Car PC

[kibble]

This isn't kart related but I thought I'd share it up for those who might be interested. For a while now I have been working on a PC for my car.

Sure there are some small motherboards available that are low power and such that are suitable for this type of application. Unfortunately for me, they don't provide enough computing power for my wants. So, I made a small metal case out of mostly aluminum and put a Micro BTX board on it with a 3GHz Pentium D, 1.5GB of RAM, 80GB SATA hard drive and an ATI Radeon X600 video card. There's nothing really available out there that could power this off of the cars' electrical system without using a power inverter so I had to make my own power supplies. Power inverter was out of the question as it would be pointless and inefficient to go from 12V to 120V then back down to the low voltages required for the components. Here are some pictures of the power supplies I made. I just finished with them today. There's still a few other boards I have to make that will monitor voltages, manage power and keep things running smoothly but I haven't made those yet.

The first picture is of the 5V, 3.3V and 5V standby power supply. The second and third is of the 12V board while I was working on it and the 4th is of the 12V as it's almost complete. I was able to test them as they are but they're not completely done yet. The 5th is a picture of the motherboard in part of the case.

The whole thing is really small and made to fit in my trunk just behind the back seat. The power supplies all work directly off of 12V and just regulate the output. No the 12V power supply isn't pointless because the power in a car varies and isn't quite steady. This power supply keeps it at a constant 12 even if the power goes under or over.

The purpose of this? I loaded software on it for GPS, Music, I will be adding a USB wifi adapter for internet, maybe bluetooth and anything else I would want later, maybe some games for when I'm waiting for someone in the car or something. TF2 Mobile!

 

[jr dragster T]

Nice work . Hope it works out:arf:

 

[oscaryu1]

... Since you used a standard ATX motherboard... you'll be most likely using a 120V inverter, then downing to to 12V again right?

The noise will increase and the efficiency will drop. Google "12V ATX PSU".

Also... *no offense*, but you did it the hard way. You seem to not have heard about ITX motherboards...:

Has onboard video... RJ45... add in a stick of DDR or DDR2 and you'll be roaring. There are also ITX PSU's. Much smaller than a ATX 2.0+ PSU and supplies around 60-120W. Around what's needed to power a C2D.

 

[kibble]

*no offense* but you must not have read my thread completely.

1. I will NOT be using an inverter as I stated in the thread. My power supplies convert the cars voltage directly to what I need and

2. Small boards "don't provide enough computing power for my wants". I know about ITX boards, they just won't cut it for me.

 

[oscaryu1]

*no offense* but you must not have read my thread completely.

1. I will NOT be using an inverter as I stated in the thread. My power supplies convert the cars voltage directly to what I need and

2. Small boards "don't provide enough computing power for my wants". I know about ITX boards, they just won't cut it for me.

I didn't

1. Yeah... I heard of those... expensive though...

2. ... What's the X600 for? Doing some gaming?

Like to see what you do for the screen. If you can get RCA out, you could use a PS or XBOX portable screen...

 

[kibble]

128MB X600 for graphics, OpenGL, games etc. I didn't want to use the built in graphics as they are crap. I'm a sucker for high end video cards. I settled for this card because it was half height and somewhat decent for a small card. I was actually wanting to put a 8800 in it but that would be major overkill for a carputer, not to mention the power requirements. Monitor will be a 15" LCD through DVI. I want to get a touch screen eventually. RCA is out of the question and the reason is video quality. I'm anal about that stuff. LOL

 

[oscaryu1]

LOL! Well, RCA is always better than SVideo... (I had a S-Video setup flicked between black and white and color )

8800? That's a JOKE! Haha! But you might look at the GT's or GS's. Very low power requirements... GT sucks as much as a 8600.

Low profile cards... might be a few more you could've chosen from. Overall, nice build

 

[tykenfitz]

lol those specs are better than my new desktop

 

[kibble]

Well this project actually died, I fried the motherboard, but I did make a new one with better specs:

http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1588&page=2

I should update that, I mounted the monitor inside already.

 

[oscaryu1]

What typea monitor didja use? Long time ago I was trying to use a Playstation/Xbox monitor

How'd you fry the motherboard?

Pics! Pics!

 

[kibble]

I used a 15" NEC monitor that I turned into a touchscreen. All the details are at the other thread. The only thing I haven't shown is how the monitor is mounted.

I accidentally shorted the positive of the power supply I was testing it with to the ground of the motherboard. Something died and now it will not power on.

 

[AutoMX]

i know the post is old but FYI if svideo or RCA go from color to b/w it may be macrovision protection.

 

[kibble]

Good thing I'm using DVI!

 

[Kenny_McCormic]

LOL! Well, RCA is always better than SVideo... (I had a S-Video setup flicked between black and white and color )

8800? That's a JOKE! Haha! But you might look at the GT's or GS's. Very low power requirements... GT sucks as much as a 8600.

Low profile cards... might be a few more you could've chosen from. Overall, nice build

If your Svideo wasnt staying in color then the color line in the cable was bad.

 

[oscaryu1]

Well, I used it on a DVD player a few days later... worked fine!

Oh well, p0st up pics when ya done Kibble