carputer build/repurpose a lappy. no, tablet

[Psych0matt]

laptop is going into the trunk and going to run the carputer, going to throw a touchscreen up front. The main reason I wanted to go this route is because it's small, easily removable, and I already have the laptop which is decent for this.

 

I think the method Saar and I have worked on will work. Basically an acc power, but controlled seperately from the rest of the cars acc power. At least that's kinda how I look at it. I have a desktop computer I thought about using, but I didn't want to waste so much space with something that can theoretically be done just as easily with a laptop.

[GnatGoSplat]

Oh, I wasn't meaning to use a real desktop, that IS too huge, but IMO, a laptop is pretty big too in terms of footprint. The Mini ITX boards I mentioned are only 7"x7" and everything is integrated. There are also NUC boards which are even smaller.

 

Anyway, more and more I think an Android stick or Raspberry Pi is a good idea. Runs Android so the Linux base is very hackable, tons of apps designed for easy touch-screen navigation, uses hardly any power, WAY small, Android seems to be tolerant of dropping power, so you would just plug it into your switched ACC power. All you'd need is one of those 12V to 5V DC-DC converters, cheap and easy to find. The Android sticks are really small.

[Psych0matt]

I'm listening... I'm not at all opposed to doing something like that, especially if I can keep it cheap. I'm going to have to buy a touchscreen either way, so that's not an issue. Well, if I do go this route, give me some info, what am I looking for? How moddable is the UI? I've been messing with centrafuse, and it's decent, but not perfect. I'm not horribly familiar with linux either, though I have played with it slightly in the past

 

I was planning on making a little bracket thing on the side of my sub box, just slide the closed laptop into it, viola, but now you have me thinking

[Psych0matt]

I did want to eventually add GPS via usb antenna, and possibly use my phone as a hotspot for wifi (mainly to run pandora), so expandability is a slight concern, but not huge

 

EDIT: Also OBD stuff would be nice, but not completely necessary

Edited January 30, 2014 by Psych0matt

[RobertISaar]

in reference to OBD: ALDLdroid has had most/all of the kinks worked out..... it uses a tunerpro ADX file to interface with the ECM. both bluetooth and USB(if the device supports a certain mode) cables are usable.

[GnatGoSplat]

Did you have a screen picked out? One caveat of the Android sticks is they only have HDMI outputs. I saw the screens for those on eBay are pretty pricey and I'm not positive whether most of these have built-in touchscreen support, though I can test this on mine when I get home.

Raspberry Pi may be the better option if you're going to use one of the less expensive touchscreens that use a composite input. They are also designed for hacking and there are tons of resources out there on hooking up all kinds of things to it. Drawback is it's just a single-core device with just 512MB of RAM, but it's also only $35 and you don't need a lot of power just to play media.

There's no Centrafuse, but since you're going to be running a HU anyway, you could use something like XBMC. They have that for both Android and Raspberry Pi.

I think the Pi would need an external USB Wifi adapter, I don't believe it has that built in.

Here's more on the Pi, it's a pretty cool device.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

I thought about getting one to hook up to my wife's HU (which has a screen), but ended up just getting a WDTV since all she needs is to watch TV shows.

[Psych0matt]

I'm looking at this

http://www.engineering-diy.blogspot.ro/2013/08/car-pc-projectaugust-2013-update.html

 

 

I'm a little intimidated though... but I really like this idea

 

 

It sounds like it could power on and off with the rest of the system and not have any hiccups. 512 should be plenty to run xbmc and whatnot, and I'm a little more familiar with modding that, assuming it's relatively the same between platforms

Edited January 30, 2014 by Psych0matt

[Psych0matt]

and yes, I plan on keeping a HU hooked up instead of redoing the entire system with amps and stuff, it'll just stay on AUX and have this stuff plugged into it. I haven't decided if I want to relocate the HU and put the screen in the stock location, or leave the HU and get rid of the DIC. If I go this route and have OBD stuff, I wouldn't be as opposed to getting rid of the DIC

[Psych0matt]

posting this here for future reference (aka when I have the money in about a month)

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-VGA-2AV-Reversing-driver-board-7inch-800-480-lcd-display-with-touch-panel-/261234492607?pt=US_Laptop_Screens_LCD_Panels&hash=item3cd2ca04bf

[GnatGoSplat]

I'm looking at this

http://www.engineering-diy.blogspot.ro/2013/08/car-pc-projectaugust-2013-update.html

 

 

I'm a little intimidated though... but I really like this idea

 

 

It sounds like it could power on and off with the rest of the system and not have any hiccups. 512 should be plenty to run xbmc and whatnot, and I'm a little more familiar with modding that, assuming it's relatively the same between platforms

 

Oh, that's pretty cool! I knew you could use a Raspberry Pi as a carputer, but hadn't actually seen any finished products. Looks like that guy has it running pretty nicely.

Yeah, I think Linux might be better about powering on/off with the rest of the system without hiccups. My Android stick has neither a physical nor software shutdown button, so you pretty much have to kill power to shut it off. A lot of people power them with the TV's USB port which turns the stick on and off with the TV, so they must be pretty tolerant to just killing power.

I also didn't see any kind of power controller in that guy's list of stuff he bought for his Pi, so I'm guessing he must just have it wired up with the rest of the system.

Only thing you'll have to take into account if you wire it like that is it's going to have a bootup time when you won't have any tunes. I'm also not sure if you can have XBMC resume where it left off if you kill power to it.

[Psych0matt]

Only thing you'll have to take into account if you wire it like that is it's going to have a bootup time when you won't have any tunes. I'm also not sure if you can have XBMC resume where it left off if you kill power to it.

 

I think I could live with that, but it'd be nice to have it start back up. He has the image posted up, so theoretically I could get a few things, wire it up, download his image, and be up and running. I would probably run a usb hub up front and run a few things off of that, although he has a serial GPS... This seems like an easier, cheaper, and better route, I'll just have to get a large SD card and a few usb sticks that I can leave in for music/video

 

my laptop cfrom hibernate had about 15 seconds of boot time before music started, so that's not a huge issue. If I can keep it to around 30 seconds or less from cold to tunes, I'd be happy

[Psych0matt]

I think I am going to buy this screen, since that's going to work for every option, and then go from there. I can easily get the screen in physically and plug the laptop into it as a temp setup to see how that's going to work, but I think in the end I will end up buying a Pi to play with, and then once I get that all set up how I want, I can get it all wired into the car (which seems like it'll be a ton easier). I need to see if I still have a spare DIC surround to play with, because I'm thinking it'll make more sense to put the touchscreen down there and leave the HU alone

[Psych0matt]

one thing im against is having an external mouse or keyboard for normal use

[GnatGoSplat]

Another idea... 7" Android tablet. Then you could get a glass capacitive screen instead of a resistive one. Being fully self-contained might make it even easier. It would already have built-in wifi and GPS depending on the model.

[Psych0matt]

Another idea... 7" Android tablet. Then you could get a glass capacitive screen instead of a resistive one. Being fully self-contained might make it even easier. It would already have built-in wifi and GPS depending on the model.

 

This I have also thought about, not sure if I want to do that though. I don't really like android as a carputer. Maybe if I could skin/modify it, but I really just am not digging the look/setup of it

[Psych0matt]

I could use my current stupid HU as a screen and use a mouse/keyboard, but that kinda defeats my purpose:shrug:

[GnatGoSplat]

You could install XBMC and set it up to where it automatically boots into XBMC instead of the launcher. There may be an app for that, but if not, Android is just a framework running on top of Linux so I'm sure if it's rooted, there's a way to do it.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/See-how-the-Google-Nexus-7-transforms-into-a-cars-entertainment-system_id33096

http://xbmc.org/xbmc-for-android/

 

The Nexus 7 they're using runs around $130 Buy It Now on eBay.

[Psych0matt]

this I don't mind. But now that we're talking tablets and how to use them, this may be a better option yet... My only issue with that is how to get it to start playing when I start the car, and stop when I stop.

[Psych0matt]

even something like this is cheap enough, although I'd buy a bigger sd card. There seems to be the idea that you can have it auto hibernate when the power is disconnected, so that would be good. Powering back on though, I dunno

 

 

http://dynamic.focalprice.com/CE0292B/7_Android_4.0.4_A13_1.2GHz_Tablet_PC_with_External_3G_1080P_Playback_Capacitive_Touch_4G__Black_.html?utm_source=CS&utm_medium=GM_US&utm_campaign=CS_GM_US_CE0292B&source=CS_PLA_US&gclid=CP_p9tXzprwCFYVDMgodonkAjw

[GnatGoSplat]

Good question. I feel like there might be an app for that, or maybe something more lower-level you could do in Linux. The tablet could detect power on ACC, turns itself on. Detects power removed from ACC, turns itself off.

There are a couple apps I know that you can set up automated tasks that happen when charger is plugged in and charger unplugged. AutomateIt and MacroDroid are 2 off the top of my head.

 

In fact, I think all you'd really need is an automated task to put the tablet to sleep when charger is unplugged, so the screen and everything turns off with the accessory wire. There'd be no need for a constant +12V because its battery would keep memory alive. Then when you turn on the ignition, it'll see power on its charger input and turn itself back on. I think almost every tablet and phone will wake from sleep when the charger is plugged in, so I think this could work.

[virtuetovice]

Android-based carputer would be pretty damn cool! On top of the ability to bluetooth-enable your diag port and use any one of a plethora of data logging apps, you have built in nav, decent media capabilities, expandable storage, and you could even set up custom boot animations. Imagine a big ass Pontiac logo firing up on the dash ;D

[GnatGoSplat]

even something like this is cheap enough, although I'd buy a bigger sd card. There seems to be the idea that you can have it auto hibernate when the power is disconnected, so that would be good. Powering back on though, I dunno

 

http://dynamic.focalprice.com/CE0292B/7_Android_4.0.4_A13_1.2GHz_Tablet_PC_with_External_3G_1080P_Playback_Capacitive_Touch_4G__Black_.html?utm_source=CS&utm_medium=GM_US&utm_campaign=CS_GM_US_CE0292B&source=CS_PLA_US&gclid=CP_p9tXzprwCFYVDMgodonkAjw

 

My concern with a cheap tablet is the screen might be really shitty. I bought my mom a no-name Chinese tablet, and its screen is crap. Viewing angles are terrible, it gets washed out, colors shift, really horrible. You'll want to make sure it has good viewing angles and gets bright enough to use on a sunny day. I've seen good screens on Chinese tablets before, but usually they're advertised as having IPS screens. So if you go for a cheap Chinese one, look for at least an IPS screen.

You'll also want to make sure what you get either has a USB host port, or supports USB OTG so you can plug in your flash drives and such.

Another reason a popular name-brand tablet might be a good idea is hacking support. Say you want to hook up an external backup camera or something like that, there may be hacks out there that work on a Nexus 7, but maybe nobody knows how to do it on a no-name tablet.

[virtuetovice]

Go with a good samsung or asus tablet! Especially on the samsung side there is a ton of development for custom features.

[Psych0matt]

My concern with a cheap tablet is the screen might be really shitty. I bought my mom a no-name Chinese tablet, and its screen is crap. Viewing angles are terrible, it gets washed out, colors shift, really horrible. You'll want to make sure it has good viewing angles and gets bright enough to use on a sunny day. I've seen good screens on Chinese tablets before, but usually they're advertised as having IPS screens. So if you go for a cheap Chinese one, look for at least an IPS screen.

You'll also want to make sure what you get either has a USB host port, or supports USB OTG so you can plug in your flash drives and such.

Another reason a popular name-brand tablet might be a good idea is hacking support. Say you want to hook up an external backup camera or something like that, there may be hacks out there that work on a Nexus 7, but maybe nobody knows how to do it on a no-name tablet.

 

true, thisa was just an example. I may just end up going this route. I need it to fit either in the stock HU location, or more likely replace the DIC. My issues if I do that are how things will plug in, as in if there's going to be enough room for the plugs. It might be neat to cut a slot in the side of the DIC housing to slide it in, and a smaller hole on the other side where I can plug things in, although I'd rather have it hidden.

 

If I can rear mount it, and have it turn on and off with the car (even into hibernate/turn the screen on and off) that;d be awesome. I can use my phone as a wifi hotspot if I JB it...

 

I'm liking this idea more and more, especially if XBMC is now on android...

 

 

This thread went from "Here's what I'm doing" to "yeah, lets bounce a few ideas around and go a totally different route!"

[Psych0matt]

do any of these tablets have video input? I dont think I;ll need it, but Im curious, I dont think Ive seen that before