I'm finalising my carpc plans now and i've still one thing to figure out. I need a way of getting sound out of the damn thing. Whats the normal way for doing this? I wasn't intending running any sort of normal head unit but i suppose i could if i had to but as i'm using a din sized flip out screen its gonna have to be mounted elsewhere
I'm confuzzled
CarPC line outs to 4 channel amp. Use the acc line of the ignition switch through a soft-start circuit to stop the amp "bumping", or use a 12v line from the CarPC instead of the ignition switch, to fire a relay and another 12v line from the car to operate remote switch on. Most decent motherboard do two stereo line outs, if not 5.1 (front pair/rear pair/Sub and centre).
What i did was...
Personally I would use an External Soundblaster Live, they are cheap (30 quid) and dont rely on the power from the PC itself, you don't get the crackles through the speakers either, as it is properly shielded, they are made for laptops.
Connect it to the PC usually via the USB port, then connect it to an AMP using a phono convertor, which converts normal single mini phono to RCA.
I then connected the amp to the speakers via the front wiring behind the stereo, I routed the cables for all the speakers down a different side of the car, and the power down the otherside, eliminating any noise.
Its only got 1 line out according to that
Can i have normal balance/fader controls using it that way?
USB sounds like a good thing, i've never managed to f*ck it up before :)
Oh what you want then is either a digital amp or a DAC and a normal amp "1 x SPDIF Port (Dolby Digital Sound)"
Off to google i go!
USB sound box (creative / terratec / M audio) connected to the inputs of any old car amp.
I got all excited until i seen the price!
Sorted, terratec do something ideal, just need to get some adapters off ebay and some dusty old amps
Cheers
Chet
Yeah, put the Terratec one in a 190E. Works very well.
The Epia M10000 Mini-ITX boards I plan to use have 5.1 AC97 was planning on using channels out and a line in for a mic for handfree car phone.
Convinced the brother to get one for me and picked up a Trust one from ebay and a few 3.5mm jack>RCA convertors.
Yey :)
Chet
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