Hello! This page is intended to provide a
documentation of the build of my new Carputer. Or possibly Multiputer (as in
use-it-anywhere computer), haven't decided yet! By Espen Olsen >>> August 25. update: It's up and running again!
Hello! This page is intended to provide a
documentation of the build of my new Carputer. Or possibly Multiputer (as in
use-it-anywhere computer), haven't decided yet!
Introduction > I've been fascinated by the idea of building a bespoke computer for my car for a few years now, ever since the mp3 format broke through. I'm always sick of the CDs in my car, and keep switching between the radio channels, so the idea of having hours of hours of my favourite music ready on tap was quite appealing :-) There were some serious obstacles though. The first car computer projects I found through sites like mp3car.com were both bulky (as in having a miditower complete with its original packing in the trunk) and technically complicated (e.g. having to make your own interface for a digit LCD display). So I pretty much forgot about it. Then, late 2002, I stumbled across Peter Bridger's Carputer pages. Now, that's what I'd been looking for! A small, low-power consumption computer based on the Via Epia Mini-ITX motherboard, using a proper monitor. All hardware available off-the-shelf, and at humane prices. Perfect!
Now, of course, there are cheap mp3-ready car stereos available. So the aims are set a bit higher: movies and multimedia, GPS navigation or TV should all be possible without going (totally) bankrupt. So the sky's the limit, really. I'm having wild fantasies about in-car THX-approved surround sound :-)
Bits and pieces > My carputer is built from these components:
Components gallery > Photo gallery of the various bits here!
The build > 18.02.2003: Just had my first trial run of the carputer. Never having built a computer before, I expected quite a few snags, but so far it seems good! No suspicious burning smells or anything! ;-) The powersupply for the Morex case, having been bought from mini-itx.com in England, came with a 3-pin plug. No good here in Norway, so I'm using a normal Aopen 235W supply for now.
If anyone knows any shops in Bergen selling UK 3-pin to Euro 2-pin adapters, please tell me. I tried a few local electronics stores, both were less than helpful. Put it this way, I'll have no moral concerns shopping on the internet instead of supporting local businesses next time! It' some strange sort of connection at the other end as well, otherwise maybe the cable could just have been replaced.
Mini-itx.com have kindly provided step-by step building instructions in their review of the 2688R case. Looking at these and the review of the 2677R, and referring to the motherboard's manual, it really couldn't have been easier.
A quick walkthrough, with pictures:
After removing the case lid (unscrew three screws, slide lid backwards) you can remove the trays for the hard drive (pictured) and CD-ROM. They are fixed with one screw each and some clips in the case floor. Unscrew and pull the trays towards rear of case. Fix the hard drive to its tray using - you guessed it - screws. Three of them, in fact.
Here's the Eden in place, (takes a bit of mild force to align it, but not that much) complete with the backing plate that goes around the in/output sockets. The front USB ports are hooked up (twined cables coming from the middle of the case's front panel to the middle of the motherboard), and so are the On/Off switch, reset switch and LED cables (coming from front left of case, to front right on motherboard). What goes where is easily seen in the motherboard manual.
See the black wire coming from the case's twin fans (upper right corner)? Well, then you'll see it plugs onto the motherboard right it front of the processor fan's plug. Bit tricky as you need to ease the plug past the processor fan wires, so a bit of patience will come in handy.
Next up is pushing the RAM into its socket...
...and clipping the HDD complete with tray back into the case, then connecting its IDE cable to the mainboard. Blue colour-coded contacts on the IDE cable supplied tells you where to plug it onto the board, which is nice.
Time to fire'er up, then! On with the monitor and interim PSU and away we go...
Ah, the first error message, lovely :-) No mouse or keyboard connected, just fired it up to make sure the hard drive survived the transfer. All fans running, no hideous mistakes done apparently :-) The trickiest bit - and remember this if you want RCA video out - was changing the jumper for the combined SP/DIF and RCA Video outs. Had to find an ultra-slim pair of tweezers to get it in place :-)
19.02.2003: Yipee! Remember all that bitching and moaning about getting hold of an adapter for the powersupply? Well, Elektronikksenteret in Bergen were only too happy to supply me with one. And when it rains it pours, Clas Ohlsson sells a computer cord which fits as well (article no. 32-4400). So now I've got both. As there's a fuse in the original plug, I'll use the adapter for now. Getting rid of that big bulky 235W will be nice.
So in with the original powersupply, then hook it up to my regular PC monitor to set the OS properly. It's currently got Win98 installed, maybe it will be upgraded to XP. We'll see. Either way, I'll have to uninstall loads of old junk collected over the past three years :-)
22.02.2003: The carputer has spent the last few days connected to my regular 17" CRT monitor.
Quite a bit smaller than the regular green beast :-) As you can see, I still have to use the standard-type powersupply for the CD-ROM, and the PSU needs to be connected to the motherboard of my old PC to get a closed circuit. All this because the Morex' power cabling only got a small-type plug to spare for the CD. Fantastic. Wonder if there are adapters?
XP installed, old junk deleted, resolution set to 800 x 600, colours reduced to 16-bit. I'm thinking of using XP's On Screen Keyboard as my only keyboard, wonder if it's readable on that small screen?
23.02.2003: Pulled the entire two-PC-two-PSU-one-CDRW setup apart, in order to try out the small TFT monitor (not to mention start using my regular PC again). The monitor won't work when XP is loaded. I can (sort of) see the desktop, but it flickers like mad.
Which, I suppose, is what you get for forgetting to re-install the supplied VIA drivers after changing OS. No biggie if it all works out (though I h-a-t-e installing drivers, it's the same old lottery every time) but it means doing the whole two-PC-two-PSU-one-CDRW-and-a-proper-monitor thing again . Raaaaaats.
27.02.2003: Much schlepping of computer bits later, I've got the VIA four-in-one and VGS drivers in place. And picture in my monitor, even after XP's loaded. I've also chosen to go for "Overscan" enabled in the BIOS, to make the most of the little monitor. The downside being that I lose a bit of the outer edges of the desktop, but it's a small sacrifice. Well for now, anyway, might be changing my mind when it's movie time :-) Photographic evidence:
Suddenly, it's so small... The on-screen keyboard (not shown) is just about readable after a bit of tweaking of brightness/contrast levels. Time to start figuring out how to fit it all into the car. I hope there's room for the case under the front passenger seat. I want it inside the "cabin", not in the boot. As for the monitor I've already got the bracket, the question is how to fix the monitor to it. It's not all that heavy, maybe a bit of velcro tape will be enough?
12.03.2003: No big news lately. Except that when having a look at the Ducarputer page forum I came across the Computercar. Both of them great sites by the way.
What really interested me was this nice-looking menu software shown on the computercar site. It is specifically designed for use with a carputer. It's called Digital Dash, and it's originally developed by G-NET for their own range of car computing products. It would be very nice having a DVD-menu style simple interface, so I've downloaded the trial version and will be testing it. It looks promising!
20.03.2003: I've had my first stab at Network Management :-) Hooked the carputer up to my home computer in order to transfer a load of .mp3. Surprisingly easy once I bothered to RTFM. (Read The F***ing Manual, that is :-)
Oh, and I've been trying out the Digital Dash software as well, and it works very well! The biggest drawback is that it won't go full screen, as you can see in the picture.
Here's three pics of the video player. Sorry about the picture quality. The Mustek Gsmart 2 is a really smart idea and I love mine to bits, but it was'nt exactly designed for close-ups of bright TFT screens. Ah well. As you can see from the first shot, I've started my own gynechaology practice with the carputer... nah, some of you might recognize it as the opening titles of "Getaway in Stockholm 2". The other two are RUF's "Yellow Bird" Porsche 911 on Nurburgring's Nordschleife.
I suppose the reason for the too small menu is that GNET's own systems use 640x480 resolution, while mine runs 800x600. I've been told 800x600 is the better option visibility-wise, so it's a bit annoying though.
Still, it's got a good layout with the important functions easily available. It's got its own internet browser, .mp3 and video player. The mp3 playlist is more legible than WinAmp's, but still not perfect. And you have to open the playlist again every single time you use tha player, but that might be just on this demo. There's a button for connecting to GPS software (disabled in this demo) and a menu for "your own" applications such as WinAmp and MS IE.
Preliminary verdict: Very good. Practical, and easy to set up the way you prefer. But if/when I pay for the full version, I'd REALLY want a full screen mode even with 800x600 resolution.
Don't think I've shown you the mini trackball before? Well here it is, all nice and compact. And a pic of the web browser as well.
24.03.2003: I've converted to 640x480
resolution. Not only does the Digital Dash fill the screen now, but text and
Windows menus are
far
easier to read. It's a bit awkward opening and using, say, Windows Explorer now.
But ease of operation of the media players are more important, for now anyway.
If and when a GPS is fitted, priorities just might change.
Two "GPS mice" that could be suitable: This one from Kjell&Co, or this one from NorMap (Haicom HI-202E, transparent box - scroll down).
30.07.2003: Hello all! I am very sorry for the total lack of updates these last months. The reason is simple enough, I managed to fry the powersupply for the Morex case AND zap my monitor within one week. That put me off the project for a while, then I got swamped with work.
The powersupply was hard to get hold of - or so I thought. Although mini-itx.com is great and I can't recommend them enough, they're in England (fine) and ship via Royal Mail (not that good). I didn't want to wait three weeks for it to turn up, so I thought I'd get it from Databutikken instead. They were sold out, but should have it in stock in a week according to their website. Two months later, it was still "just around the corner" :-) However, surfing Komplett.no one day, I came across a product named "High Green Powersupply til MINI-ITX" Hang on, that one looks a lot like the Morex item... And it is, of course. Even says "Morex" on it. Not wanting to ruin the new one, I also got a inverter.
So, given a few spare hours to fit the new supply, I should be up and running again. That is, I need to get a new monitor. I'd like to try something new this time, so perhaps this 7,2" STN monitor would do the trick? I'm worried the STN will not give a very crisp picture, but on the other hand it might be good enough for limited in-car use? Please drop me a line if you've got any hands-on experience with STN screens in similar applications. Maybe I'll just get another 5,6" TFT. We'll see.
Doesn't look too bad though, does it?
25.08.2003: Ah, we're up and running again! I've had the new power supply circuit board and monitor lying around for a while now. Finally there was enough spare time to look at it again. Changing the circuit board was a 10 minute job including removal of the HDD to free up some working space. I'd feared there might be some subtle differences between the old and the new but no, they were identical. The fiddliest bit was actually fixing the 12V socket to the case (I replaced the wiring as well just to be om the safe side) as the case's twin fans got in the way a bit. They can be removed of course, but it seemed too much bother :-)
The new 7,2" STN monitor is a limited success - it's fine when just using the Digital Dash software, but the ordinary Windows menus etc aren't legible even when running 640 x 480. WinXP's got a Magnifier function, but that doesn't work "on top" of the Digital Dash. All very annoying, but I'll investigate ways to get around it when I get a day off. That'll be 2004, then.
Toying with the idea of using WinCE instead of XP... surely that's better suited for monitors with crappy resolution? :-)
