Finally diving into the carputing world

Poseur

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03.5 Lsr Blue P5
One day I shall post from my car, I've been harassing the hell outta a couple of you inhere in my quest for knowledge that's so ellusive that noone really seems to have an answer. It's a world where everything's so new and unique, that I've finally just figured I'll go ahead and dive in.

I've really got fairly limited PC building experince, I DID build my home PC with some help forma friend who I'm trying not tolean on tooheavil for this because he thinks it's jsut dumb, but I DO have alot of fiberglassing and wiring, etc tricks under my belt. Eitherway I've been kinda wanting to do this forever, and taxreturn season is upon me.

On the way to me from neweg.com:
1 AMD 2200+ 35w athelonXPmobile proc.
1 MSI KT600 KT6V-LSR Motherboard with onboard SPDIF digital output
1 stick 512 ddr400 kingston valueram
1 masscool cpufan
3 casefans
1 wireless pci card with external antenna (for wardriving, or basically just taking advantage of free internet)
1 bluetooth adapter card
2 4 port usb hubs
1 zippy Electroluminsecent compact keyboard

And, well that's it for now. I'll be using some other assorted spare parts that're floating around atleast for now, but eventually I'll have an 80gb laptop HDD and some form of DVD+cdrw drive.

The Powersupply seems the tricky part of the carputing world, Sofar it seems that the only truely reliable option is the spendy Opus. Everything else seems to have glitches, and while some are promising, and there's potential to build your own, etc. I'm ove rmy head to begin with, so the 150w opus is a couple stumbles and clicks form becoming my reality.

Fullsize ATX board is more or less entirely for the sake of balancing performance, expandability, price, and having an onboard SPDIF Digital RCA output. (most good cards have a limited variation of this, but they're spendy) This means good soundquality can be retained running a digital coax to my Eclipse cd8454 HU, because it's got the rarity of Digital input capability...

Part of the carputer fun running a full-size board will be building a case, but, ofcourse I'll need my parts first. Fortunately for me (And dex, hence my stylebiting on the board) I'm currnetly in machinist training, and we've got lots of spare materials and spiffy tools lying around just waiting for me to cookup something.

I'll postup any vitals as things progress, but I just clicked away some solid money in this direction, and felt like I had to share my glee/nervousness/whatver it is...
Wish me luck kids, I'm in way overmy head with this one.
 
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Yeah, if you are running that big of a system, then Opus is the only power supply available to buy. GL w/ it. :) It'll be cool to have 2 Laser Blue P5s w/ carputers.
 
I've been looking into the carputer thing quite a bit recently as well (mp3car.com of course) and IIRC there's a couple other DC-DC PS out there with the same functionality of the Opus, but a bit cheaper. One is the carnetix, and forget the other - altho i don't believe they'll run up to 150W, i think they're like 90W or so. And I don't know what the power draw will be on a full sized ATX mobo... but just thought you might want to consider it since those PSs are quite a bit cheaper than the Opus.

Just curious, where are you planning on mounting it?
 
Running a fairly large setup, yes, however efficent components, os theoretically I shouldn't need TONS of power, I was initially going to go with a 90w, but who knows what I might add, plus the stability is of value.

There've been some issues concerning shutdown controllers, etc with the M1-ATX the primary contender at 90W, but it's had 2 firmware updates and the verdict's stil out wether or not it will drain your battery dead while in "hard off" mode which essentially means you've got to start your car about twice a night to keep it juiced up. The other units require that you first have a voltage stabilizer and then they'r edesigned primarily only for the mini ITX boards, not ATX.

Mounting will be on the back of thepass side rear seat (the smaller seatback) Hopefully this will allow me to atleast flip down the seat and take a glance at what's goingon without leaving the driver's seat. I'll then have usb hubs in the console and possibly behind the dash.
 
Eclipse screen? never had one. just got the HU adn it'll move to where my ashtray/lighter once was. I wanted an AVN, but cost on one of those bastards is mor than a carputer, so my choice was made.
 
okay, so I finally gave in on the PSU issue. I decided to suck it up and just got an opus 150w. seems the most stable and reliable with no real issues, plus it's got a bit more beef to it so I can power my usb hub, etc from it as well.

Should have most of my mobo parts, etc tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to get to building my case at shcool this week. which should leave me time nextweek on my springbreak to start getting tight to tackling all of the little issues I'm bound to have.

Now, if ONLY I could get the monitor situation taken care of...

Katya> how's your cdrw/dvd drive hookedup? I'm lkely jsut gonan use an old fullsize one next to my box atfirst, but I'm pondering running a slotload in-dash.

Anyone have any software advice? Looks at the momentlike I'l be going with roadrunner initially, Seems like it's creator's really into it as updates comeout just about every otherday.
 
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Poseur how often are you going to be using the cd-rom drive? What about just getting a usb or firewire one?
 
In regards to the USB connections I've been planning (perhaps actually get to it this year) of mounting USB connectors up front in the change holder that sits by the foglight switch.
 
Iamgoodyy said:
Poseur how often are you going to be using the cd-rom drive? What about just getting a usb or firewire one?

I actually will be likely using it alot. I share alot of music with friends so ripping/burning etc... I had a usb/slim combodrive on order, but it was out of stock so I'll take that as a hint. This'll hopefully be clean if I can pull it off right. I'm looking at doing it vertically right along the faux cf/silver seam.
 
road runner seems to be the way to go nowadays. . . .everybody loved mediacar. . when coyote stopped updating it a lot were pissed. . so that guy that made roadrunner is cool since he wanted to continue on mediacar and made it better (open source)

i would love to have my carputer up and running again(been about 2 months without it)

just haven't had time to finish the false floor and get everythign wired back up again

4 re 8's ported 30-32hz (wanted to use 5 or 6 but couldn't fit it with false floor)

what are you using for a screen?
 
I spose it'll just sorta bounce around... Frodoplayer seems nice for XM capability and it seems he's well ontheway to getting sirius tied in as well, but I doubt RR's very far from that..

Monitor's going to be a Xenarc 700ts glassedin to my 2din opening..
 
awesome. .. . .the xenarc holds up well to the time test, mine still has no scratches on the touchscreen (been pretty good about it. . and my car is always filthy, college life)

been in since about june 03 and loved it ever since
 
Poseur said:
Katya> how's your cdrw/dvd drive hookedup? I'm lkely jsut gonan use an old fullsize one next to my box atfirst, but I'm pondering running a slotload in-dash.

Anyone have any software advice? Looks at the momentlike I'l be going with roadrunner initially, Seems like it's creator's really into it as updates comeout just about every otherday.

I've been using FrodoPlayer and it seems fine to me. Once I get a new PSU, probably the M1-ATX if they get the firmware issues straightened out, I want to play w/ Centrafuse a little more. I ripped my dash apart yesterday to see why it wasn't booting up anymore and to clean up some wires. Discovered that the connector from the PSU decided to melt and become one w/ the ITPS. :(

I just swapped in a round ribbon cable for the DVD-RW that will be going in shortly. The regular ribbon cable was getting in the way of the HVAC stuff. I haven't put it in yet because it involves cutting out the back but it will be going in the pocket under the ashtray. I won't be using it that much and it's a laptop slimslot, not a tray, so I won't need to worry too much about having it behind my cupholders. I'll either screw it in to the plastic on the sides or just use a bunch of industrial strength Velcro to hold it up, it's pretty little. Some people have gone Vertical and put their's in the armrest pocket.
 
I take it your computer's in-dash or upfront somewhere then? I'm looking at having to usb-adapt things to make it work running behind my backseat. Still hope to get somethign in-dash atleast.

Andyea, seems the the xenarcs are the way to go. might as well do it right.

Ohyea, got some toys today. *G*
 

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