[DMX]

http://pics.rapperdmx.com/images.php?s=computer


Its about 80% done, just tweaking some things for the voice control and whipping up some C code to make this --> ( http://www.cybiko.com ) act as the windows keyboard, hint: serial port.


Geeky, yes i know, but whats a man to do when people are taking FOREVER on this new transmission


later all, got any questions, comments, let me have it B)

 

[firstgen89sho]

DMX Man, you get a big thumbs up for that, now, how about that harddrive tho, will it be able to take all the shock while driving????? vibrations and such

 

[DMX]

Its a 75 Gig IBM Deskstar I pulled from my main system, at the time it was about 40% of my total capacity so yeah...I shed a tear when I had to remove it :lol2:

I was a little worried about bad vibrations and such hurting the drive but in reality the shock ratings on those things are so high that driving over the bumpiest roads with the most pounding bass song in the world shoudlnt even begin to affect it.

Right now I've got it partitioned into a 3 gig emergency xp partition/and ~72gig day to day xp partition with about 40 gigs in movies/clips/music videos/Nes&Snes roms and programs and songs right now. All those mp3s mmmm, I explain it to people as upgrading my 12 disk cd changer to a virtual 500+ cd changer. I can offload some of that storage to CDs/DVDs if necessary too since I always burn in "data" format (divx/xvid in this case). You can get 6-8 Movies on a single dvd5 disk if you use divx compression....something to keep in mind

 

[HighTecRedneck]

Looking great, i almost did the same thing in my last car (s-10 blazer) but was all just dreams in the end and never got to do it before i destroyed that car.

So where are you storing the CPU, power supply... I'm guessing under the front seat or truck but wanted to know for sure. What did you do as far as converting the power from 110v AC to 12V DC, power inverter? If so what wattage is the inverter? Also how much did the screen cost you and is it a touch screen?

 

[Kemo486]

the shock tollerances are much much lower when the hard drive is running.....when you see the insane amounts like 120gs thats when its parked and off

 

[godspunk32]

My friend Mike has a 2002 Firebird Firehawk edition, and he just did something similar. He bought a small form factor Dell Dimension, and installed it in the trunk area, then set everything up to a 7" LCD Touchscreen where the radio used to be. He then got a wireless keyboard and a wireless touch pad mouse that he has stored in the center console. The only problem that he is having with it is that the GM stereo won't turn on unless it's being controlled by the factory stereo, so we the project is somewhat on hiatus until we can get some amps to hook it all up. That way, the stock system doesn't need to be used, since the speakers will all be controlled by the aftermaket amplifiers anymore.

Good work!!!

JR

 

[DMX]

Right now its running off a 140 watt inverter with no problems at all, it even survives cranking without restarting. I do however want to finish up on this shutdown controller i'm working on for it, noting too fancy just a 16f877 pic chip @ 20MHZ driving some relays and monitoring some voltage inputs. When finished, it will sense the acc line going high (key on), wait 5 seconds then ground the power on pin in computer for a second or so to simulate pushing the power button, after turning the car off it will wait 1 minute, "push the power button", so the computer goes into hibernation, then wait another 4 or 5 minutes at the most to kill power to the inverter, all this time keeping an eye on the #1 priority - the battery voltage, if it ever drops below say 11.3 volts for more than 10 seconds, kill inverter power immediately so make sure i got enough juice to start the car.

I tossed the 4mhz crystal that came with it in favor of the 20mhz one so that I can do serial hookups at 19200.....why?...for datalogging of course



I forgot about the shock rating referring to when the heads are parked, i guess i'll just have to keep my fingers crossed and mount it snug on a foam pad or something to dampen the bad vibes. Laptop drives are way too pricy for thier small capacity, i'm hoping I dont have to resort to buying one of those.


Its going to sit under the passanger seat, away from the magnets and mayhem in the trunk - thats also part of the reason I crammed it into an old vcr case.


That screen is a 7" directed video unit (rvm700 i think) I got a GREAT deal on it - free - from my brother (thanks Andre), I just opened it up, probed the little connector and found the +/- and video input and soldered new connectors in its place. Its not a touchscreen though, i'll probably look into getting a touchscreen overlay one day soon.


The input is composite though, and as anyone with tv out on thier computer knows, reading tiny text is out of the question, thats ok though its not for web browsing its a movie/picture/game/music visualizations display, and for that it works beautifully.


edit: whew! long post

 

[j0rd4n]

Mine's going into my glove box. I opted for the laptop hd (mounted vertically) just for the advantage of it being made for being moved around a little. If you're going to use foam, be careful and keep an eye on it. The hd temp could possibly get high enough to melt the foam to the hd, possibly damaging it.

but im done telling about my car computer until i get it in my '01 (or '04 if i get it? ;D)

 

[spifdaddytaurus01]

DUDE THAT FREAKING AWSOME!!!

 

[jason8225]

Nice job I had a computer in my 99 Taurus, but have yet to do anything with my current one.