Thread: Ottawa area people?

Anything new from Ottawa? How are the installs coming?

Hi,

I'm from Ottawa and I'm just starting up my CarPC project. Just been searching and reading the awesome FAQs at this site for the past couple days.

I'd like to start my install in the next couple weeks, but this cold weather thing concerns me. I've read about a few LCD issues in cold weather, but how about the GPS? I was thinking of buying a Holux 210, but it says that the operating temperature is above 0 Celcius....and we all know that's never the case in an Ottawa winter!

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance! Would love to meet up with you guys and see how your installs are going!

I used a Rikaline all through last winter without any problems. I suggest that one.
What car are you installing your system in? Any specs?

Hi Knubile,

Thanks for the suggestion...I put a bid in on eBay for one of those as well as one of the Holux 210 units. If I can get either for $30 US, I'd be happy with that.

The car is a 2005 Pontiac Vibe. No real specs for the PC yet....still gathering parts. Starting with the GPS, since I can test that out with my laptop. I have a bunch of old parts laying around, including an Athlon TBird 1 GHz processor, 512 MB SD-RAM, 40 GB hard drive, etc....so I was hoping I can use some of that stuff. Will probably need a new case though.

The big debate I'm having is the monitor. I'd like to do an in-dash job, but i'm not so handy with that kind of stuff. So I'm thinking about an easy install using a single DIN motorized unit. Still debating though. The Vibe has a good size double DIN sized area that would fit a touch screen pretty sweet. I saw a Matrix install on this site and it looked awesome!

What's your budget like? I suggest not skimping on the screen choice. Anything else can be easily upgraded.
For the hard drive, if you're not going to do CF card solution, it won't work in the winter. It will take it a good 5 minutes to warm up before the system will recognize the hard drive.
I delt with it for a couple of months last winter before I got frustrated enough to get a CF card.
If you're looking for parts in town I strongly suggest OTT Computing in barrhaven.
www.ottcomputing.com
He's been nothing but helpful to me. Tell him Kareem referred you.
Let me know if you're interested in meeting up. I can show you my install. It's already done.
What area do you live in? I'm in the west end, Nepean.

well, I'm not in Ottawa, but i'll hafta look you guys up the next time i'm there. I'm from Barrie, so if ur in the area, fire me a pm.

Hi guys,
I am from Orleans and just stumbled across car PC's a few days ago. I'm totally stoked to pimp my ride with one of these. I started the research as to what hardware to look at and am happy to see that there are other people out there that have tested this in our extreme cold weater environment.
I havent decided whether I will be pimping my 2004 Escape XLT or my next car which I will be trading in my 1995 Mazda 626 for either be a 2003-04 Honda Accord coupe, or the new G6 coupe. Depends which one my wife wants to drive most of the time. She likes trucks so I may be in luck. G6 here I come.
If thats the case I will be waiting until next year to start this project as my 626 has another year or 2 in her.

What I would like to hear about is the problems you came across as far as the Hot and Cold weather might propose and how you fixed them.

If you have pics post 'em.

Dan

Only pics I have online are linked to from here.
Protege owners. Where did you mount your systems?

Originally Posted by knubile

What's your budget like? I suggest not skimping on the screen choice. Anything else can be easily upgraded.
For the hard drive, if you're not going to do CF card solution, it won't work in the winter. It will take it a good 5 minutes to warm up before the system will recognize the hard drive.
I delt with it for a couple of months last winter before I got frustrated enough to get a CF card.
If you're looking for parts in town I strongly suggest OTT Computing in barrhaven.
www.ottcomputing.com
He's been nothing but helpful to me. Tell him Kareem referred you.
Let me know if you're interested in meeting up. I can show you my install. It's already done.
What area do you live in? I'm in the west end, Nepean.

Budget isn't restricted really....I'm willing to spend what it takes....however, I don't want to go overboard...obviously i'm looking for best bang for buck.

I agree about the screen choice. I already know I'm going Xenarc (from what I've read, it's supposed to be the best, right?), but not sure if it's going to be the 700TSV or the 700IDT. So I already recognize that my screen will be costing the most for this project.

As for every other component, I'm not too sure. I don't need a top of the line 3.0 GHz processor or 1GB of RAM or anything since I don't really want my CarPC to be better than my home PC!! I was thinking along the lines of 1-2 GHz, 256-512 RAM (depending on the app requirements), cheap HD (I have an old 20GB lying around...should be good). Thanks for the CF tip....I hadn't even considered that before. I assume you put only your O/S and key apps on the CF card, with all data on the HD?

Thanks for the link to ottcomputing. I usually do my business with PCCyber, but i'll check them out.

I'm definitely interested it checking out your install, if you don't mind. I'm also in the west end, in Emerald Meadows. It's at the far end of West Hunt Club, where Hunt Club ends at Richmond. Just a bit south of there is where I live. If you're in Nepean, you shouldn't be more than 10-15 mins away. Weekends typically work best for me....how's this Sunday looking for you?