If you dare to say so, I'll dare to agree with you!

I'll give you the definte yes or no soon (well as soon as I can get my hands on a GA-700Y-Y).

 

Man, I may have to take back what I said about the specs on that PC. It may be quite enough. The Epia TC is actually quite impressive.

I notice that the Epia TC and Epia MII both support CardBus and CompactFlash. Have you toyed with the idea of using Windows XP Embedded on a CompactFlash card? That could provide extremely low (like 10 second) boot times from power off. I plan to connect a portable 120GB drive via firewire or USB 2.0 anyway for my media storage.

As you may or may not have read in another thread, I've already committed most of my trunk to a speaker box. I will have some room left in there, but based on the form-factor that you're looking at, can you think of any other place it might fit? Could it somehow be mounted below the glove box for example?

 

Not the glovebox, there's just not enough room, particularly if you wanted to mount a DVD drive and USB hub in there. The case I'm using will fit under the passenger seat which would work just as well. I have toyed with the idea of XP on a CF card and may end up doing so (the M10000 supports CF as well with an adaptor) if I can find sufficent reason to. Right now the prototype is booting up in the sub-12 second range which is pretty fast IMO. If you get an Epia board, make sure it has the Nemiah processor and not the Eden.

Where are the finished pics of your sub box? I looked through the thread but didn't see them. There are some SWEET mini-ITX cases that you could probably fit back that that would look tight.

 

Unfortunately my box is still awaiting completion. 90% of it was completed in the first week, but rotarygod been very busy ever since then. He's got my hopes up that we'll finish it all this weekend, but time will tell.

Whats the difference between the Nemiah and the Eden? Is it like the difference between a P4 and a Celeron?

Just so you know (if you don't already) it takes a bit of work to get Embedded XP setup right. Basically, Embedded XP is exactly like Windows XP, but with a 'locked down' core. Essentially, you install Windows XP, every driver you think you'll need, and whatever software you want as part of the embedded OS. Then you 'lock' the whole thing. This makes a bootable image that can be put on the CF card (or even on a ROM chip!). This image is guaranteed never to change and never to need write access (you must setup your swap partition elsewhere). What it does give you, however, is a very compact operating system with almost zero boot time because all of the drivers and OS files are already embedded and in a somewhat pre-initialized state.

If you are seeing sub 12-second boot times, then embedded XP would almost guarantee you something more like 2 second boot times. It is INCREDIBLE, and since you are never worried about the OS files getting corrupt, you can simply turn the machine on and off as you would a Pocket PC or other appliance. It's really cool stuff.

 

P.S. I wasn't saying IN the glove box, but rather underneith it. Like, if I could get somekind of shelf there. But if it would fit underneith the passenger seat, that would be even better.

Can you toss up a link to some of those casses you were talking about? I guess my other concern would be the amount of shock that would need to be absorbed if I were to mount the computer in the trunk along with the speaker box.

 

No, it's not as drastic as a Celeron vs. a Pentium chip. The Eden processors are the older model and have a number of bugs. The Nemiah has been getting rave reviews and, maybe particularly of interest to you, has vastly improved 3d graphics support.

Check out http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=15#p264 or google "mini-itx cases" for some cool stuff that you could probably fit with your sub.

Edit: Regarding your comment about shock, I wouldn't be as concerned with shock from your sub vibration (which is actually a very valid concern now that I think about it) as I would about shock from every day driving conditions (pot holes, bumpy roads, etc.) It's the jarring shocks that are going to crash a hard drive, dislodge an internal component of a DVD drive, etc. That's just one of the things that I intend to do better than everybody else on the market. Sorry, can't give that secret away though...

 

This sounds very nice. Can't wait to see it come together!
FWIW, I have the factory nav system and would like to use the existing display and forego the touch screen input in favour of voice control for simple commands and using the nav system's joystick as a mouse for more complex ones. I'll haul out the keyboard for dealing with e-mail when I am parked. :-)

 

The link you sent was mostly cubes, but I did find this one that I think is very very cool.

I'll do some more browsing later. Good stuff, really good stuff.

 

Unfortunately the stock navi screen is PAL/NTSC (televison) format. It can be done, but the quality of the image will be severely degraded. You really need a VGA display.

 

What would one do with patches, driver updates, or additional drivers as new devices become available?

---jps

 

Hm... that's a really good question. I haven't done this before because I don't have a PC that can boot off a CF card so a lot of what I've said is stuff that I have heard from other people or read. I would *think* that the core could be unlocked, added to and relocked, but that's just speculation on my part.

I'm honestly not sure. But, you don't have to lock the core until you want to, so make sure you get all your patches before you do this step. I don't know whether or not you can unlock and relock, but when I get to my car PC over the next couple of months, I will research it more and let you know. If someone else already knows, please chime in.

 

I just wanted to post so I could get alerts of new posts on this thread...MotoRotor, I'm very interested in your final product...i've been kicking around this idea myself for a month or so...I own an ISP in my area...we have about 45 wireless "hot spots" (access points) around the area so I'm really looking for a fully functional PC solution so that no matter where I am I can pull over and connect to my network...i'm also going to use my 8 as the demo for local law enforcement agencies on using our infrastructure for their mobile connectivity.....even though the idea of having a PC in your car is not a common thought right now I think there is a HUGE future in it.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement rx8ntexas.

Just to give you guys an update, I've received all of the obscure parts. Just the FM modulator is left but that's readily available. It's going to take some work to mount the specialized power supply, but once I get that going we'll be able to install the computer. Should have some pictures ready before the holidays.

 

With all of the effort that has been put into this, have you looked into the possibility of tapping the sound into the "TV Tuner" port instead?

---jps

 

This is the first I've heard of a TV tuner port. Can you elaborate or point me to a thread? I can't search for "TV Tuner" because TV is less than 3 characters....

 

You can search for stuff related to the navigation system. The A/V system piggybacks on the NAV system. I don't think there is much known about it yet...

 

Ya know, I cannot find that thread. Basically, it was referring to a schematic that someone had this summer or earlier. The info was on the attached picture, so it's practically impossible to search for. The schematic was in Japanese, but someone translated a couple of words, one of which was "TV Tuner". This was referring to the unused connector on the back of the head unit, right next to the antennae jack.

Very little else was translated, and I don't believe anyone has reported trying a couple of pinouts to see.

---jps

 

See this thread regarding the TV Tuner.

 

I was extreamly excited by this thread when I first started reading it, then I asked myself, why? I mean, what is the advantage of one of these rather than installing a mount for a tablet PC. You can get tablets for even less than the $1700 target and get just as much functionality. In fact, if you have more than one car, you could simply move it from car to car, and take into the office with you, and into the house, and into the cafe. The only reason I don't have nav in my 8 now is because it costs twice as much as some other solutions, and is permanently installed in a single car.

 

Well I can only answer for myself, but i'm looking for a solution that stays in the car and mainly allows me to connect to a 802.11b wireless network so that I can use remote desktop and get back to my PC at the office where my "life" is. I have a tablet and a laptop and I find myself barely using the resources of the device other than its terminal connection back to my office PC. I may save a few things on them but really don't "use" them. My plan is to use my NAV screen, and have a wireless keyboard/mouse combo either mounted somewhere in the car or just hidden away till I need it....the mini PC will live in the trunk area and I'll have a mobile mount 2.4Ghz antenna in the back as well....I owns a wireless ISP with lots of access points around my area so that kind of setup would do me just fine...but also this type of thinking and engineering is what makes technology grow. A cool car like the Rx-8 is going to inspire alot of great ideas which will lead to more ideas and improved technology, and for those needing to package their new ideas I can't think of a better wrapping than the Rx-8.

 

the computer in the car idea is certainly a good one, but why the mine pc form factor? It seems to me that a similarly powered mobile pc should be capable of everything you just mentioned. I'm not shooting down the idea. I think its very cool. I'm just looking for an excuse to jump back on the band wagon. Once I applied a bit of rational thought to the situation, I couldn't come up with a good reason for it. Tablets support every function the in-trunk pc would.

 

Good point. Price I guess would be a factor...A new tablet is alot more than building your own mini PC. I thought about just tying my laptop into it....you know have a setup where you can just kinda "plug in" your laptop when you get in the car...something like that maybe

 

Hell, you could even mount the docking station in the nav tray.

As far a price, you can get a low end tablet for less than $1700 and easily move it from car to car. Maybe that's not an issue for most people, but I'm single with 3 cars.

 

If that's a solution that fulfills all of your needs, go for it. For me, it's not.
[list=1][*]I too would like something fixed and have a little (actually a lot) more of an integrated appearance[*]Where do you plan to mount a 14" tablet in your car?[*]How do you plan to power it? I don't want to take my pc out of the car to charge it up every night.[*]No way to add a PCI wireless adapter for high-speed wireless internet (not 802.11*)[*]Most do not have serial ports (no OBDII)[/list=1]

I could go on, but I think I've made my point. I'm by no means trying to discourage you from adding a tablet to your car, I'm just explaining why that's not a valid solution for my goals. Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

 

The nav tray is not nearly large enough to support the tablet. Even if it were, you'd lose a huge amount of your front field of vision. Tablets are WAY too big to try to mount anywhere on the dash unless, perhaps, you removed the passenger side airbag and fabricated a panel to mount it there, but then how do you reach it? Anything larger than 7 or 8" will block your field of vision (read: make it illegal)