Another Project I've been working on

[Homebrew]

Man that what i wanna put in my car. Look awsome!

[voice from the waterboy] You can do it! [/voice fromt he waterboy]

Hey Kevin, I talked to you about this in December... really impressed with how it turned out. I'm gonna get started on mine asap. I won't be there saturday, but will PM you some initial starting out questions!
Can't wait!

Thanks, I can't wait to see how yours comes out. I'll try to steer you clear of the pitfalls I encountered.

Looks sweet and will have many thing to offer, but seems like a hasel and 1300 is quite alot.

I would gte one if i had the extra money though

Definetly alot of money, nobody can argue against that. As far as the hasel, for me personally its been an enjoyable experience. I'm really into computers though, I can see where it wouldn't be for everyone though. It's definetly alot more to deal with than just running a normal HU.

One question, Kevin, which would make me particularly interested... Could you somehow hook-up a connection between that computer and say, a video camera?

Yes I can. I'm actually throwing around several ideas involving this. I thought about tieing into the alarm so when the alarm goes off, the computer comes on and records a camera feed. But it does take like 20 seconds to bring the computer out of hibernation and that seems a little long to wait when trying to catch someone on camera. The back up camera is definetly a possibilty. Another one I thought about just cause I could, would be to mount a camera in the grill opening, so driving the down the road, you can record from the view of the front end of the car. Just seems like an interesting idea to me for some reason.

The camera itself raises some questions. I could just use a webcam, but most of those are really crappy. Now my monitor has extra rca inputs, so I could hook a camera directly to that, but that would be only good for say a back-up camera. The third option is to install a capture card, then I could record video as well. That however will eat up my only PCI slot.

-Kevin

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

Yes I can. I'm actually throwing around several ideas involving this. I thought about tieing into the alarm so when the alarm goes off, the computer comes on and records a camera feed. But it does take like 20 seconds to bring the computer out of hibernation and that seems a little long to wait when trying to catch someone on camera. The back up camera is definetly a possibilty. Another one I thought about just cause I could, would be to mount a camera in the grill opening, so driving the down the road, you can record from the view of the front end of the car. Just seems like an interesting idea to me for some reason.

The camera itself raises some questions. I could just use a webcam, but most of those are really crappy. Now my monitor has extra rca inputs, so I could hook a camera directly to that, but that would be only good for say a back-up camera. The third option is to install a capture card, then I could record video as well. That however will eat up my only PCI slot.

-Kevin

I highly suggest looking into the following or something like it:
Chase Cam

I have seen this camera/mount in-person and it is top-notch quality wise. I will buy one myself here in the not-so-distant future. I think the PDR100 that they offer would allow you to do what you need to do. Otherwise, it might actually work to hard-wire to the CPU itself. They have a lot of information on the site and I'm sure you could find the info you need to make it work.

Just a thought :beer:

P.S. What about a back-up camera mounted, say, in the rear brake-light or something?

 

[Homebrew]

I highly suggest looking into the following or something like it:
Chase Cam

I have seen this camera/mount in-person and it is top-notch quality wise. I will buy one myself here in the not-so-distant future. I think the PDR100 that they offer would allow you to do what you need to do. Otherwise, it might actually work to hard-wire to the CPU itself. They have a lot of information on the site and I'm sure you could find the info you need to make it work.

Just a thought :beer:

P.S. What about a back-up camera mounted, say, in the rear brake-light or something?

That things is very interesting. Seems redundant for me for this particular purpose since I could set the computer up to do most of it's functionality. However, it does have me thinking about some other uses since it uses non-volatile flash memory. However that concerns me also. Compact flash can only be written to so fast, I wonder if this thing uses some kind of buffer during the write process. This thing does have much potential though. Would definetly be better for recording 1/4 mile runs than my computer setup. A hard enough launch will probably kill my computer's hard drive. I don't think in my car's current configuration that i'll have to worry about that, but down the line............

-Kevin

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

That things is very interesting. Seems redundant for me for this particular purpose since I could set the computer up to do most of it's functionality. However, it does have me thinking about some other uses since it uses non-volatile flash memory. However that concerns me also. Compact flash can only be written to so fast, I wonder if this thing uses some kind of buffer during the write process. This thing does have much potential though. Would definetly be better for recording 1/4 mile runs than my computer setup. A hard enough launch will probably kill my computer's hard drive. I don't think in my car's current configuration that i'll have to worry about that, but down the line............

-Kevin

The main reason I posted that was for the camera. It's size is perfect for what you want and can be mounted pretty much anywhere. Poke around on the site. Now you just need to find a digital capture source to go with the camera :beer:

P.S. If you're concerned about your in-car computer's HD, maybe look into some of those new solid-state drives. :beer:

 

[Homebrew]

P.S. If you're concerned about your in-car computer's HD, maybe look into some of those new solid-state drives. :beer:

Actually I have looked a little at them, but man are they pricey. Plus they do still have a limited read/write life, so they wouldn't be good for the long term, but for the duration I'll probably have the system in the car they would probably be sufficient.

 

[Lurker]

Wow that's a very clean and nice installation. I'm jealous :coolman:

 

[Homebrew]

Wow that's a very clean and nice installation. I'm jealous :coolman:

Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. If I had it to do over again(and may do so) I'd probably try to make one big removable unit like the factory radio, instead of molding the screen into the radio bezel. Would make working on the system a bit easier.

-Kevin

 

[slickjsmooth]

That's going to be sick when it's finished. Looks good now :coolman:

 

[Homebrew]

That's going to be sick when it's finished. Looks good now :coolman:

Visually it won't change much, i'm gonna try to find a better paint match, but thats about it. Internally there will probably be quite a few changes. I think i need to swap different crossovers for the factory woofers and i'm probably gonna need to run a ground loop isolator. Need to delay the amp turn to stop the turn on pop, also need to fix and issue with the power supply's shutdown controller.

As it is now, the power supply is tied into the ignition and when the ignition is turned on the power supply sends a signal to the computer to turn on. However when the ignition is turned off, the power supply sends a signal to the computer telling windows to turn off or hibernate. Here lies the problem, if you turn the ignition on and then back off before the computer gets into windows, it stays on and you have to shut it down manually. So if you were to say forget to roll your windows up, when you turn the ignition on the computer comes on and you have to wait till windows loads to shut it down. Not sure what the best solution to this is. If you add delay from when the ignition is turned on until the computer boots, thats more time you're adding before you can listen to music. For this reason alone, I can see why such a setup isn't for everyone. But everything comes at a price. In this case flexability.

-Kevin

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

Visually it won't change much, i'm gonna try to find a better paint match, but thats about it. Internally there will probably be quite a few changes. I think i need to swap different crossovers for the factory woofers and i'm probably gonna need to run a ground loop isolator. Need to delay the amp turn to stop the turn on pop, also need to fix and issue with the power supply's shutdown controller.

As it is now, the power supply is tied into the ignition and when the ignition is turned on the power supply sends a signal to the computer to turn on. However when the ignition is turned off, the power supply sends a signal to the computer telling windows to turn off or hibernate. Here lies the problem, if you turn the ignition on and then back off before the computer gets into windows, it stays on and you have to shut it down manually. So if you were to say forget to roll your windows up, when you turn the ignition on the computer comes on and you have to wait till windows loads to shut it down. Not sure what the best solution to this is. If you add delay from when the ignition is turned on until the computer boots, thats more time you're adding before you can listen to music. For this reason alone, I can see why such a setup isn't for everyone. But everything comes at a price. In this case flexability.

There has to be a way to put the computer in some sort of "immediately-ready" type state where, when you turn the ignition to ON, it immediately boots to Windows. You COULD always make the computer completely independent of the ignition and that way it's on when you want and off when you want...

Something makes me think that there is a way (software-wise) to make it so that basically the second your ignition turns to ON, it's already into Windows...

I'm going to do a little research and see what I can find out...

What Windows OS is it?

 

[Homebrew]

There has to be a way to put the computer in some sort of "immediately-ready" type state where, when you turn the ignition to ON, it immediately boots to Windows. You COULD always make the computer completely independent of the ignition and that way it's on when you want and off when you want...

Something makes me think that there is a way (software-wise) to make it so that basically the second your ignition turns to ON, it's already into Windows...

I'm going to do a little research and see what I can find out...

What Windows OS is it?

It's windows XP Pro. The problem is because everything has to be loaded into ram. The reason PDA's and such are instant on is because OS info is stored on ROM as opposed to ram. When I turn the car on, it does go straight to windows from hibernation. But it still takes 20 seconds or so to get through the bios and resume from hibernation. Windows standby is a bit quicker to resume from, but the PC constantly draws power in that mode. People have had this drain their battery's inside a day. My car isn't a daily driver either, so this would definetly not work for me.

 

[booricua]

Wow this is very good news and for the $$ invested is well worth it when you consider the standard Kenwood, Pioneer etc costs about that or more and this has unlimited expansion and potential Will love to see that I am not that computer inclined

great Job

 

[Homebrew]

I agree it's much more for your money. Albeit at the expense of simplicity. Is this something ready for mass market? No, but there's amazing potential here. The possibilities are endless. You can't expect it to function completely like a HU though. You have to be willing to sacrifice some things for others as well.

-Kevin

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

Alright Kevin, I've got a bunch of input for your start-up issue:

1) Super simple solution: just have a push-button that he needs to press for it to switch on, so that both the P/S signal and the button are required. One extra button to push but the PC won't switch on unless he wants it to.

2) Check this out: http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=67 Seems to solve the problems you're referring to

Let me know what you think.

 

[Homebrew]

The pushbutton idea may be a useable idea, but i'm not sure. I think we mentioned that at the gtg, didn't we? The item you linked to at the mp3car store is a shutdown controller, there a few different models out there. My power supply has one built in however. That's how it knows when the ignition has come on. This brings us to the why i'm not sure the button idea will work. I don't believe the shutdown controller sends a constant signal to the motherboard, since it's simulating a button press itself, interupting the line with a button/switch wont work. The startup signal will just be missed if the inline buttons/switch doesn't let it through. What i'm trying to find now is if there is something in the car that is activated on a forward turn of the key, but not when the key is turned backwards. (which is accessory, backwards or forwards?) If i can tap into a wire thats hot only when the car is on, I can wire the powersupply to that so should have to do something like roll the windows up, I can do that without starting the computer. Not sure if that made much sense, I can be confusing at times. If this idea isn't feasable, I may just use a button and a relay so that the button can only activate the computer when the ignition/accessory line is hot. It will mean having to push a button to get the computer started, but I could do something interesting like wire it to the clutch switch, so when it starts the computer when the clutch is pressed and the ignition is turned on. Voila, computer only starts when the car is started. This actually just came to me while typing this. Might actually work.

I appreciate all your effort on this problem, researching and all, it's above and beyond. People like you are what makes MACA so great. Sorry about not getting a chance to show you the system up close. In fact, I think booricua(hope I got the right screen name) was the only person I gave a demo. It wasn't much of a demo though, the washout on the screen from teh sun was horrible at the time. I really need to get my windows tinted to see if that will help, i've just never been a big fan of tint personally. I've had too many cars broken into, and in my experience, tint only attracts more attention because people want to know what you're trying to hide. I don't live in the best area, so I need to attract as little attention as possible and lets face it, this car doesn't really blend in as it is.

-Kevin

 

[Homebrew]

Oh, and for anyone interested in doing such a project, mp3car.com is a great source for info. As pointed out, it's also a great source for parts. IMHO thats where carputer's(at least as shown here) started. Of course I'm always here to answer questions and help others out in anyway I can. I'm by far no authority on the subject, but I have learned alot and more than willing to share what i've learned. I'm still exploring the ways to tie this into performance aspects. Full time monitoring of engine parameters would be awesome, just need some software thats capable. I'm guessing SCT or someone else's tuning software can do something this, just a matter of implementing it into this particular application. Anyone that has software that was meant to monitor by laptop is applicable here. This system has endless potential and would like to take advantage of that and hopefully give this usefullness to others.

-Kevin