Design and build a winner!

Xterrian · 05-22-2002, 08:41 PM

There are quite a few people on this board that have extensive techincal knowledge. These people must enjoy this hobby or they wouldn't be here. Why not build this stuff for a living. You guys should get together and design and build a DIN sized PC that meets the requirements of the general public at a reasonable price(<$1000). When I was a kid, I couldn't wait until the year 2000 because we would all be in flying cars with all the bells and whistles. If we can't make them fly, we can at least put the best technology in them. Has anyone ever seen a picture of the first in car radio? That thing was gigantic! Compare it to what we use now. Here is the URL to a company that will do proof of design flexible circuit boards. Give them a call and get started. I will buy your first production model under $1000.

bgoodman · 05-22-2002, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Xterrian
Why not build this stuff for a living.

This is probably the reply you'll get from 99.9% of the other forum members:

Supporting it would be a literal living hell

King_Xerxes · 05-22-2002, 10:14 PM

Now how much fun would that be?

nolmscheid · 05-23-2002, 12:38 AM

I think if we could get good GPS support on LINUX, support would not be that bad, as it would rarely go down......TIVO's and such run off of Linux I beleive...etc...

It could be done....I think this would be a fun project.

LESLIEx317537 · 05-23-2002, 02:15 AM

Supporting it is part of the income.

Hehe that will be another 1 million buks for upgrading to Winamp 2.9999999.

Thank you and come again to LESLIEx317537's carputer store.

Trust me, if I had the money to start this little business I would. About 50 of my friends have asked me to help them install etc.. and pay me money. The problem is I go to school and work.

It may be better off as a hobby and a small side job here and there.

JohnB1182 · 05-23-2002, 06:35 AM

Quote:

I will buy your first production model under $1000.

Xterrian,
Why not take your <$1000 and use it to build yourself a custom MP3 Player, (with all the bells and whistles you want)

Thats what everyone else around here is doing.
and for a grand you could have yourself a very nice setup.

But I agree there probably is money to be made in the production of car systems, but whoever tries it, will have to capable of dealing internationally with the idiots who screw up a simple installation problem.

magnetik · 05-23-2002, 07:44 AM

if i could go back 1 1/2 years, have alot of funds, and could quit work for 6-8months I probably would have... but its too late to crack into the market now.... mp3 cd-r head units are commonplace now by all the big manufacturers, only a matter of time before these systems get more advanced with TFTs,etc....

you only hope would be to make something really nice that would get picked up by a bigger caraudio brand, like Kenwood did recently with their 'Keg' system, which is a rebadged 'Phatnoise'. If you tried to go at it as an independent brand, you would get crushed by competition.

also there are soooo many ppl doing the home brew solution anyway and it seems to be getting more popular for the dedicated car audio fan....

mp3z24 · 05-23-2002, 09:06 AM

why not make this commercially...

well, you would have to have it verified and tested to conform to UL standards, just for sale in the US. im not sure of many people or stores that would want to deal with devices that arent backed by UL standards.
i dont even know what you would have to do if you wanted it to be sold internationally, i can only imagine certification processes in each and every country/region that you sell it in.
there is now way to make it 100% compatable with every audio system out there, people run them viz aux inputs, tape adapters, fm modulators, with amps only. unless you make a model for every car or aftermarket audio setup, then you are not going to satisfy the market.
what if i dont want a character display, which is the only thing that will fit in a din size radio housing. what if i want an graphic lcd display with a touch screen and movie capabilites. you would have to GUARANTEE that i could not watch a movie when the car was moving. interesting logic processes that involve interfacing with the vehicle computer to "dis-allow" the running of certain applications while the vehicle is in motion. that involves many hundreds of vehicle computers to design for.
jsut try to think of all the standards for safety that would have to be guaranteed for this thing to be sold in the US.

there are just too many variables to work into the "ultra generic, will work for everyone, plug and play" car mp3 player. that is why you dont see many of these on the market. G-Net is the only one that i know of, and it only does mp3's. nothing else (correct me if i am wrong)

this is, and will always be a hobby for the simple fact that people are going to want different things in their own cars. plus, due to the huge variety of vehicle onboard computers and audio systems, there is no way, short of having a "unviersal" computer that all cars use (not going to happen), that you will ever be able to produce the univeral solution to just put in the dash and go.

~mike

ShinkunoNamida · 05-23-2002, 09:13 AM

The major problem is nearly everyone has a different vision for their application. Some people use character lcds, some use tfts (of WILDLY varying sizes), somepeople use remotes, others touch pads, touch screens, mini keyboards, etc etc etc..

Maybe Joe Average would jump on something that cost him 700-1000.. I'm not sure... I'd imagine you wouldn't seel anymore than a couple hundred a year.

Blaupunkt released a DVD, TV, mp3 player.. you just need a head and screen and your set.. list is $599 but i've seen it for $199

I thought about it.. but I decided I wanted to go homebrew so I could make it MY machine, have it set up the way I want, the features I want, the control I want..

I think 80% of people (who want mp3 capability) would be happy with an mp3playing HU.. another 15% would figure if your spending that much money you might as well make it your self.. the remaining 5% might go for it though

It wouldn't be a big production thing. You'd make money, but you'd need to find the time to produce the units, because I don't hthink it would let you quit your day job.

Aaron Cake · 05-23-2002, 09:23 AM

Many valid reasons have been mentioned already, but I will simply add to the "support" statement. That is the main reason I am not producing this stuff. Tech support is hell. Linux has been mentioned as a way to limit support, but I have not had a single software problem with my player.

My best example happened a few months ago. The weather was VERY cold, which seemed to effect the CMOS battery. One morning, the CMOS had reset and the player would not boot. No big deal. 5 minutes with a monitor and keyboard got it going....However, that's an hour long tech support call...Even longer if the user does not have an extra monitor around...

And what happens if a HD dies?

A custom ground up system could be designed (ie. not based on a PC), but that's been done already by the big guys, and they sell their stuff for significantly less than $1000.

phil.45 · 05-23-2002, 11:14 AM

Ideally, it needs to be based on a pc but using a custom MB. Tivo already does this running Linux, and it does it well. Tivo hard drives frequently fail, and they just swap out the whole system. It could be done but money needs to be invested in getting the hardware right, which is probably beyond the scope of any individual when the big boys are already in the market.

Ces///M3 · 05-24-2002, 06:06 AM

Quote:

you would have to GUARANTEE that i could not watch a movie when the car was moving. interesting logic processes that involve interfacing with the vehicle computer to "dis-allow" the running of certain applications while the vehicle is in motion. that involves many hundreds of vehicle computers to design for.

actually, most car audio companies, kenwood,pioneer etc, just expect us to tap into a lead that is triggered when the car is not in motion (i.e. a parking brake ground), no tapping into any car computers