Installing a computer in your car

[Andrew_Pakula]

Has anyone ever installed a computer in their car for say mp3s, games, videos or whatever?<P>The company I work for sells these "little pc's" which are kind of cool because they are so small. The pictures below is a P3 1.3gig computer and is the size of basically a cd-rom which is neat so it could be mounted anywhere.<P>They are a little bit expensive but very cool none the less. I am going to see if I can convince my boss to let me install one in my car for "testing purposes" LOL<P>Of course I would have to get an LCD screen for it to be of any use but this might be an interesting project for me to start.<P>Here's the pictures:<P> <BR> <P>And here is the website for more info on these small computers: <A HREF="http://www.littlepc.com" TARGET=_blank>http://www.littlepc.com</A>

[Guest]

thats a good idea man, im having a hardtime thinking of uses, what quality video device does it have, i wonder if you could hook it too the net, it has alot of potential and maybe you could get some credit for finding a new application for it, if i had money to burn id definatly try it,

[Andrew_Pakula]

It's an on-board video card of course but looking at the specs I think it would be good enough to play VCD's or Divx movies.

[BumpNGlow]

how big is the harddrive? And what kind of deal could you get fellow MX-3ers?<P>And for hooking it up to the net, you COULD give it a wireless LAN card and then if your home computer is set up the same, you can park the car in the garage and beam movies/games/mp3s from your home computer to your car.... that owuld be pimp.

[avio]

yo that's awsome, how much is one of those pcs anywayz ??? will it drain the battery ?

[Andrew_Pakula]

Here is the link to the datasheet for the 301 model:<BR><A HREF="http://www.littlepc.com/pdf/LPC-301-DATASHEET.pdf" TARGET=_blank>LPC-301-DATASHEET.pdf (PDF)</A><P>You can put hard drives 10-80gigs in size in there, any 2.5" hard drive will work I believe.<P>The 301 model starts at $995(u.s.) which is a bit pricy but its because its so small like the size of a cd-rom.<P>If there was an order for 10 or more orders the price would be lower, might even be lower on 5 orders I would have to ask my boss about that.<P>I need to convince my boss to let me have one for a while for demo. purposes, not sure if he will go for it though but its worth a try.

[Custommx3]

For those of you wanting an onboard PC, Im planning on one myself. Id get something thats low voltage, requires nothing external except power and a screen.<BR>Via makes a few motherboards that hold the "EDEN" name. These boards have a MInI-ITX form factor which is VERY TINY. Its 17mm x 17mm long (thats a lil bigger than a cd case.) It has TV out so you can hook it up to an LCD monitor. It needs no heatsinks, no cards, nothing. You can use like a 100watt power supply as your power source. <P>Just get an AC>dc converter<BR>LCD screen<BR>100W power supply<BR>Ram<BR>Harddrive<BR>(cdrom/floppy are optional)<BR>Custom build a case<BR>throw all of this together, and BAM! Onboard MP3 player/PC. Add a DVD drive and you have DVD.<P>One of the things I like is that it has an optional DOC (disc on card) built on the board (depending on model) Im gonna get that one, maybe put "peewee linux" on it.<BR>and boot the OS from the DOC. I may get a USB extension cable and get a USB 128M keychain storage and plug in to access mp3's.<BR>That, or something like this....<P><A HREF="http://peeweelinux.com/products.html#cf35" TARGET=_blank>http://peeweelinux.com/products.html#cf35</A><BR>as storage. <BR>I may add in my glidepoint as a navigation tool, or add a Serial remote, i have both, but its all on how i decide to design it.<p>[ October 18, 2002: Message edited by: Custommx3 ]

[marshmallow15]

hot diggity damn....running linux from your mx3. that's going to be crazzy.

[polak_gino]

there was a guy that went to my school before that had an old sunbird, he actually a whole mini tower in his trunk and strapped it down. all he used his pc for was mp3's. so in the center consoul he had a number keypad thing and had a little screen on his dash. So he just typed in the number of the song and it would play and the screen would just display some graphics. it was a little getto, but yet cool, cuz it was pretty original. It was a pretty bad looking install though, with all the wires and stuff.<P>I know Andrew from the meets and i know that he's a pretty smart guy , and loves his car. So im guessign if u were to do it, it would look pretty good man, nice and clean.<P>good luck man

[David Coleman]

A local 300zx guy has one here. <A HREF="http://www.ashleypowers.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.ashleypowers.com/</A>

[VizualXTC]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[BumpNGlow]

I was gonna build a car-puter out of this mobo: <A HREF="http://www.cyberguys.com/cgi-bin/sgin01 ... =3&UREQD=4" TARGET=_blank>http://www.cyberguys.com/cgi-bin/sgin01 ... UREQD=4</A> <P>a guy I know built a computer using this mobo and some various other parts in his jeep grand cherokee... it looks very nice from what he has shown me.... but the only reason why I can't do this is b/c it won't fit in the center console and I am out of room EVERYWHERE else!

[Paragon]

linux in the car?!?! barry is my hero!

[FroSTeD]

Well if it's mainly to play mp3s and not playing 3d games, PocketPC 2002 are not bad. I sometime put an iPAQ in my car and put some mp3s on a media card.<P>And as for pee wee linux, never heard of that before. I look at the pictures (pwlconfig) and it looks like a normal "graphical" console kernel configuration.<P>And only 3 news for a single year, maybe their product is very good or don't get enough support for it. Anyways, I'm not going to install it so I'll keep my opinions for myself.<p>[ October 26, 2002: Message edited by: FroSTeD ]

[zevirii]

Is it possible to hook your laptop up to you ECU and not just get the info on all the sensors but also modify the info with the laptop to better tune you car?