Howdy!

**edwin** · 06-02-2005, 03:34 AM

Hi all ,

I have been reading some posts for a while and now I have decided that i'm going to build a carpc. So first I thought let's introduce myself.

My car is a Ford Fiesta and it's got his own website (sorry in dutch) but for pics etc you can still check http://www.myfiesta.nl . I'm also an moderator of the dutch Ford Fiestaclub at http://www.fiestaclub.nl

What was holding me off to build a carpc is that i use tomtom navigator on my pocketpc and that all gps carsolutions aren't as nice as that. But I managed to get destinator europe running with the Freedrive front-end and it worked well on my test runs. (Map monkey crashed sometimes, so that wasn't an option).

I like the centrafuse interface, so i'm almost done with the basic software setup.

I have some trouble finding a topic that describes a good guide to setup a basic car computer. I was thinking of buying a 1000mhz secondhand laptop, but that might give some trouble with the automatic startup. So if anyone can give me some good directions for the necessairy components to build a basic car-system that's automatically boots, you're welcome!

**DarquePervert** · 06-02-2005, 08:58 AM

If your laptop has WOR (Wake On Ring), you can use a serial device to simulate this and have that boot the computer when you turn the key.
There are also startup/shutdown controllers that will do the same thing, but the computer has to be able to set to boot upon receiving power (that's set in the BIOS).
For a desktop PC (miniITX, Shuttle, fullATX), The Opus DC-DC power supply has circuitry built in that will boot the computer when the car is started.

You can search the forums for any or all of these methods.

Or you can go the route that one person did and use a bicycle handbrake mechanism to press the power button on the laptop.

Hey, it works...

**edwin** · 06-02-2005, 09:30 AM

HI, thanks for the info. I looked at some websites and there are a lot of 1000mhz second hand PC's for around 100-150 euro. so I will go with that, so I have money to upgrade the memory and perhaps the soundcard.

I will concentrate me on the powering issue

**66miles99** · 06-02-2005, 09:53 AM

The laptop is the route I am taking also. I decided for now, with a dock, I can press one button in my dash jumpered to the docks power on button to start my machine.