why do ppl think this doesnt work?

**will2710** · 12-17-2000, 05:13 AM

hey, i know there are countless mp3 machines in cars out there, but i was reading an old "ask slashdot" and there were a lot of ppl are saying things like the temp and physical extremes of cars are too nuch for desktop pcs. for you guys who have a homegrown desktop machine in your car, what (if any) problems have you had?

what are you using for display, storage (hd, cd), power (dc-dc, or dc-ac-dc)

also im looking to keep this around $400-500 total, with lcd and controller i already found for $89 (www.allelec.com). anyone who has done it for that much and has had it running, lemme know your components

**vBanshee** · 12-18-2000, 12:56 AM

Well... it's been about a week now, and I haven't had any problem with the computer itself. Yeah... I don't have alot of experience under my belt, but I thought I'd throw a good word in for carmp3 systems. Anyway, there are so many people here doing it successfuly... you'll probably hear from 'em =)

I'm using a soyo slim-pc. It's very cold here in Chicago right now, so heat isn't an issue. I have bought a cyclone-slot-cooler to get that hot air out in the summer though. I've got my computer inside a metal bracket with foam on the sides, to dampen road bumps. The hard drive (and computer) is on it's side to minimize the risk of physical damage to the hard drive. I'm running a celeron 500 in there... which should be able to withstand a good amount of heat. You definately don't want to put an athlon 700 overclocked to 1.1 GHz in your trunk in the summertime

Also, while a 7200rpm hard drive would probably be ok, i'd stick with a 5200 to be on the safe side. (not much of a difference for me anyway... using a dos mp3 player)

Welp, I'll let some other guys post now

-ßrian

**donalson** · 12-18-2000, 01:03 AM

well i'll find out starting in april or so, i'm in northern FL and it's been known to get 100+ by march or april...so who knows...i've seen lots of dif fans for cooling HD's and such, when i build the custom box it'll have a lot of fans...so time will tel,

mark

**cenwesi** · 12-18-2000, 07:01 AM

Will2710: I will try and answer your question from my experience. This is my 2nd box. The First one Codename Cobra worked like a charm

. I had that box for about 1yr with NO problem. It has seen 100+/-0 degree weather and it worked like a charm. Mind u, my custom box was in the trunck. As far as problems go, here are few things u will want to make SURE you get right so u don't run into problems, and believe me when i say problems. Just the smallest problem could turn out to be a nightmare. Anyway,
RULE #1 - Make sure you ground your BOX correctly if not, welcome to the world of noise!
RULE #2 - HD, This is prolly one of the the most important part of your setup. What good is your box if ur hard drive dies, locks or just plain won't boot up cuz it wasn't MOUNTED properly. No you can mount it facing up or on it sides. Both of my setups uses both configuration. Go take a look at some of the pictures on the site to get some ideas.
RULE #3 - HEAT. Plain and simple, you CPU will go crazy after few minutes of operation if you box gets too HOT!. Again from my prototype and on Box #1 and #2, i made sure that the box has holes or that the material i used in making the box has holes around the corners. Next i needed one fan facing the CPU. Mind u there is already one ontop the CPU. So when the fan is on, it sucks air from outside and blows it TOWARDS the cpu and other components in the box. You only need a maximum of 2 fans including the one ontop of the cpu. If u really want to cool the box down, then add one to where ever u mounted the HD again pulling air from outside the box toward the HD thus cooling it down. Once again, if u want to get some ideas, go take a look at my setups.
RULE #4 - The wiring. Just make sure u use proper wires from 10-20 guage wire. Also make sure if you are soldering ANY parts, that is it soldered properly. U will be surprise just what a loose wire can do. Weeks of trouble shooting is not fun

RULE #5 - OS. This is up to u what u want to run. It could be DOS/Linux/Boes/Win9x/ME/NT.... you name it. Just remmember that you still need to tweak all those app to meet ur needs. Make sure if running windows, you TURN off all those CRAP! that ms installs by default. Also turn of scandisk so u can cut on/off the box anytime....and yes ppl, it is not going to KILL your HD.
RULE #6 - App, well again i will leave that up to you. This one is tough to decide.

Well there is more but i am tied!
BTW, the price thing. I doubt if you can keep this under $500. It been my experience with these setups that they more u want, the more you have to spend. My setup the last time i checked was around $900. That right ppl, with all that gadget. I will build one for $1500 and that including everything u see on my picture and if you take a look at the black box on my site...those bmp, that one is better that the one i have in my car. Everything in that box is CLEAN!!!!!. Any got to go work on CobraIII enough talk for now.

------------------
abcd-1
Author of CobraI and CobraII.
For more information on the COBRA Application's please visit the link. For the latest or updated info on CobraII please click on the link. Get new updated files for CobraII here. ftp://pictures

ictures@128.8.187.126/d:/newdlls
You can contact me on AOL instant messenger....nick is Cenwesi
Webpage comming soon!

**jkazakawich** · 12-18-2000, 05:36 PM

my biggest worry is exstreme cold such as -20 celcius where I live it' s been -20 to -40 on average the last couple weeks the heat wont' be a problem but it's the cold that's the problem anyone have anything to say about that?

**nyconx** · 12-18-2000, 07:13 PM

I live in Wisconsin and although its not the coldest it gets pretty damn cold! we have been below zero a few times the last week alone and i havent seen any problems with my setup. It is housed in the trunk and booted up and played just fine. Keep in mind this is after leaving it outside all day. Ive had this and and another setup for almost 6 months and havent had a problem. I am looking at reducing the amount/turning fans off for winter as to cut down the noise factor from the machine. maybe i will put a toggle switch on the machine for hot days. so i can determine the amount needed. hmm just an idea

**scoobydoo22** · 12-18-2000, 09:48 PM

Regarding the cold: Static electronics love the cold. Meaning the colder the better. Heat is the enemy. A better question to ask is how do these systems handle the change in temperature from a normal winter day to an chilly -20f night?
What you have to worry about is condesation. Condensation will form when there is a vast temperature difference. When you are running your PC, it will warm up. When you shut it down, it will freeze. If you turn it on when it's really cold, the temperature change may cause condensation which is moisture, which can wreak havok on electronics. Think about those cold mornings when you try to play a CD that you left in the car overnight? Doesn't work very well does it? You need to listen to the radio to warm it up and evaporate the condesation on the pickup lens before it will work again. Your hard drive works the same way. To test this, open your PC case, turn on your computer and use it for a while. Now, touch the top of your Hard Drive (while staying in contact with the case to prevent static discharge). It's warm, right? If you did this while the room temp was 10f or so, when you shut it off and it cooled rapidly you might notice condensation form quickly inside and outside the drive. If you then turned it on again while this is there, then you might run into problems (disk corruption, unable to read, disk failure). This also applies to the CPU, and video chips when they cool rapidly after being hot.

If someone has experience with this in a car, please let me know. Out here in sunny California, the temp rarely goes south of 30f.

**donalson** · 12-19-2000, 04:56 AM

about the temp and such,

i opend my athlon up for the 1st time and man does the heatsink have a job cut out for it, i had the computer on for less than 5 min and i couldn't hardly touch the heatsink or proccesor w/ out getting a bit of a burn, so for that i may be scared to put something like that in a car, who wants to spend 200-300 on a proccesor for their car anyway, on the other hand my 500 amd k2 has no probs of overheating (this is the one i plan on putting in my car).

as for the talk about condensation...back in the early 90's my dad started to get realy into computers, we lived in panama (centeral america (yes i'm a military brat) but anyway, we had probs there because even w/ the A/C's thermostat set the temp would chance quickly where we had teh computer and computer stuff, it ended up after a while that severl things mildewed, spacificly many of the diskettes (this is before the cd rom hit hard (lets just say my dad got a single speed external scsi cd rom shortly after this) i can't rember if it took a tole on the HD but i'll ask him when i see him tomarow...if the mildew could kill a then huge sub 500 meg HD i'm sure it could possable take it's tole on a currenly large 35 gig HD, but i'll find out about that for sure soon, thanks

mark

**cenwesi** · 12-19-2000, 06:43 AM

donalson: why in the world would u want to put an athlon cpu in the car? Isn't that an overkill? Anyway ppl regarding condensation/mildew. It all depends on how u have ur box constructed and what kind of ventilation u have in that box. What u guys are forgetting to realize is that ur box will heat up pretty quick thus evaporation any kind of water that settles inside of the box if any. If mildew/condensation was a problem, i am sure my first box would have died long time ago. I seem to remmember last year we had some -0 degree weather here in MD and my box was working fine. Even in spring and summer box worked ok. The only problem that i have seen so far with my current setup, don't even know if i will categorize this as a problem is that my TFT screen when cold outside, especially in the mornings, it doesn't display anything on the screen until about 20-30secs after pc was turned on. has something to do with the way the TFT initializes or gets the signal from the video card. Once windows boots up and my app starts running it displays OK. I am sure ppl with TFT have this same type problem.

------------------
abcd-1
Author of CobraI and CobraII.
For more information on the COBRA Application's please visit the link. For the latest or updated info on CobraII please click on the link. Get new updated files for CobraII here. ftp://pictures

ictures@128.8.187.126/d:/newdlls
You can contact me on AOL instant messenger....nick is Cenwesi
Webpage comming soon!

**Chris Snyder** · 12-19-2000, 10:55 AM

I'm going to have an Athlon in mine, because I might want to play some Quake or C&C on it<g>. They're so cheap right now, I don't see a reason not to (other than power and cooling).

Thread: why do ppl think this doesnt work?

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Display

why do ppl think this doesnt work?

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions