I would like to hear out your thoughts: what are the pros and cons of building a custom carputer system?
My main concern is the power management and boot time. If you build a system (HTPC for instance) in microATX casing and store it in the dash, under the seat, trunk, w/e... how would it work with
a) starting/stopping the engine and
b) road bumps (would SSDs solve all the 'skip' problems? and not reboot the system all of a sudden?)

Another thing is a good and reliable shell software to go with this carputer. So far I see that Centrafuse is dominating the market. How about linux? How would it work with GPS (tomtom, garmin), camera, OBD readings...

And lastly I am concerned about maintenance - in particular the dust cleaning and cooling. Any thoughts on that?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am investigating various options at the moment and contemplating on what is the best solution to build for my car:

• 1. an OEM system. Currently looking at Alpine INA-W900, Sony XNV-770BT, JVC KW-NT3HDT, Pioneer AVIC-Z130BT and Kenwood DNX9960 (what is your pick and which has the most features/smoother in your opinion?)
• 2. Integrate an all-in-one touchscreen solution such as a netbook or iPad
• 3. Build a completely custom carputer

Thanks

 

aSK your self, "why?"

 

Well 'why' really comes down to entertainment. I guess the main idea is to be able to control every aspect of your audio/video experience rather than rely on some bloak's design limitations. Don't get me wrong, I always had aftermarket OEM systems and I loved it (to the point) but I think it's time to move on.

Obviously the carputer option is much more customizable as you can install and use any application whichever you want to, but the drawback is building the actual thing which all comes down to TIME. And in the end, there is no guarantee that you might be happy with the result as it might be crashing, unstable, did not meet your expectations, etc.

So I think that a good compromise would be a midpoint - such as an iPad for example. Everything is already there, all you need is to incorporate a 10-incher into your dashboard.

However I can't get my head around how I can hook up the car speakers, rear view camera, gps unit and wifi connection to this tablet pc. Am I going in the right direction?

 

If its going in a car SSDs are a must. 1st bump when the HDD is spinning and it is toast. Where in TO are you, my bro in law and I have been planning a PC based ICE system and it would be cool to get together and share some ideas etc. We are both tech freaks and know computers and car audio inside and out. We already have a good idea of what we need to make it work really well, and a few plan Bs for some potential problems. It won't be cheap in the end, but it will do anything and everything all at the same time.
Nick

 

Hey bro, I can't send a PM msg yet (need at least 10 posts), I'm actually located in scarborough, where abouts are you? Have you been doing audio system installs for a long time? I can build the hardware box myself, just will not have time to integrate with the car's internals, and probably will not be able to do a custom dashboard fitting (if the screen is bigger than 7")

 

ill be doing the same! i have been looking at many mini ITx boards, various touch screens etc! Count me in

 

I think we should create a carputer club toronto!

 

for me i need something with a bit more juice then what most people would need.

4gig DDr3
i7
SSD
added power supply.

I plan on running various interface with it, including running 4 go pro hd cams while i off road, and a buncha other crap

for touch screens i have found a few decent ones that run off Dvi-D and usb interface.

 

Awesome man! Do you mind sharing some of the components you have found? (especially the touch screens and the power management units)

Here's the mobo I'm looking at: Zotac h55
DC-DC 250W power supply: M4-ATX
Or here are several already pre-built compact system:

• Xtreamer Ultra
• ASRock ION 3D
• EeeBox PC EB1501P

Also, VIC announced their newest model now with GPS support (runs Navi on ubuntu 10)


What are your thinkings?

 

In my mind the benefits are getting fewer and fewer to go with a carputer.

Now if you needed something very custom like someone mentioned above for offloading and want to try having a bunch of cameras to help rock crawling, or wanting a really sick surround sound with active front center rear ect or there is some sort of media you just HAVE to use but can’t on regular decks… other then that, I don’t see a reason or advantage. Only draw backs.

From what you have said so far, seems like you mostly want videos, touch screen, gps, camera and apps that I can’t see you using much when driving basically emulate what decks already do.