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[tjobbins]

Hi guys,

I am considering a rather ambitious project - installing Media Center in my car.

I've been searching for a decent in-car Hard Drive solution, and every one I found seems to have problems.  So I thought, why not bring my favourite music system -J River Media Center - into my car.

My plan:
1. Laptop in the trunk, running XP with Media Center.  It would have a PCMCIA wifi card, and a PCMCIA sound card (for better sound quality) - the latter would be connected into the Aux-In on my car's CD head unit.
2. PDA with built in WiFi mounted on the dashboard, running NetRemote.

I would therefore control Media Center using the PDA.   I may also install GPS software on this PDA, giving me both navigation and music functionality from the same device.

My biggest problem will be power - the PDA doesn't use much power, and can be run from the cigarette lighter.  But the laptop will use a lot more, even if the screen isn't on.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience installing a laptop in their car, and could give me any advice as to how I power it, how I prevent it draining my car battery, whether you think this idea will work or if it's all madness, etc..

Any thoughts much appreciated!


Tom

[LonWar]

Pank 2002 does....

http://www.jriver.com/~jriver/other/dragyn/index.htm


If he sees this, I'm sure he might have an idea.

[pank2002]

Mr. Gamer,
I have absolutely no experience with in-car solutions (other than iPod+Sin+Cassette adapter). You are linking to Dragyn’s in-car solution (hence the url: http://www.jriver.com/~jriver/other/dragyn/index.htm)
I am driving a Hyundai for Christ sake! Installing a PC in it would be double the value of it
Anyway still a quite impressive set up — and it’s from 2001!

Also, tjobbins, I guess it would be cheaper to use a normal PC, but a laptop is of course always more convenient.

Echo Indigo is said to have good PCMCIA sound cards

[LonWar]

Mr. Gamer,
I have absolutely no experience with in-car solutions (other than iPod+Sin+Cassette adapter). You are linking to Dragyn’s in-car solution (hence the url: http://www.jriver.com/~jriver/other/dragyn/index.htm)
I am driving a Hyundai for Christ sake! Installing a PC in it would be double the value of it
Anyway still a quite impressive set up — and it’s from 2001!

Also, tjobbins, I guess it would be cheaper to use a normal PC, but a laptop is of course always more convenient.

Echo Indigo is said to have good PCMCIA sound cards

I didn't even notice the url..... I just remember that you put that link in another thread...... I guess I should stop assuming things.....   


Ok, Maybe if Dragon sees this..... 

[Mastiff]

Laptop? Wimps! I use a mini-ATX board with an AMD XP2200 and all in all 450 gig hard disk space (1 x 200 and 1 x 250) with more than 3500 albums, close to 60 000 tracks. Of course this is also my backup, so why not do something fun with it? I have mounted this into a tool suitcase, and I use an inverter. Now my car is a Suburban, and I have mounted the second optional battery (standard on police and caravan towing versions) , but that's just to be able to start and stop the car without worrying abot the computer rebooting because of power loss. For a laptop I would use one of the 12 V powwer supplies that you can get in mosts computer shops. They fit many models and use less power than if you take an inverter, convert 12 V to 220/110 V and then use the regular power supply that comes with the laptop.

A tip: Don't use a WLAN card! You can get 11 mbit access points for next to nothing, and that's a lot easier to get working with networking. I have tried P2P WLAN, but I was never really satisified with the stability. So I have the computer LAN port plugged in to a cheap 3Com AP, and that works perfectly. The AP is 12 V btw, so I power that from one of the extra hard disk power cables.

[Mastiff]

Oh, not to mention that it's a lot easier to implement multi-zone on a real computer... My car has three zones - one for the headunit and one each for the two kids in the back seat. And the dogs are getting jealous...

[Two Wire]

This website is devoted to Carputers. Very good!  http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=16

[tjobbins]

Laptop? Wimps! I use a mini-ATX board with an AMD XP2200 and all in all 450 gig hard disk space (1 x 200 and 1 x 250) with more than 3500 albums, close to 60 000 tracks. Of course this is also my backup, so why not do something fun with it? I have mounted this into a tool suitcase, and I use an inverter. Now my car is a Suburban, and I have mounted the second optional battery (standard on police and caravan towing versions) , but that's just to be able to start and stop the car without worrying abot the computer rebooting because of power loss. For a laptop I would use one of the 12 V powwer supplies that you can get in mosts computer shops. They fit many models and use less power than if you take an inverter, convert 12 V to 220/110 V and then use the regular power supply that comes with the laptop.

Thanks for the tips Mastiff.  I have one burning question - do you turn the PC off when you leave the car?  If not, how do you stop it draining the battery?  Even with your two batteries installed, surely this must drain both of them sometime (or is it connected only to the secondary, so it would only drain that and not the main one?)

If your solution is the two batteries - how would I prevent it draining my one car battery (two is not an option)?    Or is the load from a computer so low that the car battery can survive for days?

A tip: Don't use a WLAN card! You can get 11 mbit access points for next to nothing, and that's a lot easier to get working with networking. I have tried P2P WLAN, but I was never really satisified with the stability. So I have the computer LAN port plugged in to a cheap 3Com AP, and that works perfectly. The AP is 12 V btw, so I power that from one of the extra hard disk power cables.

Did you need a custom power cable for this?


Thanks


Tom

[modelmaker]

My car system may be a little primative, but it works.

I bought a used IBM Thinkpad and two 200g HDs. The Thinkpad is hooked up to car stereo's aux input from the HP/speaker output.

For power, the laptop runs off a Radio Shack power supply. The HDs are in the trunk with a power inverter.

I put in a couple of switches in the dash to turn the 'puter and HD's on and off and an ignition bypass switch. (These switches aren't neccessary, but they give me more flexibility).

After having started up windows (with the hard drives powerd up) and the laptop set for "standby" when the lid is closed, I close the lid and turn off the ignition. The laptop will be in standby running off it's internal battery until I start the car (powering up the HDs first) then open the lid and presto, the music picks up where it left off.

The sequence is critical, power up HDs first, then turn on laptop, the reverse to shut down, otherwise you have to restart the computer and with win2k and this old IBM it takes about 4 minutes to boot up! I could be at my destination by then.

I have left the laptop in standby for 4 days so far, of course the internal battery recharges when the car is running.

I don't have quite as big a library as Mastiff, I have around 30k songs in the car.

Of course the  car stereo is now worth about 3 times what the car is worth

[Mastiff]

Tom, I hibernate the pc (a button on the dashboard connected to the power switch on the motherboard). If I know I'm leaving the car for less than an hour I can leave it running because of that backup battery.

And  no, I didn't need a custom power cable for the AP. I just cut the one that came with it and hooked it up to the hard drive power cable on the PSU.