phantome46

I have a very basic set up in the car. Small HP pc with an 8" touch screen. I am running media car software for my dvd, mp3 and GPS.

I am looking to keep my 8" screen in the car and then possibly be able to have a wireless/bluetooth touchscreen outside the car remotly that can display what is being displayed on the internal screen and allow me control of the car PC functions?

Is this possible?

Also is it possible to have the car PC control things like engine start, turning lights on and off and switching power supplies on and off? How would you go about this? and is it expensive??

Look forward to a response

Phantom.

Grrrmachine

a LONG time ago (2003?) I played around with FM A/V transmitters - two little boxes with video and audio phono connectors to send images over a few hundred metres. If you could rig a transmitter to the S-video out on a PC, I suppose you could transmit the image to a remote screen. Transmitting controls over that distance is another matter entirely though.

As for car-engine management integration, it depends on the model and just how much you want to control, and how much faith you have in the stability of your system (I don't trust EMU, CIS or other management systems as it is, let alone relying on a $100 shed-built microsoft box to start the damn thing every morning.) There's plenty of info on this site about it if you use the Search button.

grimmy311

If you have wireless broadband you could setup remote access into the carpc and access it pretty much anywhere as long as its connected to the internet.

DarquePervert

Wifi is probably your best bet. You can control the PC from a PDA or smartphone.


Possible? Sure.
Practical? Not really.
IT would suck if you had power windows and sunroof and HVAC all controlled by the PC. That would be cool as all hell until the PC smacks you with a BSOD when you're lost in a skethy neighborhood and it's 100+ outside.
Your windows are all sealed up with no way to roll them down.
Your A/C is inaccessible.
And, if the PC controls engine start, it could very well shut down, leaving you in the middle of the road trying to reboot in a sketchy neighborhood.

Yeah, that's probably worst case scenario, but it's a situation I wouldn't want to even risk being in.

__________________

SEARCH: It's how information gets found!
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

[|||||||--] - 80% (I estimate completion in Spring '07)
My Worklog

JohnWPB

I currently use Remote desktop to connect to and update the CarPC from here in the house.

If I am demonstrating the CarPC somewhere, I have a TabletPC that I connect to the car wirelessly with using VNC. I use VNC for this purpose, as it does not log you off of the system as Remote Desktop does. This way the CarPC can be controlled from either the in dash screen, or the TabletPC at the same time.

By the way, I bought an older cheapie (around $200) TabletPC in Ebay, as the new ones are pretty expensive just for a "remote control device"!

__________________
.


CarPuter: 2.8Ghz P4 with 1 Gig Mem, 500 Gig HD, Iguidance 4.0
7" Motorized Touchscreen, XM PCR1000, Visteon HDZ300 HD
Radio, WIFI, Fusion Brain.
Powered By Road Runner & the DigitalFX 4.0 Skin www.johnwpb.com