Corsa C Van + Atom + Gentoo Linux + 9" Capacitive touchscreen

"megapost about nothing..." :)

Changes

Well, as I mentioned before, I'll swap my mobo to something harder-faster-scooter :)
So, the winner is: ASUS AT3N7A-I

Pros:
-more RAM, helps gentoo install a bit
-10 USB ports, 8 in the backpanel!!!
-no useless IDE connector
-better design, cooling fan, capacitors
-Blue Tooth
-can do fancy 3D OpenGL effects :)
-can retire as a HTPC :)
-a bit faster

Cons:
-price (but I can get hardware for cheap)
-a bit overkill
-power consumption (maybe, I dunno)

As it's still an Atom 330, I don't need to restart the whole project. The board is very close
to my dreams, I only need a +100 SNR sound card with RCA. ESI Juli@, I'm coming :)

Hippohifi bloat looks good too, but I can get a Juli@ for free (almost).

More problems

Mysterious illness killing me slowly, hope it's not H1N1. I haven't been that ill since I was ten. I'm too ill to work on the setup or the car now :S I'll get the new mobo next week,
so I planned to work on the touchscreen, but now, it's impossible because of my condition.

Also, short on cash a bit, spent all my money on whiskey and beer (and gf, and components).
So I have to wait for my next paycheck to afford the sound deadening. (as I live in Hungary,
I have to buy a 100sq ft bulk pack, to lower the shipping costs)

Need a light?

As the interior lights are crappy (no on/off), I'll use some LED lights to replace them.
Anyone know good ones for Corsa C?

I'll also replace the the pathetic trunk light with LED runway lights :) (not blinking ones)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gowthamj

i got it from ebay, from the link that simplex posted on his 1st or 2nd post. I dont have a cable to connect the touch screen controller to USB. Until then i donno what driver to use.

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The pinout is:

1. red / VCC / +5V DC
2. gray or white / D- / DN
3. green / D+ / DP
4. black / GND / 0V
5. charcoal gray / GND / shield

P/N is 7319420
http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/690...6-7319420.html

Back from the dead

Well, I survived, so I started to work on my project again.

Good news

Got some cheap Dynamat Xtreme (by cheap, I mean incl. shipping costs to Hungary),
hopefully, it will arrive in a week or so. Also I received JBL C608GTI components,
quite impressive and heavyweight :)

Also, my CCF to LED backlight conversion project is not hopeless, thank to sniiki's project.

Sound system v2.0

As changing the alternator is not a trivial task, I will try to avoid it at all costs,
so I have to use a full-range class D amp, so, here's the current plan:

Components: JBL C608GTI 150W RMS
Woofer: JBL P1222 400W RMS
Amp: JL Audio HD600/4 2x150W@4ohm + 1x300W@4 ohm bridged (11-14.5V!!!)

EDIT: found a better class D full-range amp :)

its better to have some more power ive been told then the speakers could have
and look what i have done to improove the sound quality

also made a movie so you can listen for it urself
check my topic for it if u like

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vincenttor

its better to have some more power ive been told then the speakers could have
and look what i have done to improove the sound quality

also made a movie so you can listen for it urself
check my topic for it if u like

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I found a better amp (edited my post), I think 2x150W+300W will be enough :)

Minor problems

Finally I have some free time, so I'm improving the car. Well, there are some minor problems...
Got wiring looms (door&dash) from the scrapyard, but they doesn't fit, will fix it on 28th.
At work, I have to install 30 custom nettops til january, based on ASUS AT3N7A-I my mistake ;)
I will make a full review of the board maybe.

Good news

I will install some dynamat inside, got 64 square feet :)

Some dampening :) (also featured: JBL Gti and empty bottles)
http://ikhok.elte.hu/~simplex/jbl/dynamat.JPG

Also, I'm planning to install the JBL C608Gti components, but some modifications needed
(audio/mirror/window wires to the door, dynamat, MDF speaker adaptor)

Until then, some pics:

the speakers & the crossover
http://ikhok.elte.hu/~simplex/jbl/jbl.JPG

It's big :)
http://ikhok.elte.hu/~simplex/jbl/size.JPG

And heavy (2 kgs!)
http://ikhok.elte.hu/~simplex/jbl/weight.JPG

I'm still thinking about the audio system, but this depends on money :)

Current plan (for my pleasure):
JBL C608Gti +JBL P1222 + JL Audio HD600/4

Future (for SQ competition):
JL Audio ZR650-CSi (bi-amped) + JL Audio 13W7 + JL Audio HD600/4 + JL Audio HD750/1

The problem is, we don't have any JL Audio speakers here in Hungary, and while I heard good
things about them, I want to hear it first, before I spend $400-$500 on it :)

Gentoo eh?
I've been on it for about 2.5 years. Seriously learning Linux the past year and a half. Anyhow, I have a server box running it. I do a load of HD video encoding and have been toying with the idea of a car computer for some time now. My hardware plan-out is similar to yours. As for the software end, I'm running Zen-Sources. Mostly because I don't want to patch my own kernel. I would suggest looking into Zen-Sources for the use of Btrfs for your root partition due to it's SSD detection and optimizations as well as the BFS task scheduler. BFS greatly improves latency and responsiveness on the system so things will be more "snappy".

On a side note, do you have any proof that icc is that much faster than gcc? It's bee a few months since I've looked into it, but I thought it topped out at about 10% faster code in specific instances, whereas the majority of the time is was almost on par with gcc. Almost meaning a tad slower.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DigitalCorpus

Gentoo eh?
I've been on it for about 2.5 years. Seriously learning Linux the past year and a half. Anyhow, I have a server box running it. I do a load of HD video encoding and have been toying with the idea of a car computer for some time now. My hardware plan-out is similar to yours. As for the software end, I'm running Zen-Sources. Mostly because I don't want to patch my own kernel. I would suggest looking into Zen-Sources for the use of Btrfs for your root partition due to it's SSD detection and optimizations as well as the BFS task scheduler. BFS greatly improves latency and responsiveness on the system so things will be more "snappy".

On a side note, do you have any proof that icc is that much faster than gcc? It's bee a few months since I've looked into it, but I thought it topped out at about 10% faster code in specific instances, whereas the majority of the time is was almost on par with gcc. Almost meaning a tad slower.

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Take a look at NilFS. On an SSD, it's pretty snappy compared to BtrFS. I doubt you see any advantage in icc over gcc. IIRC, not everything even compiles with icc. Furthermore, Moblin, Intel's baby Linux OS is compiled on gcc and not icc. And trust me, speed is everything to the Moblin guys.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DigitalCorpus

Mostly because I don't want to patch my own kernel.

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Where's the challange then? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DigitalCorpus

I would suggest looking into Zen-Sources for the use of Btrfs for your root partition due to it's SSD detection and optimizations as well as the BFS task scheduler. BFS greatly improves latency and responsiveness on the system so things will be more "snappy".

---

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kev000

Take a look at NilFS. On an SSD, it's pretty snappy compared to BtrFS.

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I will check them, but I have plenty of time to make this decision, as I will use a simple HDD
until I finalize the install. I don't want to use an experimental stage FS until then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DigitalCorpus

On a side note, do you have any proof that icc is that much faster than gcc? It's bee a few months since I've looked into it, but I thought it topped out at about 10% faster code in specific instances, whereas the majority of the time is was almost on par with gcc. Almost meaning a tad slower.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by kev000

I doubt you see any advantage in icc over gcc. IIRC, not everything even compiles with icc. Furthermore, Moblin, Intel's baby Linux OS is compiled on gcc and not icc. And trust me, speed is everything to the Moblin guys.

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Well, some proof here and there and maybe there too.
You guys may also check linuxdna, a kernel patch, to compile almost
the whole kernel with icc. Helps with boot time a bit.

You can compile most of the basic apps, and you can modify the almost the rest of them,
to work with it, and I can live with the exceptions.

I think, on an Intel processor, icc will be always faster than gcc.
And trust me, speed is everything to the guys at Intel :)
And for the MYSQL guys too.

Also, the reason Moblin does not use icc, is that icc is not a free compiler, so it's not
available to everyone (ok, it's free with student license, but otherwise it's $599), and it's
not an open source solution. But nothing stops anyone to compile Moblin with icc as it's open source.
Anyway, I think they should make an icc-precompiled version at least.

But overall, yes, it's EASIER to use gcc. But it's easier to have a separate headunit and a gps too.

If someone can provide me with a git repositry of a patched kernel and they are very responsive in fixing stuff, why not let them do it? Yeah a single core processor will do, but I can be more productive on a dual or even a quad (motions to server with over 3 TiB of video)

With gcc 4.4 there was that max of 7-10% for audio encoding. Less for video encoding. The last test is testing a P4 with a much older version of GCC which was already shown to be slow from the other benchmarks. Plus it was almost 2 years old so that outdates even the version ICC that was used. Also, even from the Gentoo community, -O3 is libel to break software and can actually slow it down. You might actually be better off with -Os since the code you're running will more likely be scoring cache hits on the CPU. For a simplistic chip like Atom, this might be better.. Since you have time and don't mind messing around, try both icc and gcc with -O2 and -Os. Compare boot times and launch times of applications. What else are you running on the system you're building? Testing playback CPU usage of video files would help you out too. If I had an Atom, I'd test it out too to help you along.

Just to note something else as well, it is generally considered that 10% is the approximate limit of human perception. If you're using this in an active car, then your attention on the road won't care about a 10% difference. unless the margin is 15-20% or greater, the effort spent on finding the perfect compiler may be in vain. This is just my two cents and your carputer. Take whatever you like even if it's nothing :)