BMW X5 CarCube Project by Vinzer (lots of pics)

vinzer · 03-20-2009, 02:50 PM

Hi All !!!

I used to post here my previous project or even two of these. I think these were my Lexus RX300 Car PC and first BMW X5 projects.
After almost 1.5 year I am back with new project

Here I want to present to your attention my new "from scratch" project called CarCube

Based on PC 104 form factor motherboard, custom made case and my free time to put everything together.

Look at the pics and read tech specs of this small guy

Motherboard PC-104 form factor 1.8GHz
Memory 1GB
Videocard Intel
External videocard - some unknow brand

Inside of this custom designed and custom made case I have the following components:

- Motherboard
- TPMS Monitoring system (by Robby)
- FM Radio
- Bluetooth
- OBD II Diagnostic
- Phidget controller (8/8/8)
- I-BUS controller by Resler
- GPS receiver
- Power supply 5V 12V (up to 20 A on 5V and up to 25A on 12V for external devices)
Power supplies outputs controlled by Phidget (thru software)
- Small screen (4x20) connected to LPT port for dispaying of the current status of the CarPC
- A lot of wires

- Controller for cooling fans (based on temperature of the processor)
- IDE HDD 60GB
- 4USB on motherboard + 2 independant MiniPCI controllers with 3 USB ports on each (total 10USB ports)
- WiFi (for sure it is there)

I did design and assembly from scratch. I thought to make a professional PCB controller board instead of soldering components on regular board but decided to leave it for the future project.

It took me almost 8 month to get to the final version of this project. It tested and seems to wrok well.

As a external components it has:

- USB VGA controller - for conencting 7 !

external screens (I am not crazy, it is only for DEMO pourposes)
- XM Radio
- External USB SoundBlaster Audigy Sound card
- 2 Xernac touchscreen monitors
- 3d Connexion joystic (to make it look like BMW real BMW i-Drive)

- some other small features like iPhone connector, external temperature and aceleration sensors and stuff like this

And all this lives under Windows XP Embedded which I build using Win embedded development Studio for my needs.

Pics of my vehicle inside in the next post.....

vinzer · 03-20-2009, 03:11 PM

Here is hte pics about how does all this fit and look inside of my vehicle:

You may see two (2) Xernacs as a main screens. One is located at the dash and another on top. Very soon I will add second car PC in to this vehicle and split these screens but for now they are in Mirror mode. Also you may see 5 screens around the vehicle. These are connected to the second USB videocar output.

Well thats almost it, and I am still working on my project... looks like it never ends

slickdeville · 03-20-2009, 03:20 PM

Great install

xmzx · 03-20-2009, 06:29 PM

Wow dude. Great job! Hope mine can come out 1/1000th of what yours did.

captcol · 03-20-2009, 06:35 PM

looks incredible, a few questions tho, are your usb-vga screens also mirrors of the main screen? and why a second car-pc for the top screen wouldn't extended desktop work?

djfourmoney · 03-21-2009, 07:10 AM

Not enough display devices huh?

Looks great, the visor screens is a bit over the top but functional and again it looks great!

It has well integrated look as well...

Is that RR your running?

vinchan · 03-21-2009, 08:38 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by djfourmoney

Not enough display devices huh?

Looks great, the visor screens is a bit over the top but functional and again it looks great!

It has well integrated look as well...

Is that RR your running?

Hi
I also want to know which frontend software you use for your system

bratnetwork · 03-21-2009, 10:34 AM

pretty sweet idea for the "cube". But i think you need some more screens... lol looks good.

bigwh00p · 03-21-2009, 12:37 PM

Looks like he's running streetdeck 2.0

vinzer · 03-21-2009, 04:40 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by captcol

looks incredible, a few questions tho, are your usb-vga screens also mirrors of the main screen? and why a second car-pc for the top screen wouldn't extended desktop work?

In my setup I have 7 screens. Two of these are VGA ones and these are connected thru the VGA splitter to PC's video card. The reason why I am using them as a mirror mode for now is because I am planning to install second CarPC in this vehicle and than connect top VGA screen to the second PC.

5 screens (two in headrests, two in sunvisors and one in the mirror) are connected thru the VGA USB card as a second monitor (extended desctop). I can play movie on these, by default BMW logo is always showing on these ones.

vinzer · 03-21-2009, 04:42 PM

At present moment I am running SD 2.0 with custom Skin which I quickly did for my BMW. However I am using RoadRunner as well. My previous project was based on RoadRunner only.

seninha · 03-22-2009, 03:48 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by vinzer

In my setup I have 7 screens. Two of these are VGA ones and these are connected thru the VGA splitter to PC's video card. The reason why I am using them as a mirror mode for now is because I am planning to install second CarPC in this vehicle and than connect top VGA screen to the second PC.

5 screens (two in headrests, two in sunvisors and one in the mirror) are connected thru the VGA USB card as a second monitor (extended desctop). I can play movie on these, by default BMW logo is always showing on these ones.

So both headrest monitors are VGA?? Can you tell me where you get them from or did just installed 2 VGA screen yourself on the headrest?

I also want to have 2 VGA screen in the back, but until now I could not find a already finish headrest with VGA already installed.

vinzer · 03-22-2009, 10:40 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by seninha

So both headrest monitors are VGA?? Can you tell me where you get them from or did just installed 2 VGA screen yourself on the headrest?

I also want to have 2 VGA screen in the back, but until now I could not find a already finish headrest with VGA already installed.

Sorry, little misunderstanding here

The only VGA screens are: the one in the dash board and the one on top of the vehicle (under the sunroof).
All the rest of the screens are regular TV screens.

In case you want to have VGA screens in your headrests the simplest way would be to buy empty headrests with premade space for the screens (check eBay for that) and install there two Xernacs or two Liliputs VGA sceens

Crinos · 03-23-2009, 07:39 AM

In lack of better words.... WOW!!!

RipplingHurst · 03-23-2009, 06:56 PM

What brand of visor screens are you using? I've seen tons on ebay, gooddeals, but not sure which one is best. My impression is that they're not made to last. So which one did you get? Do they have a small joystick on the visor? Can you turn them off when the visor is up?

The work on the case is brilliant. Are you going to network both computers? Are they going to perform the same functions, or different?

Congrats again on the nice install.

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