Thread: Carputer Made Simple

THIS:



Is exciting. It's meant for 06+ Hummer H3 direct replacement, but since GM is awesome with their interchangeable parts it's also a direct fit (possibly some VERY minor dremmeling on the sides) for the 04+ GP. This makes adding a carputer even easier.

Here's the plan:
-Direct replacement touch screen
-Tiny ass computer with good specs
-250gb laptop drive I have from my old Archos that broke
-2gb DDR2 RAM I have laying around from other computer shiz
-Super tiny speaker amplifier to mount behind the touchscreen
-DC power supply
-Centrafuse frontend software running on TinyXP (or even MicroXP if I can get it to work with it) for maximum minimization of boot time
-Some custom background software I'm going to write to have my car media library sync with my home library while it's sitting in the driveway (wireless 802.11n ftw)
-Bluetooth dongle I already own

Total: ~$700

Not bad since my previous guestimation about 10 months ago was roughly $1000+. Upgrades can be made later, such as a USB GPS reciever (~$30) and a USB HD radio adapter. Also the touchscreen can be upgraded with a capacitive touch controller whenever -- they're all compatible with XP. Imo this completely dominates any head unit you can get, as long as you don't mind waiting a little bit longer for the unit to boot up. There are many optimizations that can be made for shortening boot times though, such as enabling the no GUI windows boot, don't display POST (allows it to POST faster), etc.

Update: New PC choice for next-gen Ion graphics instead of terrible integrated Atom gpu. Price add $100 -- **** technology

HELL YEAH!!! I want to see this

I'd be about 1/3 the way to having the cash, but I already opted in on the LED tails group buy lol. This is going to happen though, unlike that ridiculous custom HUD setup I was talking about a year ago.

PayPal donations for this are welcome though, send payment to confusingboat@yahoo.com. LOL

That's a really good idea. At the end of march I'll be doing this to my 2000 gtp except I'll be putting an 8" screen and will have to a bunch of Bondo work since I didn't find a replaceable screen.

How do you plan on integrating your audio system?

Carputer is actually what got me into audio

Anyways, here's a thread where I helped a gentleman a bit.

Help me design a Carputer to take down the Bit One/ Dsp 6 - DIYMA.com

Originally Posted by Panzer4

That's a really good idea. At the end of march I'll be doing this to my 2000 gtp except I'll be putting an 8" screen and will have to a bunch of Bondo work since I didn't find a replaceable screen.

How do you plan on integrating your audio system?

Super tiny speaker amplifier to mount behind the touchscreen

That's it. Just need to hook it up to the speakers and the line out jack on the pooter. The CentraFuse software has EVERYTHING needed as far as software goes. Also has a graphic EQ

Not bad at all, it'd be badass to run hptuner/powrtuner scanning.

mp3car.com

FTW

my brother did one in his car and it came out awesome

Originally Posted by Confusingboat

Super tiny speaker amplifier to mount behind the touchscreen

That's it. Just need to hook it up to the speakers and the line out jack on the pooter. The CentraFuse software has EVERYTHING needed as far as software goes. Also has a graphic EQ

Excellent. Definitely looking forward to the end result. RE Centrafuse, I totally agree. I did a test run on it on my netbook and it looks/works fantastic. Good luck with the build dude! When do you expect to complete it?

Originally Posted by I800C0LLECT

Carputer is actually what got me into audio

Anyways, here's a thread where I helped a gentleman a bit.

Help me design a Carputer to take down the Bit One/ Dsp 6 - DIYMA.com

Good job brah thanks for the link.

I pretty much plan on doing something like this:

2000 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP

I liked the way it came out, but I'm only doing it because I haven't come across a direct-replacement touch screen.

I'm not a very patient man when it comes to projects, so I prefer doing as little bondo work as possible haha. Also since the GTP is in dubai, there is no access to spare parts here, so a bit weary of opening up the dash, but am still going to go for it!

Tech Find: Arduino-powered Jeep Wrangler Controls Many Vehicle Systems - Blogs - MP3Car.com

Originally Posted by Panzer4

When do you expect to complete it?

I hope to have it done just in time for the meet. Hopefully...

On a side note, I really like the day/night time based skin switching feature of Centrafuse for some reason.

is it linux based?

If they made software that good for Linux I would totally use it instead. But no, it runs on Windows Embedded (which I might end up using), XP and newer. TinyXP boots really fast, even on my old P3 1.0GHz with 256mb RAM and an old ATA100 hard drive. I'm assuming it'll boot ****tons faster with the new computer I'll be using. I've also considered utilizing the sleep functionality rather than turning the computer off every time.

It probably boots quick because everything necessary to run fits in your 256MB of RAM. I doubt it'll boot that much quicker. The only thing that will really make it night and day is the use of an SSD vs. HDD. Otherwise, there will be some performance gain but probably not something that'll make your pants tight.

I was thinking about getting a small SSD for the OS only, and using my 250gb in the enclosure I already have it in for storage. Perhaps this one? Newegg.com - Kingston SSDNow S100 SS100S2/16G 2.5" 16GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

this is starting to look epic. id totally do that to the prix if i could find a replacement carputoratortron 503094835890478 xl.

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