Console accessory width

Topic: Console accessory width (Read 3204 times) previous topic - next topic

Console accessory width

Reply #15 – November 02, 2009, 10:51:22 PM

Have some more parts coming - now I am just looking for an SSD drive. I may just install the climate controls up high and place the pc within the middle two spots in the center dash. This would basically give me as much room up front for anything, plus with more customizations, I can have more options on how to mount the screen. It is a hard choice as our dashes already put things down very low so that may not work out too well.

Console accessory width

Reply #16 – November 02, 2009, 11:24:00 PM

Wow how things change after having a look again - I basically NEED to have the screen up top because our floor shifters are so far forward, and tall. Below are some shots taken for my planning purposes. Mini ITX motherboards are 6.7x6.7" in dimensions, and it needs about 2.5" in height for the components/medium height heatsink.

Console accessory width

Reply #17 – November 02, 2009, 11:26:43 PM

The size of the motherboard - it is tiny compared to a standard video card. Even a CD makes the motherboard look tiny. Only the motherboard, its built-in hardware, and the cpu/heatsink/memory are to be used in-car. The power supply is its own tiny pcb board that needs to be mounted near the system.

Console accessory width

Reply #18 – November 03, 2009, 06:04:05 AM

You need a fanless setup with a riser card.

Console accessory width

Reply #19 – November 03, 2009, 09:16:41 AM

The 120mm there wa for size comparisons - I WILL be using a fan on the heatsink though. The videocard is in the system now but won't be used come car-install time (the motherboard is the Ion platform - a GeForce 9300).

Console accessory width

Reply #20 – November 04, 2009, 04:50:32 AM

I forget how far along these things have come. Almost everyone used fanless because there wasn't a need for a fan back in the day. Killer video card compared to what I was expecting.

Console accessory width

Reply #21 – November 04, 2009, 10:36:45 PM

Yeah, the initial Via chips were decent at their time but even they are half the speed of a comparable Atom, which in itself is AWFUL. An Atom, even dual core, can't handle real-time DSP tasks of any decent level. I'm not quite sure how to setup the ASIO drivers to keep the original bitrate and sampling rate...it'll save cpu time though, while increasing sound quality.

Console accessory width

Reply #22 – November 10, 2009, 08:37:17 PM

What is the distance from the center console, down the driveline tunnel, to the trunk? I assume a 10ft firewire cable may be pushing it a little? 15ft seems a little excessive for that run though.

Console accessory width

Reply #23 – November 10, 2009, 10:39:31 PM

Forget it - having the pc up front and other stuff in the back is too complicated. I will be running an antenna extension up front for now, running a 12v dc regulator up front for a usb hub and the monitor, and just installing it all up under the rear deck. The stock premium amp tray would work perfect for a carpc if I still had a way to mount it. I need to come up with some ingenious mount for under the rear deck that is dampened to prevent all the car's vibrations from rattling the pc to death. This will also allow me to use more room and larger motherboards than mini itx so that I may keep this board for the htpc instead. Keeping all the audio in the rear of the vehicle should make audio noise a thing of the past, while also making it all much easier to wire up.

I still only have the hard drive to go. HD receiver has arrived and works great with no antenna but the extension cable hooked up.

Xenarc 700TSV 7" widescreen touchscreen LCD (own)
Zotac GF9300-D-E motherboard using onboard video (own)
Core2Duo E8400 processor (own)
M-Audio Firewire 410 audio interface (own)
4GB DDR2-800 RAM (own)
OCZ Agility 60GB SSD (looking)
8x Slot-load DVDRW drive (own)
180w OPUS DC-DC power supply (own)

Visteon HDZ300 HD Radio tuner (own)
Bluetooth dongle with keyboard for external input source (own)
Undecided GPS hardware (on hold)

Windows 7 with custom application GUI (own)
AudioMulch VST audio tuning environment (own)

Console accessory width

Reply #24 – November 10, 2009, 11:22:40 PM

Does anyone have some pictures from under the rear deck on these cars? I thought I did but I cannot find any from my current camera. I think I took them with my Fujifilm many years ago and those are all archived in a safe place that I can't find...

Console accessory width

Reply #25 – December 30, 2009, 01:09:08 AM

So some changed were made to make the system easier to mount and use. I have used an M350 case with a Pico 125w dc-dc converter designed for car environment use (6-30v input). Specs are below:

Xenarc 700TSV 7" widescreen touchscreen LCD (own)
M350 Mini-ITX enclosure (own)
Zotac GF9300-D-E motherboard using onboard video (own)
Core2Duo E7200 processor (own)
M-Audio Fast Track Ultra audio interface (looking)
4GB DDR2-800 RAM (own)
Kingston 40GB SSD (own)
WD Scorpio Blue 640GB HDD (own)
8x Slot-load DVDRW drive (own)
125w M3-ATX DC-DC power supply (own)

Visteon HDZ300 HD Radio tuner (own)
Bluetooth dongle with keyboard for external input source (own)
Globalsat BU-353 GPS receiver (own)

Windows 7 with custom application GUI (own)
AudioMulch VST audio tuning environment (own)

An E7200 at 3.13Ghz uses less power than an E8400 at 3.0GHz so I decided to use the E7200. Stress tested on both the CPU and GPU, the system consumes 52W INPUT at stock speed and 45W INPUT at 1.9Ghz. It consumes 58W at 3.13Ghz while the E8400 consumes 61W at stock speed. The E7200 idles at 21W and the E8400 at 25W.

I can still use either CPU but I want to play it safe with the power supply that can only put out 4A on the 12v rail when ran at extreme high/low input voltages. Typical 11-16v sits at 6A at 12v though. I have no idea how much the system is actually using but taking the INPUT amperage, removing the inefficiencies, and assume no 3.3 or 5v was being used, the system would consume 3.5A at 12v using the E7200 at 1.9Ghz

Due to the lack of enclosures, I have ditched the low profile Firewire card idea and am looking for a Fast Track Ultra model instead - 6 channel USB instead of 8 channel Firewire.

Once past POST, Windows loads in 9 seconds and shuts down in 3-4 seconds. Overall it takes about 25 seconds to boot up due to the SLOW POST speed...

Console accessory width

Reply #26 – December 30, 2009, 07:12:48 AM

Quote from: Seek;304358

Once past POST, Windows loads in 9 seconds and shuts down in 3-4 seconds. Overall it takes about 25 seconds to boot up due to the SLOW POST speed...

Wow, really?!?! Now if I only understood any of what you were talking about! :D

Merry Christmas!
Bill

Console accessory width

Reply #27 – December 30, 2009, 10:54:09 AM

POST (power on self test) = black screen that comes up when you first hit the power button. It takes 16 seconds or so from turning on the ignition to the point that it gets to the "loading windows" screen, then another 9 seconds to be done loading.

Console accessory width

Reply #28 – December 30, 2009, 05:04:22 PM

Quote from: Seek;304398

POST (power on self test) = black screen that comes up when you first hit the power button. It takes 16 seconds or so from turning on the ignition to the point that it gets to the "loading windows" screen, then another 9 seconds to be done loading.

Cool... now I understand that.... of course, I still don't understand the rest of your post. I think this means I'm now officially old.

Merry Christmas!
Bill

Console accessory width

Reply #29 – December 30, 2009, 05:39:17 PM

Perhaps :p

It's really just power draw tests I've done on the PC - a fully loaded PC that is faster than everything at my work, besides a couple servers. It all fits into about 7.5x8x2 inches though and will be used to connect to the car's ECU and TCS while also providing entertainment, GPS, and such but with full digital processing for the audio signals. Certain power supplies only offer a limited amount of amperage so I found power draws that fit my needs while also using a TINY power supply (2x1x0.5") in dimensions. The other one I was about to use was much larger at 4x5x1" and would be much more difficult to mount and run wires with the limited space I will have for mounting it all (pc, power supply, HD radio receiver, sound DAC, etc).