FTO AUSTRALIA

Im planning to put a carputer in my car along with some friends so if anyone wants to purchase any of the parts tell me and i will order extra.

My other question is that i have to store a computer somewhere in the car common sense tells me chuck it in the boot but i really cbf getting wiring back and forth is there any cavities under seats, modified glvebox etc, that i am overlooking any help would be great.

After reading this it is not my problem if get obsessed.


here is the plan:

GPS USB - $90
(from ebay plugs into usb port)
GPS turn by turn navigation - $68
Micro ATx, CPU, VGA on board, ram, usb* - $180
(could be more or less)
5.1 channel sound card - $50(can use just a normal sound card but 5.1 is pretty cool unless you can get a motherboard with 5.1 sound on board)
DVD cdrom - $40
80 gb* - $89
Printer Relay Control Board - $10 ( i think we will need this for shutting the carputer down, ie when you turn the ignition off)
Cabling* - $20
(depending on where the carputer is located)
Case* - $50 (because it is small will be costly)
Inverter* - $50
(from ebay, need to power carputer unless we find out how to do DC - DC)
Touchscreen* - $350 (Depends could be less or more)
TOTALS - $1002 hmmmm.... expensive
BAREBONE - $739
(stuff with * next too it)
Extra stuff
OBD 2 interface with car - $10
(real time logging of car)
Web cam for reversing - $30
(could do this quite easily but im not going to do it, but would be pretty cool)
Bluetooth for phone conection - $30
(bought a bluetooth dongle of ebay works real well with my phone and this software i have)
sh*tty phone for dialing in say a nokia 5110 - $30 (if your car was stolen you could dial in and get a gps location on it... maybe)
Good Microphone for voice recognition - $10 (this might work might not work)
Tv tuner card - $100 (depending on what type you get)
Wireless networking - $30
(could help if you wanted to upload songs to your car dont need wires and you could browse the internet in your car)

Sounds good, but i just hope your plan work well as you hope to be, i've done this 2yrs ago with bunch of other I.T guys.

One guy even have his own wireless I.P company, so his got all those gadget you just mention, but they just didn't work quiet well together.

Few points need to conconsider,

*Which type of CPU (heat problem vs power)
*Either install a larger battery or use a dry cell
*Use RF wireless cam instead of webcam (less cable & much better picture quality)

Theres more problems, but i can't remember now....have fun & let us know how you go.

P.S most of the stuff you priced are from ebay, i guess the total price you quoted are not including postage or freight.

nah not including postage, well it includes poastage to victoria... (one of my mates dad is a pilot and he will get it from america saves on postage) we are jus gonna get a pentium 1, something cheap, did you have any issues fitting the screen into the dash? any help on the topic would be great especially before we outlay any money lol

Didn't have a problem installing the screen, as we modify the center concole but the resolution isn't that fantastic. But then again, TFT screen these days are much better then 2yrs ago, so you shouldn't have a problem. If you run into trouble, let me know, i try to help you out.

so the computer went in the boot? Yeah i will give a yell if ay issues occur feel free to contact me for some more up to date prices as we are just getting quotes together.

You could always buy a xbox, throw a chip and bigger hard drive in it, and run a modified dashboard (Menu system) which you can play mp3's, dvd's, mpg's etc just like through windows. i have been thinking bout doing it but havent been bothered as yet.
This is where i get all my xbox gear - http://www.1tronic.com/ - they can do everything

A computer would end up cheaper and has the advantage of usb, gps etc. Good idea though, would be stacks better for games

An XBox could be quite functional, it is after all essentially a Celeron 733 based PC, it has USB and it costs as little as $200.

The question that hasn't been addressed yet is why you are doing this? - i.e. what is it that you want the computer to do, as this ultimately will determine what equipment is necessary, what software would be suitable and how it should be configured.

I can see you are looking at everything from audio to TV to GPS, but this all seems a bit broad, likewise you could gain better results using specific equipment. So what is the driving force behind putting a PC in?

its cheaper than a head unit? lol seems like fun, its original has a 80gb hdd for everything you would want, just imagine surround sound movies in your car haha. Thats pretty much it, it has been an idea with my mates from high school and since a decent headunit is 500+ doesnt really sound like a bad alternative. xbox would cost well over 200 once you make all the changes and we are only going to use a cheap computer so the only trade off is controllers and games... personal oppinion i spose, plus i know nothing about xbox's, either way anyone interested or that may be able to offer more ideas im more than welcome to help or hear them.

thanks phil

I went down that track a year ago - there are a couple of options.
1) Think about using a 12VDC computer power supply rather then an invertor (very wasteful)
2) Think about the Mini ITX options. This is the route i went down. Very small, have video out and 5.1 sound but slow processor. Plenty of usb and has a 12V power supply option. I think VIA are making a Micro ITX which will be 12cm square.
3) How will it start up. Using Hibernate it will still take 15sec to startup and shutdown. I had a toggle button to manually turn on/off. Using the acc power you get a spike when you start and it freaked mine out. I belive some of the specific car power supplies have this sorted.
4) Control - A mouse or keyboard is totally useless when driving. Voice recog while playing loud music should be fun. Touch screens due to your finger size have a low resolution. On a little 7" screen the normal windows interfces are impossible while driving. I went down the simple route of a new skin for media player.

I gave up becouse it was causing too much trouble. Its a lot of work and i spent a year without music in the car, used an ipod in the end to get some tunes.

You can get the computer sorted for about $600 but the screen is the killer. I used a cheap lilliput from ebay but it looked pretty bad. There is a nice unit from Xenarc but its like $700. But that was a year ago.
Have fun.

Check out:
www.mini-itx.com

Its a UK site but all the bits are there. It looks like there are a number of options for car power supplies. And the smaller units will be nano-itx. Very cool. At that size the glove box or centre console would be a good spot.

If it's mainly music you're after then a PMC (Portable Media Centre) maybe the way to go. They're small, have good capacity (20gb+), have a colour screen and are easy to use and navigate.

You could stick one of these under an existing headunit or across the cup holder area on the centre console.

Being portable, they're also easier to remove or hide and to take inside to transfer stuff on to.

there are already a couple of sites on the internet on car-mounted computers.. maybe you can check them out to see what others are doing..

one site from the top of my head is http://www.dashpc.com/

would be interesting to see how to install one in an fto though.. perhaps a diy guide candidate?

I am in the process of building my own too, the last thread o nthis encouraged me and im waiting on delivery of the parts atm
I was going to go for an xbox, but I wanted a touchscreen in the place of the double din
I have a celron 600mhz processor (fast enough without drawing too much current)
On a Laptop motherboard (better power consumption)
64mb ram atm (will be upgradding when i get the other parts)
10.5" Touch screen
USB GPS with Tom Tom navigator
Mobile Phone Controller (with handsfree) (http://zoran-horvat.de/private/CarPC/default.htm)
5.1 Sound going into a 1000w amp to splits and 6*9s (will get new subs later)
I will be using frodoplayer (looks like the best) and im in the middle of putting together my own Mitsubishi FTO Skin for it (http://frodoplayer.com)
I am going to try mount it all behind the double din area if not, i will customize my center armrest compartment to hold it (where the stack is)
As well as a wiresless connection so i can transfer music and movies from my home network
Im not sure how i will shut it down atm or hibernate from the key
There is loads and loads of information on this at mp3car.com so if you havent been there i suggest you do it right away !!

its for whenever your wife throws you out of the apartment... u can drive far far away and watch divx and play counterstrike

i have one in mine, had it for bout a year, its a mini-itx motherboard that sits in little wooden box, its powered by a normal 300 watt power supply which is powered by a UPS's inverter.

A UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) is quite a good thing to look at for this so if your comp is on when the car is off you wont kill your battery, for about 5 bucjs you can buy an auto switch that hooks the UPS's battery to the car battery only if the car is on.

i ran allthe cables from the boot under the backseat past the hand break in into the center console, the mouse come out inside the glove box and the keyboard comes out (very proud of this) up at the sunvisor, its a flexable key pad that fits nicely up there, its out of the way and concealed.

had lots of fun putting it in, and it has been in and out many times, as i am allways comming up with new and better ideas for it.

had it in the glovebox to start with but i have a PS2 in there now which acts as my dvd player so didnt need to have one in comp. just a 15 dollar removable bay for the harddrive so i can keep updateing the 9000 mp3s, full seasons of family guy southpark, futurama, OC, and some simpsons


hope it all works out for ya!

o forgot 2 things, the TV tuner card i recomend not getting, i had one for mine and was sh*t for TV, ended up getting a proper car tv tuner box.

and the voice recognition i have also still got, works like a dream and easy to drive using, problem comes when you play mp3s and the comp starts doing stuff you dont want it to do.

Whats wrogn with the tv tuner ? did you hook it up to your original car arial ?
What about an FM tuner ? does the car cause too much interference ? Cause i have a Digital TV Card at home and it works a dream
Do you have bluetooth or a wireless nic (both use the same frequency) they cause huge interfearence
Did you use V.O.I.C.E.S for voice integration ? I was wondering if music would cause the computer to do strange things

oooo watching porn while driving....

excellent

Hi mate, I have the whole carputer thing set up, but I was wondering how you are doing the diag (odb-II) as the fto isn't compatable!!!

It would be great if you could post some info!!!

Thanks