Hi all, Ive been in other threads discussing this in the past, as they'd just come up so thought id start my own dedicated thread to putting a Car PC in the Beeza. Which i have now sucessfully done.
So i thought id show off my ride, sorry if this should be in general section. Basically i love cars especially my Ibiza and Im an IT technician by trade, so im into my computers. I thought of merging the two together and came up with this:
If anyone is wanting to put a PC in their car and want some advice then by all means please drop me a line and I`ll see what advice i can give.
So what is my ibiza? Well as specced out in my sig, Ibiza FR Tdi with custom code, pd160 air intake, cotton air filter for performance, and tinted windows and a nice paint job on alloys and door bump strips to make the car look a bit nicer
And the car PC... Well its a 1ghz machine with A1 ATX Automotive powersupply, 512MB ram and 250GB hard drive, loaded with mp3s and videos (which of course i legally own ). The front end software allows easy navigation with the touch screen to choose which track / movie you want to play.
Its also got Vag Com in there too, so i can turn custom code on and off to my leisure and see what the engines doing and stuff with vagscope as im driving.
I have the car2pc adaptor in which basically makes the standard alana head unit think the car PC is a CD Changer. This brings the sound through by pressing CD6 button and you can skip tracks and fast forward etc by the steering wheel controls of the ibiza. (well thats a bit limited but im currently bug fixing that with the maker of car2pc so hopefully that`ll be fully functional soon)
Ive got a wifi card in it and an extra aeral on the roof with a 7db gain. This allows me to pick up my own network and other 'open' networks whilst parked up to get the internet, talk back to my own PC etc. When the car comes home it connects to my own network automatically and copies off any new mp3s ive downloaded / bought off my pc Which is nice
It does have a GPS in it as well, however im not really using that as such yet. Im trying to find some decent software to log what the GPS is doing to a file and then upload it when it can. Kinda like a primitive sat nav system, or just be nice to have a log to see where the cars been and where it was and when.
My Smartphone PDA, a fujitsu siemens T830 connects up to it and gets charge off it, via USB cable. Which basically means i can get the carpc online from anywhere using the 3G capabilities of the T830. The T830 itself does push email from exchange so will flash up new emails as im driving. I want to get the audio from t830 through the car pc at some point too.
Ive got a few other misc stuff, like a microphone connected in the beeza for making voice over IP calls when in the range of the internet. Works well. The automotive power supply detects the ignition signal and will auto hibernate the PC and turn off USB devices after so many minutes of pulling the key out, and then booting it back up again when i restart the engine.
The screen is a touch screen which i finally got working well. I also have a wireless keyboard in the glove box for typing and more complex stuff.
Theres various other bits installed, Amiga Emulator, N64 emulator for games (whilst parked of course). a few networking tools, etc. All good.
As for ICE im just running standard Ibiza Head unit and have mounted a 10" sub and amp in the boot too. Thats all, but it sounds pretty good. The sub causes the seats to vibrate which is good enough for me
Ive posted more pictures in my yahoo pictures:
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/onlineamigauk/album?.dir=/e33fre2&.src=ph&.tok=phrYnIGBFyGRkkwN
Anyway hope no one here thinks im showing off. Its just been a long project of mine, probably taken over a year or to get it as neat and integrated as possible. Theres always bits to do, i want a false floor in the boot now to hide wires! Anyway if anyones interested in doing something similar and needs any help or advice then get hold of me.
Im enjoying it whilst i can, no doubt some scroat will have a go break in and nick the lot or i`ll have an accident and write the lot off Oh im so optimistic arent I ?
So i thought id show off my ride, sorry if this should be in general section. Basically i love cars especially my Ibiza and Im an IT technician by trade, so im into my computers. I thought of merging the two together and came up with this:
If anyone is wanting to put a PC in their car and want some advice then by all means please drop me a line and I`ll see what advice i can give.
So what is my ibiza? Well as specced out in my sig, Ibiza FR Tdi with custom code, pd160 air intake, cotton air filter for performance, and tinted windows and a nice paint job on alloys and door bump strips to make the car look a bit nicer
And the car PC... Well its a 1ghz machine with A1 ATX Automotive powersupply, 512MB ram and 250GB hard drive, loaded with mp3s and videos
(which of course i legally own ). The front end software allows easy navigation with the touch screen to choose which track / movie you want to play.Its also got Vag Com in there too, so i can turn custom code on and off to my leisure and see what the engines doing and stuff with vagscope as im driving.
I have the car2pc adaptor in which basically makes the standard alana head unit think the car PC is a CD Changer. This brings the sound through by pressing CD6 button and you can skip tracks and fast forward etc by the steering wheel controls of the ibiza. (well thats a bit limited but im currently bug fixing that with the maker of car2pc so hopefully that`ll be fully functional soon)
Ive got a wifi card in it and an extra aeral on the roof with a 7db gain. This allows me to pick up my own network and other 'open' networks whilst parked up to get the internet, talk back to my own PC etc. When the car comes home it connects to my own network automatically and copies off any new mp3s ive downloaded / bought off my pc
Which is nice It does have a GPS in it as well, however im not really using that as such yet. Im trying to find some decent software to log what the GPS is doing to a file and then upload it when it can. Kinda like a primitive sat nav system, or just be nice to have a log to see where the cars been and where it was and when.
My Smartphone PDA, a fujitsu siemens T830 connects up to it and gets charge off it, via USB cable. Which basically means i can get the carpc online from anywhere using the 3G capabilities of the T830. The T830 itself does push email from exchange so will flash up new emails as im driving. I want to get the audio from t830 through the car pc at some point too.
Ive got a few other misc stuff, like a microphone connected in the beeza for making voice over IP calls when in the range of the internet. Works well. The automotive power supply detects the ignition signal and will auto hibernate the PC and turn off USB devices after so many minutes of pulling the key out, and then booting it back up again when i restart the engine.
The screen is a touch screen which i finally got working well. I also have a wireless keyboard in the glove box for typing and more complex stuff.
Theres various other bits installed, Amiga Emulator, N64 emulator for games (whilst parked of course). a few networking tools, etc. All good.
As for ICE im just running standard Ibiza Head unit and have mounted a 10" sub and amp in the boot too. Thats all, but it sounds pretty good. The sub causes the seats to vibrate which is good enough for me
Ive posted more pictures in my yahoo pictures:
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/onlineamigauk/album?.dir=/e33fre2&.src=ph&.tok=phrYnIGBFyGRkkwN
Anyway hope no one here thinks im showing off. Its just been a long project of mine, probably taken over a year or to get it as neat and integrated as possible. Theres always bits to do, i want a false floor in the boot now to hide wires! Anyway if anyones interested in doing something similar and needs any help or advice then get hold of me.
Im enjoying it whilst i can, no doubt some scroat will have a go break in and nick the lot or i`ll have an accident and write the lot off
Oh im so optimistic arent I ?
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