So I just scored one of these for free (from a vendor at work). :

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/em...1000/index.jsp

I'd really like to use it as a simple CarPC setup but I'd rather not do anything too drastic to the interior until I'm sure it's the direction I want to go. I was thinking about getting a 7" touchscreen and powering both the PC and screen from the cigarette lighter, then just running the PC audio into the Aux-In for now. Would this work? How is the best way to handle startup/shutdown on a carPC like that? What OS is best, what software on top etc?

The VIA box is already set for 12V DC in with no adapter so that should work ok I would think.

Any help would be appreciated

 

check out the mp3car.com forums. they know their carpc's like guys know their mini coopers here.

i actually tried out the artigo, but it was too slow for my purposes, especially when multitasking with my gps program. for basic mp3s and videos it should be fine. powering with one of those 12v regulator cig adapters should be okay, but don't blame me if a spike fries your board. not sure how robust the artigo is. also, problem with the cig lighter is once you turn off the car power to the artigo is cut off right away not allowing a clean shutdown/hibernate unless you remember to do it manually.

reliable and safe startup/shutdown is tricky in non-laptop carpc's. there's this $42 startup/shutdown controller at mp3car that you can hook up to the power switch pins. you will need to tap constant power as well as an igntion fuse. i recommend just using add-a-circuit to the appropriate fuse (check out the "Hot or Not" sticky in the electronics mod forum). it supplies power but unregulated so you can just splice a 12v universal type car adapter to it like you would have used with the cig lighter. make sure your 12v adapter has enough amps as well. this one at amazon should work. you can snip of the plug end and connect it to the controller.

i use a pricey Carnetix 2140 power supply/regulator that will also give you nicely regulated 12V for your Artigo and Touchscreen as well as 5V for any accessories. you can hook it up to the power switch pins and it will automatically turn on your computer with ignition and shut it down when you turn off the ignition with a usb computer interface to easily customize timings.

for quick and dirty way if you don't mind messy pull-the-plug shutdowns that could lead to file corruption, the artigo does have a resume after power failure option, so when it receives power again it will turn back on automatically.

as for os, use windows XP. less headaches. vista/windows7 is too much for the artigo and not necessary for a carpc. for software on top, otherwise known as "frontends" for touchscreen car friendly interfaces, i recommend roadrunner with the digitalfx skin (donation ware) or centrafuse ($65 for the non-nav version).

 

I was going to recommend mp3car.com too- also check out Schatzy's recent post.

 

I was thinking about running something in XPe with EWF turned on so that corrupting the disk (the Artigo has an 80gb SATA drive in it) isn't an issue. I'd just turn off EWF on the music/movie partition when I wanted to update, and keep a very small partition for settings etc.

I will check out mp3car.com, thanks guys. I read Schatzy's post but that's a little more integration than I'm looking for right now

 

I will whey in here on the Artigo Via C7 1.0 GHz.

Nice little machine but there are problems with it that make it not so great for use as a carpc.

Problems:

1. 12 VDC input great but your car runs at 14.4 when running and that is beyond the input spec for the Artigo. You may very well fry the mother board. I do not find the info online currently but when i was researching this same pc i found a listing of 11.2 to 12.8 VDC input.

2. Although there is a fan on the 1.0 GHZ Artigo it does not help much in confined spaces. The box is also meant to be used as a heat disipation device. This unit has been designed to run in a normal household atmosphere, I.E. external temps of 60-90 degrees and lots of space or in Kiosks that have fans in them to keep the interior cool, most kiosks will be found in air conditioned spaces like airports, malls etc. Although the motherboard Manufacturer states it can work up to 122 degrees my personal experience is that in the case it can not. In the car environment where the temps easily reach 140 and it will have very little space to live, this make it very easy to overheat and destroy the C7 processor. BTW the processor is also designed to slow down its proccessing as it heats up. So in high temp situations it gets even slower than normal

3. This unit runs Linux very well as Linux has very little overhead in terms of it operating system. Windows on the other hand has lots of overhead in the operating system and thus slows this machine to a crawl even when playing MP3's etc. I have played with these and even on a stripped version of XP they are still very slow. I currently run one with ClarkConnect Linux as my home music server and it works well on that but still has problems at times durring the summer when the temps in the house rise above 80 degrees.

Other comments:

lancing74 has made many good statements as well about starup/shutdown. It is not that easy with the car environment. I am still fighting with mine to get it to shutdown every time properly.

Note on Touchscreen monitors - be very carfull when choosing a monitor, many that run on 12VDC do not actually like the 14.4 that cars run at when the engine is running and will severly degrade the life expectancy of the LCD screen.

Front End Software as lancing74 stated is a must. It is to difficult to try and use windows without one, the icons ect are just to small. If you are good with software problems and programing then Ride Runner (formerly RoadRunner, they can't use that name any longer due to licensing restrictions) is good. If you just want load and work go with Centrafuse, set up is very easy. But either of these add extra load to the proccessor.

Good luck on your quest. This also becomes an obsession.

 

to reiterate, definitely don't wire the car's voltage directly to the Artigo. use the universal adapter i mentioned above. it comes with several tips to match the Artigo. it should provide "safe" voltage and adequate amperage.

another tip on Artigo. when i had set it up. i used this panel mount audio jack installed in the precut hole in the back of the artigo casing to make a quick disconnect with my start-up/shut-down controller. i plugged it into the appropriate power switch pins of the motherboard removing the artigo's orginal cables. you can also solder it to the actual button to preserve the original cable's functions which includes the HD/power lights.

there are many ways to skin a cat.

 

Thanks for all of the great information guys, I appreciate the help.

So if I wanted to make a very basic proof-of-concept system, all I'd really need is a safe voltage adapter like the one lacning74 suggested, and a something like a 7" Liliput 12V touch screen. Would one that comes with a cigarette adapter suggest that it would work fine in a car without worrying about voltage issues? I've seen them on ebay for around $170 which isn't so bad. I can see myself becoming obsessed with this but I really want to make sure it's something I want to do before dropping too much money, I figure if I get just a touchscreen and it doesn't work out how I want, I can just resell it and reuse the Artigo for something else.

Thanks again for all your help

 

I tried a Lilliput EBY701 with the cigarette lighter adapter they supply and it worked. But it was very bright compared to when i used it with a regulated 12vdc.

That particular model is designed with a fairly wide voltage input range, though i am not sure what the exact range is.

 

So today I spent a few hours with the Artigo, got an n-lited XP install done and played with both RideRunner and Centrafuse. Centrafuse is definitely a much more polished out-of-the-box experience but I'm not giving up on RideRunner yet I think for basic MP3 and DivX/Xvid playback both will work, but I like the finished feel of Centrafuse more at the moment.

What I also did was play around with HORM (Hibernate Once, Resume Many) and EWF protected partitions and got the system to a point where I can just pull the power without any chance of disk corruption (thanks to EWF) and power back on to the point of playing an MP3 within 15 seconds (thanks to HORM). I have a 10gb protected boot partition and a 70gb media partition and that seems to work well.

So, with that part working I convinced myself to take the plunge, and ordered the Liliput EBY701 screen. No idea where I'm going to mount it yet. I still need to order the regulated universal adapter and a 2/3 port cigarette lighter splitter. The latter I can probably get at Radio Shack, but for the regulated adapter I think it's best to go with lacning74's suggestion.

Schatzy62, how are you going to deal with the very cold NE winters? I've had trouble when leaving my HD based iPod in the car on 20 degree nights, and I can't imagine what would happen with a full PC/touchscreen.

 

The touch screen is rated down to 0 degrees F. So that should not be a problem.

The Western Digital Passport Drives are rated down to 10 degrees F and have been shown to work well below that.

The AOpen PC i have has a solid state hard drive and the temp range on that is very tight but that is just because they have not really wanted to do the testing. Others have had them down below 0 without a problem.

My only concern is with condensation. And my feeling with this is that where the computer is located in the car it will do a fairly fast warm up without warm air blowing across it.

The iPod problem is more of a battery problem than any of the other parts. Ihave put a warm battery in a very cold iPod (from the deep freezer) and it has worked.

 

Good info, thanks. I'm having trouble getting Centrafuse to resume playing when I power on from a hibernated state, and it seems like RideRunner has a specific option to deal with HORM (using a flash drive) so I might be leaning that way now

What front end are you using? I know lacning is using RR with DigitalFX - I tried using that but when choosing a new logo on the settings screen (the mini logo of course) RR hangs on me.

 

Currently I am running an unmodified Centrafuse install.

I played with Ride Runner and had lots of troubles with resuming. Centrafuse was only slightly better until i really played with Windows XP.

In Windows XP i would recommend the following changes.

Power Options>Power Scheme: Home/Office Desktop ( this helps with hibranate and resume)

Run>GPEIDT.MSC>Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>Turn Off Atuoplay: Set to Enabled. ( This also helps resume as the computer will try to auto play the media drive)

My bios run up time is 17 seconds. very long i know but that is what i have to deal with. Resume time is about 5 seconds now with the above settings. so my total run up time to use is now about 22 seconds. Previous to the above changes it could be as much as 90 seconds to get to be usable, depending on the hibranate save.

I have not played with HORM as i have just not had the time between vacation and work.

Edit: make sure Autoplay is off for all drives not just the CD drives.

 

Is your Centrafuse resuming playback automatically? I guess it probably would if you're hibernating every time rather than using HORM.

I'm hoping my Liliput arrives before next Saturday, I have a road trip to Boston planned and it would be cool for my wife to be able to watch movies on the trip - kind of justify the whole CarPC thing :D

 

Where did you order it from. I got mine thru ebay from www.mo-co-so.com.

It had a slightly better price and no shipping charges thru e-bay over their direct site.

Just one thing to remember. All of the states in New England have laws regarding playing of video of any sort in the front seats even for the passenger seat. Basically it is not allowed while the car is in motion. If the police do not see it then there is no problem but i do know a friend has been ticketed in Mass for it ($350). He has a Miata and no back seats.

If Cnetrafuse is playing music it automaticaly resumes play no mater what screen may have been up. It also remembers the last navigation track on resume.

My feeling is that HORM would not work that well as the song has changed for each time i hbranate, meaning that it picks up right from where it left off which HORM would not do.

What are you going to Boston for?, if you dont mind my asking.

 

yeah, i'm thinking that HORM would only be useful if Centrafuse could store it's config on another (non ewf) disk and be HORM-aware so that it would reload it's config upon HORM resume. I believe RR can do this...testing later today.

It's our wedding anniversary on Wednesday so we're going to the big city next weekend for some shopping and touristy stuff (duck tour!). We usually stay in Cambridge (the Marlowe) and take the T in to the city.

 

Centrafuse uses the hibernate function in windows to save its state.

But as i see it HORM would resume it to the same state every time. I.E. not to the middle of that last song playing when it went into hibernate. This would definitely be a problem for me.

How many years?

Have a good time in "The Big City"

 

11 years...and it's been almost 13 since I moved from England.

I'm thinking that I'm just going to have to get used to the idea of hibernating the CarPC before turning off the engine in order to preserve the resume state...but at least with EWF the OS will be protected in case I forget and shutdown cold.

Thanks for the tip about front video screens, I'll make sure I'm careful when choosing a mounting point. It won't be used for video much anyway, just on long trips, definitely not going to be watching while I'm driving!

 

Quick question for you guys, has anyone figured out a way to make the MINI mfsw control a CarPC? I've seen devices that look like they are meant for that purpose on other cars, but haven't seen it done in a MINI yet.

 

There have been a bunch of people working on the CAN Bus system to get the MFSW control to work on BMW's but with the advent of the MOST Bus It has changed everything. I am sure someone is working on it but i have not heard any good results.

Just a side note. On my application there is not enough MFSW buttons to really be or any help. Volume up and down in my car is already handles as the output of the PC goes thru the head unit. The only other buttons on the MFSW that would do any thing are the forward and reverse but personally i don't use those except for searching thru radio stations so I have not use for the MFSW button on the CarPC.

 

here's a link with good info on someone trying to make a diy ipod interface. haven't seen progress in a while. maybe he just ended up buying the oem interface. anyway, from the diagrams, luckily, the MFSW communicates with the steering wheel cluster via K-Bus. probably the easiest place to tap the signal wise (vs MOST and CAN elsewhere) if accessible, but way beyond my abilities. i would really like to use the buttons to change my XM radio stations.

 

Yeah, I had this crazy idea that there would be some way to plug a cable in the USB socket on the MINI and have it 'think' that there was an ipod plugged in, so that the next/previous track buttons would send out a signal through that USB port, to be read by some kind of keystroke emulator on the PC side therefore changing tracks.

Gonna make a cardboard template for the EBY701 tonight to try and figure out screen location. I really love the flip-out mod that was done on the R53 using the cup holder mount, because it was easily removable and a slick solution to the lack of space. Wish there was something this simple for the R56...

 

Got my DC regulated adapter and 3-way cigarette splitter today, and was checking out good locations to put the Artigo. I'd like it under the passenger seat, but there seems to be a plastic cover under there that's raised up enough to stop me mounting the Artigo in that spot. What's that plastic thing for, and is there a way to remove it without taking the whole seat out? I don't want to screw with the airbags and heated seat stuff.

 

The cover under the seat is for a well that is located under the seat for different modules that the car may need depending on the packages you ordered.

The only way to get the cover off is to cut it or take teh seat out. Takign the seat out is actually very easy. Just remember one thing "Disconnect The Battery First" tehn you can disconnect the cable that is under the seat. I have done it many times with out problem.

 

Liliput is coming today, 1 day ahead of schedule. For now I'm going to run the power and Artigo on the floor behind the passenger seat since no-one rides in my back seats anyhow. Once I'm happy with the way things work, I'll re-do this all properly (with a proper DC-DC power supply etc) although my wife is already taking a keen interest in my putting a similar carpc setup in her Jeep so that may come first. Luckily that dash has plenty of space for a 2 din mounted display

 

Told you it could become an obsession.