durwood

It sounds like you just want someone to tell you what to buy and think it will be perfect.

Cars are hostile environments, you have heat,cold,condensation,vibration. Does your home computer go through that? Does your laptop go through that constantly during use? In a car everything is put to the extreme and parts are stretched to their limits. I'm not saying you can't have reliability, but even desktops sitting at home will have an occasional hiccup, that is why IT departments exist.

I'll tell you right now, everything you want can be achieved, if all you are waiting for is for someone to tell you to do it and f you're such a high tech guy then do it already. I've had a car PC for 3 years even before half of these products were available. Check the installs and see how many posts are in there. Then there are plenty of worklogs which may contain completed installs, but are always under contruction for little tiny improvements.

As toaster has said, people post questions in a forum, that is what most forums are about. Anything else that is informational is marked as stickies in each subforum AND the WIKI. And by you posting this, you add to people who are havng problems making it sound like carpcs are a horrible idea.

-Nvidia cards/chipsets allow you to split video and your regular desktop.
-I don't see any way you can have audio and a movie coming out of your PC at the saem time, so if you are trying to do dual zones good luck, might want to look at turbocad6's worklog/installs.
-Auzentech makes soundcars with 4V output, but you really don't need that if you are running it through your stock radio, hell even 1V or less will work.
-For power, there are plenty of calculators you can use to determine what power supply you need, but I'll tell you right now, an m1/M2 will probably not work with a dual core, and the other DC-DC solutions are properly priced. As an electrical engineer, ANY complex DC-DC power supply with high current output is expensive.



Good luck, no more crying

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kazzxtrismus

2K1TOASTER:

ABSOLUTE PERFECTION....EXACTLY WHAT i WAS HOPING TO FIND!!!
YOU ARE A GEM OF A HUMAN BEING.. THANKYOU.

This is exactly what i was meaning by my rants...
why does it fail....
exactly as you said it..
I see "its not working" and 22 replies and then nothing...or ok its working now....
but no WHY its working.....

I'd rather look stupid, ask a question, and then not be supid anymore (or less stupid).

what you have answered here needs to be in a FAQ or something....
the "Why does our stuff break" FAQ.
and a "why we use what we use" FAQ.

I searched so much... I was reading stuff from "like" 2003 to try to get answers.
obviosly this is not really beneficial as lots of products have changed, dissappeared etc.

can we get some stuff archived??!!

but yes... exactly what I was looking for.
thankyou very much...where do I go to get you a MP3car.com gold star?

if you want anything from me let me know I;ll see if I can "sample" you something.

kazzxtrismus

I have had fantastic reliability with all the electronics I own and have installed in the past.
I have only owned 3 monitors in 12-15 years (replaced for better / new tech)
I want to do the same with this carpc...

but without being willing to post the "oops" portion of any thread we post...when someone searches all they find is B&M'ing about how this or that broke.

Look I'll do an install, and I will probably break something.
and I will say..I think "I broke it??!!"
or "why does electricity suck" and then....wait for it...
CLOSE THE THREAD with "oops my fault I_______"

the 4V out is for my amps as they seem to work better with it (read; sound cleaner than with 2V).

I have built quite a few competition audio cars as well as show systems in my past so this isn't beyond me.

pneumatics hydraulics and kinetc systems are all a part of my background.
i am a mechanical engineer who got bored of designing cassette tape loading mechanisms for $45k/yr

MY MOTTO:
Cars are in my blood, if you can do it...do it to a car...if thats a dumb idea...it was a dumb idea to begin with.

I have worked in a body shop through college, as a Mechanic through highscool, car audio has allways been a hobby or summer job.
I love this stuff!

but WOOF I've done almost 2 weeks of searching to find the failure analysys of any 1 of the more common probs that 2K1TOASTER has mentioned and maybe a 2% return of "ya...oops that was me...I _____"
so I'm left to assume or ASK.
I did ask.
2K1 ANSWERED ME VERRRRRY WELL...HE'S A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLLAR!
you have been of benefit too...and returned me my sanity! (both oz's).
I will now be able to say with confidence that I will build and TOTALLY help out some of the others here. as best I can.

Thanks guys!

durwood

Ok, well you would understand that low impedance outputs are more beneficial then high voltage outputs, unless your amplifiers sensitivity on the gain isn't sensitive enough for a low voltage signal. My soundcard has a whooping 1V max output, but it's output impedance is 50 ohms-from the few times I was testing the analog out of it, I had zero noise.

You might also want to look at USB DAC's if you are not going to do 5.1. They offer high voltage output if that is what you are after.

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RedGTiVR6

wow - this thread is absolutely amazing...

I've never seen someone so mad about things let it out on anyone who passes in front of them.

I had typed up this whole long response only to realize it wouldn't make a lick of a difference because this guy is obviously so mad about everything he can't see straight.

Most of the problems people run into on this forum are due to tinkering...it's inevetable.

Computer nerds tinker, car gurus tinker. When you can't leave something alone, it's going to wear out and/or break.

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BRUM

Fair enough I understand you're frustrated but you would think someone who is so educated would understand the principles of common courtesy. With the way you ask for help I'm surprised anyone even bothered to reply.

ps.

pps. Thanks TK1TOASTER for the tip on switching the SDC

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:) With my car i might as well be Flinstoning it :)

2k1Toaster

You're both welcome. But everything I know, I have learned through reading. Even the SDC tip has been explained a few other places as well.

I was just in a spoonfeed mood that day. It is abnormal for me, but glad you benefited. I do however recommend the search feature. The search built into vbulletin sucks azz. The search however with google "keywords site:www.mp3car.com" (available in the dropdown) works wonders.

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turbocad6

anyone can carry there laptop out to there car & say "my pc works in my car"

putting a pc in a car is a pretty trivial task, it's easy. many have problems with the basics because they may not have enough skill, knowledge or funds, many who try to put a pc in there car do not know a vehicle in general the way a mechanic would, & many aren't very knowledgable with automotive electrical systems, many also don't have much experience with fabrication, many don't know alot more than aol & playing mp3's when it comes to pc's in general. the majority of the simple problem threads are just guys learning from there mistakes, & slowly gaining enough experience to eventually have a sucessful install or quit trying.

now if you have an automotive mechanical background & fabrication skills, & know a bit about pc's, then putting a pc in a car is like easy... but,

after the pc is in is where it gets interesting, if your content on throwing a switch & using the pc the way you use your laptop then your done, if you installed it well it should last the lifetime of the pc and or car... simple really... but

after the pc is in, is when you then want to make the pc easier to use, then is when you want to try & automate as much as practical, then is where the tinkering begins...

to put a pc in can take a day to a week, but tinkering never ends, I spend most of my effort on automating & customizing to make it better, feel more factory & add functionality, making it better & better is where the battle realy begins, unless again, your just content to throw a switch & use it like your laptop.

it all comes down to what it is you want from your system, & more importantly, how much you are willing to just settle for.

if your willing to just settle for manually turning on your pc then you just avoided the whole startup shutdown control & everything involved with that, but I want mine to be fully automatic, I also want to be able to overide this at will, I also want to be able to start my pc and/or car from anywhere via the internet & track it's status & location.

if your willing to just settle for trying to use a tiny screen like a tiny desktop then your good, but I want mine to boot directly into a touchscreen friendly display, a front end, that has all the functionality at a fingers press away, if you do a frontend & are willing to accept any particular skin as-is then your good, but I want my skin to be mine, exactly the way I want it. I want to design it & use graphics that compliment my vehicle & do exactly what I want it to do & how I want it & have nothing that is not useful to me either.

if your willing to just settle for having to throw a jacket over your head & dash to see your screen on the brightest days then any ole screen will do, but I want my screen to always be visable & usable, even in direct sunlight.

if your willing to just settle to use a monster power machine & deal with the heat & power draws then fine, but I want my system to be silent & efficient, & reliable even in temperature extremes as much as practical, this takes research & fine tunning software & resorces

many of the problem threads you see here are for simple problems, but that;s all you've been looking at so far & your thinking with a laptop sitting in your car mentality, but if you look deeper you'll see that many have gotten past the trivial part of install, & are now intent on optimising & fine tunning & adding functionallity, just take a visit to the software forums & check out some of the developments that are done through many members colabirating for some final goal, which has nothing to do with just getting it working, but more to get it to do EXACTLY what they want it to do, how they want it.

getting a carpc to work is trivial, building a complete great carpc is far from this though, it's a long jorney of learning & working towards a goal, then reaching that goal & wanting more, this is why it never ends.

also, if you've never done it before, expect to have some complications with even the trivial stuff at times too

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MY NEWEST INSTALL:modded infiniti fx with big screen - "If my typing sucks it's probably because I'm driving....................."

first windows carpc install........my liquid cooled LVDS screen :D

kazzxtrismus

ya these crazy amps have been mod'd with bigger poweer coils etc.
and for some strange reason they like the voltage. it shows in the gain control....not jumpy or noisy or nuthin...2v acts like a squrrel on speed.
YES the 2 circuits should be seperate but it doesn't mean that there are not latent frequencies roaming the board looking to act as a gremlin.

thks!... but I do want to do 7.1 actually.

kazzxtrismus

Turbocad6:
tks for the help like for 2k1 toaster exactly the kind of info i was hoping to find.

I have visited teh software threads when I first started looking into this.
I have been searching and reading patiently since MAY LAST YEAR.

but like I said earlier lots of old data etc etc and of course the "closure" is missing from a good deal of the help me threads.

BRUM...etc:
some of the repliers here have found me rude but even after reading through my posts I didn't find myself to be very rude (posts 6,8,9,13 ignored intentionally)

I am not the hottest with the "internet rules of conduct" but to my senses the only thing i can see that may have been construed as rude
(posts 6,8,9,13 ignored intentionally),
was the fact that I used point form listsings of issues......as you can tell I kind of blather on uncontrollably i know this and used them to "ATTEMPT" to shorten my posts.

I am Irreconcilealbly sorry if this upset / offended anyone.....please forgive me.

as it states I had given up on the setup (read: set of stuff i wanted to get)...not the install. I guess the international community has its own meaning for setup or something...
so I flubbed the lingo there.

either way I will now NOT need to change too much.
because I know know that it is in fact "tinkering = mucking = fiddling etc" is the main culprit... unfortunately there is no button to force closure of a thread..... let alone.. with a choice of
"I am sorry I suck.... its all my fault...Idid _____ and broke it".
and soo like the 1st post i made says i was forced to ask as I was stumped as to
"****WHY**** ALL THE PROBLEMS".
now I know and now I am truely greatful to "some" on this board.
soon to be most...hopefully!!!!

Also please note:

In canada...EVEN TORONTO. for travels or carputer builders
-No traffic capabilities with ANY GPS system.
-a GSM card for internet through your carputer will end up costing you $210/month if you want to do any kind of real downloading (500 meg max then $5/meg) + 14% taxes.....
-There are very few free wifi spots (unless right downtown).

so all of these features are out.

2k1Toaster

Wrong.c

I'm a Canadian. From Brampton actually.

GPS is available in Canada, and the real time traffic updates may be "not so real time", but they exist I am pretty sure.

You can get a GPRS card or use it through your cell phone with the phone as a modem. The Rogers network offers this for as little as $40CAD a month. That is if you already have a cell which everyone does anyways, and if not get one and ditch the home phone.

As for wifi... I dunno. I havent been in the Toronto central area for a while so I can't really comment on the wifi. I think GPRS is your best bet. People sy slow, but it is fast enough. Ive used it on my phone Cingular in the states for about 4-5 years now no problems.

And dont tell Rogers that you will be using it as a modem as it is a breach of the TOS agreement. But if you do, they can never find out.

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MatrixPC

Man, I read most of the posts but I still don't get it.
Well thing do break if you mess around with it, and this is what most people do. Mess around, tinker it to make it better/faster and end up breaking it (well most of the time.)
Talking about product reliability, I still use my 12 years old lappy. It's a Pentium 166 MHz (no MMX) with 32Mb ram crunching win95. It's the first laptop I bought and cost me over 3 grand. Wow, that is bloody expensive compare to today laptop.

Well, I started out using old hardware that should of going to the dumpster or charities, but I choose to give it a 2nd change as a carPC. A Pentium 3 @ 600Mhz running on inverter, and a modified PSOne screen. It worked and I start to make it better by upgrade to a home built DC-DC PSU aka Sproggy. It worked and I change it again. Replace the PSOne LCD with a 7" TS. The whole process basically start, finish, trick , re-start, finish, trick. Well at the end, I overclock the CPU from 600 to 750Mhz. Now I am happy with the result.
Now after 4 years active one the forum, all my 3 setups run perfectly without a hickup. Well not really, the P3 mobo keep reset the BIOS setting and replace the BIOS battery fix it, but I still don't know why the brand new battery die in couple months. Is it because of baking all day in the sun?

So basically, you aren't find my happy posting outside of the showoff forum.

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2004 Matrix XR A7N8X-VM/400 AMD XP-M 2500+, DS-ATX
89 Supra Turbo P3 600E@750/Abit BE6 II, Alpine M-BUS Car2PC.
Y2K Accord Dell GX150
RoadRunner is the best FE PERIOD
EmoRebellion is a SCAMMER

kazzxtrismus

origional Btown boy too!!!!
central peel boyeeee...lol

anyway... ya the traffic thing doesn't work and isn't offered here
they dont have the "pucks" in the roads or anything else...
but you can get occasional updates but they are based on a phone in system like the traffic guy on the radio....so since almost nobody has GPS and the co-ordinating software it pretty much doesn't work....its almsot non existant.

the kind of internet I would need to use would require the super expensive plan....but if you mean set it up like a phone and then use it as a modem...wouldn't this only be like 56k anyway?

ya the wifi thing is true too...major sucky....but true.
war dfreiving at 2 kph i look like a stalker or somethin

2k1Toaster

What will you be doing on the internet? Downloading weather, traffic updates, POI's for the GPS, and everything is very low bandwith stuff.

Only reason you need big bandwith is for media. Music streaming or downloading big images.

GPRS is actually slower than 56K, but it is fast enough. You wont be streaming internet radio, but it is more than enough for in a car.

And I still can't believe how much Brampton has really changed! Where I used to live was on a few acres beside a horse farm and like 5 other houses a couple roads north of Mississauga Rd. Open fields, but now there are houses built right there! Confused the hell out of me when we got there. I expected to see horses, and I saw bulldozers.

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texas319

DUDE you need to do research. This is in no way a cheap weekend problem. I am an IT Administrator and a carpc is just like anything new. it needs to be bench tested then road tested before its installed