My first Carputer

Manicmoddin · 08-02-2005, 06:45 PM

Right then buddies.

I have been trailing around the net for the best part of a few month trying to find some good ieas, and stubleled upon this site!

Recenly I have been trying to sort out a mp3 player for in the car!

I have found this program called "damp" and another called mpxplay!
both of these found asthough they will do the job I need, but neither of them work (for me).

The idea behind them is that they will run in Dos and will give mp3 support as well as allow for alphanumeric displays!

I Like this idea, using dos, as it does boot very quickley, and the programs require very low harware requirements! (p166)

As I am having trouble with them I'm on the search for a better system, it needs to boot quick and alsobe able to start and opporate blind (no monitor attached) with the exception of a 4*20 LCD.

Has anyoe got any ideas of what I can use?

I can get hands on software upto a p2 233mhz processor, but would rather not as this is my server!

Cheers

Jimmy

marshallh · 08-02-2005, 06:59 PM

Hey that sounds just like wha I'm doing. Your best bet would be to get a hd44780 compatible lcd and wire it to your paralell port, and use a ps/2 numeric keypad (not usb). For MPXPlay to work, you need a dos-compatible sound card. You can find a Sound Blaster 16 on ebay for cheap. Look into the mpxplay settings file with dos edit and learn all the settings.

As for fast booting, mpxplay only takes a second to load assuming you've precompiled a playlist. However, the long part comes from the motherboard startup (memory checking, hard drve cheking). You'll need to get your hands on some old p90 systems or around that. Don't use a 5x86 or 6x86 cyrix, they have bad fpus, means chooppy mp3 playback. As long as you stick with a pentium 1, you'll be fine. Even a pentium 75 worked for me with 128kbs mp3 files.

Experimenting is the key here. Either way, you can build a simple mp3 player on the cheap.

Marshall

Manicmoddin · 08-03-2005, 03:12 AM

Well that was the plan, but as I way playing with it last night, nothing was happening, the sound was stuttering as It initally opened up, but then wouldn't continue!

It said that the CPU load was high (150 - 400%) on all of the attempts

The hardware is a p166MMX with 64mb Ram Runing Windows 98 dos (from bootdisk)

It boots into the dos at 17 seconds so its not too bad...

BUT IT WONT PLAY!!!

DJiK · 08-03-2005, 03:23 AM

I've had my "PreCarputer" running blind for a while once...

Back then it was a 733MHz with 128MB and 60GB.

I've installed Win98SE, hooked up a keyboard, and while configuring it at home I've installed Winamp and configured loads of shorcut keys, i.e.:

Ctrl+Alt+H = Hip-Hop Playlist
Ctrl+Alt+T = Techno Playlist
Ctrl+Alt+W = Winamp
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S = Shut Down
Etc....

Moreover, I've seen a 4x20 LCD plug in and drivers for Winamp.

The boot up time was around 30-40 seconds (remember to disable a bunch of unnecessary drivers and services).

P.S.
I know a 733MHz Celeron isn't exactly a 233MHz P-II, but they're both capable of runnin Win98 & Winamp.

Good luck.

marshallh · 08-03-2005, 07:46 AM

Ok, what I did was to install Windows 95 OSR2 and boot straight to dos. In MSDOS.SYS, Change the line BootGUI=1 to 0. Then put set blaster=a220 i5 d1
in your autoexec.bat file. Add smartdrv as well, running SmartDrive solved many performance issues for me.

I dont recall if smartdrv is on the boot disk, but give it a shot. You might try installing DOS 6.22 onto it. You can probably pick that up somewhere on the web.

Manicmoddin · 08-03-2005, 07:57 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by marshallh

Ok, what I did was to install Windows 95 OSR2 and boot straight to dos. In MSDOS.SYS, Change the line BootGUI=1 to 0. Then put set blaster=a220 i5 d1
in your autoexec.bat file.

If I do it that way can I still have network access at all in dos, or would I have to boot it into windows?

I think I may try the above with a 98 based machine, and play from there, but If I can have doss nework that would be ace!

marshallh · 08-04-2005, 08:50 AM

I know its possible to set up a network under DOS but I haven't done it. You could google it.
It would be easier though to boot to win98 when using the network. Just type win at the command prompt.