watch me build a car PC

[Deadbot1_1973]

Not sure where he got that one, but it's just an agp riser. They are used for rackmounts normally. Just do a google search for "agp riser". They're all over the place.

 

[damarble]

Thanks for the comments!

Not sure where he got that one, but it's just an agp riser. They are used for rackmounts normally. Just do a google search for "agp riser". They're all over the place.

Correct. I got it on ebay from a seller that specialized in server stuff. It was like $12. I had a 2U AGP riser but it was too tall by 1/2", so I had to get a 1U. The 1U was so low, there would be no room for a future PCI card, so I took a extension I had from the 2U riser and made a "1.5U".

I havent actually gotten the Focus yet. I'm not positive it's the car I want, but it's leading the pack. It does have a massive radio console that would fit a 10" or 12" screen if I was so inclined.

I bought Powerstrip after much deliberation and am waiting for the d/l email. It takes 36 hours from the time you pay. I wish I had gone with a 4:3 aspect LCD, these WS LCD's are trouble to get the res right.

I will have to organize my log a bit better, with a complete parts list. One thing I'm a bit worried about it the PSU. I went with the M1-ATX, which is 90w. But I didn't factor in my video card, which draws 2-3 amps at load. The PSU only has 2a on the 12v rail. It's working fine at idle, I havent loaded it up yet so we'll have to watch for stabilty. I wanted to power the LCD and DVD off the clean 12v from the PSU, but I might have to get a separate PSU for them or upgrade to the M2-ATX. (160w, 10a 12v) The M2 would be cheaper, since I would get $50-60 for my M1 and add $30 to get the M2.

 

[shiltz]

For the small widescreen monitor res if you have a Nvidia card and a Xenarc 7" then you can get the native res of 800x480 with the Nvidia drivers, you just need to set up a custom res setting in it with the info Xenarc has on it's site for doing so, if it's a Lilliput you're pretty much out of luck as the Lilliput doesn't actualy detect it's native res and will try to display at 640x480 or 800x600.

 

[azu]

wow.. subscribed

 

[damarble]

For the small widescreen monitor res if you have a Nvidia card and a Xenarc 7" then you can get the native res of 800x480 with the Nvidia drivers, you just need to set up a custom res setting in it with the info Xenarc has on it's site for doing so, if it's a Lilliput you're pretty much out of luck as the Lilliput doesn't actualy detect it's native res and will try to display at 640x480 or 800x600.

That's what I thought. But I could never get the Xenarc to display right. I spent several hours trying to do it with the Nvidia drivers, and succeeded in getting the VC to report 800x480, but the Xenarc would display correct, even though it reported 800x480. The image would be squished with black bars top and bottom. But with Powerstrip it's working perfect now, $30 was worth avoiding the headaches.


I tried installing everything today. And ran into problems. I got to experiance the joys of working with an old cars electrical system. I had everything hooked up and fired it to make sure everything was OK before I bolted everything down. I'm getting this horrible popping and screeching over the speakers when I try to play music, and a loud whine when nothings playing. So I figure I've got a bad ground somewhere. Of course the wiring has been butchered so many times before I can't make sense of anything. Now I'm looking at setting up a distribution block near the PC and amp, and running a lot of new wires. I didn't want to do that much work since it only had to hold be over for a couple more months until I get the new car.

 

[shiltz]

That's odd, it works fine with my Xenarc and Nvidia drivers, did you use this picture from xenarc's site to set it up? it's from powerstrip but it works with Nvidia drivers too.

What Nvidia card do you have, maybe some cards have issues with outputing that res properly, I have an MX4000 in mine.

 

[damarble]

That's odd, it works fine with my Xenarc and Nvidia drivers, did you use this picture from xenarc's site to set it up? it's from powerstrip but it works with Nvidia drivers too.

What Nvidia card do you have, maybe some cards have issues with outputing that res properly, I have an MX4000 in mine.

Yes, that pic was my starting point. It never would work. I'm using a 128mb MX440. (Nvidia's latest drivers detect it as a PCI FX5200 )

 

[damarble]

More delays. I forgot to order a USB extension cable. I thought the install would be done last night, and I peeled back carpet and started running wires to the "trunk" (hidden compartment under floor). I picked up 2 10ft extensions and a X shaped USB hub (so I can have 1 USB port stick out of the dash and the others behind for DVD and LCD, with 1 open for upgrade) for $15 shipped from monoprice.com. Should be here by Saturday. So while I'm waiting I'm going to run new speaker wire too. The OEM setup uses 6 total wires for 4 speakers, sharing grounds I think.

 

[flamerail]

That hd isnt gona be able to with stand the bumps a car gets... I give it 2 weeks befor the head crashes.

 

[damarble]

That hd isnt gona be able to with stand the bumps a car gets... I give it 2 weeks befor the head crashes.

That's my biggest challenge. Many people have used 3.5" hard drives for over a year and are OK. Then some people have them crash on the first bump. I'm doing the best I can to cushion it's ride, so we'll se how it goes. It's a Seagate 40gb, rated at 350 G's.

The best way to mount to avoid head crashes would be verticaly. But that method can cause the drive to write data to the wrong place when it's bumped.

 

[azu]

or you could use a flash drive

well... SLAX would boot up fine

my flash drive went through the washing machine and it still w orked fine. miracles.. indeed.

im sure you can fit xp on a flash drive too.


This mite help

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/425/how-to_boot_windows

Basically booting windows off a CF card using an IDE cable and molex. nifty? mebbe.

 

[damarble]

Thanks for the link. I already have nlited xp, so it would fit on a 512 CF if I was so inclined. The problem is storage space. I intend to have my full collection of MP3's on the hard drive, meaning I need at least 10gb.

The most durable solution is to use a laptop hard drive. They rarely fail in a car. I thought I'd have an extra 40gb after the IBM 80gb deal, but they backed out and my laptop will keep the drive.

 

[azu]

if you were soo inclined to do that...

umm..
extend a usb cord to the front of the car and plug it into an mp3 jukebox?
just an alternative.. although that is seemingly pointless.

i thought they so ld mini hds?
hmm guess not.. i guess laptop HD is the way to go..

gluck

 

[shiltz]

Never used a 3 1/2" HD in the car but I have had my 2 1/2" notebook HD in my car for a year now and it works fine, about the only main thing is you want to make sure the platters are perpendicular with the road that way a big bump will only cause a miss-read/write, if you have the platters parallel with the road the head could smash into the platter and destroy the drive.

 

[damarble]

i thought they so ld mini hds?
hmm guess not..

There are the 4 and 8 gb usb flash drives. They would work pretty sweet in theory. But Windows does not like to boot from a USB drive, and for the price of a flash drive I can get a big laptop drive.


BTW, UPDATE!!!

IT'S "FINISHED"!

Kind of. These things are a work in progress. But I have everything working and I will have tunes on the way to work tommorow. I'll try to get some pix up later.

 

[damarble]

That was an enjoyable ride to work today. Everything worked exactly like it should have. It can only play MP3's right now, but I've got a solid foundation for other media.

 

[damarble]

A couple updates about the hard drive, good and bad.

Good news is I did some 4 wheeling and thrashed the car pretty hard, the forces the hard drive was subjected to were greater than it will ever see on-road. The hdd never skipped a beat.

Bad new is the drive has fluid bearings, so whenever the temp drops below freezing (as it has been doing a lot the last 2 weeks) the bearings freeze and the hdd won't spin up, so no boot, and no tunes on the way to work.

One option is to switch to a ball bearing drive, which will not freeze. But this Seagate has proven to be a very durable drive and I want to keep it.

Instead, I'm going to find a tiny "heater" (element of some sort) and control it with a thermal switch that closes under 35 F or so. The heater would be about the size of a quarter and mounted over the hdd's spindle. So far I have not found exactly what I'm looking for. Another thing is I'm not sure what the power draw would be. It should be very low, considering the low temp I'm shooting for.

 

[shiltz]

Yeah, the freezing fluid bearing issue can be anoying, yours seems to be much worse than mine though, mine works fine at freezing, even works at around 15F, it's when it drops down into the single digets that it won't boot up, I never ended up putting a heater in though since it doesn't happen that often for me, when it does I have a few CD's to put in the stereo to use that.

 

[spyware]

love the car and the project (needs paint and mudders and a chevy v6)

 

[azu]

no offense meant

but i find it amusing how most of us would be worried over the HDD overheating whereas your worried about it not being hot enough. XD