Welp, the process has officially started. I'm going to use this thread to post pictures and progress of my install.

 

thanks for the heads up

 

Current Hardware:

AOpen Pandora MiniPC MP915-B(S) (DVD-RW model)
Pentium M 760 2.0GHZ 2MB Cache 533mhz FSB
1GB DDR2 PC2-4200 SODIMM
Seagate 100gb 7200rpm ATA/100 2.5" IDE HDD
Infiniti G35 Single-Din converter /w blank front plate (http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_...roducts_id=126)
USB Bluetooth
External Soundblaster 24bit USB
TimeTrax USB-to-XMDirect adapter
2 SATA-to-USB adapters (http://www.cooldrives.com/seatatousb20.html)
PAC-AAI-NIS2
3 CarNetix P1900 DC-DC power supplies
2 Opus 15W +5v PoLs
2 CarNetix CNX-P5V 15 Watt +5V Regulator
DigitalWheelz Custom G35 Housing /w Xenarc 700TSV
BU-353 GPS Receiver
500GB SATA 3.5" Seagate HDD
2 Powered USB 2.0 hubs (7 port)
Infiniti G35 Ashtray Insert for CarPC override switches (http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_...roducts_id=125)
Powered USB 2.0 Hub & All-in-one card reader
Internal MiniPCI wifi adapter (Senao Engenius 802.11b/g EMP-8602 400mW/26dBm) + 2 external antennas

Current Software:
Windows XP Pro
StreetDeck Mobile Electronics frontend
Mappoint 2004

 

For a while I thought I was going to have to go with a completely different hardware platform as the one listed above does not support 800x480 (the native resolution of the xenarc display). As I didn't want distorted video (because of running at 800x600), I started looking at a new platform that would allow me to install a AGP/PCI video card that would support 800x480.

Then came StreetDeck which supposedly uses DirectX or something to get around this problem- don't know for sure how it does or if it does, need a DVD drive hooked to the PC to test.

 

Stuff I still need:

Bluetooth hardware from StreetDeck (whenever they finish it)
3 500gb 5.25" SATA drives

 

I'm a storage *****. I love storage... the more storage the better. I hate CDs and DVDs. My motto... covert it to a file I decided to go with a sort of hard drive "Cartridge swap system." Think 8 Track but with hard drives

My requirements for the system were:
- Two drives reasonably accessible to driver and passenger.
- The location where the swapping occurs be the lower glovebox.
- Swapping had to be quick and easy. No connecting and disconnecting multiple connectors.
- Power consumption had to be low

The PC will boot & operate off of a 100gb 2.5" 7200 rpm laptop drive. Significant storage will exist on 5.25" SATA IDE drives.

I decided against standard EIDE drives because of the pinouts standard parallel IDE drives use. As I want to have a quick swappable drive scenario, plugging and unplugging connectors from the backs of EIDE drives is really unreasonable. These pins bend, the molex power plugs are a pain to connect and disconnect, and all in all it's messy. I looked at getting some sort of adapters, but in the end it was messy and a hassle.

I also decided against 2.5" EIDE drives because of the pinout problem, the smaller size limitations and the higher cost of drives.

After searching for months and months, I finally found these (of which I ordered two): http://www.cooldrives.com/seatatousb20.html
They allow SATA drives to be connected and disconnected with ease. Both power and data are connected and disconnected at the same time.

As an example, this allows me to have 4 500gb SATA drives in the car, two of which are connected and accessible at any given time. ~2 TB of storage = ~ 425 DVD movies (assuming each is 4.7GB compressed). With the use of a simple DB & query, you can quickly determine which drive the movie you want is in, connect it (if it is not already connected) and watch your movie. Assuming you have to swap drives, time necessary would be just about equal to finding your scratched DVD disc and loading it into the drive.

 

Interesting.

You think the P1900 is going to power the p4? And whatever else you have attached to the mobo? I realize that the P1290 is going to be powering somethings as well, probably the Xenarc and maybe some of the USB hubs and the drives? But that p4 in and of itself is going to be drawing a good bit of power (and making a good bit of heat)

Anyways, as I've said, good luck!

Dave

 

Wouldn't the bumpy ride ruin the needle that reads the hard disk while it's either writing or reading it?

 

Bah. CarPC's have been running in cars for a number of years now, including multiple off road style vehicles.

Oh, and a hard drive does not use needles, it uses magnets....

Dave

 

I don't know about your car but mine is fairly smooth Hard drives are designed to take a good deal of abuse, laptop drives especially. Fom my understanding there is no needle, as drives are magnetic, not based on "pits" like records used to be. When not in use, the drives park the heads to avoid damage.

If they do die, they have a 5 year warranty on them, I'll replace them and come up with plan B

 

Dunno- do you have a recommendation on something better? (not being snotty, really am up for recommendations).

The attractive aspect of the 1900 is the sumicom power cable that they make for it and that it has a built in ACPI controller for working with the sumicom machines.

 

No, I don't really; the problem is that most P4 carPC installs I have seen have used inverters, instead of DC-DC power supplies.

My recommendation is to dump the p4 and get a good Pentium M system, but thats because I went that way

There's a couple of websites linked from mp3car.com that list the power consumption of the various cpu's. Check those, and see how much power it will actually consume from the various rails, and then compare it with how much the P1900 puts out on each rail.

Of course, I may very well be telling you something you already know.

Dave

 

The AC adapter for the PC says it outputs 19v & 7.89a, if that helps at all.

 

Power (watts) equals current (amps) times potential (volts), so you are getting approx 150 watts out of it, which the mobo's power supply is converting to 12V, 5V and 3.3 V.

Since the mobo states that it will take up to a 3.2 gHz P4, your 3.2 is at the limits of it's capabilitys, and is using most of that 150 watts.

So, taking a look at the Carnetix P1900 power supply webpage here, it states that it puts out a max of 125 watts
and thats at the max voltage, which your mobo is not using.

I would have top guess that you're going to fall short on power. I could be wrong, but it doesn't look good.

Dave

 

What is wrong with using an inverter with a SDC then? I know they are less efficient as you are going DC->AC->DC, but it cannot be THAT bad.

http://carpc.kyferez.com/Products/products.php?id=3 looks like it is more than capable of running the PC. (400 watts) and is easily connected to the beefy SDC made by the same company (http://carpc.kyferez.com/Products/products.php?id=45). Wire up a SDC to the inverter switch and power button on the PC, and for ~ $150 it is a lot cheaper than buying a Pentium M board, processor, case, etc.

The SDC also allows you to control external relays. These could be used to power some 5v PoL supplies for my usb hubs, etc.