Car computer

Hello all, soon this summer will be my birthday and I would like to make my self a *cool* present. I'm a computer science student, last year, and I always liked embedded computers and modding.

I want to buy an x86 computer, to put it in my car and play around with it. For sure you know much better than me, so I'm going to ask you what you think will better fit a car computer.

I've seen around all pico/nano/mini ITX that range from 600mhz to

1400mhz. I believe that as long as they can play video (even via hardware) it doesn't matter the power, since to browse the internet, play mp3s, etc, computing power is not really a big deal. The prices are all between 100$ and 400$. I'm not even sure dimension matters as if it doesn't fit in the box (don't know the name, the one used for documents in front of the passenger) I could always put it in luggage van.

The car for now is a new beatle cabrio, but if I have to change car I would like to be able to do that without too much hassle.

I also seen the mac mini and apple tv that are both really small and probably enough for the type of application I'm forseeing. The power managment would probably be the problem.

I'm not sure on the OS i'm going to use, but most probably one of the flavour of *nix, even osx. The IO will be a screen (not sure but most probably touchscreen, vga or svideo), a gps, a gprs/umts/whatever for Internet access and WIFI + bluetooth. For wifi I would even like to put a bigger antenna than normal.

Do you have any suggestion what-so-ever for the type of project I'm considering ? Places to buy, components, anything! :D

Thanks in advance, and sorry for cross-posting but I couldn't find a group that was only about car computer.

Reply to
Lawrence
Loading thread data ...

I thought about that too. An old iBookG4 12 inch with broken screen or something like that. I'm still thinking tho, will have a look on ebay or so.

But most laptop miss rs232 which would be handy for a bounce of application, including managing the car main board from the computer.

For sure I'm going to use some solid state hard drive..:P

Reply to
Lawrence

No typing while you're driving.

Reply to
Not Really Me

Buy a used laptop.

VLV

Reply to
Vladimir Vassilevsky

No experience with these vendors, but they have car PCs:

formatting link
formatting link

I bought a Jetway 1.2 GHz fanless mini-itx motherboard from NewEgg.com. It's small, fast, silent, and uses little power for my robots. Same basic things you need for a car PC.

Pete

Reply to
Pete Bergstrom

[%X]
--
********************************************************************
Paul E. Bennett ....................
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Paul E. Bennett

Depending on your climate condition you may have to look at the temperature specifications for the computer, if you want to use it immediately when you enter the car. If the car inside temperature is

-40 C or +60 C when entering the car, the system might not work reliably until the inside temperature is at a comfortable level after the heater/air conditioner has operated for a while.

In cold conditions, there may also be some condensation issues.

Keeping the power dissipation at a reasonable level in order is a good idea to avoid any fans forcing air (and dust) around the PCB. An enclosed box with external cooling fins would be a better solution, which could be cooled by forced air (if necessary) without dust problems.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Keinanen

You would be hard pressed to come up with anything as cool as this:

formatting link

Reply to
David Kelly

I hope "managing the car main board from the computer" doesn't mean controlling the Engine Control Module. Any communications with the ECM will probably be via CAN or J1850. The Ford version of J1850 is completely different from the GM version. I don't know what the Chrysler version of J1850 is like. Other manufacturers???

~Dave~

Reply to
Dave

Well, let me say little. For example, I remember I guy who had an extra EngineControlModule and he would switch from one to the other with a simple switch.The cars which most gain from this things are usually with turbo and I've heard mainly diesel. I would be cool to touch the screen and see all levels of things in the car, even just reading. Or, instead of the switch, touch the screen and plugin the enhanced engine controle module. Anyway,I don't really care about this part, it was just to say. And possibly, if i don't have a rs232, I could always plug a usb-rs232 converter. Anyway I'm going to have a look around for CAN/J1850 to see what you mean, probably standard manufacturer interface ?

Reply to
Lawrence

If you are talking about OBD-II standards, there are three.

  1. GM Standard
  2. Ford Standard
  3. Everybody else.

I wonder why GM and Ford are losing sales.

Reply to
linnix

For those wanting to interface the OBDII interfaces, there is the ELM327 IC that will interface to the 9 most common protocols, including CAN. You can get the ELM327 already in a ready to use module from

formatting link
You can download the software free. The module interfaces a PC or laptop via a RS-232 port.

Don

Reply to
Donald Harris

Have you looked at the wire bundle to/from an ECM? You are going to have to duplicate it to the second ECM. Changing the calibrations and getting aggressive with settings (e.g., spark advance) can give you increased performance. Pushing them too far can lead to expensive engine repair bills. The car manufacturers have calibrators who do nothing but tweak the settings for all sorts of situations.

And, you're going to have to convince both ECMs to work with the same theft deterrent code.

You do not want them both on at the same time. So, turning one off and then the other one on while the car is running? See above about car repairs. While this might not harm the engine under certain conditions, sooner or later you're going to be tempted to do it under the wrong conditions.

~Dave~

Reply to
Dave

There is only one OBD-II standard, defined at its lowest level by SAE J1979 and at its highest level by SAE J2178-1 through J2178-4. J1979 provides for communications to be performed over several different physical layers, one of which is SAE J1850. SAE J1850 defines two different physical (incompatible!) layers.

J1850 PWM (pulse width modulation), aka Ford, uses two wires at a data rate of 41.6 Kbps. J1850 VPW (variable pulse width), aka GM, uses one wire at a data rate of 10.4 Kbps.

~Dave~

Reply to
Dave

It is important to note that this is OBD-II communications over the vehicle bus (buses). There is a lot of proprietary communications that this tool can not interpret. Just so no one gets misled. ;-)

~Dave~

Reply to
Dave

If you call that a standard, then ISO9141-2 (rest of the auto world) is the same as RS232. My point is that GM and Ford are still isolated from the rest of the world.

Reply to
linnix

This guy did something similar in his mazda

formatting link

You can also buy ODB-II scanners which run on a PC so you could use one of those for talking the car-brains without having to worry about getting into the interface yourself.

Reply to
Tom Lucas

In comp.arch.embedded Lawrence wrote: B> But most laptop miss rs232 which would be handy for a bounce of

Assuming it's a not-too-old laptop, a USB->RS232 converter should do the trick. I don't know how well they're supported under Mac OS, but they seem to work quite well under Linux.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.