CarPC finished! MP3s, voice navigation, 56k, go make a sandwich Options

[Cutrara]

thats some intagrative shizz man...very nice...wouldnt mind havin a set up like thins in my car at all...does it drain on the battery a lot though?

No, the laptop runs on its own battery after the car is shut off, then it goes into hibernate when there is 75% laptop battery left.

that is awesome!!! i was looking to do something similar, but i dont know how well you can control stuff through a touch screen, i asume they have some sort of software thats pretty straight forward? also about your cell phone charger deal, just glueing it there hold the phone from sliding around n knocking hte plug loose? i wanted to do something similar but backed out because i thought it would eventually turn into a mess with a loose hook up there, mad props for it all though!

The touchscreen is different, you can't just feel for the button like you would with a regular stereo. I think I'm going to make some kind of hard buttons for the WinAmp's prev track, next track and play/pause buttons and mount them between the shifter and the ash tray, or maybe on the steering wheel...

Yeah, it's just superglued there, and I measured the distance from the input on the phone to the edge of the phone and drilled that distance from the side wall of the center console thing so I slide it against there and it mates up perfectly...

I've been having some minor problems with when I crank the engine. First the screen folds in, which is nice when you turn off the car, but lame when you start it. Second, and possibly the biggest problem: When the computer and inverter are on and the car is off and you start it, it resets the inverter and kicks some weird noise into the computer and ****s with my external sound card, and only a reboot will cure it. I tried putting ferrite beads on every power lead in the system and I still have the problem.

I redesigned my auto turn-on circuit to sustain power to the screen and inverter while cranking. I will implement this new circuit sometime this week. Lets just hope keeping the screen and inverter powered will leave enough juice to start the car!

This post has been edited by Cutrara: Apr 15, 2007 - 8:39 PM

[cnelson]

can't wait till i build mine this summer, altought mine will be with a ITXmini mother board, insted of converting a laptop. now i have a great idea of how to do all this. congratz man. looks awesome!