Thread: 2002 Mazda Miata CarPC

So I've been working on my Miata Car PC project for a couple of years on and off and thought I should post some details for others to see.

Install
I started, as is often the way (), with a small idea for a small project that grew to become a full CarPC replacing my factory double-din radio. This in turn required an amplifier and speakers (installation and components are shown in this thread, on miata.net).

Because the Miata has very limited space, I started with a factory double-DIN radio from eBay. After removing the guts, I began searching for a single board computer (SBC) to fit in the chassis. The Wafer LX-800 from iei is a nice small (3"x5") fanless SBC with all the required peripherals.

For a display, I bought a CarTFT CTF700-SH transreflective LCD, which I promptly dismantled. The display contains a screen, touch panel, and three circuit boards (LCD controller, touchscreen controller, backlight inverter) that all had to be mounted in the factory chassis.

Power supply is the trusty M2-ATX, which was just too big to fit into the factory radio chassis along with the SBC, hard drive, and LCD monitor boards. I found a nice fitting enclosure for it at my local electronics store.

The LCD bezel is a BYBYTE Double DIN LCD Frame 701 which is then covered with a Miata Metra dash kit trim ring.

My original plan when I purchased the SBC was to run it as a display-less music player controlled from buttons on the factory radio. However, once I decided to go for the full CarPC, I set it up on the bench with Windows XP (nLited) and RoadRunner. I found the 500MHz P3 class CPU to be rather lacking in performance, taking several seconds to load each new screen.

After some searching (mostly on mp3car.com), I found someone (Enitalp) had started writing a Road Runner clone in C++ from the ground up (EniCar - search this forum for EniCar for more details). This was distributed with the MC2.0 skin and the whole thing is really fast on my wimpy SBC.

I contacted Enitalp to get a copy of the source code, and for the past year have been working on fixes and new features, primarily aimed at getting the DFX 2.0 skin to work (which is partially working as can be seen in the pics).

GPS is handled using Garmin Mobile PC, which I (mostly) prefer to iGuidance. I've got this integrated into EniCar, and put together a simple OSK, since Mobile PC doesn't have one (and who at Garmin thought *that* was a good idea?). Embedding Mobile PC into the front end still has its quirks (the Road Runner folks have had some issues too), but it's mostly working now.

The system has WiFi also, so I can sync my media from my home network when parked in the garage.

Lastly, I found some neat right angle USB connectors which were helpful due to the small depth available in the Miata dash.

Impressions
First, having a convertible, I had got the transreflective screen to try to help viewing in direct sunlight. Whilst not bad, I need to try to jack up the brightness a bit because in sunlight with sunglasses on, it's unreadable. (Without sunglasses, it's only barely readable.)

I was also worried about possible noise pickup from the car in the PC's analogue output. Outputs are not bad, and all that needs doing is some power supply clean up work to remove the low-level hard drive seek noise that can be heard in the audio. However, top down and music on loud means you can't hear the noise anyway.

Other than that, I LOVE it! Only trouble is trying to figure out what to listen to out of the 14,000 tracks I now have at my disposal (and that prompted me to add a random play feature in EniCar).

Things To Do
If I listed everything here, I'd never be done. But here's a few things I have planned.

1. Modify M2-ATX firmware to change delays so the PC has time to sync with my media library automatically on shutdown. (I already have the assembly source that matches the M2-ATX PIC code, and can successfully build and program the PIC.)
2. Mount LCD infrared sensor on bezel so I can use the LCD remote to adjust brightness.
3. Add bluetooth for hands free phone (probably with BlueSoleil).
4. Loads more work on EniCar front end.
5. Add MusicIP mixer support for generating smart playlists, using server and HTTP interface.

Chassis 1:

Chassis 2:

Chassis 3:

Chassis 4:

M2-ATX Enclosure:

First power from car battery:

Installed: