Carputer - how far should i go?

[clewster]

Ok guys n girls I am going to put a PC in my MR2 Rev2 tubby.
I think it’s an obvious choice to go with a mini ITX system but I don’t really want to get too bogged down with the hardware at this stage.

I have looked round at allot of other systems people have done but I’m not sure how far I should take it. As an absolute minimum the carputer needs to do all the stuff a standard head unit does plus sat nav and obviously the tunes would be on removable drive or better still setup to sync with my wireless network at home. This also means ill need to think about amping the speakers.

I want the screen to look factory and it goes without saying it needs to be touch screen. My thoughts are do I just have one the size of the head unit hole or go bigger and cover the vents and then I thought do I go either bigger and removed the climate control and get that controlled by the carputer. Hell if I’m going to go that far why not strip out the clocks add a second screen and wire the system up to the engine management!

And of course there’s the question of Linux Vs windows and which flavour?

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on how far I should go with this or if I have overlooked anything let me know I’m interested in everyone’s thoughts before I get started.

[adzmr2]

7" touch screen will fit in the double din slot, something like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DOUBLE-DIN-LILLIP ... 2212wt_984

or this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bybyte-Black-Box- ... 2eaa410c1d

I've moulded a 7" screen in mine, doesn't look that stock as it sticks out a bit and its covered in black leather, i'll post some pics when its done

As for what you need something like this would do the job perfect

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/182588

i've built a micro atx pentium 4 3.0 ghz into an old sky box that im going to be using as soon as it gets warmer and i can get time to fit it all. Thats probably abit overkill something like a 1ghz processor and a gig of ram would do. Centrafuse is a good front end to use as has satnav and bluetooth built in for your phone. download a trial from here www.centrafuse.com Have a look on mp3car.com too for lots of good advise. I personally prefer windows to linux but your choice at the end of the day. As for wireless your limited to range, my routers about 100 foot from my drive and i can only just connect to it :(

Hope this helps, i'll post some pics when i can

[adzmr2]

if i could do this i would

http://www.giz4geeks.com/2008/09/12/mr2-in-car-computer

[clewster]

Hi adzmr2 sorry its took me so long to reply. That Acer box looks quite good although I think ill build a mini ITX box and stick a good quality 802.11n usb wireless adaptor under the spoiler where the aerial is, should get far enough for the house then. It seems there is allot more developed for windows so the best OS for the job may be windows 7.

ill have a good look at centrafuse, although i'm one of these people that expects everything for nothing

As for the second post I have debated on it but I've not decided if I have the time to play with a system like that. Although I found the mouse not to long back for 50quid so I think I will add one of them to the shopping list.

I would be interested in seeing some pics of your screen if possible?

[Howlin_Mad]

Has to be Windows 7 - Voice recognition and Touch screen compatibility built in as standard - think of what you can do with that!

HM

[clewster]

yeah good point, voice isn't something I had though of. Although that will be interesting with the music on or the noise of the engine/road at 70 down the motorway.
Ill have to shop round for a good quality mic

[Rubber_Chicken]

Did you ever get this done?