12 replies to this topic

[shizzle]

Heya,

Guy at work bought 2 embedded pc's (for industrial use) with 7" Touchscreen for $150.
Website is http://www.armdesigner.com/

Just wondering if anyone has used them for a car pc? WIth a nice USB soundcard, it looks like really nice solution. I am going to try and borrow one to try out, and will report back. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this kind of stuff?
Its pretty nifty with lots of add on cars (GPS etc)

cya

[KGB]

At $150 it sounds very promising, keen to hear what you find out.

[SQXPRT]

which one is the touch screen for $150?

the only one I saw was the ARM11 for $349

[shizzle]

Heya,

Here is the one the guy has :http://www.armdesigner.com/EM2440-III.html
Its at the bottm, its actually US$159, my bad, not $150
Had a look at it at work today, hes a Linux guru and is runnig some sort of opensource OS on it.
It comes with WinCE, will try and borrow one this weekend and have aplay, send some feedback.Looking at it though, it looks nifty, not soooo great on video, but as an MP3 player and GPS etc, it looks great.

Pretty impressive picture quality on the LCD too, and I love the fact that it is barebone, making mounting in a car easier, if you are doing custom work.<br><br>Again, I wil post some pics of the actual stuff, even if I cannot borrow one.

Edited by shizzle, 06 May 2010 - 09:59 PM.

[Captain Kermit]

It would be useful if you were hugely into linux, or if someone develops a very lightweight CarPC linux based operating system, but until then it's going to be far too weak for the average person to do anything with. Also has very little storage space, so an external USB hard drive would need to be added, although that's probably a good method of storage for any CarPC.

There is one part of that product summary that turns me on though:

Supporting GPS,GPRS,CDMA, Printer, WIFI, AV,VGA Modules

GPS is cool, but CDMA! Seems as though you can buy an attachment, hook up a sim card and it can be used as a mobile phone. Probably no good for talking to people, but if integrated into an alarm could be used to send you a txt message if your alarm goes off, and give you constant txt updates on your cars position via the GPS. Unfortunately the CDMA network is on it's way out thanks to 3G, so this feature will only be useful for a few more years.

Another problem is it's 5V power supply, you'd need some kind of regulated 10-16v in 5v out power supply to run it in your car.

Still, for someone who knows what they're doing, great value. Unfortunately I know very little of linux, so it's useless for me.

[shizzle]

Heya,<br><br>I did bring one home this weekend (maybe try and take a video and upload it later today, bit hungover now )<br>Just a note, it comes with Windows CE onboard, so you can use it off the bat, no install of an OS required (if you are happy with windows CE).<br><br>As I said, I will give it a play and see what its made of later, and report back.&nbsp; IF I got one, it would really be just for MP3's and GPS, I don't thik the std one I have will be the best for playing back videos and whatnot.<br><br><br>

[SQXPRT]

winCE is gayer than Ricky Martin

there's already a linux carpc package.

[blanketman]

Any updates on this?

[shizzle]

Heya,

I played around with the windows CE one for a while. I got the craps though, as it did not recognise any USB sticks, SD cards, and had no drivers for the audio.
Our Engineer at work is still making his up, with linux (or Unix, never know which is which) and should be finished soon.

I will try and get a demo next week when I return to work, and post up my findings. At face value though, they look like a good solution, but in reality, I think the limitation would be a nice GPS and MP3 player, as the CPU and GPU would not be able to handle any real video.

[Just like music]

http://wiki.openice....title=Downloads

[Nanook]

The android option would be the way to, stuff win ce in the bin!

[WiredRides]

I would probably stay away from ARM processors unless you only want it for CE or some other mobile OS... commonly used in cheap phones and tablet PC

as for the tech at work, sounds like he's making a communications controller or something

[shizzle]

heya,

yup, hes using these imbedded pc's for various functions. Counters, wireless communication, data loggers. Although, as a typical engineer, nothing is 100% finalised yet, as he keeps on getting distrcted with new projects