Linux in your car, anyone?

[thaddaeus]

Just wondering if anyone has built a small barebones or custom linux system to be built in to their car, also the process if it was custom, i plan on doing this within the next couple of years when i get the money, basically just need some ideas on a car system, somthing to play movies music games, maybe gps, satalite tv, what ever i can afford and find software for. ( I would appreciate real ideas please :) )

[tambo]

You should check out www.mini-itx.com

There was even a brief discussion about a similar project here some time last year if I remember rightly.

[merclude]

I did this with my laptop, just made a mount for it and roll around with it in my car...few things I did:

bought a head unit with an aux input, so i can plug the laptop audio out into the head unit, and play mp3/ogg/etc(btw, you'll prolly need a ground loop eliminator for this, as the laptop and the car use different power sources.)

wireless - of course, for war driving :D

gps - got a cheap etrex(100 usd), got a serial->usb adapter, plugged that sucker in..used it with gpsdrive(cool gps program, integrates with kismet for wardriving)

got some cool xmms plugins so when im playing mp3s i can look at all the cool effects while the music plays

i also looked into stuff like mythtv/tivo, never did anything about it though, i always just booted up to something like xfce with big fat buttons for each program.

[JoeyJoeJo]

Have a look at dashpc.com

[rocketpcguy]

just need some ideas on a car system, somthing to play movies music games,

dont give microsoft another thing against linux. "cars with linux inside crash more often than without linux!".

[merclude]

with the recent story about lexus cars getting infected with virus via bluetooth, I dont think its such a bad idea to toss linux in there :)

some bmw's (iirc) run linux navigation software..

[thaddaeus]

some of the hardware they used on that dashpc is pretty nice, the little device that shutsdown and powerson the computer when the car is started or stoped, i may need to get my handson that :). Anyone know of any smalltouch screens that either use usb or ps/2 connections a to act as the mouse that work with linux?

[WakeBdr]

Check out www.mp3car.com

There is a ton of information there that can help get you started.

[psych-major]

First, noticed your location and avatar, cool! <><

I've been thinkning about doing this in my camping rig ('95 Jeep Cherokee) Don't forget to use a beefy enough power inverter for whatever power supply you end up with. I have a 500W unit from Sam's Club (item# 148648 Price: $28.87) that run's my laptop nicely and I use a tiny Belkin FM transmitter from Walmart ($19.99) to run the sound through my stereo. The laptop is OK, but it would really cool to have something "hard-wired" like you suggest.

The company I work for makes extensive use of touchscreen monitors and I'm not familiar with anything that would be adequate for vehicle use, and they are REALLY pricey! However, there are a couple of "soft" keyboards that if combined with a wireless mouse might be helpful.
they are available here:
Gnome onscreen keyboard
http://www.gok.ca/

GTKeyboard
http://www.gnu.org/software/gtkeyboard/gtkeyboard.html

Good luck and please post your progress for posterity!!

[TheCatMan]

I've been thinking about this, mainly so I can play oggs on the move, but it's just been a pipe-dream so far.

Instead of a distracting touch-screen, how about some basic speech recognition? You could make it recognise a few commands (play music, read out a text file, etc) and pipe all its outputs through a text-to-speech program like Festival. Instead of fiddling with the car radio or stopping to juggle CDs, you could just ask it nicely to change tracks. :D

[thaddaeus]

speech recognition is a little iffy right now, i know on start uses it and its fairly decent, that mp3car.com site has the monitor i was searching for, only like 400 +/- and bunch of other stuff thanks for the link

also so far these will just be ideas like i said, i'm hopeing my taxreturn will at least help me get some of the essential hardware, i also have other things going into this car btw its an old 89' volvo 740 gl runs like a dream but needs more high tech stuff just put new ARC raceing seats in soon a new head liner debating on the touch screens whether to do ceiling popdown or dash mounted but i will keep the progress posted


<><

[psych-major]

I've casually considered this type of project for a while, but your post got me off my butt and thinking about it in earnest. I put together a hardware list and have decided to make my setup portable, with LCD screens that strap to the headrests temporarily, and the PC box in some sort of carrying case. That way I can move between vehicles with ease.

I envision a small desktop form-factor PC with a DVD-ROM, 120gig hard drive, and PCI wireless card. The idea being to either play a DVD, or while parked in the garage load up the hard drive with ripped .vob files via my wireless network. I can neither confirm nor deny that I would use the wireless technology to check email or internet if a stray connection became available... I might also try adding a second sound card so that video sound goes to the screens and a separate Mp3 stream could be sent to the stereo

I haven't gotten to video monitors or input devices yet.