My trucks PC

[me2]

Great thread. Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

I have a bunch of questions.

Why did you mount your HD vertically instead of flat ?

How are you going to use your PS with a mini ITX ? It doesn't look like it has the right connectors. Its ATX only, right ?

What stopped you from using a regular computer PS and an inverter instead of the OPUS supply ?

How do you handle starting and stopping your PC ?

What is the black Ultra box next to the left of the MB ? (Google is broken for me at the moment.)

I agree with you on the AMD versus Intel stuff. I used to buy a lot of AMD processors.

I think I am going to use my Android device and a USB sound card as the head unit. Some of the USB sound cards have pretty snazzy processing built into them now, but I'm going to have to port some Linux code to Android to make use of it.

The serial port cable is no longer available from the guy on MP3Car.

I have a Kenwood X994 sitting on the shelf from my old truck. It does a lot of what you are talking about, but it doesn't split out component feeds. It sounded great in my old truck. It has a very clunky UI.

I really wish there was a way to control it remotely with the tablet. It does take input from the remote control. I could control it via a IR sender ?????

Thoughts ?

 

[jdc753]

Always glad to help and I love discussing these sort of topics. I do truely believe that tablets and are the way of the future with these builds, but they still have more limitations, or at least different ways of accomplishing the same tasks as a old school PC. I just don't know enough for developing apps, or anything software related in general.


For the hard drive it came down to knowing the physical construction of the drive internally.

As you can see basically it comes down to the platters and the actuator arm. So since 90% of the shock load the drive would see when in a vehicle will be in the vertical axis I decided to mount the drive vertically, so that the actuator arm would be less likely to come in contact with the platters. the arm moves back and forth as the platters spin, but it floats ever soo slightly over the platters, if the arm comes in contact with the platters and scratches them it will damage them and render any data in that portion unaccesable, and worst case brick the drive with enough damage.

2.5" drives (aka laptop drives) are designed to be much more shock resistant than desktop drives, so due to this a lot of car PC builders opt to run them instead of a typical 3.5" desktop drive. You pay a slight premium for these drives compared to a 3.5" drive, but not nearly as much of a premium as you would for a solid state drive.


The only other issue with using a mechanical 3.5" or 2.5" drive is that the bearing for the spindle uses a liquid lubricant. I found that when I let the truck sit overnight at say -5° when I started it up in the morning it would take several pushes of the power button before the computer would actually fire up, this I attributed to the liquid bearing material being sluggish in allowing the drive to start. The computer would still fire up LONG before the truck ever started building heat.


Yes I will still use my OPUS power supply. The mini ITX form factor only applies to the physical size, the board still uses a standardized 24pin ATX power connector, along with the supplimentary 4pin CPU power.

Ahh, that black ultra box I ended up not using, basically it was a way to expand the availability of USB slots without installing a hub (taking up an existing slot on the mobo) It connects to the pins on the mobo that would be used to connect to the case's front ports. The black box also has a built in card reader too, I ended up not needing half of the USB ports I thought I would need so I ended up just removing it so I had more room.

I think you will do pretty good with the android setup. Less likely to have issues with it in a car environment like a PC, and nearly instant startup. I wouldn't have any hesitations of running a headless system if using a tablet. Just might need some sort of a line out converter to boost the signal to the amplifiers to run the speakers.

 

[me2]

Always glad to help and I love discussing these sort of topics.

I'm glad to hear that.

I do truely believe that tablets and are the way of the future with these builds, but they still have more limitations, or at least different ways of accomplishing the same tasks as a old school PC. I just don't know enough for developing apps, or anything software related in general.

I think they are too, at least for the head unit component. There are so many (inexpensive) apps in the Android space to give them functionality, I think its very hard for conventional head units to compete. I bet it won't be long before head units are Android computers.

BTW, my tablet is good for miscellaneous stuff, but it doesn't replace a laptop, mostly due to OS limitations. It will make a great head unit though.

For the hard drive it came down to knowing the physical construction of the drive internally.

Makes perfect sense. I figured it was something like that.

I think you will do pretty good with the android setup.

Well, there are a few issues to solve.

First, some background. I am not going to run the Android by itself. It doesn't have enough oomph to do everything I need. I'll run the Android as the HU and have a PC in the back acting as a DLNA server and providing other functionality. The Android will just be the front end to that server.

Less likely to have issues with it in a car environment like a PC, and nearly instant startup.

Yes. And very handy to have outside of the truck too. It goes with you everywhere.

I wouldn't have any hesitations of running a headless system if using a tablet. Just might need some sort of a line out converter to boost the signal to the amplifiers to run the speakers.

Turns out that the newer USB soundcards now have boosted output so that they can directly drive headphones. Line level issues should be a thing of the past.

So if you were going to build a headless tablet based system, how would you do it ?

What amplifiers would you use ? I need to get some ASAP.

I dug up the manual for my KDC-X994 and quickly abandoned any idea of using it as a head unit. Its way too complicated and you can't see the display in the truck and I could go on and on. I am going to try going entirely headless other than the tablet.

Rant
I am so tired of using a conventional head unit. They never do exactly what you want and need them to do. And as soon as something changes, they are absolete.
/Rant

 

[me2]

I need to buy an amplifier to make my system work. I'm not looking for anything extravagant. I'll use the stock speakers for a while, possibly including the stock sub woofer. (Too many projects on the go !)

What do you recommend ?

 

[me2]

I need to buy an amplifier to make my system work. I'm not looking for anything extravagant. I'll use the stock speakers for a while, possibly including the stock sub woofer. (Too many projects on the go !)

What do you recommend ?

I ordered 2 Kenwood 8405 amps. 2/3/4 channels, up to 360 watts with 2 ohm loads. Should be plenty. $110 each.

 

[jdc753]

Too busy at work lately to continue with detailed responses, but looks like you got everything sorted out nicely. Good buy on those amps, price sounds right. Personally I really like my sundown audio amps. I can't ever see myself building a headless system though, I like the simplicity of just slapping a cd in and listening or just listening to the radio as normal. I'm just a bit old school at times.

 

[me2]

Too busy at work lately to continue with detailed responses, but looks like you got everything sorted out nicely. Good buy on those amps, price sounds right. Personally I really like my sundown audio amps. I can't ever see myself building a headless system though, I like the simplicity of just slapping a cd in and listening or just listening to the radio as normal. I'm just a bit old school at times.

Me too. My system will be able to do that. Stay tuned.

 

[Vader's Fury]

Digging this one back up.

After putting this off for quite a while do to other things happening (got married, bought house, expecting twins) I am ready to start putting this together.

I am looking at this screen to be my control screen from the front seat.

http://www.amazon.com/Lilliput-Touc...83572966&sr=1-5&keywords=touch+screen+monitor

Any opinions? Other options? Looking to stay in the 10" range on size. That will make it comparable to my Xoom tablet in size and I believe that will work nicely.