car pc

[musicman121]

Is anyone planning on trying one of these out in a car pc? I've always wanted to try my hand at one, and these look ideal. If so, what distro would you recommend? I'm probably going to want to integrate some more flash storage, although a 32gb sd card might be enough. I'd also want to integrate gps, either through usb or through bluetooth. I'd want wifi, as well. I could use my phone for the data for the computer, if I wanted, that way. I could also download podcasts to the storage media. I would probably be playing both audio and video podcasts. I would probably want to find a small touchscreen, that would fit in a double-din opening, and then bury the audio amplifier behind the touchscreen. Any more ideas for what would be useful in a car pc?

[Svartalf]

I'd suggest doing a bespoke one and a B model if you're going to go that route.

[maximus925]

I will be held this topic only need to enter the appropriate applications on linux or android, what do you think? support gps music and phone calls

[liz]

A few people on Twitter were also talking about car PCs - one has a wife who is a driving instructor, and wants to be able to take video of the route with voice comments, among other things. Someone else wanted video just in case he crashes, so he can have evidence for his insurers!

[musicman121]

I've been thinking a little more about this project. I'm not sure if the Raspberry would have enough power to drive everything I want to do, but it would solve another problem I thought of. I wanted to mount monitor's to multiple headreasts, and I could figure out how to display to multiple monitors, but splitting audio that way would be extremely challenging. However, using a Raspberry per monitor, with a touchscreen, would be ideal, I'd just have to use another as a file server, maybe with a decent-sized ssd. Each monitor would be capable of running independently of the rest of the system, and the pc running the gps, ect wouldn't be affected by whatever the other people in the car were doing. Any thoughts? I'm hoping to stimulate some different ideas, in how to set this up!

[bigguy]

I was Planing trying one as a Car PC They are Ceap enough One to Play Movies For Grand Daughter the Other as a Satnav / Media Box.

[blc]

I'm pretty sure that MeeGo has some sort of in-car user interface. There is also an ARM port, though I'm not sure it's compatible with the ARM version that the r-pi will use.

[Pluribus]

Hi

My plan all along has been to turn this into a car pc. The way I am thinking of doing it is buying a damaged single din dvd player - the one with the slide out screen. I will remove all the internals and replace them with the Raspberry Pi and a power interface to connect it up to the cars power supply. I will replace the LCD display on the unit with a custom board to display the Landrover car details as a scrolling marquee.

The usb will be used to connect a multi usb hub - again powered by the cars supply. Into that will be a usb GPS, a usb WIFI and another storage device. The CF/SD card onboard will only be used for the system software. There may be a way of hacking the wifi into the car body itself so the whole thing acts as an antennae...

I will run it on any easily customisable iteration of linux which would allow me to make it look like a stock piece of my Landrovers equipment. I have a good selection of landrover linux app skins already so that wont be a problem.

I will use the audio out on the board and connect it to the Landys speaker system.

Most in car dvds are touchscreen so I wont need a keyboard or mouse.

I also just had the idea or purchasing a very cheap usb phone which could be taken apart and hacked into the system too to create both a definite internet connection when wifi is unavailable and could also be used, incredibly - and I bet you cant guess this one - as a phone... There are several cheap linux phone options I can think of.

Any views on the specs?

[cmduarte]

The Pi appears to have enough power for a distributed processing setup to monitor car functions and adjust parameters for better fuel economy. So engine monitoring as well as the other functions mentioned, like front facing DVR, Backup camera, audio/video features, rear and side mirror replacement with cameras. All are doable, run out of processing power? Add another $25 Pi!
I am hoping to pick up 4 RasPi's to start.

[hippy]

One aspect of connecting any electronics into a vehicle is power supply; automotive supplies can suffer short but huge power spikes, positive and negative, over and under-voltage and brownouts. While some folks can connect kit like R-Pi straight to their vehicle supplies and never experience any problems others can be plagued by them and have their electronics damaged and destroyed.

I would guess more useful information on how to interface power will come once we have a circuit diagram and know what voltage regulators are used on the R-Pi board.

An additional issue is insurance and any other legislative or construction and use issues which may affect installations and will depend on locale, another is the safety critical nature of road vehicles which makes anything which connects or interfaces to them ( even if only the power supply ) part of that safety critical system. A naive approach is that if I can buy a radio / CD / DVD / GPS and fit it to my vehicle then I can connect my R-Pi or anything else; it's not always that simple.

The whole 'connecting to vehicles' issue can be a minefield, in arguing how to and attitudes -- particularly arising from the view that "if it goes wrong and it kills me then I'll take that risk", conflicting with if it goes wrong then it may instead kill an innocent third party. There's an element of rights ( "it's my vehicle and no one can tell me what I can and can't do" ) which collides with the right not to be harmed by negligence and recklessness plus duties of care and liability when things go wrong. It's so contentious a subject that other electronics forums ban discussion of such things outright or try to stay well clear of the topic. It may be wise for the forum moderators / administrators to decide on a policy for this area of use, and for other safety critical applications.

[musicman121]

You must be a lawyer. I'm just looking into what can be done technically. Most of the things that I want to do can be done with a commercial product. Mostly, I'm looking into combining functions, and performing them cheaper. Nothing would be affecting the safety of the vehicle, other than the possible argument of distracted driving, and nothing I would do would be more distracting than things people do with their phones every day. I'm not going to attempt to twitter or text while on the road, merely to run navigation, music, ect, possibly run rear-seat entertainment, but that would probably be able to be controlled independently of anything that was on the dash. I admit, I am still working out how to work out the power problems, and I know that one of the vehicles I would be thinking of trying this in has issues in that area. It has a lot of noise in the power supply. AC/DC inverters don't work in this vehicle, and neither do a lot of car chargers, so I would need a method to regulate that supply for a pc. I was mostly curious what uses other people were contemplating regarding car pc applications, with the raspberry. I'm probably going to order 3 or 4, just to play with, when they're available, with more to follow once I figure out how I'm going to use them.

[hippy]

Quote from musicman121 on September 10, 2011, 23:39
Nothing would be affecting the safety of the vehicle

Except should some R-Pi power failure affect the power supply of the vehicle which in turn affects some control function that may impact on your ability to control a vehicle and while consequently failing to turn a corner you end up on the pavement (US : sidewalk ), hitting a dozen nuns and killing orphan children on a walk. They sue your ass off, your insurance says your modification invalidated your insurance, the prosecution are talking manslaughter and you're on your own...

I'm not a lawyer but do have an interest in law and failure mode analysis. In the sue-happy, risk adverse, buck-passing society we have the worst case scenario has got to be mentioned and duty of care makes it a moral imperative on anyone aware of the threats, risks and adverse consequences of a proposed course of action which involves safety criticality.

And this is usually the cue for all sort of argument on how that's unlikely to happen, that it's just paranoia, and so on ... which is why I said it's contentious and will be an issue that arises time after time if the topic isn't barred outright.

[cmduarte]

I agree that a motor vehicle is a harsh environment for electronics, but electronics itself comes to the rescue. Devices such as TransMovs or even cross connected zeners with snubbing components can gentle, if not tame that environment. I am more concerned about data corruption between multiple RasPi's. My thought is to add plastic fiber optics as the communication links. I am researching that now. As for CarPC's being a serious motoring threat.... well there are hundreds if not thousands of carpc's on the road and I have yet to hear of an accident involving the use of a CarPC.

[Bumsfallera]

Hi!

I am planning to build a car pc myself as well…

Compared to other posts in this thread I am a bit more pessimistic whether everything will be so easy and plug and play… I really think it is going to be much more tricky to get GPS, GPRS (etc, -> mobile internet) and “touch screens” working under whatever linux distribution I will be using …Think I will stick to the standard image Raspberry Pi will (hopefully) supply.
Compared to a normal x86 computer with windows it is much more difficult to find drivers or even get a program running on the arm processor architecture (availability).
Nevertheless I am confident to achieve something and have some fun while trying

My plan so far:

Software:
- Standard Debian/Fedora image with lightweight Desktop GUI (xfce or something similar). I hope the Display resolution of the composite video and screen will be suitable for that (adjust font size etc..).
- For Navigation Navit (http://wiki.navit-project.org/...../Main_Page). It’s a free Navigation software and the best thing about it (for me) is that it should be possible to compile it for the Raspi =)
- As a GUI frontend I want to use xmbc (if it is ported and working on the Raspi, seems that some people are working on that) or as an alternative Boxee (http://www.boxee.tv/) which is perhaps compilable for the Raspi as well… (source code available…! ??)
- Mobile internet maybe provided by Ixconn (drivers for USB GPRS modem =( ?). I think there are some other programs for linux that could be used too… I think the best chance of getting mobile internet for the Raspi is with a very common wifi dongle and tethering via a capable mobile phone… http://www.mwconn.net/download.....xconn.html

I don’t intend to get information from my engine etc… I want to use the Raspi for music, some SD video, navigation, internet (if screen resolution is ok…) and synchronization of files with my home server via wifi / via mobile internet dropbox (etc…)
Other aims I pursue after that: internet radio, tv stream (zattoo website… if there is a powerful flashplayer available), correct speed indicator (via gps), and some other things (any more ideas? )

Hardware (I don’t want to spend so much money^^):

- use a 12V car USB adaptor (very handy idea with the micro usb and 5 V input btw )to power the Raspi board
- Screen will be a lowcost “Car Rear View Monitor” without a touchscreen. A monitor with touch screen would exceed my budget and there is the problem with connecting the Raspi to it. Screens around 100 € mostly are not of the best quality (touch aspect…, drivers?) and have a vga input which should be difficult to achieve with the Raspi. Hdmi monitors are out of the question (for me) because they should be too expensive as well (?).
I thought about something like that: http://www.ebay.de/itm/4-3-TFT.....5622wt_902
http://www.ebay.de/itm/3-5-TFT.....5561wt_938
- for keyboard and mouse input I plan to use something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless.....=pd_cp_e_3

or this: http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/453
or this: http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/1020 (and attach it somewhere nice and usable =) )
I hope there are no drivers issues with this because I think I general this things are recognized like a standard HID device which should be cool with arm linux? ^^
- I think I want to use a USB hub as well (due to power needs of gps, gprs modem and wifi), and I hope that I somehow can power it over a 12 V car adaptor ? Should need 5 V right? (ideas?)

If you guys have any ideas about a car pc yourself or ideas/critique about my project please discuss them in this thread =)

Thanks to the raspberry pi team for their brilliant project and for making it possible! Great job!

(And please excuse my bad English… I am from Germany =) )

[n1ywb]

Protecting electronics in a car is as simple as putting a transient voltage suppression diode accross the power terminals, like one of these bad boys: http://search.digikey.com/us/e.....-ND/285933

It also provides reverse protection in combination with a fuse; when reverse the diode shorts to ground and blows the fuse (and sometimes the diode but better than the RPi).

All my ham radios use this "crowbar" circuit in their power front end and it has saved them every time, although do I keep extra diodes around because they usually fail.

You'll need a 5v regulator anyway which will also protect the RPi somewhat. You can put a cap after the regulator to further filter anything that might make it through, and or a 5V TVS. This isn't rocket science, plenty of people have built and installed plenty of car electronics.

[Puar]

This is exactly what i had planned to use the Pi for, being small, cheap and portable it shall be easy to implement with a small touch screen system. I had planned to make it become the media hub for my car along with being a data reading center for car diagnostics. Once implemented I wanted to take it a step further into being able to tune the car for different circumstances.

[j0z0r]

Quote from Bumsfallera on October 22, 2011, 17:54

Compared to other posts in this thread I am a bit more pessimistic whether everything will be so easy and plug and play… I really think it is going to be much more tricky to get GPS, GPRS (etc, -> mobile internet) and “touch screens” working under whatever linux distribution I will be using …
Actually, I believe it's really easy to interface with a touch screen. The OS doesn't know the different between a mouse and a touch screen when we're talking single touch. The fancy capacitive touch screens (the ones you can use two fingers to pinch zoom and stuff) are much different. You might have to use a USB port to pass the information, but maybe GPIO can come to the rescue here

[Amun]

I have the idea for an car pc, but with an twist.

I also want to control my central locking, windows, remote starting. etc.

So the less energy the better.

[Burngate]

I'm forever forgetting to turn the lights off when I park the car, so I plan to use two Pis as a remote monitoring combo.
One sits in the car monitoring things like the lights and central locking, and talks to the second one via wifi (or bluetooth?).
Neither really needs a full size monitor / keyboard / mouse except for setting up.
The one in the car may be able to use a camera as a high-tech burglar alarm sensor, otherwise just GPIOs as inputs and the wifi dongle as output. The camera bit I see as comparing the latest picture with the last one: any changes and it fires off an alarm to the other Pi. It could be hidden somewhere, say in the roof lining (pinhole for the camera?) and run off the car battery with its own Lion backup batteries.
The second Pi would spend most of its time just monitoring the wifi, with perhaps a small LCD status display. In a small box with battery pack and mains charger, it would be part of my hand luggage, ready to be placed on the windowsill in the motel.

[Kissman]

I am thinking about Android OS for my RPp car PC;) easy app develop (i want use my own apps like music sync from my PC to HDD when i am in WiFi range) and easy gps & radio support

I am plannig use this case for my car PC... lot of space for all components (SSD, USB hub, WiFi etc.) - http://store.mp3car.com/New_Bl.....c-041b.htm

[Puar]

I was just wondering what everyone had planned for a front end for there car pc to make it easier to use while driving etc. I found a few open-source programs but would probably create my own eventually.

[traigo]

I just started looking into this as well. I started with XBMC for ARM and it looks like it will work. I've been using it since X meant Xbox and I love it. I was also thinking a portable laptop drive enclosure. I have some with a second USB cable for power that can be powered by a lighter adaptor. Then I can take the drive inside and load media on it. I'd get a fast but small SD for just the OS and XBMC. I've built car pc's before, but none this powerful and small without the need for extra ventillation.

[Puar]

XBMC looks very promising for the media part of the car

[Nexy]

Has anyone looked into serious satnav for ARM Linux? I'm struggling as I can't find any, ironic as TomTom PNDs are running on ARM Linux themselves. I'd hope someone will port it or some other proper navigation software with up-to-date professional-grade maps (as opposed to OpenStreetMaps). There are a few apps that's run under WINE but presumably that's useless to us as we'd need to run QEMU to emulate an x86 processor for that.

[Puar]

Someone else said something about using:
http://wiki.navit-project.org/...../Main_Page

Ill prob use it myself presuming it works good.