Nerdify my ride.
May 11, 2011 1:56 PM   Subscribe

Advice on a computer system for a vehicle?

I've been asked if I'd be interested in outfitting a vehicle (a small school bus) with a computer system that will used for GPS, DVDs/music, and back-up cam, with USB for peripherals (at least one is necessary for a powered hub). It's to have a monitor for the front to control it and a second monitor for the passenger area to display video. I'm not sure what, if any, laws are involved.

I'm very interested from an academic standpoint but I'm also wary because I've never had to consider the unique conditions this would be exposed to. I don't want to waste anyone's time or cause undue expense, so I'm looking for advice from anyone who's done this or at least a good hashing out of the possibilities.

I would be getting paid but I don't NEED the work so I could pass if it's too much trouble for what it's worth.

What I imagine is: a laptop with a DC/DC power connector with a very long VGA cable to the second monitor. A 3g/4g aircard, a powered USB hub (maybe a power inverter for this?), GPS program and USB/Bluetooth receiver. An 500GB external drive for backups and Mozy/IDrive for the most important tidbits. The only thing I'm not sure of is the back up cam. I've seen kits where you can add them with a small screen and they work pretty well, but I wonder if you can interface them to a laptop??

Does this sound like it's worth the possible headache of supporting after the build?!? Any advice/caveats are welcome, thanks!
posted by dozo to Computers & Internet (14 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Go with SSD hard drives to minimize problems caused by sudden movement of the vehicle.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:10 PM on May 11, 2011


When you say "It's to have a monitor for the front to control it," do you mean that the driver will occasionally interface with it, or do you mean there would be a passenger near the front who would do the pointing and clicking?
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:12 PM on May 11, 2011


And clarify this for me: You want a laptop at the front, where all the interaction takes place, and you just want a display in the back, which is controlled by the laptop at the front?

You want no input from the back, just a screen/speakers back there?
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:17 PM on May 11, 2011


I looked into this a while back, before the era of tablets, smartphones, gps systems and there were a few off the shelf enclosures designed for cars like this one:
http://www.e-itx.com/mini-box-voompc-2.html

I never ended up doing the project, but if I were to do it today, I think I'd just put in a laptop mount and use a wifi/3g/4g router. Either a mifi type thing, or one like this: http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-4501-3G-WiFi-Router/dp/B002OT93M6

The backup camera could be a webcam or wifi security camera.

The one thing to keep in mind is that hard drives will not last very long if they are mounted rigidly. Make sure they are isolated from the road vibrations. You could probably do this project with a couple of ipads, a 3g/wifi router and a NAS.

Personally, the thought of supporting a completely custom car computer that someone else is using makes me shudder.

Best of luck!
posted by fzx101 at 2:23 PM on May 11, 2011


Isn't this pretty much (except for the rear monitor) the setup that police cars use? That's where I would look first.
posted by meowzilla at 2:33 PM on May 11, 2011


Nearly what police cars use. There's the rear cam that they want to control. A webcam seems perfect for this, but I like the idea of a security cam like fzx101 suggests. I think that would stand up to the elements better. If you could design a shroud around it that houses it on 3 sides to protect it from the elements (use epoxy or just bolt it on) it might last longer.

I'm sure they make backup cams for RVs and other vehicles, but I'm not sure how well they'd integrate with a computer. I think those generally have their own screen.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:37 PM on May 11, 2011


Response by poster: "do you mean that the driver will occasionally interface with it"

Yes - inputting destination addresses, playing music and movies for the passengers (not while driving), etc. In my vision it would be the laptop screen. Passengers are not going to be accessing the controls, but perhaps an assistant. Screen/speakers only in the back.

I really like the the cases you linked to, fzx101. And SSD drives make incredible sense. Thanks for the advice so far.
posted by dozo at 2:59 PM on May 11, 2011


Mac mini computers are ridiculously tiny, cheap, consume very little power, are quiet due to lack of fan, and have pretty much everything you need — Bluetooth, video, DVD, USB and FireWire, etc. — except the power converter, which you could do yourself.

People put SSDs into Mac mini computers and report great performance improvements. And with fewer moving parts in a vehicle going over bumpy roads, you're less likely to suffer data failures.

If money is no object, you could wire up a Wacom Cintiq tablet as a touchscreen at the front of the car. There are USB GPS units that work with OS X, so that you could have everything pretty much self-enclosed.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:27 PM on May 11, 2011


(Or you could use a wireless keyboard and trackpad with a regular flatscreen at the front of the vehicle.)
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:33 PM on May 11, 2011


When I was thing about this a couple of years ago this is what I read:

Geek My Ride Wiki

Not sure if it has been updated in a while though...
posted by fair_game at 4:07 PM on May 11, 2011


A friend of mine (who is an engineer at Intel but I think most people could do this), installed a custom computer in his dash. He got an all-in-one board that was about 6" square and a touchscreen that was about 7". He mounted the touchscreen in the dash. There was probably an external hard drive. He got all this stuff at Fry's. He already had a separate power system in his vehicle consisting of a solar panel on the roof and a deep cycle storage battery.

He had a ton of music on it. He also had it set up so that his desktop machine in the house would record Letterman every night and then copy it to the car computer so he could "watch" it on his way to work.

I'm using past tense because it got stolen.
posted by neuron at 4:27 PM on May 11, 2011


If you don't want to do this homebrew, they have set ups that can handle most of this.

Getting a DVD/Nav set up with a screen is pretty trivial (checkout crutchfield as a first stop to get a read on what the market looks like). Almost all of these kind of systems can drive an external monitor. They will also be able to handle the backup cam.

This type of solution will be nice because it is all form fit for this application and environment, it is off-the-shelf, uses common cabling solutions, and comes in at 12V off the bat without the need for a converter. If the bus has a DIN or a DoubleDIN in the dash, you can't really go wrong with a set up like this (and you will have community help and customer support help if you get stuck).

Good luck, you'll have to tell me/us how it goes!
posted by milqman at 4:33 PM on May 11, 2011


This was once a dream of mine, but I got discouraged and demotivated when I found out the pricey motorized touch display I bought hit up against the upper rim of the dash...luckily I was able to sell it to another enthusiast and walk away (well for now!).

Anyway, the idea was as follows:

- Dual boot laptop configured to default to a Centrafuse frontend (or RoadRunner, Frodoplayer, etc) and set to not turn off when the lid is closed under the default OS. The other OS would be for general use when not driving the car...most likely Windows. (this makes it so the computer isn't "married" to the vehicle and thus a possible victim of theft...it's also a better return on investment as it'll get more use)

- 1 DIN motorized 7" touchscreen display (retracts into the dash when not in use)

- 1 DIN usb hub (for playing media, adding functonality like broadband, etc)

- 1 Sliding laptop tray under the passenger seat. (with hookups for power, GPS, and video capture, etc)

Anyway, my advice is: You are here which so far has some pretty good suggestions; you probably want to be here as well.
posted by samsara at 5:07 PM on May 11, 2011


Also, plenty of videos on youtube from Mp3Car.
posted by samsara at 5:19 PM on May 11, 2011


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