ST CarPC Options

[Rob_]

I've just got this finished today and thought I'd share

I'm using an ITX motherboard (With the dual-core Atom) with a S-ATA HDD, 1Gb Ram and the amp is in the box too.



And the final product. I really like the colour so might add it to the vents on each side and electric window controls.

[Rob_]

Honestly, use Ubuntu or a more plausable port of linux, but personally, stick with a performance edition of XP. Pm me if you want hooked up? How big is the hdd? and what ghz is the atom?

The *Nix distro's aimed for multimedia use are bloated these days. Plus there isn't the same choice when it comes to front ends and GPS software.

I use a "full-fat" XP Pro because I had issues with USB drivers when I tried NLite and the like. Boot time is about as long as it takes me to get out of the drive so I'm not worried about speeding it up. The HDD is 80Gb and partitioned to be 15Gb for Windows and Apps and the rest for multimedia

I have a couple of questions.

First: What exactly do you do with it? I mean, I've always wanted to do this to my car, but I've questioned the... overall point over the fact of "Hey! Guys! I did it!"

Second: Power supply wise, where did you draw power from? Did you draw a new circuit from your battery? Is it running DC or do you have to convert it to AC first?

Third: That's a touch screen right? Is it difficult to work your way around the OS?


And lastly: I REALLY WANNA DO THIS! I've been thinking about doing it since I got my car. No, before that!

I use it for music and GPS mainly, but you can do anything. The next step is to replace the heater controls and I might tap in to the electric windows. You can get tyre (tire for you guys ) pressure monitoring plug-ins and reverse cameras. The list is endless.

For the PSU I'm using a M3-ATX. It takes 12v straight from the car battery and makes it suitable for the PC. It's tiny too!

It is a touchscreen but I also have a mouse if I need to do any OS stuff, not that you have to very often.