Thread: New to site and carputers, and got quite a few questions

Options for Power:

Repeat after me: inverters are bad, mmmmmKAY.

There are two very good solutions, depending on your needs:

If you will be having a low power system (like a VIA Epia), with laptop components (hard drive, dvd drive etc), then get yourself a case with a Morex 55W DC-DC power supply already in it. Then, get yourself over to Carnetix and get yourself their CNX-P1260, which fits between your battery and the power supply in the case.

If you will be needing more power (using a desktop hard drive/dvdrom etc), or a faster processor, then get yourself an Opus. This is rated at 150W output, but it seems to be very under-rated (unlike most PC power supplies which are grossly over-rated!)


If you need a screen, get yourself a Xenarc 700TS, make sure it has VGA input though. In my experience, the Lilliput displays, while cheaper, are not as good quality. As for putting it in the dash, some people have fabricated their own casings etc, it all depends on how good you are at fabrication!


Most of the "custom" ones you are talking about will just be fancy fabricated cases, often containing exactly the same components


Garry

heyitwrx,

There are two schools of thought on power issues. Confused likes his DC-DC power supplies. I ave not personally used the DC-DC setup. I choose to use the inverter to standard atx power supply method. The reasoning for this is because when I get home at night I can pull my car into the garage, unplug the computer from the inverter, and the plug it directly into an extension cord to the house electric. This way I can run the system all night long while transferring music, upgrading software, etc.... without running the battery down. Same reason I have a wireless NIC (network interface card) and a hard wired NIC. Other than the slight fan noise of the inverter (when the car is off and you are sitting in it) I have had no problem. I run a full size motherboard / pc setup as opposed to the epia products. Again the choice was due to my particular wants and needs. My system uses the MSI K3T-ARU Raid board (not that I will ever use the raid in the car), has 3 slots for memory, 5 pci slots, agp slot. So, I can pick and choose any desktop hardware that I want to run in my system. Upgrades are not a problem. The EPIA motherboards are definitly smaller and use less power. But, you are limited to (I believe) one or two pci slots and using the built in video. Almost all of your periperals will have to be USB based. If you want better video, you are out of luck with another agp product. I also have lights in my case, and multiple fans. My power set up is a 300w inverter with a 300w standard atx power supply. My other thought, if I am on vacation and my power supply goes out, I can stop anywhere and find a best buy, walmart, compusa, etc... and get a new power supply and get my system back on the road. With the DC-DC power supplies, you won't find that kind of availability. Most of the time you have to order them.

As far as the sound system, go from your sound card to an amp to your speakers is the cleanest, best solution. Some people will use FM Modulators which plug in between your radio head unit and the car antenna. The are the cheaper way to go, but you lose a lot in sound quality.

As far as the case...mine is the custom install. I wanted the standard pc components and I wanted them in a specific place. The only way to accomplish this was to fabricate myself. All kinds of pictures of the full install on my web site. Just make sure to look at version 3. Some people will take a standard tower case and set it in the trunk. I didn't want to lose the trunk space, hence, the nice tight fit in the corner of the trunk.

To get the pc running, you basically need all the components of a desktop type computer, plus either a DC-DC ps or an inverter. Beyond that an amp to connect the sound system, or an fm modulator.

As every car is different, and every person is different, where you mount the screen is up to you. Some people build them into the dash (I did). Some people mount them on brackets externally. Height and location will vary based on your car, and how much you will be using the system. You don't want to put it too far away where you can read the messages, or get to the touch screen. You also don't want to be looking too far away from the road while you are changing songs, reading the gps or whatever.

As far as the OBDII setup, you will need a open serial port, or a usb to serial adapter. You can use the screen to control all funtions. Or, if you want to get carried away, you can use it to manage stand alone fuel management systems, turbo boost control. nitrous injection, or anything else that can be controlled through a pc.

As far as your specific car, I don't have any info, but I hope the rest of this helped.

Batman

Now with the lights on

Batman

I also have a g35 coupe and I already installed a computer into my car and did a how-to to how I installed my xenarc screen. It can be found on the g35 forums here

If you don't want hide your screen in the cubby, you should check out superG35's install here

I also hooked up my steering wheel controls to my carputer through a gameport, the software I wrote for doing this and how to construct the circuit can be found here

I also hooked my carputer up to the keyfob so it turns on and off with the door locks. The instructions to do this and the relay circuit for it can be found here

Heres the actual computer installed in the trunk.

I'm currently using an FM-Modulator to get the sound from the computer to the speakers, but I'm eventually going to go head unit less once I get my amps installed. However, if your going to keep the head unit, your going to want to get the PAC auxilliary input here

and finally the specs of what I installed:
Xenarc 700TS TouchScreen
OPUS 150w power supply
AOpen MK79G-N http://usa.aopen.com/products/mb/MK79G-N.htm
AMD Anthlon 2000+
512mb Ram
Philips Aurillium USB 2.0 External Sound Card
Griffen Powermate Controller
KeySpan USB Remote Control
OBDC II thing from Scantool.net,
3.5" 10gb IDE Hard Drive
30gb external usb 2.0 2.5" Hard Drive

If you're using one of the mini-pc style things with a VIA Epia motherboard, then most of them have a 55W PSU inside it, along with a mains adapter for it. Using the Carnetix product, you can still keep this power supply, and the mains connector should you need to use it indoors. Just unplug the plug from the power supply, and plug in the mains adapter

I've bought my dad's PC indoors tonight, and his has the Carnetix CNX-P1260 product, I just unplugged that and have it plugged into the mains adapter right now reinstalling Windows (it had about 5mb space left on C: and only 128mb RAM so it had killed itself!).

The Opus, and the CNX-P1260 both control startup/shutdown with your ignition, and the PC won't restart when you start your car!

The reasons people don't like inverters, is because they are inefficient, and they can introduce a lot of noise into your system. All the noise I had in my system disappeared when I swapped from an inverter to a DC-DC solution.


Garry

Yes the screen moves up and down, see more pictures of it here:
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/cholbroo/g35/index.htm

I'm not sure why the word document doesn't work for you, I just redownloaded it onto another computer and it worked fine.

There is no such thing as a stock in-dash dvd player. The cd changer in the radio only plays cds and there is no way to get it to work with the computer regardless of what you do. I can still listen to cds on it separately though since I'm using the modulator I just switch from radio mode to cd player mode.

My sound card, FM modulator, buttons desoldered from my xenarc screen, and an open USB port are in the box above the glove box.

The track has a bump in it at the end so the screen is held in place by gravity. I also added a magnet to the back of the screen and a metal shield for it to stick to on the underside of the cubby hole cover. This makes the screen very sturdy when it is extended, it stays in place by gravity most of the time, but the magnet makes sure it wont fall down when I accelerate hard. I don't have any problems keeping it up.