Custom Car PC with GPS, M.Media, Wifi, ECU & Internet

[tzortst]

How easy is it to get the top console part off?

The clock/trip computer on my liberty cuts out sometimes, I assume the connection comes loose so I want to take it off and check the connections, but don't want to damage any clips etc.

Any advice for taking the unit off?

[CheesyMong]

** Update **

Laptop has died

Was working fine for about a week after I installed the magnetic reed but it appears my skill at soldering has been proven. The laptop has developed a short so it will startup and shutdown with no interatction.

I reversed all the work I did and problem is still there my guess is something cooked on the board and now has an intemittent short

I am at my limit to my skill level anyone wanna have a crack at fixing it LOL as it is fucucked atm..

Oh well on to the next project **sigh**

Joel

[tehx]

Hey folks, its been a while since I last posted and wanted to update a few of the initial posts in the coming weeks as I have been working on developing a few ideas with the car PC.

Joel, man that's the suck - buggerz. Well, if you want to send it my way I will take a look. I have access to a surface mount solder station and it might just be worth reworking the solder joints on the momentary switch. Maybe a small amount of solder is shorting it out somewhere. Failing that maybe a new surface mount, momentary switch, will do the job. I'm happy to take a look. Just PM me and I'll send you my mobs, we can have a chat.

With regards to the stereo noise there are a few products that might help so lets go through a process of elimination. Do you get the noise:
a) with the audio cable connected to the stereo but unplugged from the PC?
b) the audio cable connected to the stereo and the PC, with the PC off?
c) the audio cable connected to the stereo and the PC, with the PC running on battery only - disconnect the external PSU?
d) the audio cable connected to the stereo and the PC, with the PC running from external power (12v supply)?
e) the audio cable connected to the stereo and the PC, with the PC off and external power connected?

If it looks to be something in common with the external power supply try something like this - Jaycar: CAT. NO. AA3072
I would try this on both the input to the PC's external PSU, that is the cigarette lighter end of the PSU.
12v Batt ----|filter|---->| PSU | --------> PC
Also worth trying on the output of the PSU, that is in between the PSU and the PC. Some cutting of wires and soldering required I would think.
12v Batt ---->| PSU | -----|filter|----> PC

If it looks to be audio cable related try: Jaycar CAT. NO. AA3085

Also, insure you use a good quality, screened, audio cable from the PC to the head units. That is; one where the shield / braid surrounds the two conductors.
I used this stuff, but I admit it was tricky getting the 3.5mm stereo socket on one end: Jaycar CAT. NO. WB1506

Something else to try maybe: Find a metal point on the PC (the Kingston lock or a screw that connects to the metal chassis) and ground it to the car chassis / floor. By this I mean connect a solid wire to the PC metal chassis and the car body. You will need to establish a good connection so scratch the paint off any areas that are painted, to expose the bare metal. It may work better if the PC is grounded - it may also be better if the PC is insulated from the car chassis.

[tehx]

Hey tzortst,

Remove the centre console by levering it up and out - from the bottom first. Grab the bottom lip / air vent section and pull upwards & out, just 1cm or so. Leaver it up so that the bottom is released first as the release clips are in the bottom. Then slide the whole thing out and down slightly. Don't start from the top as you might break the clips - with the bottom still in place it wont come out.

[CheesyMong]

Hi Tehx PM sent

Cheers

Joel

[dwayne]

Hi Tehx PM sent

Cheers

Joel

Joel I'm also happy to have a look (and am in Perth)

[tha_nut]

Two Thoughts guys. I'm really keen on the idea and found a cheap Moble Sat Dish for $15000 out of the US, which with some real tweaking i could probably get and claim on my tax, but i am happy to go with a USB modem for the internet, which is markedly cheaper and thats not the issue but if anyone is interested it is a possibility.

I was wondering why no one seems to have replaced the HVAC unit with the double din kit from japan parts? I am looking at this project myself and it is good to see a few people try it, i will be replaeing my stereo with the computer but am wondering how then to get my audio running through my car speakers. Will it be as simple as hooking the laptop into a car stereo amp and my car speakers into said amp or am i missing a few important factors?

[Hobber]

Update from Hobber...!

Thanks to all the info in this thread I have sucessfully installed my system over the last month or so. I have been very busy with work and didn't want to have the car half in bits for months so held off until I got the time to dedicate to doing it properly!

My goal was to do this in a way that I can put it back to factory without anyone knowing it has had the changes done, and that has been achieved.

All working very well with one exception... the echo on the phone integration. I have seen a solution is a Phoenix SOHO card so will get one of those to put inline.

Summary:

• Used Lilliput screen and large JDM bezel
• Relocated info display to ashtray location
• Used cigarette lighter splitters to repurpose the 'deleted' ashtray Acc socket to power screen and a USB hub.
• Put a powered USB hub behind the screen for GPS (under dash), ODBII, DVD and USB spare connections - only 1 USB required for these back to netbook.
• DVD and USB spare in glove box (where I can connect up the iPod)
• EeePC under passenger seat
• Video, USB, mic cables run from dash under centre console down under passenger seat.
• Audio to factory HU via AUX IN
• Centre console box lighter socket used to provide power for laptop (with splitter so I can still plug other things in)
• Auto start circuit in small jiffy box velcro'd in centre console box (with additional 'momentary' push button for manual intervention), taps on AC wires under console to sense AC power.

I tended to use existing power adapters plugged into Acc sockets where possible to power things; 5V GPS power adapter to power USB hub, laptop Acc adaptor etc. I did this because;

• It minimises custom wiring
• They are robust and designed to be used in car
• They can be unplugged if I desire

A side note on the auto-start and hibernate of the system...

I use the circuit previously linked in this thread to provide a momentary 'push' of the netbook power button (I soldered wires to the contacts at the switch on the netbook), but I did NOT include the USB part of the circuit - I am smarterer than that! Instead, I used software. Now the only thing an automatic button push can do is turn the laptop on.

Unfortunately you can't use the standard Windows Hibernate settings in Power Management as a software solution as they won't work - they see Centrafuse running and won't put the machine to sleep - so I wrote a script.

In Windows, I set all the Power Settings for power button push to 'Do nothing' - ie I can push to my hearts content in Windows and it doesn't care. Note this does not stop the ability to hard shutdown the computer by holding down the button for 5 seconds - this is always available as it's hardware not software based.

To implement hibernation, I created a vbscript that checks if the car is on, and if not, puts the PC in hibernate... heres what happens:

• a scheduled task calls a vbscript every five (or whatever) minutes
• the vbscript uses calls to the Windows WMI battery variables to determine if the netbook is receiving external power (ie car is on)
• if yes, script terminates with no action
• if no, script waits a minute, checks again, and if there is still no power, forces the laptop to hibernate by command line.

Using this method solves the following problems;

• Normally Centrafuse won't hibernate using purely Windows settings - you have to 'force' it. The script does this.
• System can be confused by multiple attempts to start and loss of power in a short period... the double-check delay in the script stops this occuring.

I tweaked it over a couple of weeks to get it working, and now it's 100%. Pretty happy.

Happier because I don't think anyone else has thought of or done this, and it makes things so much simpler and more reliable.

I will drag the script off the netbook and post it here for reference...

[CheesyMong]

Hi Hobber

Nice 1 thanks for the update, as a side note I used a program called Hibernate Trigger which intecepts the hibernate command and can run pre and post hibernate scripts so what I do is the following.

On Hibernation
- Closes que.exe for Garmin
- Closes centrafuse
- Hibernates the PC

On Resume
- Resets the GPS USB device using devcon (Need to do this otherwise GPS becomes unreliable)
- Launches Centrafuse (This was required as my phone would not connect to the Bluetooth stack centrafuse uses every now again)

I need to post some pics of my setup as I changed from the EeePC to a dedicated CarPC with a smart automotive power supply, due to my soldering skills killing the EeePC


My last step is to modify the Tactrix Cable I have so it does not draw power while the ignition is off as the ODB port has a constant 12v applied to it, not sure if I'll just install a switch or use relays to detect the acc voltage to trigger the relay.

Other than that it is freaking awesome

Oh and the phone echo isnt a problem for me I do not get any, what Mic are you using and where is it located?


Cheers

Joel

[Hobber]

Interesting - thanks for that info... the On Resume scripting could be useful as the OBDII doesn't come back online after hibernate, so I might use that to reset the USB. The GPS and phone are fine. The OBDII is not that big an issue as I just reconnect it ad hoc if I want to see stuff...

I prefer to leave CF running if I can to keep the startup time to the bare minimum. As mentioned, the only problem I seem to have is the OBDII which isn't a biggie.

I have a Nokia mic mounted at the top of the A pillar where it joins the roof trim... the echo is for the other person, not me, and it's not huge but it is there. I saw the Andrea mic as an option but I don't think that will make a huge difference as people report limited success with it. It is also a bit obtrusive

The best solution I've seen on the forums is the Phoenix SOHO - it sits inline between the PC and mic/speakers and does hardware echo cancellation. It's fairly costly but it works.

[Hobber]

I was wondering why no one seems to have replaced the HVAC unit with the double din kit from japan parts?

My 2c;

• I like leaving the factory HVAC in so I am not dependant on the PC (can still use radio / CD if something goes wrong with PC)
• I don't have to worry about amps / speakers - just use the Aux in on the radio.
• The position of the screen in cubby is more eye friendly and feels more 'factory' to me

[CheesyMong]

Or we just wait for the software echo cancellation from Bluesoil....One day...

Oh and I meant to say the other user doesn't get any echo, I use the same mic and same mounting location

[Zoo Tv]

Photos John?

[Hobber]

Just for you Steve...

The mout that comes with the JDM cubby replacement bezel (I'm holding the screen away fro the mount to the right o the picture). USB hub behind mount, you can juuust see the little silver curve behind the middle of the mount. GPS on top of left vent tube (velcro'd on)




During the install process - PC plugged in and working... you can see the relocation info display section sitting on top of the dash. Note this shot was taken BEFORE the one above - I moved mount down to the bottom holes to give a better fit for the screen... see how the white clips in the shot above are in the bottom holes of the mount.



Screen in sunlight - no issues with readability at all! Very happy!



Nav in sunlight



Dusk shot

[dutch7]

heya, just bought myself a new Lilliput 7" VGA touchscreen LCD, was getting sick of the low res factory satnav unit, so going to replace it. Just wondering if any of you would know where I can download a full version copy of Centrafuse & navigation software from?

cheers,
Jamie