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| Name | More Info | MP3Car Forum | Comment | Rating | Cost |
| AutoTouch | MP3Car Forum | free | |||
| Centrafuse | MP3Car Forum | Nice Looking! | free | ||
| FrodoPlayer | MP3Car Forum | free | |||
| MediaCar | MP3Car Forum | free | |||
| MediaCruiser | MP3Car Forum | free | |||
| Media Engine | MP3Car Forum | free | |||
| Mobile Impact | MP3Car Forum | ||||
|
Mobile Media Center (password) |
here | MP3Car Forum | |||
| NeoCar Media Center | MP3Car Forum | ||||
| PyCar | MP3Car Forum | Python - Pretty Slick! | free | ||
| Road Runner | MP3Car Forum | free | |||
| V.O.I.C.E.S. | MP3Car Forum | Good Potential | |||
| iDash | Mac Mini | ||||
| DashPC | Linux | ||||
| iMobilePC | Very Slick! | $149 | |||
| Drivesoft | $49 | ||||
| CarPC | |||||
| CarBox | |||||
| CNS Maestro | 2.0 - free PRO - ?? |
Oooh...this
Windows PowerToy could be useful:
SyncToy v1 Beta for Windows XP
(Thanks JP!)
2005/08/03 PM - Car PC Hacks!
2005/07/31 PM - What a wild past few months!
First of all, this book finally came out with my article in it:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/carpchks/
Infinite thanks to Damien Stolarz
for putting this book together!
I wrote an article on how to write an application to monitor traffic in
Seattle.
So, that's the recent news.
In earlier news, on 5/2/05 I was notified that my job was ending on [Friday]
5/13/05.
I spent the next 6 weeks on severance looking for a job.
I started a new job on 6/20/05, and then got a job offer from Google on
6/22/05.
I accepted the Google job on 6/29/05, quit my "new" job on 7/8/05, and
started Google on 7/11/05.
During that whole fiasco my car's tires, brake pads, and rotors all wore
themselves down to the point that my Z was un-drivable.
I had to buy new brake pads and rotors, but they were on backorder for over
a month.
I installed all 4 corners while between jobs.
I then bought new tires:
Then, to top that off, the right rear axel nut was loose and popping and the
new tires were installed slightly out of balance.
I ended up with some pretty sweet gear, but damn I did NOT need this
distraction in my life right now! :)
So, the other thing I did was finish up installing my newly
M1-ATX powered CarPC.
The newly installed
M1-ATX is pretty nice, but now that I have used it a bit I realize that
I need to re-wire a few more things.
My issues stem from the way that I am using the "amplifier remote power".
- The "remote" power connector cannot sustain much power; there is not
enough juice to power both my case's external cooling fan and my 12V
relay switch.
This is simple enough to fix; move the case fan's power to be controlled by the 12V relay. - The "remote" power connector cuts out immediately after the M1-ATX
sends the shutdown command to the motherboard.
The way I have my car wired, the "remote" powers a 12V relay that in turn powers *all* of my peripherals:
Stereo Amp, USB Hubs, Xenarc Screen, Radar, [soon] Case Fan, etc.
This means that all of my peripherals power down as soon as the motherboard *starts* to hibernate.
This is not desirable, as I would prefer to observe the PC shutting down or hibernating.
This too is not a huge issue, and a simple tweak here or there in the wiring should solve it.
Maybe there is a "delayed remote" power sequence jumper option?
So, I *have* been busy, even if it may not show up in my CarPC project!
:)
Now, back to the Car PC
Hacks book and what I plan to do there.
I have been so distracted by external influences that I have not had much
time to dedicate to my CarPC navigation plans.
This may all be a blessing in disguise, especially with my new job at
Google.
The Microsoft job was a dead end for my CarPC hobby.
And as if I wasn't too far behind on my CarPC navigation plans, my current hardware appears to be starting to flake out.
- The PC sometimes overheats (in this summer weather)
I think I may have just forgotten to plug in the PC's internal CPU fan.
I have temporarily remedied this by powering up an external case fan. - The power is unreliable because the "remote" power connector cannot
drive both the 12V relay *and* the external case fan.
I can fix this fairly easily by having the "remote" power *only* the 12V relay, and having the 12V relay power the external fan. - The Xenarc 700TSV touch screen is flaking out.
It has always been a little flaky, but it seems worse than usual.
Maybe fixing the overheating and power problem will cause this to go away.
If not, I guess I will be buying a new screen fairly soon! :) - It is a pain in the ass to take the CarPC in and out of the car.
I have to pull out several body panels every time I want to do this, and the panels are starting to get a little weak in their joints.
I need to come up with a more serviceable configuration. - The CarPC software is not what I want it to be.
I am getting burned out of using the default desktop software.
I want to get Windows XP Embedded installed and then find a good car friendly UI program.
I may extend on the source code I have to xCar, or I may decide that existing software meets my needs.
So, in short, I don't know currently when I will make a lot of headway in
my CarPC plans.
I think I need to go back to the basics again and re-rev the hardware (would
this be my 4th install?).
This system (with a CF boot and a nice USB DVD/RW) might be sweet!
Maybe I should check out one of Damien's
CarBot PCs! :)
While I am piecing my new system together I would find some way to use
Google Maps and Google Earth for CarPC purposes.
Both of these services have quite a few limitations, but a Google Maps
update to my Where The Hell Is Pv
would be nice.
And then there is always Virtual Earth...don't get me started on this! :)
Good Night!
2005/04/29 AM - Out with the old, in with the new!
Again, where the hell have I been?!?!?! I have no frickin' idea man!
I bought this booty the other day:
- Sanyo MM-5600 Sprint PCS Phone
- KingMax miniSD 512MB Card
- Sanyo MM-5600 USB Charging Data Cable (search ebay)
- D-Link DWL-G132 108Mbps USB 802.11g Adapter
- mini-box/ituner M1-ATX DC-DC ATX Automotive Computer Power Supply
It set me back a pretty penny, but it should hopefully improve the experience in the car.
My power was acting flakey while shutting down. I have gone through several power solutions since I started this project. Power is (was?) *THE* hardest problem to solve in a CarPC. This latest mini-box power supply is a god-send! I want to take a single photo of all of my power solutions in the frame. It should show very well how CarPC technology has improved in just the last two years!
I upgraded my cell phone because I had my Sanyo 8100 for over 18 months and can get a $150 upgrade rebate. The MM-5600 is one of the latest and greatest models that Sprint has. They supposedly introduced it in February 2005. It is a pretty sweet phone, and just like my power supply solution upgrade, it too shows how much cell phone technology has improved in the last two years!
Out with the old, in with the new.
Speaking of improvements in technology, Nano-ITX may finally be here:
- mini-box.com EPIA-N
-
mini-box.com NanoPSU
"IMPORTANT NOTICE:As of 02/02/2005 VIA technologies re-designed the layout of the nano-ITX (EPIA-N) motherboard. As a result, the power connector position was changed, rendering our design useless. We are waiting the new specs / prototypes from VIA so rthat we can re-layout our PSU board according to the new specs."
For updates on the nanoPSU power supply availability, please send an email to nano@mini-box.com
The "02/02/2005" comment tells me that Nano-ITX is still alive and can explain why it has still not been released yet. - There are several Nano-ITX cases you can buy:
- MyElectronics
- mini-itx Nano-ITX case reference designs (provides links to cases you *can* buy)
- Travla C-156 Hybrid Nano-ITX/Mini-ITXCase (Hmmmm....)
There are also links to
VIA's "Luke" platform; SWEET!
2005/02/13 PM - Where the hell have I been?!?!?!
One word: "Girlfriend"
Yeah, who would have thought! I don't mean to bore you, but FYI, we have been going out since 10/2/04 and she is damn cool. Her name is Carol, and she is not exactly a 350Z car show super model, but she is phuckin cute and hella awesome to be around. She has almost successfully domesticated me, but the initial honeymoon is winding down and I am starting to find some free time once again.
Anyways, enough about her. Back to the car.
Yeah, so, what have I been up to?
The only thing I have successfully accomplished since my last journal entry is that I got the CompactFlash drive installed beside the PC. I do not have pics yet, but it looks almost exactly like this:
Because of the girlfriend, this project took me several months to complete; it should have only take a few weeks, tops. The PC was out of my car the whole time, so I was driving around with a lot of the interior body panels ripped out of the car. This did not seem to bother the lady too much! ;) I was really excited to finally finish building this mod and install it back in to the car. I did not test the wiring when I reinstalled the PC. Within a few days the computer's power/wiring started to flake out on me. One day I reached behind the PC to unplug and replug its power cable. As soon as I unplugged the power cable, my Amp and Radar Detector also powered off...and they haven't powered up since. I don't think it is a serious problem; it is probably just a simple blown fuse. But yet again, because of the girlfriend, it may take me awhile to get around to giving the problem a full troubleshooting.
I feel lucky just to have the time to write this journal entry! :)
Carol is out for a "Girl's Day" (you know, where all of her friends get
together and wear lingerie and have pillow fights), so I had a little time
on my hands.
I figured that I owe an update to the people that have told me they actually
read this stupid journal! :)
Another thing I have accomplished in the past few months is that I had a chance to write an article in the upcoming book "Car PC Hacks" by O'Reilly and Associates. I wrote the article on "Traffic Monitoring". Damien wanted me to write about integrating a CarPC with a Radar Detector, but I said no because I knew I would not have time to work on this or provide anything worthy of publishing. This is definitely something I would like to work on in the future. I bought an oscilloscope from a co-worker and plan to sit down with my radar detector sometime and analyze what is going across the wires. Knowing what is on the lines, I could then possibly build a USB device to interpret the signal and send them to a PC. That would be pretty swooby! Integrate this with some sort of navigation and internet access and you have yourself a "Cops.Net"! :)
Well, that is about all for now. I will try to do a better job
making progress on my CarPC and updating y'all here. Take care!