Thread: Building a Carputer

oh dear.....

well. first off, do you know how to build a computer? sounds like u dont yet.

putting a computer in the car can be as easy as using and inverter to get power, and then hooking up the audio to the radio.

that is the extremely quick and dirty explanation of a "carputer"

as you have noticed... there is a lot more to it than just that.

my suggestion is read as much as you can, develop a good idea of what you actually want to accomplish (i know that it is already listed... somewhat), and after that is complete, you should be able to ask more direct questions.

what you are asking is WAY TOO vague to answer in one simple response.

sorry, but this probably wasnt the response that you wanted. we all have to start out somehow.

~Mike

A via motherboard is a motherboard for via cpus (similar to intel/amd motherboards and cpus). Probably popular for their small size and low power consumption.

ATX is form factor standard. An ATX PSU, whether AC or DC, can power any ATX compatible motherboard.

You will not find all your answers here. Try google and the manufacturers' websites for more details.

For prompt and informative answers, ask detailed and direct questions when possible.

Good luck with your install!

Alright, I'm going to field these as best I can. But first, have you ever built your own computer? If not, this is probably to big a project to cut your teeth on and I would recommend you try bulding your own PC first.



What is a Via motherboard?

Most people are only familiar with the two big chip manufacturers, Intel and AMD. They are not the only makers out there. VIA manufacuters the Eden Chip, Transmeta makes the Caruso, IBM makes the Cyrix and so on.

The VIA Eden has become extremely popular among the MP3Car community for a number of reasons.

1.) It's small. The Eden comes mounted to VIA's Epia motherboard. Measuring 17cm to a side it's the smallest mass produced ATX complient motherboard on the market.

2.) Efficency. In a car, your always fighting efficency. Your either loosing it to heat, DC/DC regulation, or AC/DC conversion. Couple that with the fact that your alternator cranks out no where near the power you have available at your house and you begin to understand. The Epia was designed to run on a minimum of power. How many watts is your home PC? 400W? The Epia runs just fine on 60W.

3.) Heat. The Epia can be passivly cooled in most applications. This eliminates noisy, inefficent fans. Also, as a car can get to be an 'easy bake oven' in the summer, passive cooling is the way to go.


DC/DC vs. AC/DC

It is highly recommend you read some electronics books. Electricity comes in two major formats. A/C or Alternating Current which is what your house runs on. And D/C or direct current. Direct current is what all electronics work on. Your computer is a D/C powered device using an A/C to D/C power supply. It converts the alternating current of your home into the 12V DC that powers the motherboard and other parts inside the computer.

Now, the easiest way to power a computer inside a car is something called an Inverter. It converts the car's DC power into AC power. This allows an AC powered device to run inside a car. Theres a couple problems with this.

1.) DC to AC conversion wastes electricity. A ton of power is lost converting DC to AC. Couple this with the fact that your computers PSU (Power Supply Unit) is going to convert that back into DC and your loosing around 40% efficency in some cases.

2.) Line noise. Inverters were not originally designed to power household PC's in a car. As such they are free of much of the circuitry that provides "clean" power to the PC. This manifests itself as 60 cycle inductance or "alternator whine". When you rev the engine you hear a high pitched whine in your audio stream. It can also put this into the video stream causing a "rolling" in the picture.

Many people here have decided to go with DC/DC PSU's to elimate the above problems. That and a DC/DC PSU is typcially much smaller than a AC/DC PSU. In an enviroment where space is at a premium this is worth it's own weight in gold.

Any hardware can be used, but most people here use small special motherboards because they want them to be installed in small places in their cars.

if you already have a 2.4 ghz computer and dont want to spend more money on a VIA motherboard (low power consumption, very small - onboard video, sound, lan etc) I would recommend just buying a big inverter and an RCA to 1/8" from radio shack or wherever and that is enough to get in running. You will of course need someway to view everything (assuming you dont). You will need a screen, I recommend one with a high resolution, but that can get expensive ecspecially for them to be touchscreen. If your price is your priority you can get a roof mounted LCD on eBay from $100 or so and make it work. You will need an input device, usually touchscreen or a wireless keyboard.

I didnt bother reading the other responses =)
You can most definately put your Micron 2.4 gigs in your expedition. I mean obviously space is not a problem for you. But typically people find creative ways to put their computer into the car. Smaller cases with good air flow is what you want. And it is a pentium 4 right? So you'll want to add some more fans for better cooling. Those EPIA boards are ideal because they are smaller in size and they produce much less heat then standard desktop boards.

As for a power supply you can just get an inverter I suppose. But look into DC-DC power supplies. There is one popular one floating around called the "OPUS 150 watt dc-dc" power supply. I wouldnt know how well it would work with a p4 board but you can find that out.

Then you need a screen. The 2 options are typically a regular RCA video in screen or a VGA screen. The VGA one costs somewhat more and is obviously very crisp (resolution). Get what you can afford, Id recommend the VGA one =). Look up "Xenarc."

THEN your gonna want a way to control your carputer. I love my touchscreen. I mean its very straightforward and works well.
Some people use RF keyboard/mouse suites and this works well also.

GPS, all you need is a GPS antenna and a program. Some names to look for are rand mcnally, copilot.

And you'll need to wire various remote switches/leds/and such.
Does that help?

well... as far as the dc-dc converter goes...

a lot of the "brand name" computer companies (dell, micron, hp, compaq, etc) have taken to using proprietary connectors on their motherboards...

what this means to us... that you have to use their power supply. most of the boards are standard form factor, usually atx. however, they have a slightly different power plug than a standard atx power supply.

im not saying this is definately the case for your computer, but i do know that this does occur on the name branded computers.

~Mike

Originally posted by samc
As for a power supply you can just get an inverter I suppose. But look into DC-DC power supplies. There is one popular one floating around called the "OPUS 150 watt dc-dc" power supply. I wouldnt know how well it would work with a p4 board but you can find that out.

The Opus 150Watt DC-Dc supply is P4 ready (see mail below) I send the Opus guys another mail for my system setup if it will handle it. If not mij HDD and DVD will get their power from an aditional Sproggy PSU or something like that. Key Power also has a DC-DC PSU 250Watt, but there is nu startup-shutdown controller build in.

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