Serge Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Yes, I have absolutely nothing else to do so I started a new project since my projector retrofit and LED brake lights are done. Going to do a carputer. Already bought a good part of the supplies. M1 ATX DC-DC 90W power supply. Allows you to run the carputer while you crank the car (input voltage range is between 6V and 24V). VIA EPIA M10000 1Ghz motherboard. Built on everything (video, audio [dolby digital 5.1 via S/PDIF], mpeg2 decoder, 10/100 nic, USB 2.0, 1 DDR slot, 1 PCI slot). Very nice mobo. But the CPU is the same as a P3 500 in terms of speed. So can't expect the world from it.Bought all of that for $165 shipped. Slightly used but can't go wrong at that price.All The Parts* VIA EPIA M10000 mobo* M1 ATX DC-DC PSU* Generic (Xenarc internals) SP-719 7" touch screen LCD* PC4000 512MB DDR (some good brand, like Micron; you should never go cheap on RAM)* Standard IDE 7200RPM drive (laptop drives are too slow), something like 80 gig* Powered USB 2.0 hub* Non-ATX 12V and 5V DC-DC PSU to power USB hub and fans* Slim IDE DVD drive* IDE -> USB converter* Misc lengths of USB cables* USB wifi card* Serial GPS receiver* OBD-II to serial converter* Wireless mini keyboard w/ built in mouse* Spare SC-811 to hollow out and use for LCD storage + buttonsw00t, all that will add up of course.. but the first few parts are major and will be enough to have a useable carputer.The Plan* Custom reccess 7" LCD into SC-811 cage, bondo the plastic to make it look clean, paint it flat black to match interior trim* Put all the hardware in the trunk. Temporarily just in a random case but later on on a custom sheet metal shelf that slides out from the rear deck (inside the trunk), ala Maybach * Run a slim DVD drive to the glove box using an IDE->USB adapater (USB can be like 12ft long, whereas IDE can only be 48"). * Powered USB hub upfront in the glove box for connecting various devices (cell phone, etc)* Use my Sprint phone as a USB modem (works fine with my laptop, great connection and speed) for ~200kbit throughput (free data w/ Sprint, yay)* Have the M1 ATX PSU turn on (via relay) a small non-ATX DC-DC 12V and 5V power supply so that I have clean power for the LCD, USB hub and various other attachments that I don't want to power off the M1 ATX (limited to 90W)* Serial OBD-II converter so that I can monitor car's vitals and whatnot.* Backup camera* In the future I might add a 2nd battery to the trunk to make sure I never have to worry about a dead battery for crankingHaving a computer in the car will be a godsend.//edit: Yes, I'm aware I'll need an amp. I'll figure out what to do about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prasamin Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 i'll just wait for picsso that mobo has the P3 built onto it? didn't know they made those...guessing it's some type of mATX mobo right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyR Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 cool, cool. This is my plan as well over the next 3-4 months. prolly pick up Bing's up and coming 7" touch screen and at least at first go with just a regular tower comp I have laying around with an invertor, and I already individually amp everything so...Eventually the plan is to get a mini-ITX mobo/case with a Pentium M in the 1.2+ Ghz range. Either run an audigy for sound and a usb TV tuner or use an all in wonder and an Extigy as the miniitx only has the one PCI slot. And eventually graft something like a live drive and a slot loading (or not) dvd burner in the glovebox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serge Posted September 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Pras: It has a VIA CPU built in, which is basically an old Cyrix CPU (remember those?). The P3, Athlon and Pentium-M versions are crazy expensive and don't come with CPUs.These are smaller than mATX. Mini-ITX mobos are 6.7" by 6.7" which is crazy small.Anthony: Very cool. The P-M ITX boards are expensive, then you gotta spend another $300ish for the CPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyR Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Pras: It has a VIA CPU built in, which is basically an old Cyrix CPU (remember those?). The P3, Athlon and Pentium-M versions are crazy expensive and don't come with CPUs.These are smaller than mATX. Mini-ITX mobos are 6.7" by 6.7" which is crazy small.Anthony: Very cool. The P-M ITX boards are expensive, then you gotta spend another $300ish for the CPU.←Yeah, they are quite a bit more expensive, but I am hooked up thru a very good distributer that can get things very inexpensive comparitively, I still have yet to find an online price anywhere that can beat what I get it for. And their local to me. Plus I was talking with them the other day about carputer applications and he was showing me this full fledged comp everything onboard with a laptop harddrive and it was literally the same size as two cigarette packs, and it had all the normal ins outs and no fans, was built for industrial applications. So I am currently looking into what I can source from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prasamin Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 so that mobo with "cyrix" like processor takes ddr4000? do you really need that much throughput when you have such a limited fsb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exexpat Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Nice stuff. That box will even run XP SP2, was it preloaded with an OS? I'm thinking add the MS Streets and Trips with GPS module and you've got nav+carputer for less than typical nav price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prasamin Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Nice stuff. That box will even run XP SP2, was it preloaded with an OS? I'm thinking add the MS Streets and Trips with GPS module and you've got nav+carputer for less than typical nav price.←would it be better to run media center or 2k? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serge Posted September 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 so that mobo with "cyrix" like processor takes ddr4000? do you really need that much throughput when you have such a limited fsb?←You'd be surprised. They had a 800mhz version with PC133 on it and it performed half as fast as this DDR versionl, which is only 1Ghz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serge Posted September 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Nice stuff. That box will even run XP SP2, was it preloaded with an OS? I'm thinking add the MS Streets and Trips with GPS module and you've got nav+carputer for less than typical nav price.←It'll run XP SP2 without a problem. Which is what it'll run; that or XP Embedded.Streets + Trips does not do navigation (ie: turn left here... turn right here). It will do routes and GPS position, but not the usual navigation deal.There are a few major companies that make actual navigation software packages with proper maps. Basically duplicates of navi systems in cars.I haven't picked what frontend I want to use, but definitely one that's feature packed and has a skin that looks OEM. I dislike all those funky looking carputer front end skins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sadude Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 Any updates?Did you install anything yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maiku Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 well, if i could add, i have my old laptop installed in my car with the same screen.i'm running a toned down version of windows xp, where the total install size is 350MB (compared to 2GB) so boot up times are ridiculously fast. I'm running a P3 800, with Geforce2 Go graphics and a 30GB hard drive and DVD drive. PCMCIA Wifi Card along with USB GPS.I run the "Road Runner" Front End along with iGuidance GPS navigation software. Everything is VERY cool. Friends are jealous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyR Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 I'm getting excited now to do my project. I'm picking up Prasamin's Dell PIII-M 1ghz laptop, and Bing's touch screen once he gets them in. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prasamin Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 I'm getting excited now to do my project. I'm picking up Prasamin's Dell PIII-M 1ghz laptop, and Bing's touch screen once he gets them in. ←you are picking it up?....carputer is a good idea with this thing...didn't even think about it ...i'll get back to you later on today with all the info for payment and whatnot...i have to dig out the cd's for it too.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serge Posted September 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 Any updates?Did you install anything yet?←Well, I got the parts in. Need to get more parts.VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX motherboardMini-box M1-ATX 90W DC-DC power supplyBoth hooked up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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