well a few things...the reason why yours are dying the Ipod is unfortunately a very cheap device...dust will kill it...and you are supposed to run it at high temps...add in the fact your probably not getting the cleanest powersource to charge these and BAM they are gone

really my friend has been using a 3.5inch HD in his carputer for 3 years now...he has a big old suburban...and the shocks are going on the car...but hd is fine...never even skips

the HD in my xbox is a 400gig 3.5 inch drive...I mounted the xbox on the side to prvent the head from slamming into the plates and not a single glitch :D

notbook HD would be better but really the thing to worry about is heat...heat will wipe out a drive in no time

as for the magnets in the speakers...not an issue...the magnets needed to change the state for recording data are extremely powerful plus the case on the drive is pretty good at preventing problems

also I do recommend Seagate drives as they have a higher shock tolerance than other brands...but really it is a minor difference (dont buy Hitachi/IBM though, yikes)

one major thing in all of this...that will save your drive no matter what kind it is...DONT record DONT do any writing whatsoever while the car is moving or vibrating excessively (I wont ask )...that is where the damage is most likely to occur

 

nice install

I wasn't aware of how high the back of the nav tray comes up - i guess its good for supporting the screen but exactly what I had in mind since I'd probably be driving around with the screen locked up somewhere alot of the time (damn thugs)

 

I got it from work, but you can download a eval copy from microsoft. PM if you can't find the link.

 

Ditto...

The dev kit is $999 from Microsoft (there is also an eval kit that quits on you) and then the license to run your copy of the setup OS is...???

 

I did mount my drive vertically so it will be less likely to do permanent damage. I know a few people that have hard drives in their car and they have been fine. Hard drives have come a long way and it really doesn't matter because it's not like i'm running any mission critical programs in my car. When/if it does crash i'll RMA it and ghost the new drive...be up and running in no time.

 

oh yeah, it is the development package. I'm thinking about blowing it out and going to XP Pro until I figure out how everything works, if all my hardware works, what apps i'm going to need, and so on... just a grace period to see just what i'll need. Then i'll upgrade XP Pro to embedded.

 

Ouch... that's pretty steep... to pay that for XPe in the end... You may want to consider the hacks that many others on mp3car.com use... stripping down XP and using EWF to "lock" the system files for use on a CF card.

Either way... that's a cool setup.

 

I never said I paid for it....

 

The hard drive should be fine. I'm using a crappy old 20 GB Maxtor drive in my Neo jukebox for several years without any problem.

Hey Rasp, cool install. I was wondering: what kind of enclosure is that for your Via Epia board (the one with the heat sink-like fins)? Looks like a perfect fit.

 

Hey Rasp, Can you post some pics of the system working? Take some pics of the screen and stuff while its on!




-please

 

The giant heak sink is part of a case to an old 2 channel amp. I removed all the circuit boards, cut off two sides and trimed down some spots. Then I sand blasted it to remove the factory powder coat. Right now the system is back in the house, I had to flash the BIOS, thats something you don't want to do running off a battery. I'm also playing around with XP embedded while it's hooked up to a real monitor. I'll post some running pictures when I get it back in the car in a few days.

Any comments on a good user interface? I found this so far: http://www.creative-nightshifts.de/download.htm

 

Well I know the eval is free, but you can't use it forever if I remember correctly (or everyone on mp3car.com would be using it too). If you somehow got the full licensed deal for free from somewhere... I'm jealous...

Front ends? Try mp3car.com. There are many there and Mobile Media (or something like that) looks like it may be one of the best.

 

yeah, I just downloaded mediacar. It looks very impressive, it just might do the trick.

 

Very nice! I want to do this soon!

 

What's the point of this again? Wouldn't simply carrying a laptop make more sense?

 

No.

Such an install will make it possible to have an excellent, integrated solution for:
- GPS navigation
- MP3 player
- DVD player

... and a bunch of other things like game system (for which I really don't see a need in a car, but some people do).

You will not be able to do that with a laptop, at least not in such an uncluttered, nice way.

 

Internet radio? iTunes in car or DL from home PC to car? handsfree control for your bluetooth enabled phones? Anything else sound interesting?

 

I bet you spent $2k on the crappy factory nav. Now who's the smart one?

 

u both are

 

Why do you call the factory nav crappy? Does it serve its purpose? Is it able to pin point my location on a map and direct me to destinations? Yea? I thought so, thanks.

Also, I was simply asking what the point was of installing a computer for the car. Tamas and Japan8 clarified it for me. And by the way...I wasn't insulting your new modification ...so no need to get personal with me here chum. I'm impressed by your work but I was unaware of its purpose.

So basically with a computer installed in your RX-8 you've made your car entertainment possibilities limitless. Thanks - that's all I was asking here.

 

It's hard to sense sarcasm online, I thought you were being a smart ***.

 

OK, I thought I would shed some light on this subject, since I deal in the field of carputers.

First off, to answer your question about good frontend software - there are a few good ones out there. One of the most popular these days is Frodo Player. A newly developed program, which has only been around for 2 months or so is Road Runner. There's some others as well like Media Engine.

FYI - All the software I mentioned above is freeware and links and reviews can be found on my site - www.mobile-effects.com

Road Runner is going to be one of the most popular because it is the newest, which means it improves on all the others. Road Runner supports Flash. There is a Flash skin interface under development which promises to be awesome. Road Runner as of two weeks ago has PHOCO support. It was beta, but I think it's a full release now.


(<-- Road Runner) (<-- Frodo Player) (<--Media Engine)

Phoco is bluetooth phone control. Allows you to control your phone, manage your contacts, and receive calls on your carputer screen. Automatically mutes ur music, etc...

Road Runner has a customizable spinning flash logo in the center of the interface. The one in the picture is for Honda, they have ones premade for Mazda, Mazda Speed, etc...
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In regards to the hard drive comments, they are all valid points. I have been running a carputer for years now, and have pretty much come to the conclusion that regular 3.5 inch (desktop) hard drives last around 2 years under daily driving conditions. That has been tested by my team as a horizontal mount.

Vertically mounted desktop hard drives should fair better, since bumps won't drive the heads into the platters obviously. Think of it as this - if you can get 2 years out of a hard drive, after 2 years, you probably will want a larger hard drive anyway.

Also, people talk about solid state storage or laptop hard drives. These are all fine, but desktop hard drives overall are cheaper. Hell, you can replace a desktop hard drive two or three times over for an equivalent laptop hard drive.


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If anyone has further questions they want me to address, please send an email to mobilefx@gmail.com
I don't frequent these forums often, I just signed up to ask Rotary Rasp to add his car to the site.

If you are interested more in carputers and how they are installed, configured, and used - please visit my site. Anything not listed on my site can be found in the links we have. Also, dont forget to sign up for the site. There are no activation emails, and you can get right in. We have over 500 exclusive carputer install pics that are only accessible by members.

We have only been on the web for a couple months, so it will take us some time to acquire more info - so check back!

Thanks guys, and awesome cars - love the RX8s.
We already have one Mazda on our site, and they are very nice

 

Main Menu, DVD, and FM shown here.

 

Pictures of the MP3 player and nav software.

 

Extra access point in my garage and pictures of it installed.

http://www.trickRX8.com for more photos.