Hi everybody! Newbie here.
I want to share with you my experiences building a carputer.
Basically I wanted to put a computer in my car and be able to do all the things a high end head unit can do and some more.
I've found these cases that are standard double din height, have touch screen monitor, some buttons and ports on the front
and have enough space inside to mount a Mini-ATX motherboard. This is similar to what I bought but mine had a touch screen:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bybyte-Black-Box-N-Double-DIN-Car-PC-Carputer-Enclosure-/200424885277?pt=US_Computer_Cases&hash=item2eaa410c1dFor powering the motherboard I've got one of these DC to DC PSU's that can plug in directly into the ATX conector:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M3-ATX-HV-95W-6-34v-Automotive-DC-DC-Car-PC-Carputer-PSU-M350-BBX-1-Mini-ITX-/160727371462?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item256c190ec6The nice thing about these is that they have a sense wire to the ignition that turns on/off the computer.
For the GPS and wireless capability I've got 2 usb dongles with an external antennas.
I ran 2 coaxial cables to the top of the dash for a better reception. I've also got a rear view camera
because the monitor had the ability to switch inputs when a voltage is applied to a sense wire connected to
the white reverse taillight.
For the music I decided to be cheap and bought the cheapest motorcycle amplifier I could find. It's kinda like this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500W-Motorcycle-Car-2-Channel-Amplifier-mp3-amp-YL2-/260912375445?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Amplifiers&hash=item3cbf96e695WHAT WAS I THINKING
I didn't need to look at the dash any more to know the rpm of the car. The buzz
from the engine coming from the speakers was louder than the music.
Anyway. I've decided I wanted to be able to control headlights, blinkers and doors locking/unlocking from the PC.
Being a programmer I've decided to go the easy way and got an Aruduino and some relays and bodge hack them together
with a horrible mess of wires. Now almost half a year later after discovering EEVBlog and the engineering community here I
must say I'm ashamed at what I've done
Except the relays I've also added a remote to be able to lock/unlock the doors since the original one that came with the car didn't work.
For the last 5-6 months everything ran fairly smoothly with a few glitches and bugs. But a few weeks ago all hell broke loose
while I was driving. Suddenly left and right blinkers started flashing, the headlights started blinking and doors kept locking and unlocking.
This kept happening for a good 30 seconds. Fortunately there were no other cars around me. Also when the winter came the arduino started draining the battery more noticeably, after leaving the car for several days it didn't start with the first turn of the key even trough I'm putting the MCU in sleep and waking it on an interrupt from the remote control. The battery drain was 250mA and after I diconected everything I've done from the car it drop down to 120mA.
Even trough I wouldn't call this project a success (not by a long shot) I've had a lot of fun doing it and I have learned a lot of new stuff.
After watching a ton of Dave's videos and lurking here I am inspired on doing the control of the car properly this year, on a purpose designed PCB.