Carputer Project

[Mike XR6T]

once some of those mates who know everything come round, I'll get nothing done as I'll need to steer myself and them away from the project so I can be sure they touch nothing lol,

:Sug1: :Sug1: :Sug1:

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[glimmerman]

Hey everyone,

Recently my Dad purchased an ASUS laptop, ITS TINY! Anyways, it doesn't run a HDD, its all Solid State, which means its great for driving which could knock a HDD around a bit. Being so small, could easily mount it anywhere, it runs linux, so everything is free once downloaded, one disadvantage is it doesn't have a DVD/CD rom drive, but you could purchase one that connects via USB to the laptop, and mount that somewhere like you would your normal head deck, even better purchase a massive USB portable drive and put that in somewhere (I am aware I just pointed out the advantage of a solid state ), pre loaded with all your favourite movies and music. Cooling isn't such an issue, with no HDD a well ventilated area, or even still something with a bit of room enough to breath would be suffice. Another thing is the operating system, doesn't look like the normal sort, it looks very similar to centrafuse (kinda) so straight away would look pretty damn good, and like a package for a vehicle. Anyways, here is the link to it... Just incase anyone else wanted to attempt a carputer like beanies here, I've been thinking about it... lol... just thinking cause its alot of action to take haha.

ASUS EEEPC

Anyways fella's,

Hope that is maybe something useful to someone overlooking this thread,

Steve

[xa-mont]

any updates ono this one? it was coming along so well and then no more updates?

[stevemitch]

Just wondering it looks like the standard radio is obsolete with the carputer,

How about mounting a CD (DVD) player in place of the standard CD (or adapting the standard) to connect to the carputer making the system look factory?

[SubJimbo]

Where oh where could our - beanie be?

[MrBean]

Hello Guys,

I have posted this in my ICC-Engineering thread incase you miss it, and want to go down this path....

I had a few PM's requesting the specs for my Carputer, so let me give a quick breakdown:

Carputer Infrastucture

Motherboard - Commell LS-372 - 3.5" form-factor, very small, and powerful. On the same Australian supplier website, there's also the LS-373, which is slightly newer model, with a mini pci-express (vs mini pci) slot.

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 MOBILE, 1.8GHz 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache, Socket 479 Micro-FCPGA / P CPU Notebook / Laptop Processor - please make sure you get a socket P (for Santa Rosa chipset) cpu if you use either the LS-373 or LS-373 Commell motherboard.

Memory - 2gigs of decent DDR-2 800 SODimm - single stick, as there's one memory slot on motherboard only - I'm using some decent PQI powermemory for notebook picked up at the IT Fortune Mall in Bangkok on a previous visit. You should be able to find a local distributor of the same, or similar ram.

Harddrive - OCZ Apex 60gig SSD - very fast, snappy, no microstutters at all.

WiFi - any decent mini-pci (LS-372) or mini-pci express (LS-373) wifi card, similar to those in use in notebooks - very small, low power draw, and works pretty well - I use an Atheros chipset based one picked up of Ebay for something like $25 AUD.

OS - Windows XP, with SP3, slipstreamed and trimmed down with nLite - giving me the fast <22seconds boot from power on.

Frontend - CentraFuse by Fluxmedia - no argument, the best frontend out there, and I see now they're partnering with Microsoft to use an Embedded version next round - great!!

Miscellaneous Items

Tyre Pressure Monitoring - Portal Media PC TPMS kit, based on Robby over at Mp3Car's design, but without all the hacking of the 3rd EYE kit - this is basically the same hardware, but all onto a single custom PCB. Alok Patel supplies sensors for the tyres too, the price can't be beaten, and his service is exceptional.

OBD-II Scantool - Well, I use a few, for different purposes - the one you guys might be interested in for displaying the basic OBD-II data live in the Centrafuse Frontend OBD-II window, I got the very neat, and fast (with double buffering) ODBPro's Scantool with right-angle cable from the good 'ol US of A - Paul is a pretty decent person to deal with, and great service.

Then, for my project debugging, I am using the Mongoose FEPS from DrewTech with reprogramming capability, making use of std J2534 interface.

And then, last but not least, should I want to check all 400+ sensors in my UTE, I can always connect my Autoenginuity with extended Ford Support software, but this one is based on a proprietary protocol, so you cannot really use this one for reverse engineering.

The last 2 devices is not necessary, you can get the ODBPro's scantool for decent capabilities, and it works well with CF frontend.

LCD

One word of advice - don't skimp on the LCD you want to use - I have at least 4 different sizes/brands here, from the 10.4" Ebay special, to an 8" Ebay special, to the very exxy Xenarc 700-TSV, and they're all relatively crap for carputer use, due to glare/direct sunlight issues.

The one I am now using is the NEC NL8060BC21-03 Transflective sun-readable 8.4" unit, obtained from Future Electronics

I am using the 84PW041 inverter, and the Digital View ALR-1400 Controller with the appropriate LVDS connection cable - there's one or 2 extra cables needed with this, so ask here if you want to go this route, and I will spec all hardware for this custom LCD.

See Page 6 on Thermoptic's thread over at Mp3Car to see the difference in view-quality, and a list of components.

I hope this will assist you guys to assemble the same very fast, bullet-proof setu I have, albeit at a relatively steep price - but, I believe it is money well spent. Cant have a 380rwkw UTE with a crap pc now, can we.

Should you have questions regarding my hardware, please ask, I will answer if I can.

Edited 04/03/09 09:21 AM by MrBean

[fordboy1981]

and how much beanie?

[MrBean]

@ fordboy1981: It will be best to request pricing directly from the suppliers, as it will vary slightly.

A lot of the items have been imported from the USA, and those prices are in USD $ on the websites.

Shipping is not that exxie, so you can form an idea

[MrBean]

Hello Everyone,

Made some progress on the LCD setup.

As some of you know, I mentioned earlier that I was going the same route as Thermoptic with his NEC 8.4" Transflective LCD.

It is a very good solution, both the fact that it is transflective, and 8.4" at that, makes for a better fit to my (very difficult to mod) Ford F6 Tornado bezel.

Well, after a few hiccups, like the incorrect (5V 84PW041) inverter, I finally received the 12V 84PW031 unit, which means I can now power the inverter, backlight controls, and brightness, directly off the ALR-1400 controller board.

It makes for a very neat, tidy setup, suitable to my build-requirements.

With the NEC NL8060BC21-02 being an open frame LCD, without any case, I had to do something custom with aluminium, which also means it would be a sure way of mounting it onto the bezel.

Here is the ALR-1400 controller mounted in the custom housing, immediately behind the TFT panel.

Here is the new 84PW031 12 inverter:

And here the LCD button controller electronics (for testing purposes)

Here you can see all the electronics as they sit snugly behind the TFT

and the housing on an angle, giving you an idea of the dimensions

Here I have the angled shot from the front

and then, two shots from front-on - please take note that you will see some refelction, as I have left the protective plastic cover on the LCD for now, until I am finished with the bezel - hence a slight refelection from the camera flash......in case you wondered....

and

and lastly, here two shots of the LCD connected to the carputer, and sitting in Desktop environment:

With flash.....

and without flash

For the moment though, please ignore the rough state of the fascia bezel, I need to start working on that next, so I can get this into the UTE.

Good progress though, both carputer, with all software, casing, etc sorted, same with the LCD - the LCD secures very well onto the fascia, with decent 3mm stainless steel screws/nuts, so it sits very firm and secure.

Let me know what you think so far - please look back a few pages to have a looky at the original 10" LCD attempt, which was abandoned due to reflection issues et al.

Br,

MrBean

Edited 11/04/09 12:32 PM by senna_T
cleaned and sorted posts...

[MrBean]

Thanx Pat, appreciated Enjoy rest of Easter then!