Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Since I've been using the 7" touchscreen as a wall mounted mp3 frontend for my stereo, and I hated the resolution problems with cheap touchscreens and cheap vid cards and cheap in-car computer solutions (ie - less than $150-180 for everything) I decided to get wacky. I recently purchased two Neoware e300 thin clients for $44/each, 128Mb RAM and 64Mb CF based boot system; they are all-in-one 15" LCD monitors bundled with VIA 600Mhz processors complete with LAN, built in audio as well as external jacks, USB, PCMCIA, serial and parallel ports. Look at the pictures below, envision the gay stand replaced with a swing-arm mount, and that the keyboard isn't there.

http://linuxdevices.com/files/misc/Eon_e300_image.gif

http://images.vnunet.com/v7_images/h...neoware300.jpg


Now, enter a 15" touchscreen add-on kit in the $100-ish range:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Touchscreen-Touc...QQcmdZViewItem


Round it all off with a larger CF card and either petite linux distro or eXP.

Comments/criticism?

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Where are you going to put it? 15 inch monitor will take a lot of space up, that's the only reason I like the smaller 7 inch screens, you can tuck them away pretty easily. Other than that, ------- nice, 150 bucks-ish for what seems like a much easier solution to mobile computering.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

----, i was going to say use a 10" monitor, but i guess they dont exist anymore. I remember they used to be like 70 dollars, and now I cant even find one :3

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Floor mounted swing arm in the passenger area, Brett. Cops have plenty of room for a passenger with their bulky laptop mounts, and this thing doesn't take up quite the space of a laptop since there is no keyboard.

I dunno about touchscreen 10" for $70, rawr. Are you just looking for a 10" LCD composite monitor?

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

They also usualy have the advantage of the cavornous interiors of Crown Vics and Caprices.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Said cavernous interiors being occupied by fat harness bulls. I could care less about giving fatties, large people, or hotrex a ride on my car. Sorry to be a dick like that.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

yeah, just a normal 10" screen. how much do you want for the 7?

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Hey JD you should check out mp3car.com they got some good ---- on that site as well as all kinds of front ends and parts like power supplies, touch screens, etc...

I think most swear by Road runner and they use nlite for their XP images. I got one in the works but it's been sittin for a while, I'll pick it back up and finish it one day.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

True, if you don't give two shits about passenger space, that'd be the way to do it. Or ditch/hack the glovebox and mount it there, at least you'd save some footroom.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

"Pimp my ride".... lol.

What's the intended use? I'm not into a whole lot of car audio any more... Hopefully you can integrate tuning software into it. Looks like you could...

-josh-

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

nice

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Why?? ???
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Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

I expected something a little more custom from you Joseph.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

You made a soft man president. :3

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Your a nerd.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

+1

Is there an "internet-less" moment in your life? :l
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Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Bambooseven recently turned honda tuning into a geek fest with some in car computer ----. Doesn't surprise me you're a nerd too. :1

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Picked up both e300's today from UPS and just cracked one of them open. I'm pretty stoked. No pics yet, but the highlights:

- First thing I noticed upon cracking open the case was an unused 5p header labelled "TOUCH1" - I am in like Flynn, nig nogs.
- Fanless Eden ESP 6000 CPU, 133Mhz FSB X 4.5, I ASSume that the jumpers are locked and that trying to bump them would melt the poor thing down.
- There is a blocked off slot for PCMCIA. There is also a blank 2 row 40p = 80 pin connector adjacent to where a PCMCIA slot mounts, labelled "PCI1" I wonder what that means?? :P
- FSB and RAM speeds are independently clocked by jumpers 66/100/133Mhz, with additional auto setting for RAM
- Takes 144p SODIMMs a la laptops, currently fitted with 128Mb PC133
- Resolution for the onboard S3 video is set by jumper; 640X480, 800X600, 1024X768, 1280X1024, 1024X768/32Mhz (?), and it is currently configured to a jumper setting not listed. Typical.
- Has 44p (labelled "IDE1" - I am confused again ??? ) laptop style IDE mounted CF "hard drive" complete with master/slave jumper. It's a 64Mb piece, I read literature incorrectly when I stated 128Mb. It's a petite unit, but given the size of CF-to-IDE adapters and normal sized IDE cards it might as well be acres. Maaaaaaaybe enough room for a 2.5" HD, but no available power for it.
- Requires some incredibly gay 12v@3.0A power supply (not included) with a 4p (two +, two -) connector. :-\

I have a normal 10" you can have for free. I think I discussed it with you back in the last Carputer thread; I don't really want to get rid of it, but I must admit I'm not going to ever do anything with it at this rate. The 7" touchscreen VGA (with composite and I think S-video inputs) has a pricetag though, in good used condition, make realistic offer.


Show me one single solitary hacked Neoware product, or any tweaked thin client whatsoever. Eat my shorts, nig nog, I got these for $44/per because nobody has told the herd animals that these are viable units. You can't get a VIA Eden 600Mhz motherboard for these prices, much less a whole working unit with display. But, wait about four days after this thread is linked to mp3car or the like for them to get played out like $2 -----s on eGay. ;)

Why not?? ???



Quit with the in-car tuning babble, guys, that is impractical faggot ---- unless you have K-poop because nobody who can tune is going to permanently install gear that needs to be removed for the next car. This is merely so I can run mp3s to my car stereo (for about the same price as one of the USB equipped stereo decks), surf the free wifi downtown and on the road, etc. :1

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

And to watch pron.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

take some pics of the "questionable" connectors.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

The only real Q is the PS connector. At 36watts I might get one of the carPC specific supplies that intelligently powers the unit up/down. The PCI pin header is non standard as hell, dunno if I can slip what I want in there without a lot of hassle.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

My boy just did one and he used the power supplie made for caputers. SOmehting about standby and hibernation ------- up the on and off of the PC after it was fired up the first time.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

I'm pretty much an idiot when it comes to computer hardware/software..I can plug it in, I can turn it on, and I can find HMT.....EDIT....I'M RETARDED!!!!!.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

http://media.putfile.com/Touchscreen-Uberdata-Tuning

I use mine for tuning :) This is an old vid using Uberdata.

http://media.putfile.com/Mediacar-Touchscreen-Audio

Heres a clip of Roadrunner. I use a newer version since this old ass vid with a few extra features.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

I have a microSD card thats about the size of a dime. that holds a hell of a lot more. its 1GB why not do something cheaper?

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

MicroSD ftw ;)

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/738/10000715vh.jpg

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

My cellphone has a 2gb minisd :) It will hold about 30 hours of converted video. It has about 30 minutes of porn, 200+ games and 60 music vids. Don't ya just love technology?

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Huh? What you talkin' about, Willis? It doesn't get much cheaper than IDE to CF adapter. IDE to MicroSD isn't fluent, so if it exists I'm going to say it isn't cheap, and sight unseen I'd have to wonder about transfer speeds; while miniaturization goes hand in hand with fast transfer speeds, affordable miniaturization on a relatively new + not as fluent product infers sucky transfer speeds. Even running stripped down eXP with minimal RAM requirements, pagefile access time would start to suck goat wang fast.

Pls not to be arguing with Joey about the cheapest route! I have been pinching pennies longer than anyone you'll ever meet, and pinching them as hard as four normal men. :P

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

google "Pico PSU" :)

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

How much does 10gigs of flash memory, plus 44p IDE interface, run again? Slower than UDMA/100, right?

http://www.saveateagle.com/mk1504gal-10-r-v04.html

Requires daughterboard to interface, and +3.3 power supply. Maybe jack unused +3.3 from carpc PS to power the drive?

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Joe you put a cheap card reader in it and use a micro sd card. FTW

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Never used one, does it recognize under most modern BIOS as a boot device?

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Yes, I have a boot record on the card. Mine says 'Removable Disk (F:)'. You can use multiple flash cards, using all diffrent style cards via card reader and/or all open USB ports. Heres a list of things to do it for fairly cheep. It will work great music. I have 925 songs on a 4gb card. 1850 songs with two 4 gb cards.

4 Gb (CF) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820160137
Reader http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820163406
USB Reader http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820132015

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Other options, affordable and very cool:

http://www.transcendusa.com/Products...No=27&LangNo=0

I dunno if I have the 1.1-1.3" height available. I probably do if I cut the metal enclosure in that area, which I'd be willing to do if the plastic facia that goes over the metal clears. Male to female 44p IDE cable would do the trick, mount it wherever. 1 gig 44 pin IDE solution for $47 plus shipping. Whopping 5.4MB/s actual read rate sucks for anything other than a low load media front end, ATA-100 averages ten times that.


I also like:

http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/p...delid=ZSTD0198

11MB/s transfer is decent, prices great. Needs IDE adapter, no problemo.

http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/p...delid=ZSTD0230

20MB/s transfer is approaching that of some older laptop HDDs, prices good. IDE adapter needed also.

Both of the above say " DMA MODE: "Removable Mode for CF and "Fixed Disk Mode for IDE" (by default)." Which is sweet; DMA will keep the processor from getting loaded down. I think a small yet larger than what I currently have flash solution is a good idea. I really just need to hold an OS, and can use USB drives or Firelite units to hold media. I have a dozen thumb drives, 256MB-4GB, so it makes sense.

I really need to read up on the chipset, and boot it into BIOS for a look see, before I buy anything.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Then use a 2.5" or 3.5" HDD, you don't need a high read or write rate. I got away with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144092 just for media and it works perfect but its only a 40gb drive.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

My problem with that is first and foremost powering it off of an embedded system designed to consume 12V@3.0A for a sum total of 36 watts... not that it couldn't run a conventional HD, but it has no power connections to plug and play. IIRC, I may be wrong, there is +5 and +3.3 in a 44 pin IDE cable which works great for the IDE Flash setups, but a 3.5" needs +12 and possibly more power than I'd care to draw across that bus. My second problem is I might be able to slip a 2.5" drive in there, but the 3.5" will require hacking the case up. I'd rather Velcro a Firelite on the backside and run 8 inches of USB cable.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Guess my first idea was better :)

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

seems like a lot of work to make a carputer then make it so slow and unpowerfull that you might as well just be running an ipod.

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Not ricey enough :)

Re: Joey's Carputer v2.0
 

Found the e300 power cable connector... in the wierdest place.

http://store.mp3car.com/ProductDetai...Code=CBL%2D018


I have a pile of laptop 2.5" drives I was given, 810 MB to 3.2GB, waiting for female-female 44p cable to arrive.