[ Tuesday, February 09, 2010 ]

Hardware:
System Board: Via Epia M10000 Nehemiah
System Board: Jetway something or other
Screen: Lilliput VGA Touchscreen
PSU: Power & Cooling 12v PSU
Case: Home made
Case: And made again
GPS: Haicom HI-202E GPS
GPS: Ublox SBR-LS Dead reckoning module
WiFi card: Orinoco Gold
WiFi Card: Conceptronic USB Adapter
WiFi antenna: 5db Mobile Antenna
Shutdown Controller: Fake UPS - See below - and Mastero

Software:
OS: WinXP
Car software: Meedio
Map software: Destinator and MapPoint Europe 2002
Network stumbling software: NetStumbler

Meedio stuff:
Meedio theme: Automate
Meedio D3 Plugin: D3Plugin

Shutdown controller:
No need for a shutdown controller if you use WinXP! Setup a generic UPS with a 'Negative Signal Polarity' in WinXP>Power Options, Then connect 5v from the PSU through a relay to pin 8 on the com port. Connect your 12v ACC line to activate the relay when your key is in the ingition. When you take your key out of the ignition, the ACC line drops to 0v which causes WinXP to close down. Simple!
For a quicker boot and shutdown enable Hibernation or STR/Standby.

I also use the Mastero shutdown controller to shut off all power to the PSU about 20 seconds after Windows has shutdown.

Laidback is the nickname I use on the MP3Car Forums
The best place for all your info about in-car computers!
Eric [8:48 AM]

[ Thursday, November 11, 2004 ]

[ Thursday, August 05, 2004 ]

[ Saturday, June 26, 2004 ]

[ Thursday, May 06, 2004 ]

It speaks! You can download a script from the forums that will allow the announcement of any new AP found and will also plot your location & the AP into MapPoint in real time. You can even leave a trail to see where you've been. Only problem is that the map is set at a default zoom level and if you change it from the toolbar, it will jump back to default on the next GPS read (Within a second). One way around this is to use a text file which contains just 1 number, combined with an updated script. When you change the number in the file, the zoom level changes on the map, bit fiddly and Norton Antivirus gets upset!

Just wrote a quick VB program which will open MapPoint with NetStumbler above it, full screen, and with a couple of buttons that work the zoom level of the map. Had a few good tests! See pics

Link for Network Stumbler on the left, Go get it!
Ian [01:41 AM]

[ Friday, April 09, 2004 ]

I have now installed the Mastero shutdown controller but it doesn't control the shutdown procedure, this is still done using the fake UPS trick. I only use the Mastero SDC to shut off all the power to the carputer about 20 seconds after Windows has hibernated.

Two advantages of this are:
(1) that the car can be left for days without the carputer draining the battery - On an ATX PSU the 'Standby +5 volt' lead is always on and some system boards(VIA M10000 included) even leave the USB ports live!
(2) with the bios set to 'restart on power', it means that the carputer starts booting when I stick my key into the ignition.
I only really wanted the Mastero SDC for the power off option, so I didn't bother connecting it up to the carputer off switch therefore it doesn't control the Windows shutdown.

Also this week, I did Coyote's 'Lilliput auto power on' modification to my screen, which works great! So now, when the car starts, the carputer boots AND the screen turns on! When I turn the car off, Windows closes down, the screen turns off and then the power is cut, all without me having to touch anything. Next I'm looking into a way for the screen to only turn on when Windows has started so you don't see the bios screen etc. A relay controlled by a com port or something like that should do the trick!

And I built a case, which is a little bigger than I wanted but it does keep everything together and looks better than the tangle of cables that was there before!!
Ian [21:41 PM]

[ Tuesday, March 23, 2004 ]

On the hardware side of things, there is a Mastero shutdown controller winging it's way over to me. Even though the fake PSU works very well, it doesn't completely shut the power off to the PSU, which in turn feeds the standby wire (5v) to the system board, which in turn keeps the USB accessories powered (I think, I haven't tested this!). If left too long the battery will discharge, although I'm not sure how long it would take and I haven't left the car for more than 3 days without starting it!

The shutdown controller will cut off all power after a certain amout of (user set)time. I have had a slight problem with the GPS needing to be reset now and again and hopefully this will cure it, although it may take longer to get the fix when setting off! We'll see.

Software wise, I managed to get hold of Destinator(SDK) moving map software & the V3 European map to use with the GPS for in-car navigation. I've got to say that I'm quite impressed! I'm haven't seen the V2 maps yet but I've got a feeling that the V3 are much better, even though the 3 yr old (at least) estate that I live on is still not included!! (The only map I've ever seen it on is Multimap!)

Anyway, I think that destinator will probably replace MapPoint as my main moving map software. The V3 maps don't work fully with the V2, i.e. It won't let you route to addresses and just crashes when you try with the Spanish map. The routing is'nt top of my priorities but it looks like good fun when it does work. The 3D view of where you're going is pretty good as well, pity the road names don't show up on that view!

Also, I've started to build a case, when it's finished the install will look a bit neater hopefully!
Ian [21:41 PM]

[ Tuesday, January 06, 2004 ]

The main stumbling block to my carputer had been the cost of the cheapest available vga touchscreen monitor, which was the Xenarc. Once the Lilliput appeared I immediately ordered one from Extreme Audio on Ebay, along with a Via Epia M10000 Nehemiah System Board from LinITX.com.

I found a 40gb HD and set about loading WinXP. For the front end I decided to go with Coyote's excellent MediaCar which came out just about the same time as I was building it. Playing MP3's, GPS and using NetStumbler were the main options I wanted in the car and MediaCar lets you do these 3 and more.
At the moment I haven't put the board into a case :/ and it's just thrown?! into the hole where my glovebox should go! The lilliput monitor is sitting at the bottom of the dash, on the centre console, tilted up. See pics.

I'm using a Haicom HI-202E GPS with MediaCar using Microsoft MapPoint 2002 which works pretty good so far, I know that Coyote is working on the GPS module at the moment to incude routing etc.
The GPS unit is located under the rear window in a highlevel brakelight housing that isn't used on my model (the brakelight being in the spoiler) and works just fine through the plastic.
Ian [12:41 PM]

[ Tuesday, June 03, 2003 ]

[ Tuesday, October 22, 2002 ]