Thread: My Future Car-PC

I believe your correct because a usb has data and power cables. It has one power and one ground cable and then data cables, so you could use a powered hub and I believe it would power all the devices instead of your computer or you could tap into the 5v wire to the cable. i don't know if you would have to tap into the ground wire and reground it.

anyways...
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question361.htm
"If you have lots of unpowered devices like mice and cameras, you probably need a powered hub. The hub has its own transformer, and it supplies power to the devices that connect to the hub so the devices do not overload the computer's power supply."

Originally Posted by Jamanred

Don't those get external power? That would eliminate power draw off of the pc, right?

there are 2 types of external hubs-- powered, and non-powered. non-powered hubs get their power from the pc's usb port, and are really only used when you need more ports for low power devices(gps, bluetooth, flashdrives, etc.)

powered hubs get their power from elsewhere-- in a house, this can be from a different outlet. but in the car, a hub that uses 5 volts requires a 5 volt power supply-- many times it means using the dc-dc psu that is powering the car-pc, so this is still using power off the pc, but is bypassing all the pc hardware for the power, so can be a little more efficient for power hungry devices..

but, if you use a external power supply(like a point of load power supply), then it is taking the power draw off the pc..

Originally Posted by cla1067

This is going to be phase 1 and I don't want to have to upgrade my cpu and motherboard later down the line. The first phase an atom would be able to power, but then second phase (not planned out yet) will consist of one or two cameras, two monitors, fusion brain, extra aux, and what else I decide to add.

I think the atom later on in my build will start getting bogged down pretty easy. I won't have a head unit, so the computer will have to run everything. I will be running windows which takes more to run then linux (I like linux and have a linux server, but for at least my first build I want to run windows). Since sound and video are onboard the cpu has to do all the work. mini-atx boards have more room for growth. Those are some of my unorganized thoughts. I am mostly focusing on right now, but still always think about the future as well.

Wifi
Bluetooth
phone
gps
obd II
two monitors
sound system
aux
hd radio
fusion brain
dvd rw
cameras
might steal HiJackZX1 mirror idea (way later though)
and so on

This is just explaining why I don't think an atom would be the best decision and I'm not even in the planning stage for some of these things because they require more money then I currently have.

I see one item on that list that would use the PCI/PCIe slot (video for multiple outputs). Everything else is USB no? Video shouldn't be a concern because the atom has hardware acceleration for most things. Audio is the same.

Not trying to be negative, just trying to understand. I hate to see people spend more money than they need to.

There's no such thing as future-proofing a computer. It's like trying to surf on a wave that's five miles offshore. By the time you want to get on it, who knows if it'll be in any way useful or not...