Carputer, Truckputer, Expeduter

[dzzz]

my experience with a carputer in my 4runner was less than great. the screen didnt like elevation change (approx. 12 hours for it to acclimate itself.) most of the hardware did ok with vibration, but the boot time was horrendious! i had alot of not so great hardware, stuff that had little driver support, etc.

while i loved the idea, it just didnt work in an offroad vehicle. the screen was impossible to read in the daylight, i was constantly batteling hardware bugs and software glitches, usually when i REALLY needed it. ill be buying a handheld and mounting it to my dash!

if you have any questions about my build, please ask. i did it several times in several different configs and in two different cars. i still have all the parts, so let me know if you want any of it. good luck to you! hopefully yours turns out better than mine!

I've had partial successes too. Centrafuse has a approved peripheral list that I will use to minimize software problems. I also found a milspec LCD that's rated for aircraft that I doubt will have altitude problems.

90% of the posters on mp3car are experimenters who's do not place high value on a stable system. It's easy to add interesting components to a carputer that are new and untested.

 

[craig]

If you have the room to fit it into the dash, the 10.4" screen is going to be a really nice size for offroad navigation. Looks like a great choice.

 

[dzzz]

There probably aren't many vehicles that could fit a 10" in the dash. In a truck with bucket seats it's nice to have it closer anyways, especially for a tall driver with the seat all the way back.

I found a 7-8" non-transflective frustrating during the day. I have one of those but would rather use a laptop. I realized the $500 10" Xenarc lcd I was looking at was no better in daylight than my old touchscreen.

Inelmatic offered me two choices of 10"at $750 and $850 that they are currently producing . That probably seems very expensive to some people, but this is one of those things that "you get what you pay for".

I asked about the difference between these two models. The response:

The difference between " optically bonded" and "optically matching enhancement":
1. "optically bonded" is normally using in high end military monitors, it has better impact resistance.
2."optically bonded" it makes better optical profermance, more brightness and more clear pictures under sunlight.
3. Our "optically matching enhancement" simulates the effects like " optically bonded", it also has good performance under sunlight.

 

[craig]

What kind of truck, and where are you going to mount it?

 

[evldave]

A few thoughts on this, mostly for lurkers who are sure to watch this thread. I think some of the regulars here know this already or may disagree. Like others, I've done this for awhile, and everyone's experience is a little different...

Computers are fragile...while they may last 10 years, they may also break after 10 days. True carputers use parts that can be hard to find at your local big box store (especially power supplies). Go ahead and use this as your primary navigation system, but carry a backup!

Carputers take more time to set up. There are pre-made units that work very well, but if you build it yourself, expect some trial-and-error, it will make it less frustrating.

Carputer software can be anything you want, but there is software designed for use in cars (touchscreen friendly, music, nav, etc). Centrafuse & Road Runner are a couple. Expect these to take some 'tinkering' to get the way you want and to work well.

Most nav/mapping software is Windows-based. Other OSs may not support this software, and 'tweaked' Windows may take some time to boot. Don't expect 'start car, start navigating' - 30 seconds is considered good. Lower your expectations

If you afford it, go w/a Solid State Drive, otherwise a regular laptop hard drive works well (probably 100k miles on various laptop hard drives and no crashes

If you can afford it, go w/a sunlight readable screen. Until you've actually used one, you may think a regular screen is ok. It's not...(bad pun warning) it's like night and day, the sunlight screens are 100x better.

Keep your eyes on the road This goes w/out saying, but if you are looking down at your screen, you might miss that moose, or bear, or unmarked road that takes back to a great campsite next to a clear mountain lake with beautiful sunsets. None of the carputers I've ever used is more fun to look at than out the window

mp3car is a great site with the best resources on the net for this sort of thing, but there is a lot of 'experimentation' there + limited 'overland' experience, not to mention the site is a pain to navigate (IMO). There are a lots on these board who have experience with this stuff, ask away.

 

[dzzz]

What kind of truck, and where are you going to mount it?

Unimog U500

You can see the attachment points at the top of the center console.

 

[craig]

It should look good and work really well in there. Looking forward to seeing the finished product

 

[dzzz]

If anyone looking for a high end ITX board, I found the IBase MI953F. It's runs mobile i5 and i7 processors. Unfortunately it costs $400 (plus cpu). It's the only non laptop board I've found that runs these cpu's.

 

[dzzz]

No Flir for me

$2500 for just the camera
Any knockoffs?

 

[evldave]

$2500 for just the camera
Any knockoffs?

That would be sweet!! But I can't seem to find any knockoffs something in the 300-500 range would be nice, anyone??

 

[dzzz]

Expeduter .04

The expeduter (tm) has undergone an upgrade to a gigabyte motherboard and a core i5 processor. The mobile board was spendy for too small benefit. The D510 Atom board I used first was slow on 3D rendering.
My average power is the same between boards. The new board/processor is capable of much higher power so I need to rebuy my power and cooling.
Expeduter .03 will for now be a little home music player.
I've also purchased marine permanent mount gps and Sirius antennas that will work on my fiberglass roof.
Anyone use the Antenex Phantom for wifi or cell?

 

[off-roader]

I use a netbook... works fine...

For my current setup, I used a $300 netbook (Original Acer One) with an SSD and 32GB of SD cards attached and hard mounted it to my center console (thank you Velcro). It's held up fine on both bumpy rock crawling terrain as well as high speed off road runs.

Yes the bootup time is slower than an instant on GPS but still fast enough that I can turn it on as p/o my 'pre-flight' proceedure.

For software, I'm using Nat Geo's hi res topo software (Cali) and it's been fine. At some point I am considering either upgrading to something like Overland Navigator once I need to start travelling outside of the state.

I'm also considering jail breaking & then hard mounting my Ipad Wifi (SSD & instant on device) and using it with a Bluetooth GPS receiver and a variety of available gps software. I really like how big & light it is which is ideal when off road rigors can wreak havoc on heavier laptops. The touch interface is also great.

Oh, I did consider building a carputer (I've built many pc's before and have tons of industry resources) but decided against it when there are so many affordable & warrantied alternatives (laptops & tablets) available.

HTH.

 

[evldave]

Anyone use the Antenex Phantom for wifi or cell?

No, looks interesting though! Any pics of your setup?

 

[overlander]

A few thoughts on this, mostly for lurkers who are sure to watch this thread. I think some of the regulars here know this already or may disagree. Like others, I've done this for awhile, and everyone's experience is a little different...

Computers are fragile...while they may last 10 years, they may also break after 10 days. True carputers use parts that can be hard to find at your local big box store (especially power supplies). Go ahead and use this as your primary navigation system, but carry a backup!

Carputers take more time to set up. There are pre-made units that work very well, but if you build it yourself, expect some trial-and-error, it will make it less frustrating.

Carputer software can be anything you want, but there is software designed for use in cars (touchscreen friendly, music, nav, etc). Centrafuse & Road Runner are a couple. Expect these to take some 'tinkering' to get the way you want and to work well.

Most nav/mapping software is Windows-based. Other OSs may not support this software, and 'tweaked' Windows may take some time to boot. Don't expect 'start car, start navigating' - 30 seconds is considered good. Lower your expectations

If you afford it, go w/a Solid State Drive, otherwise a regular laptop hard drive works well (probably 100k miles on various laptop hard drives and no crashes

If you can afford it, go w/a sunlight readable screen. Until you've actually used one, you may think a regular screen is ok. It's not...(bad pun warning) it's like night and day, the sunlight screens are 100x better.

Keep your eyes on the road This goes w/out saying, but if you are looking down at your screen, you might miss that moose, or bear, or unmarked road that takes back to a great campsite next to a clear mountain lake with beautiful sunsets. None of the carputers I've ever used is more fun to look at than out the window

mp3car is a great site with the best resources on the net for this sort of thing, but there is a lot of 'experimentation' there + limited 'overland' experience, not to mention the site is a pain to navigate (IMO). There are a lots on these board who have experience with this stuff, ask away.

X2. I have now about 2 years experience with my "RoverPC" in my Defender. I installed it for all the reasons stated in the original post. I am extremely satisfied with setup now, but it did involve lots of tinkering to get it where I want it.

I have the M2 ATX power supply and I use hibernation for shutdown, so startup is always about 30 seconds for me. Use a ruggedized ruggedized hard drive right now (seagate automotive grade) but will go to SSD down the road. Since I have integrated Overland Navigator (which I love!) I need a HDD upgrade to include all the maps down the road anyway. I have also mounted a second external hard drive that attaches by USB that all my media is loaded in. That way I can remove it to add new music and media easily inside my home. Althought I have an external wifi antennae mounted on the rollcage, it takes to long to sync all the media on a routine basis (big first lesson learned). and it's a big deal to pull the computer, setup it up inside on 110 power, just to add media.

 

[dzzz]

No, looks interesting though! Any pics of your setup?

Of the expeduter? I'll take some when I get my new touchscreen. It's suppose to ship this week.
I am going to use the Antenex Phantom on NMA mounts for higher frequencies. For VHF I'm going to use a more traditional antenna.
I got my HD radio receiver for the expeduter yesterday. It suppose to be controllable from the expeduter (I won't use the faceplate)