Carputer anyone?

NYSpeed Automotive
1

I was looking into building a carputer years ago, when it would be a huge bulky box in my trunk, with cables everywhere.

Looking on some techie news site, I saw this…
http://www.fit-pc.com/new/whats-new.html

http://www.fit-pc.com/new/images/stories/Slim/500_keys.jpg

That’d fit nicely in the dash! Enough USB ports for the touchscreen display, GPS and anything else I’d need! Yes, it has a VGA port on the back too…

The only question… is there a USB sound card available that can plug into the back of a head unit?!

I can just imagine a nice SSD (Solid State Drive) in this thing, so not even vibrations can hurt it :slight_smile: The 512MB of memory is already soldered in, so vibration isn’t an issue there as with a home made carputer.

So, who is thinking of getting this thing?

2

http://www.fit-pc.com/new/images/stories/Slim/front-back-drawing.png

Oh, and it looks like it even has built in sound too!

3

ZOMGAVTEC… or what ever his name is had a computer in his car

wow priceing is not that bad

what does the touch screen run

fit-PC Slim is offered in 4 configurations.
In configurations with no HDD the buyer can easily install his hard disk.

fit-PC Slim Barebones (256MB, no WiFi, no HDD) - $220
fit-PC Slim Diskless (512MB, WiFi, no HDD) - $245
fit-PC Slim Linux (512MB, WiFi, 60GB hard disk with Ubuntu and Gentoo pre-installed) - $295
fit-PC Slim XP (512MB, WiFi, 60GB hard disk with Windows XP Home SP3 pre-installed) - $335

4

Damnit…I so wish I had a double din opening

5

I was considering an AppleTV. You can hack it make it a full fledged Mac, or use it as is.

Cheap, big drive, wireless built in.

6

it would be pretty cool to fabricate your own one.

if worst comes to worse, just run some DC->AC converters and throw a tower in your trunk :slight_smile:

7

I have a Mac Mini sitting around waiting for me to find time.

www.mp3car.com has anything you want to know and more.

8

I kinda have plans to do this. But I think my ideas out weigh my ambitions. It would be a pretty sweet idea if realized though.

9

One of my friends back home took a spare laptop created a dock for it and mounted it in his car for use as a carputer. GPS on a 15" was pretty cool, as was movies and music but :tdown: to such a huge contraption. This is pretty cool, although I’d never use it or want to use it.

Built in nav unit could get everything I need done.

10

would hook in nice with my pioneer double din…

and what all would i have to do to make this work, i think i kinda want one

11

One of the biggest drawbacks to me would be boot-up time. I hate sitting at my computer and waiting for it to boot-up. Have they done anything about this in the carPC world? Like a 5 sec boot up so that your music is ready to go like a CD player does now?

12

DOS-based Mp3 player. Or Linux based with some fine tweaking.

Not sure how fast the AppleTV takes to “boot” but might not be long either. However since its basically a Mac it might take just as long.

13

hibernating?

14

i used to have a carputer in ~2001-2002. dos box with mpxplay iirc that would auto load and autoplay. i didnt hook up a screen. all i had to do was type the number of the song in the playlist and it would start playing.

Brian

15

i wish my car was worth doing this to. it would be a fun project.

16

you could remote mount a laptop and use a smaller, indash touchscreen LCD and small keypad. nav units are nice but i like the custom built factor. :slight_smile:

i know one guy that has a remote mount laptop, 7" widescreen LCD in the car all hooked up to his innovate wideband/datalogging setup. doesnt have any other gauges in the car. just 6-8 gauges from logworks. looks sweet.

Brian