CarPCs just got a lot easier.

very nice. pity it will not fit in my dash-board. :(

Touchscreen is the clincher. Would work great with MCE.

Yup. They do ordinary dash top, and single din ones, but with most cars from the last few years having room for a double din once you get the facia adaptor, that looks very cool.

They do single DIN motorised too.

DVD drive, but you could build that in somewhere else if you wished.

But what exactly is the point?

Because he can. Hobby innit :-)

Yup. I like cars, I like computer. So I can combine them. Now where did I see that site that listed 12v Pizza ovens. I like Pizza.

If you could integrate the programmable ECU card my friend has been using in a shuttle in his 200SX, I reckon that would be pretty good actually.

Other than that... it's a bit pointless overall, on the =A3 per plus point scale.

--=20 JackH

Because like everything else you mod, the off the shelf doesn't do the job, or doesn't do the job for the price, or because you want to make part of it yourself.

Because you can choose the hardware you want, have a huge all singing multimedia machine that will work as your handfree and your satnav, and your office as well as your music, or a tiny lowpowered one that just holds a few songs on it along with satnav, and a wireless link to update maps and songs. You have it all hidden away and you don't need to remember to move your iPod or TomTom when parking in dodgy areas because it just looks like a headunit.

Older cars don't have the option of buying even a factory nav/mm setup secondhand, and even when they do they aren't that impressive because they are outdated, but a CarPC can get updated both hardware and software, there is a growing comunity of free and sometimes payed for front ends and tools, including satellite and DVB Radio tools, and dedicated Headunit quality AM/FM/RDS controller boards with software only interfaces, and people taking advantage of TMC feeds and TMC recievers built into the latest GPS dongles, or reading the BBC XML traffic feed if you have 3g data connections to inject the traffic data as POIs in the GPS programs so you can route round trouble as it happens.

It isn't about business or making money although some of the guys charge for thier software as it was their time spent writing it.

Have a look at

have beta downloads but no firm pricing yet.The are charging more for XE because it has to include a license for "phoneCTL" which as it happens PhoneCTL used to be free, but the developer used to get so much shit from "Why won't your piece of shit software support my 5 minute old smart phone" types that he decided to charge for it to dedicate more time to buying and testing new hardware rather than the traditional free/free beta route he had been going down.XLE is charged higher still because they need to provide a commercial license for Destinator maps which are licensed same as the PDA ones and use I think NavTeq data. Centrafuse and PhoneCTL are two of the best packages available, they just happen to be commercial. Frodoplayer is great and very skinable. Other listed on MP3Car.com are just hobby packages that have loyal followings.

Head unit, MP3 player, hands-free and sat-nav are all best kept to dedicated devices, IMHO.

I just don't see the point. Dension icelink to an iPod hidden in the glovebox and a small, hand-held type satnav that you can chuck in with it are ideal solutions.

A lot of modern satnav units have GPRS data connections built-in.

I wouldn't trust a Windows box with to do my telephony, not when a 50 quid box from Nokia does it so much better.

Still can't convince me.

..

Why would you need anything as huge as shuttle when the whole thing can=20 be built into the size of a CD changer?

Well, if the ECU has PC software and a connecting cable, you could hook=20 it up permanent rather than needing a laptop. Just embed it.

It is upgradeable. The PC can do either radio in the screen setup, or=20 just get a cheaper one and do radio in the PC with the HQCT AM/FM/RDS=20 tuner (an internal headunit with software only interface). It is not the=20 same as every other car. If your car has a basic out of date control=20 screen you can change it to a PC touch screen. There are relay boards to=20 control AC and even air suspension, and as a budget LowJack type system,=20 have the PC boot when the engine starts like a headunit then require a=20 pin for the first 30 seconds. Then appear to work normally. If it=20 doesn't get the pin, it can start SMSing (from an embedded PAYG phone)=20 the lat/long reference or even street names/numbers and speed from the=20 GPS back to the car owner. What about ringing the police and telling=20 them (on the land line) that your car is ringing your mobile and telling=20 you where it is.

Wouldn't that be useful? If a PC can be programmed to do it, it can do=20 it in a car. One small box, all the tricks. WiFi updated music library. Access to all the lossy and lossless audio formats. Never having to run out of HDD space using a cradle and the music=20 database stored on the cradle with the files. Just swap drives to change=20 your mood. AM/FM/DAB/DVB-radio and eventually streaming internet radio when wifi is=20 freer or 3g becomes less crippling. DVD/MPG/AVI for the passenger entertainment, or any game that will run=20 on a medium spec PC (some of the miniITX sized boards now use Pentium 4=20 and AMD mobile processors as well as desktop versions and . Bluetooth handsfree (I want 3g video phone night rider style but I guess=20 that might have to wait). Parking reverse rear, or IR nightvision front cams Projects working on speed/nav/nightvision HUDs using common parts. Speaking navigation, even software based voice control of the PC and Nav=20 software. Choice of interface/control/navigation/supplimental software and a=20 choice of skin so you like the look of software A but software B has the=20 features you want. Chances are the same guy has made the same skin for both, so B can work=20 how you want it and still look like A that you liked. Imagine the potential for your car HiFi to never be out of date hardware=20 or software wise.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

Playing at home:Johnny Cash-The Man Comes Around

Because the card in question is a PCI card, and they cost =A3900 - it's not likely you'll economically shoe-horn one of those into a double din unit already packed to the hilt. =20

--=20 JackH

These just happen to use windows. Others are stripping it down with Nlite before installing. Some are messing with embedded XP and X86 CE Some are taking the read only/single user options of Embedded XP to speed up booting, make the system none damaging to solid state drives by cutting down the number of writes and returning to a default state on each boot. Add disk writes, Add your tunes, make it read only again, job done. Some are playing with linux and a few are working on OSX based Mac minis.

Custom boot screens and minimal boot times are getting them closer to modern in car systems, available to everyone.

Fair enough. But still, most of the front end software will allow you to embed or=20 switch to other applications (some work as replacment shells to=20 explorer, others work on top). So you could be listening to MP3s while=20 datalogging and getting directions and taking a call all at the same=20 time.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

Playing at home:Johnny Cash-The Man Comes Around

I've got this solution and while it all works very well, I'd rather have everything on one funky screen in the dash. I haven't because I can't afford to spunk a load of cash on it right now, and I know the mrs. has bought me a video iPod for Chrimbo which will slot into the Dension cradle I already have, so there's a bit less point in going car PC.

And my wife gets my old iPod mini. They're not daft are they...

heh... well go on then.

As for everything else... I spend time in my Golf to get to work, go shopping etc.

I happen to quite enjoy *driving* it, and I'm keen on my music as well, hence why I've bothered to fit a half decent stereo.

And I can listen to this whilst I'm doing said driving.

I don't get the fascination with DVDs in the car etc.

I appreciate you might... but it doesn't do it for me really.

When I get the 216, I'll enjoy driving that as well I'm sure... and that'll be it - rag it round some country lanes etc. - no need for something as complex and desirable to toerags, as an in-dash PC.

I don't really see the point in anything else in a car unless you want to keep your kids quiet with DVDs, or maybe sat nav, even though it's one of life's great brain rotters IMHO.

DAB from what I've read, is a pile of s**te reception wise, hence why I've not even bothered with that.

I would just use it as a datadrive with a rewritable disc, either to transport 4 additional gigs of MP3s to the hdd or to play them directly off the disc and erase it later after copying. I wouldn't watch myself but passenger might want to.

I use a HP 6515 mobile messenger phone which has gps built in, phone, windows for pocket pc, mp3, 2 gig card and runs tom tom. It does everything. With that plus my dvd player in the card that can play mp3s and an 8gb ipod nano I can't see what a car pc would do for me extra.

Fraser

I have a small Nokia phone that I use (6230i - is has a speaker phone button - although technically I do break the law by using it in the car - so I can see why you might want handsfree if you phone in the car a lot) and a CD player in the dash. Also, there is a map in the pocket behind my seat and I'm not a mong so I use that to navigate.