not sure about local availability, but you should be able to find a Car Laptop Adapter for cheap on ebay. I sourced a Universal Car/Airplane 150W Laptop adapter with configurable output voltage and connectors for 20 Euros from Italy but that was many years back. Its working great so far and I've used it extensively to power everything from laptops to PND's to a cordless shaver!

Another solution use invertor and then use laptop adapter. This can be cost effective solution.

I'm not sure how cheap this could be, but it is for sure a very inefficient as well as dangerous solution.

This is interesting- if only someone can tell if this can be fitted on a 2-DIN slot neatly, I will get this instead of a Premier FH-P800BT

I'm sorry to disappoint you. The Mileap in tablet mode is much bigger than a 2-Din opening. One option could be to use some heavy duty suction mounts with hinged arms and stick to the windscreen or craft a removable clasp clamp for mounting in front of the 2DIN/1DIN opening. But then it would look like a Meeru Cabs install.

A permanent install into a 2DIN case should be possible and ideal, but that will involve quite a bit of fabrication and dismantling the MH214. I'm resisting that temptation for now.

[Digital Vampire]

See below for one such universal car laptop adapter.

LAPTOP CAR ADAPTER UNIVERSAL CHARGER

[gigy]

For the least headache/clean install, buy a Mileap, a good laptop inverter (in metal case or place it in one and ground it) a vga touch screen, usb gps, and amplifier/speakers

You can also do reverse engineering with good mobile holder and fix the leaptop on the suction side and its other end mounted in center of double din dash or floor level connect to amplifier/speaker.
my mobile holder holds Eeepc.( there will be visible vibration when car is in motion)
Wires will stick out from the leaptop sides.

On second thoughts whole mini itx cpu is available for 7k odd in market with dc in, but no battery. ( so a inverter[13$] will not work here , you need a dc-dc psu[100$])

[Digital Vampire]

Does anyone know where to source the GPS/Trip computer/unit used by "Meeru Cabs".

IIRC, the whole unit is made by an Italian company and costs ~1000 Eur.

It has a fantastic sunlight readable transreflective 10" Touchscreen LCD and thats what I'm interested in. I'd like to get hold of a used/damaged one as long as the screen is intact. I've checked with the drivers and obviously they don't have any clue but they did confirm that those units do fail ocassionally.

[Digital Vampire]

A few snapshots of Kohjinsha SH8KP12A a.k.a HCL Mileap MH214

[Digital Vampire]

MH214 running default XP Home SP3


MH214 running 32 Bit Windows 7 Ultimate


Centrafuse installed and running smoothly


XVID Video Playback


Resource utilization during XVID video playback


and finally the puny MH214 perched on top of my Panasonic Toughbook behemoth!

[DocG]

will this thing work well with handwriting recognition.
If someone could help me out with this little problem, I'd pick 2 up tomorrow. the guys at Croma had no answer for me...

[Digital Vampire]

Originally Posted by DocG

will this thing work well with handwriting recognition.

I've tried the handwriting recognition wizard on Windows 7 after seeing your post.

After training windows, its pretty much recognizing my hopeless handwriting quite decently but I've seen tablets which does the job better. Keep in mind that there isn't much area to rest your palm or wrist while in tablet mode.

[sushantr5]

Nice Pics.

Yesterday I went to see HCL MiLeap at Crome. And after seeing this laptop I felt that it's just perfect component for CarPC. You will get everything in small brilliantly priced thing.

I observed,
1) Screen is excellent. Very sharp and colorful and bright too
2) Very good touch response
3) Very small size
4) Above average build quality
5) Small but good keyboard
6) Very good response. You dont even feel that this baby is powered by A110 800 MHz processor. Sufficient guts for normal day to day operations
7) Installed Centrafuse 2.0. It worked in very well manner.
8) Very useful buttons on the side of screen.

I felt that I should buy it immediately. But now I am out of cash because I just purchased a house. I had thought for second I should have not bought a house, I would have owned this baby by now.

[Digital Vampire]

Can anyone confirm the complete contents (some 10 items) of the gift pack which comes with Mileap MH214.