Tigz™ Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 What do you think, im conciderating it.Taking my head unit and junk tray out and pitting one of these in its place. It'd meen that the rest of my plans would be put on hold, but **** me, would this be cool!In car computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BReal Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 oh man how fknin cool is that , i wouldnt know where to begin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted December 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Neither would I mate. But my Dad is a computer engineer, and his mate installs computer jukeboxes into nightclubs for DJ's to operate useing a touch screen. There gonna have a look into `mini-itx` to see what they could do for me.Im getting bloody excited! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted December 17, 2003 Report Share Posted December 17, 2003 Fair play to that man, what a finish. Im just to damn inpatient to use filler. Not really my cup of tea though, i struggle to send emails from home. style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blush:" border="0" alt="blush.gif" /> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted December 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2003 This is what im looking at, or depending if the touch screens arnt gonna drop any cheeper (£600 is the lowest ive found style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":angry:" border="0" alt="mad.gif" /> ) then Id probably look into one of them "cube" computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twisty b-road Posted December 18, 2003 Report Share Posted December 18, 2003 clublupo in your car! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted December 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2003 I know lolOnce the exhaust is on, im gonna put everything else on hold till Ive saved up to do this. I think this would be more of an impact than a set of clear lights would ever be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted December 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2003 Change of plan.I was playing with my Xbox last night and found that I could save my music to it.It looks good, I can name all the Tracks and I can control it with my remote control. So the screens on order, so is the jack adaptor so I can plug the sound through the autochanger lead.All Iv got to do is find somewhere to mount the Xbox ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted August 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2004 Ok back to the orgonal plan.The headunit and tray space is crying out for a 7" touch screen monitor, and Im sick of having to carry a case full of MP3s so I thinks the times come to fit a computer to the Loop.Prices have dropped to nothing at the moment, been having a look around and came accross this..7in TouchScreen Monitor & Remote 12V/240V £179.00 Black Morex 3688 `Mini-ITX` Case £59.00 EPIA MII 10000 1Ghz Motherboard £115.00 Panasonic Slotload 24x CDRW/DVD Drive £75.00 256MB DDR PC2100 DIMM - EPIA M Compatible £39.00 Flat Ribbon Cable IDE ATA 66/100 £3.00 Seagate Momentus 20GB 5400RPM 2.5in HDD £59.00 SHIPPING £8.00 SUBTOTAL £537.00 VAT £93.98 TOTAL £630.98 Anyone a little more computer literate suggest anything more aproiate?"This bundle is suitable for both vehicle and standard desktop use. The Morex Cubid 3688 case measures just 65mm(H) x 210mm(D) x 258mm(W) and accepts any EPIA motherboard. We've paired it with an EPIA MII 10000 running at 1Ghz, with a Compact Flash reader and PC Card socket on the back I/O panel. A speedy 20GB Seagate 2.5in `laptop-style` hard drive provides rugged storage, and a Panasonic slotload optical drive can both record CDs and playback DVDs. Why not add a Wireless PC card and do some wardriving, or a 7" 12V Touchscreen and Remote?When putting this bundle together, replace the `DC-DC` converter in the case with the `voltage-protected` `DC-DC` converter from the Morex Vehicle PSU kit, and attach the voltage regulator with the connector provided - this will allow you to run your PC from both the cigarette lighter socket or 12V supply in your vehicle, and from a mains supply using the Universal AC adapter provided.VIA EPIA MII 10000 Motherboard 256MB DIMM of PC2100 memory Flat IDE Cable 20GB Seagate Momentus 5400RPM 2.5in HDD Panasonic Slimline Slotload CDRW/DVD Combo Drive - play DVDs and record CDs! Morex 60W Vehicle PSU Kit all wrapped up in a lovely Morex 3688 `Mini-ITX` case" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy Posted August 19, 2004 Report Share Posted August 19, 2004 Sounds reasonable. A few things to mention:Make sure the touchscreen supports direct VGA input, rather than input through a composite/svideo method - while you can still use it, the picture quality will be shocking.If you still have decent subs, you'll want to mount the hard disk to be shockproofed or similar - rubber grommits or the like. You've gone the right path by using a laptop hard disk drive though.The Morex power supplies are generally considered to be pretty crappy - if you can afford it, an Opus would be a better buy in the long run.Bear in mind that these solutions are very geeky - getting all the device drivers for the mobile kit working correctly, and maintaining it when its installed, is not for the `light-hearted`. You need to be very comfortable mucking about with Windows before I'd think about using this as a main ICE output device, otherwise when it breaks, you'll just get pissed off with it.One thing I would absolutely recommend if you go down this route is to get an external `USB-powered` soundcard, like an Audigy. The sound output from the onboard card will be so full of computer noise and alternator whine that it's no way suitable for anyone who likes their car audio. An external sound card will be isolated from all the kit in the PC, and give a much `higher-quality` output.For all the information you'll ever need, check out the MP3Car Forums - this is certainly not something I'd jump into without a lot of consideration and research. I've been looking at doing this for about 3 months, and if I had the money today, I'd still not be in a position to make sure I was buying the kit that would do what I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted August 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2004 Well as said earlier, Ive got the Tech support ready to build it up, and sort out any problems, but getting the order right is probably gonna be the trickiest thing.The screen is VGA compatable "Supports PAL and NTSC through VGA and Composite (AV) inputs. "That was one of the first things I have been looking at.I wasn't sure how the sound card business would work. Know of any good sound cards?I want to use the computer as the sound source, also for EQing direct from the source (my Dads found me a great little EQ program, which lets you set the EQ for each Album, or group of Albums, so it saves me doing away with a seperate EQ, which of course Id have to alter manually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy Posted August 19, 2004 Report Share Posted August 19, 2004 Sounds a bit dodgy with the screen - PAL and NTSC have nothing to do with VGA. Have you got a link to more information - the screen is arguably the most important part of the setup, and it really needs to be right.Any of the Creative Labs external Audigy cards will be fine for the job - and indeed, pretty much any `decent-quality` USB soundcard - you just need to get the D2A converters out of the noisy computer environment.I would say again, this is a huge project - many times more complicated than setting up a standard PC. Have a look on the MP3Car forums to see the kind of setup that is required to get this working as a primary audio source. Getting it to play MP3s is easy. Getting it to play MP3s every day, controllable easily when you're driving along the road, having it shut down correctly when you remove the key and start up correctly when you switch it on, making sure that it's shockproofed, etc. etc. is a lot harder. When the thing starts bluescreening when you drive down the motorway because the power supply is screwing up due to alternator whine on the input, or when it flattens your battery because it didn't switch off properly one day (despite the fact it worked properly the previous 50 times), and other annoyances like this, it can very easily become a hassle rather than a pleasure to listen to music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigz™ Posted August 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2004 Ive just joined, when I get home tonight I'll have a read through the posts and see if Im still wanting to continue... really needs doing though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy Posted August 19, 2004 Report Share Posted August 19, 2004 Don't get me wrong - they're great! But they've not yet really matured to the point where they can be simply 'setup and forget' devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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