Thread: 1 Year experience

Just like to share my experience.

Installed a celeron333 based industrial MB with std 60W DC-DC in my diesel peugot glove box a year ago for MP3s.

Runs std Win2K, std 3.5" HDU, completely headless (no screen/kbd/mouse).
This MB had 4 RS232 ports, so I used the 232 control lines to wire 7 switches (from the front of an old TV) for remote. Use a tape adaptor for output.
No special power on/off routine - just boots with the key, and is killed by the key. I guessed that with the Diesel, I would not get the killer zaps of spark ignition on the 12v, & that the '12v' DC-Dc converter would be happy with 11.5-14v. My guess seems correct....

Surprisingly, I've not had a serious disk crash other permenant failure in a year of running it. Only issue I get is it does not boot on colder mornings (when the HDU is dripping with condensation ... I need to box it better sometime).

Because it is headless, it's completely unobtrusive, invisible to the casual passer-by. I intend to 802.11b it, and have the USB stick, but have not got round to it yet (have to leave the engine running for downloads!.... Might as well just bring it in..)

I've achieved headless by using MS TTS to provide voice feedback of the basic menu system & song titles - all homebrew s/w (written for my in-home MP3). It has 3 modes - Random, Album and Artist. Did add Genre, but found the files were too often incorrect for it to be of any use.

Anyway - hope this gives someone confidence to just go for it. You don't need to be a linux guru to do your own homebrew thing. If you've got the cash to buy an ITX board - that would be cleaner - but any combo MB with inbuild sound & VGA will do, and 333 is fine for playing MP3s and running the TTS (but maybe not quite enough for WINLIRC if you want the remote to be more polished!).


Simon