5/1/05    Full Screen Mode (Recommended)

I enjoy working with computers and I love driving my car. What if I could do both at the same time? I always thought an in-car computer (carputer) would be useful to have around. And even if it wasn't, the cool factor would sure make up for it. Endless possibilities such as; MP3 playback, GPS navigation, wireless internet, DVD video playback, games, cameras, integrated phone, and much more. Pretty much anything your home computer can do, so can a carputer because at their roots, they are one in the same. Just like its endless possibilities this will most likely become an endless project. Don't think this is because I'm not committed, I am. The sheer size of this project is over whelming; don't be fooled by the pictures below, they only show a small amount of the actual work evolved and not to mention 50% of this project's development is in the software alone. Please keep in mind that this page is constantly under development and will progress with the overall project.

Now that you have an idea of what I'm trying to accomplish let's look what I needed. The core components of all computers are the same, but not universal. All computers have volatile memory, a processor, a storage medium (non-volatile), motherboard, some type of communication (USB, video, keyboard...), and software. Software is often overlooked as a component to a computer, but it is very much required. Without software a computer would be just a huge pile of transistors.

With this information about the core components of a computer I was able to build a list of essential and non-essential items. I choose the following products and have listed them in no particular order

The motherboard I purchased is called a mini-itx board. These boards are proprietary to VIA and are designed for Point-of-Sale systems. Mini-itx boards are great for a car computers because they are very small, merely the size of a CD case. It offers an embedded processor which is made for lower power consumption. The less power the computer uses, the less heat it will produce, and since cooling this computer will be very hard, it only made sense to use said board. The particular board I'm using is called the EPIA PD, it is the only mini-itx board at the time that offers 6 USB ports. I figure I'm going to need at least that many. It also has dual network cards, integrated video, serial, and audio. Since I'll need all of these things, this board really is an all in one solution. The only downslide to it is the embedded processor is a modest 1 GHz, I know I said it was a good thing also. This is how such low power and heat is achieve. 1 GHz will do everything except play graphic intensive games, which could not happen anyway because of the lack of a dedicated video card.

It is logical that a carputer would need a lot of memory because you don't want the hard drive to write/read more than necessary while in such a harsh environment. The board supports a maximum of 1024 Mb of PC2100 which I maxed out. I went with some budget memory since I clearly wasn't going for performance with a 1 GHz processor.

Picking a suitable hard drive was not easy, the drive must be able to withstand the harsh environment. I had planned on using a laptop drive which I already had. Laptop drives are known to be very resilient to bumps and vibrations. This will be on only moving part in the computer so it has to be strong. Laptop drives are also much smaller than normal desktop hard drives. My only concern is the capacity of the drive, 30 Gb, may not be sufficient. After thinking about just how much space I was going to need, I changed my mind and bought a 250 Gb desktop hard drive. It wasn't until later on that I realized the reason why my prototype computer was so slow. The laptop drive is only 4400 RPM with a 512k cache. The new hard drive is 7200 RPM and has a 16 Mb cache, this dramatically improved the overall speed of the computer. The drive is rated at 3G's operational shock. That is way more than it'll ever get in my car. And if it does, then the computer will be the least of my concerns. Also, the hard drive was only 50 bucks, so if it does crash... oh well.

The screen may not be required for all computers, matter of fact, I've seen a carputer that didn't even have a screen. It was complete operated by switches on the dash board. I don't plan on going that route. However, I do plan on writing voice control software. I picked up a Xenarc 7 inch touch screen LCD. The screen has two RCA and one VGA input. The VGA input is essential because it offers a much better picture than RCA or S-Video. The touch screen portion of the LCD uses USB.

The last essential part of the computer is the power supply unit. As you may already know computers plug into the wall. The line voltage at the wall socket is 110 AC volts. Computers run anywhere from 12 to 3.3 DC volts. This lead me to think that since cars operate at 12 volts, powering the computer should be very easy. After doing some some tests in my car I learned that I was wrong. The power in a car is too unstable to run a computer. During engine cranking the voltage can drop as low as 7 volts and can peak as high as 14 volts. This inconsistency in voltage would destroy a computer fast. With this knowledge I started searching for an automotive PSU. To my surprise they are pretty common, in fact, they are offered in various wattage ratings. According to VIA's power calculator, my system should only draw about 50 watts when completed. This means that any PSU over 50 watts would work. The cheapest PSU I could find, called the M1, offers about 90 watts. This was a perfect solution. It has a built in voltage regulator, that means the computer wont shut off when I start my car. It also will shut off the computer if the cars battery drops below 11 volts. Most importantly, this unit connects to the cars ignition and trigger the motherboard to power on and off when the key is turned.

So now that all the hard stuff is figured out, it is time to look at some of the optional features. Since this computers primary use is for MP3's it needs to have way to connect to the cars stereo. I purchased a unit made by PIE which allows music to be inputted via RCA jacks. I wanted to be able to burn CDs as well as watch movies. After pricing different CD-ROM drives it became clear that if I wanted a combo drive that could burn CDs and play DVDs, I might as well get a DVD burning. I picked up a Pioneer 16x DVD-/+RW for about the same price as a CD-RW/DVD drive. I wanted to be able to easily connect digital camera to the car so I picked up a inexpensive memory card reader. Next on my shoping list was a wireless PCI card. This was not easy to find because I needed a small card that would fit in my case. After searching the net I came across a card on Ebay, of course. Picking out a GPS was pretty simple because they are only a few USB GPS devices offered, once again I resorted to Ebay. While I was on my Ebay shopping frenzy I ordered a mini USB keyboard, that just might be too mini for my stubby fingers.

Lastly, I ordered a USB Bluetooth card. Since I have a Bluetooth enabled phone, it only made sense to incorporated it in to my computer. The computer can pair to the phone a use it for the internet or to make and receive calls. I can dial the phone right from the computers LCD. If someone calls while I'm listening to music, it will mute the music and display the name of the person on the computer screen. It uses an in-cabin microphone and the stereos speakers as a speaker phone setup.

VIA Epia PD motherboard
1GB of PC2700 RAM
250GB 7200 RPM w/ 16Mb buffer Hard Drive
92 Watt M1-ATX automotive power supply unit with ignition hibernation
Pioneer 16x16 DL DVD-RW/CD-RW (Replaced with slot loading laptop drive)
9-1 Memory reader
PIE-Input
54G wireless PCI card with external antenna
Holux GPS
Xenarc VGA touch screen w/ dual RCA inputs
USB keyboard
USB Bluetooth stick


 

Here are the main components to the computer. Power supply, motherboard, hard drive, RAM and wi-fi card. I later replaced the hard drive with a bigger and faster desktop hard drive.

My first plan was to install the computer under the seat, but it got too hot. I used a pie pan to mount the motherboard and made a plate to hold the power supply and hard drive. Notice the raisers used to keep the hard drive and power supply off the metal.

I changed my mind and decided to save myself the trouble and just move the computer to the center pass through. I found an old two channel amp and removed the circuits and started grinding away. After I removed two sides of the aluminum, I sand blasted it to remove the factory powder coat.

Here is the computer installed in the pass through after everything is put together for a test fit . You can see I'm using a bigger desktop drive here.

You can see the giant heat sink for the motherboard and also the extra two USB ports from the motherboard header. Six USB 2.0 ports total. the six ports consist of the GPS, touch screen, optical drive, memory reader and two empty ports in the front center console.

If you look closely you can see that the hard drive and power supply are mounted on raisers which are mounted on a metal plate to help dissipate heat and keep the plastic from getting too hot. The fan you see in the first picture is temperature controlled and doesn’t make any noise at max power. The rounded IDE cable was a must because the lack of space.
 

I could not find any simple way to connect the power to the computer. Every wire plug I came across that looked like it would work only had two wires in it. I needed one for 3 wires (power, ignition, ground). I finally found something that would work. As you can see I soldered the wires together and then slipped shrink tube over the joint. Throughout this install I never used a single wire connector; everything is soldered, other than places like this where it needs to be removable.
 

Here you can see the power and USB connectors. You can also see the Molex output power connector. The Molex connector is made or desktop computers, not cars. It may not be up to the task of the vibrations inside a car.

Here you can see all the cables that had to be run throughout the car. Many other cables had to be run down the center console and in the dash for the screen, back up camera, GPS. A large portion of the unforeseen cost went to cables.

DVD-RW is installed in the rear center console. I had to cut a pretty large hole in the rear console to fit the optical drive in there and it still doesn't sit all the way back. DVD playback is flawless and burning features work well. Wi-fi antenna is installed on the rear deck. The antenna uses a standard SMA connector so it is easy to hook up a high gain antenna for war driving.

***UPDATE*** 11/10/05

After a few months of having the DVD burner in my car I realized that it would be much more useful in my desktop. I kept having to go sit in my driveway every time I wanted to copy a movie. I picked up a laptop slot loading DVD-ROM/CD-RW on eBay for pretty cheap. Then I bought a laptop to desktop IDE adapter and used the existing IDE to USB converter. I plugged it all together and built a tray to mount the drive to. I then made a piece of aluminum that matched the contour of the center console. I cut a slit into it for the CD to slide through and then covered it in felt. The new drive sits in there so well that it is almost invisible unless you know it is there.

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Two USB inputs and one audio/video input. The USB inputs are from the motherboard, not a hub. I did this because I've had past issues trying to run non powered devices from a hub. The video input goes directly to the LCD, so if I wanted to hook up a game console, all I'd have to do it plug it in here.

USB keyboard and GPS. The GPS works great and gets a very strong signal. I had first mounted in on the rear deck, however, I soon learned that the defroster wires in the window would interfere with the GPS signal. The keyboard is a tad small for my hands, but I hardly ever use it.

7" inch Xenarc touch screen with RCA inputs. I ordered the JDM navigation tray from Mazda. This tray is apparently an option in Japan. I a hole in my dash and mounted the tray. The underside of the already has the cut out lines on it, so cutting it was a breeze.
 

I decided to add another access point to my network because I wasn't getting a good signal past my sidewalk. Now I can pick up the internet anywhere on the block.

***UPDATE*** 1/15/06

After having the computer working in the car for over 7 months I realized something that I knew from day one, yet did nothing about. I noticed when I droving over bumpy roads the LCD would flicker dim for a half second, very hard to notice unless you were looking for it. The PSU in the computer has an output that powers the screen, DVD drive, as well as any future devices. There is a connector between the computer and the car that allows the computer to be removable. I suspected this would be an issue from the start, however, it wasn't. It is just now becoming an issue. The problem resides in the Molex connector used in all desktop computers. This connector was not designed to work in a car, and over time can work itself loose. The solution was to install a connector that incorporated a screw on fastener. The connector that I used is found on many audio appliances used mainly for microphones.

I first removed the lid from the center pass through so I could easily remove the wires. The middle picture shows the Molex connector. You can see how this would come loose over time. It never came completely undone, but just enough to make the screen flicker. The last picture shows a metal bracket that I had to make. The screw connector would mount to this bracket.

You can see a close up of the connector as I soldered the wires to it in the first picture. The other pictures show the completed connector mounted on the case.

While I had the computer apart I thought I might as well add a valet switch to keep the computer and stereo from working when I took the car to the dealer, or for any other reason. Installing the switch was very simple. All I had to do was tap the motherboards power lead. You can see in the second picture where I spliced into the power lead. The last picture shows how I ran the wires. I covered the entire length of the wires with shrink tube. This was to protect the small wires.

The first picture shows where I mounted the valet switch. The middle shows the finished install as it would seen from the trunk. The last picture shows where I hooked the female power connector to the car. This replaced the troublesome female Molex connector, if you look closely you can see the fastener on it.

These pictures show the installed computer without the lid put back on the console. If you look at the last picture you can see in the far right the connector. The switch is mounted right above it. After driving around for a little while it is clear that this fixed the dimming issues I was having before.

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Now that the computer was installed it was time to start finding software that would make it all work. I needed some type of front-end software that could control the entire computer from one easy to use screen. After spending a good amount of time on the net I came across a few good programs. The first front-end I installed was called MediaCar (pictured below). It was very easy to install and offered a simple to use interface. The only drawback was the lack of options, and it appeared that the creator was no longer supporting it. Next on my list was a program called FrodoPlayer. Frodo is a full featured skin-able front-end that incorporated everything I needed except for Bluetooth phone support. While it wasn't perfect, it did offer enough to get me started. I downloaded several skins until I found on that I liked. The next challenge was to find a suitable mapping software that would work with my GPS receiver. After reading a few good reviews about Iguidance I decided to get a copy. Frodo does a great got of embedded the GPS software into its own interface. My last program on the list was called Road Runner, it offers everything that Frodo does plus phone support. Sounds great?...it's not. Even though it had everything I wanted and the phone worked great, it lacked the finesse that Frodo had. I went back to Frodo and still use it without the phone for now. I'm in the process of writing my own software that will meet my needs, however, it's not going to be done anytime soon.

Look! It actually works too. Impressive huh?

Main Menu: (MediaCar)

Navigation System:

DVD Player:

FM Radio:

MP3 and Application Lunch Software:

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