Carputer 101

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

What are your plans for the new stuff?

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

well, i am going to cut the lilli out of the old dash and mold the Xenarc in there. and computer will be relocated to trunk, sound card will be used this time, audegy2ls for now. plan to get a alto mobile drive 30 for sound processor that can be controlled via pc serial cable for tuning. redoing false floor in trunk. probally add some midrange drivers in the kickpanels(3way front). Thats all I can think of for now.

 

[Bigrick31 10+ year member]

well heres an idea i had i wanted to build a carputer for my truck and have it rear as my gauges. now i already have an avic-n3 that will read my speedometer but if i cold get a carputer to read my fuel level engine temp oil pressure tach ect and have a couple small screens in place of my gauges i think that would be pretty sweet only problem is i dont know how ou would interface them. possibly using obd2? so any ideas as to getting that to work?

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

well heres an idea i had i wanted to build a carputer for my truck and have it rear as my gauges. now i already have an avic-n3 that will read my speedometer but if i cold get a carputer to read my fuel level engine temp oil pressure tach ect and have a couple small screens in place of my gauges i think that would be pretty sweet only problem is i dont know how ou would interface them. possibly using obd2? so any ideas as to getting that to work?

it can be done, and i think it has been done. However usin odbII will result in bottlenecking from what i read. its not that the software cant read it fast enough, its the ecu trying to read multiple variables. Another question you should ask is :*taken from mp3car

"Obviously, getting the data from the OBDII connection should be the easiest route. But how can you "plug into" this full time while still making the connector available to run diagnostics? In other words, how can you "tap" the data full time and still be able to plug in or use another tool for diagnosis? Since there is only one connection, is some sort of "pass through" adapter available?"

answer:

"OBD-II is a network and multiple nodes are allowed. DrewTech sells a 2-way splitter. You could accomplish the same thing yourself with several hours of soldering. You'd still need to ensure that your scantools aren't trying to use the same tester address, but most networks have 8 reserved addresses available. As long as you program things correctly it's possible to connect multiple tools simultaneously."

here is a screenshot of someones; apparantly nissan is the only one i am seeing that it can be done, i may be wrong, check out mp3car.com/vbulletin for better info.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/engine-management-obd-ii-engine-diagnostics-etc/96129-ecutalk-v1-3-released-pocket-pc-laptop-consult-software-pre-obdii-nissans.html

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

well heres an idea i had i wanted to build a carputer for my truck and have it rear as my gauges. now i already have an avic-n3 that will read my speedometer but if i cold get a carputer to read my fuel level engine temp oil pressure tach ect and have a couple small screens in place of my gauges i think that would be pretty sweet only problem is i dont know how ou would interface them. possibly using obd2? so any ideas as to getting that to work?

bump to make sure u saw my post, hopefully it helped

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

What? Whats going on here? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[coltoncarroll 10+ year member]

megalomaniac

i'm having problems with the whole setup that i have..i have two of these rockfords and i know they are good subs because they are brandnew, but i have a bandpass box and only pushing 760W Pioneer(real oldschool) amp, and i'm not sure but they aren't sounding up-to-par. my question is, what is a reliable, hopefully cheap, amp that can push these subs to the max, and what is a good enclosure for them.

thanks in advance

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

megalomaniac
i'm having problems with the whole setup that i have..i have two of these rockfords and i know they are good subs because they are brandnew, but i have a bandpass box and only pushing 760W Pioneer(real oldschool) amp, and i'm not sure but they aren't sounding up-to-par. my question is, what is a reliable, hopefully cheap, amp that can push these subs to the max, and what is a good enclosure for them.

thanks in advance

huh? this is a thread on car computers (mobilePC) bro //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif, do you have carputer?

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

spoon this will help the problem you are having about the no signal noise during boot up

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/downloads.php?do=file&id=33

you'll need a serial cable

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

lol I actually just found that on my own a few days ago and was thinking about doing it, I'll probably just put a switch on my remote wire though, less work involved

I also just read about the Fusion brain, I hadn't heard anything about it until last week... that's DEFINITELY going to be a big part of my next install.

 

[Mr Bojangles 10+ year member]

http://item.express.ebay.com/Consumer-Electronics_Car-Electronics_Car-Video-Navigation_new-10-4-CAR-TFT-LCD-Monitor-w-Touch-Screen-VGA_W0QQitemZ270131932297QQihZ017QQptdnZCarQ20VideoQ20Q26Q20NavigationQQddnZConsumerQ20ElectronicsQQadnZCarQ20ElectronicsQQptdiZ951QQddiZ945QQadiZ967QQcmdZExpressItem

Is this a screen worth buying to run my carputer? Just looks like a good deal..

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

seems like a dark screen 300 and low contrast 320...IMO

 

[Mr Bojangles 10+ year member]

hmm.. k. I'm wanting to take my factory radio out and just have the screen in the dash.. Is there any other way to get a tuner in the computer or dvd/tuner combo or something so i can still have radio?

 

[Mr Bojangles 10+ year member]

Also what do you think about this deal? I don't really need a case, i'll just mount it in my glove box and install some fans.. I've seen it done in a titan..

MSI motherboard (MB and PSU combo $99)

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8

1 gig DDR2 ram ($39)

160 gig HDD ($69)

DVD drive from a old computer (free)

XP sp2 (free)

10.4" touch screen ($219)

DC-DC power supply ($160)

Misc. parts and supplies ($100)

Total $686

 

[Mr Bojangles 10+ year member]

Ah and one more question.. Are there any other methods of running my audio system than buying an amp? I guess i could use my factory radio but i wanted to do away with it because my screen is going to take up the whole dash.. Any suggestions?

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

you can run an aftermarket head unit in the glove box or under the seat and control everything via the computer.

A sound cards output is only good for a few watts at best. You'll never effectivly drive any real stereo system off of it.

 

[SilverSquared 10+ year member]

At WORST case, I'd get at least a small 4 channel amp and run the leads from the sound card to the amp's input. OR.....dont even use a sound card. SoundBlaster has a USB sound device which is then a pair of RCA outputs, which works perfectly.

 

[.::DuD3::. 10+ year member]

So I'm trying to make a series of switches for my carputer. I want them to work as follows:

1. acc switch on, power on computer when acc activated.

2. 12v switch on, when car is turning off, computer stay on.

I could see myself sometimes just wanting to sit in the car while my girl runs into a store to grab something for 5 mins, or whatever. When I turn the car off though, I don't want the pc to power off with it. So would this config work? I posted this below at mp3car, but man sometimes they just take forever to post back.

Or what if I put a diode on the acc line to prevent any current from traveling back up into the acc? That would prevent the acc from shorting out too...I think?

 

[Megalomaniac 5,000+ posts]

you could wire it to a relay and use 1 switch instead of 2

 

[.::DuD3::. 10+ year member]

Yeah I know, but I really want to use these 2 switches I have. I have these neat little toggle switches with an led that turns on when they are activated, so I wanted to throw them both in the car. That diagram makes sense though right? It SHOULD work, no?