17 replies to this topic

[Captn_Awesome]

What do you want out of a CarPC.

The more I think about it and the more ideas I come up with for carPC them more I think i should just KISS. head unit with ipod is going to be ample for my needs. external processors do a good job and work. GPS - well portable Nav works and is cheap, off roading is the only place I really could do with a hand. Though mates I go wheelin with who have off road GPS units still use maps as they reacon the GPS units are good for outback/high country work but for weekend trips the maps are far more accurate and easy to read. DVD/movies. Cheap head reast monitors will more than keep kids happy - I dont have any yet to worry about so thats a little while off.

Theres a few other things I could do with a car PC - but a laptop/net book is probably a more flexible option at the end of the day.

[Andrey]

didn't visit this forum for a while... but this is very interesting subject, hope below info will help someone, my personal opinion on what I see in industry. Sorry didn't read all previous posts, so some things might be repeated. quick write up.

I work in thin client industry and I know some organizations use car "PC's" (you probably know them too;)), anyways, in reality there are few things to consider when you want to do car PC, or even car network, like they have in plains.

1. Operating system. I've seen few comments here my point of view:
a) Win XP. It's most common option, but what happens if it start work sluggish (it will one day), you get a virus. Again if you hibernate it all the time it will start to be slow eventually and close to non usable, just how XP works. Best option here is to have 2 disks, 1 with MP3's, videos e.t.c. and 2nd with OS. So you create a ghost image with all pre-installed packages which already aware that there is 2nd disk with info. In case something goes wrong you simply reimage the box from USB drive, takes 10 minutes.
b) Windows XP embedded (or Windows Embedded standard 2009) Based on Win XP pro, this is already slimmed down OS. Quick boot, protected from viruses by file based write filter, quicker to backup, quicker to restore. Has only few dlls in pocket, but you can pretty much install any Soft there anyway. As above you better off using 2nd HD. This OS can run for longer time also without reboot, though recommended to reboot every day. Because it's pretty much not changing from day to day, you should not experience slow performance even over 2 years...
c) Linux. Very good alternative to above, more stable in general. Though can be quite sensitive to non-graceful shutdowns. But as there are so many different distributives available, best thing to boot this OS from USB drive. However when it comes to drivers, some customization, you have to think and research much more than with Windows, less drivers available (if available at all), some geekiness required also.
d) Win CE - don't even think about this, this OS is ok for mobile phones, no way you wanna do a car PC or any media from that OS. Currently it's 16-bit too... drivers can be issue, quality of video can be big issue to. If you want to browse internet you don't have any choice apart from IE6 on WinCE6, which is crap.
e) Windows multipoint server? hey, why not? if you have a 7 seater and have some IT skills, this seems to be a not bad option )) though, if you not 100% sure how it all works together can take long time to learn...
f) Virtualize it, have few VM's doing things!!! again, this is possible and not a bad option for many seats together with thin client, but will require some proper planning, same as you would roll out small Office
g) One day when our country will have this so called National Broadband(though, doubt the quality for next 10 yeard) and perfect 4G connections, best option would be to leave all the gear at home and just stream stuff to a car, same as you do with home video systems.

2. Hardware you want to use.
a) PC - hmmmm, i would say not best option, PC's were designed to stand without too much shaking. You can secure most of the parts, but you definitely don't want to get normal HDD, you need SSD, or just use 32gb flash drives to go cheaper. Also in term of cooling, you need to think of fan which won't be damage by too much shaking and better to get Intel CPU's which slow down if they get hot. AMD's don't do this till current days i think, this is just so you don't burn your CPU.
PC's are good and easy in terms of slamming in some cheap video card which GPU can render all sort of Video formats and Flash 10.1. Otherwise you might need to get a powerful CPU, which is not good option for mobile stuff...
I would go with Intel Atom and other brands low power CPU's and just some NVIDIA card which supports all video/flash 10.1 and make it bulletproof. Also you can fit some weird PCI card in them to support TV, Radio, very good quality sound.

b) laptop - as some already mentioned, it's a better option probably. Some already have flash drives and not the hard drives. Only consideration here - not all laptops will like much to be put in almost no space. Best test here, is if you have a laptop bag, simply place running laptop while playing video into the bag (you can disable hibernation on close lid). Check temperature after 1.5 hours and if laptop still running. Also when choosing a laptop very important to check which GPU it has, as some laptops simply won't play even small size 720 video well... Limited with devices re good quality sound.

c) Thin client - some these devices are built to be used in factories, tuff environments, mostly have no moving parts (i think this is very important, car is not smoothest place to be in, especially if you drive Parramatta rd daily). There are a lot of models, and you will need to go with similar considerations as for laptops/netbooks.


So in reality, there are a lot of different solutions to this question, and as stated in some other threads, do you really need it?!!!!!!

So if you really considering to do this, you have to think carefully and several times on below questions:

1. Why you want to do this? e.g. for fun or there are no devices to handle tasks you want to perform on the road.
2. which exact functions you want this setup to cover.
3. which functions would be nice to add in future. If you don't think about this one, don't be surprised if you just want to add some simple function, this can involve some very major changes.
4. Budget/time you willing to spend. This can be as low as 500, but some of above crazy 7 seater solutions can cost few grand in total and a lot of time.

and again, do it right, no shortcuts, no temporary things, as in the end you will be the one to pay more;)

hope this helps,

I really like this part of forum, but think for each particular solution better to open a fresh thread and come up with some template so all questions answered before any suggestions can be made, otherwise hard to make a right suggestion:)

Cheers,
Andrey

[ss-rotel]

What about the Live ver of XBMC?

there is also moblin, and a distro of ubuntu that's build for mobile equipment, (or it's a distro built around the ubuntu kernel), can't remember the name exactly... if i find it i'll post it.

i've heard the new ver of unbuntu's pretty device freindly too. soo i'm sure there's be some interesting distro's released soon



i'm thinking about either XBMC, or itunes on xp, (using nlite to slim XP down).
i need to use windows so i can use the AP software that bundles with the wifi card i've using. then my ipod touch will run the corisponding app, and control the tracks.

Also needs to rund ECU management software...

Edited by ss-rotel, 16 September 2010 - 09:56 PM.