Hi just wanna show off my car PC in my Seat Ibiza FR 1.9Tdi. The car itself is custom coded up to 170bhp.
I`ll post some pics tonight as im at work at the moment.
Basically, its in the early stages of developemnt but at the moment the setup consists of:
Acer laptop mounted in the boot.
indash motorized 7" lcd touch screen.
Wireless keyboard (just leave it in the glove box for when i need it)
Enerasys Wifi Card with +7DB gain roof antenna
Vag Com cable connection into Cars ECU
DVB TV Card with DTT Omnidirection aerial on the roof.
FM Transmitter
I havnt installed GPS as i have that on my Navman PDA. Its nice having the two screens in the car. One playing music videos the other showing where i am.
Im looking at replacing the acer laptop with a mini itx though.
The laptop is powered via step up adapter and i have routed power through to the boot.
The interesting bit is the Digital TV Reception. Yes I can watch digital tv in the car! Which is pretty cool! Doesnt work whilst driving, but once parked up and in a good enough area i can usually get about 15+ channels pretty well.
The WiFi is great, doesnt take long to find a working internet connection. Great set up for wardriving too with netstumbler.
I use frodoplayer for the ICE. And hoping to get phonecontrol.net to work with my nokia 9300.
I've got a microphone hooked up to the front of the vehicle, so once online via a wifi. I can use voipcheap to make free calls to UK, USA, Australia etc. It works really well. That was very useful when i was in Belgium, i called home back to the UK for free using a WiFi connection
Got N64 emulator on, my keyboard also has a joystick on it for incar gaming! Works well!
The sound from the laptop just goes to the head unit via an FM Transmitter. My standard alana MP3 head unit does not have any audio in facility. And the FM transmitter is great for if theres a few cars parked up, can all have the same sound on then!
For the future im hoping to:
Fit subs for better sound
Replace the laptop with a mini itx, get proper startup-shutdown controllers.
When GPRS gets more affordable install that for always on internet.
Add GPS so it logs where my car is etc. (possible tracking system with GPRS)
A mate is possibly looking at writing some more goochy stuff for vagcom.
Bigger storage for keeping thousands of cds, music videos and dvds.
Install cameras to record whats going on outside of the car. (great for insurance claims!)
Current issues:
Laptop has to be manually switched on and off otherwise big drain on the battery. Even though i have a voltage regulator i've had a couple of flats.
The wireless keyboard adapter prohibits XP from booting up whilst its in. Might be a bizzare incompatability with acers USB and the adapter.
Touchscreen can be a bit unresponsive sometimes.
Other than that its going pretty well.
I`ll try and post some piccys up tonight, im at work at the moment.
wish i had a FR version. As for the sound in. I got an adapter which connected to the CD changer wire. So to get sound from the computer i just switch to CD. Im guessing you have a MK4?
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