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Anees's Car Pc Thread - Advice And Info


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You can power your screen from the opus, but make sure your touch screen drivers are the latest ones otherwise it stops your pc going to sleep for some reason. also its very important that you connect up the power plug the right way otherwise you will blow up your screen. (as Paul mentioned)

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erm bit late in the day but if anyone does anything like this and wants a bit of heatshrink cable covering give me a pm

:blush: Er....what does it do?

heatshrink is like a black sheath u put over cables and then use a heat gun on to shrink it on keeps masses of cables in one run nice and tidy helps with routing too

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Quick questions guys, :D

What’s the best way to ground the OPUS power supply?

According to the manual I need to run a cable to the negative connector on the Battery.

Yet I emailed Chris@LinITX.com and he said the ground should be as short as possible so I am better off grounding to a bolt or something in the boot (since the PC will be in the boot)

Which way do I go?

Also….he is out of stock of the 25A Fuses, what fuse should I get? Maplins sell them.

Finally – to power the Xenarc off the Opus I need to extend the wires from a molex connector. The wire used is 20AWG – should I try and find 20AWG cable to extend or would I be better getting something thicker like 12AWG? 12 AWG seems much easier to find. :D

I can use this to join cables together:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...rce=14&doy=25m4

Thanks,

Anees

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Best option is to wire the ground back to the Battery terminal, should be fine, also the xenarc screen needs very little current so you dont need thick wire, as long as its as thick or thicker than the wire in the car adapter it came with you'll be fine,

those connectors look a little overkill, best option is to solder them are cover in heat shrink tube.

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I DID IT!! (Well Almost!)

Car PC is installed and turns on!! Whooo!!!! I have never so much as installed a radio cassette player before - but I've done it! :D :D :D :D Its a big achievement for me!

I took out the glove box and the back seats (bottom half) to get a tidy cable run!!

Just chuffed with myself! :yahoo:

The car is in bits at the moment and PICS are to follow.

I have just a few small issues however.

1) The Opus automatic ON doesn't work - I have to manually turn it on. This is because I don't know how to wire to the cigarette ligher.

I have this wire: http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=2...products_id=592

I tried just placing the wire into the cigarette socket and the PC came on but then when I moved my hand slightly it went off.

Is their anywhere easier on the car to use as a switch?

Any help? :D

2) My reversing camera also came - so I may as well install it too! ;) The power cable that come with it is exactly the same as the one used by the Xenarc. My question is - how do I know which is +ve and whice is -ve?

One of the wires of the power cable has white stripes on it and the otheris just plain black.

I will connect it the same power cable used by my parking sensors (through a 15amp fuse I bought) so that they both come on when reverse is selected.

3) How am I supposed to get the top of my dash off so that I can run the cables for the screen? I have read the guide but mines doesn't seem to budge!

Right...off to find my Camera! ;) :whistling:

Oh yeah - once more thing. To keep the PC safe from the shocks in the boot I as going to but some thick foam under it (stiff foam) and tie it to the side of the boot. Is that ok for the HDD?

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fitting the on wire to the cig lighter is dead easy

just pull up the plastic part of the console, where the cig lighter is and attach a wire to the center pin wire underneath, doesnt have to be anything super thick, just about the same as the wire on the opus,

the polarity of the plug on your camera is easy to find too just use a multimeter and find out which is positive and which is negative, usually the center is + but you must check just incase it isnt, and to find out which of your wires is center, use your multimeter again stick one probe inside the jack plug and test the wires till you get a beep or something.

as for the HDD, I used a 2.5" as they are better with shocks. I mounted it using some rubber tubes for ant shock

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Thanks Brett! :D

When it stops raining I'll try it and take my pics! So polarity doesn't matter then for the ignition wire? I'm not going to damage my PSU if I put it on the wrong way round am I? :ohmy:

I've managed to take the top part of the dash out now too - just had to jank it harder! :lol:

I know that Laptop HDDs are better for shocks and use less power but they are really expensive for the size I wanted ;)

Regarding the camera - the power connector for it is exactly the same as the ciggi adapter that comes with the Xenarc - so:

Wire with white squares is +ve.

Plain black wire is -ve.

Thats handy because I don't have a multimeter! :D I will wire the positive power connector through a fuse too - just to be on the safe side.

I am going to make a base for the PC in the boot from the foam and then cover it in speaker carpet - should look decent. :D

Anees

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polarity ALWAYS matters, when you take out the plastic tray where the cig lighter is you'll see the wires etc and its easy to find the wire that goes to the center of the cig lighter, I think it was pink but im not 100%, but that one is the one that will send the +12V needed to turn on your opus. connecting the wrong one may damage your opus and a fuse may not save you in time if at all.

same goes for the camera, you really should buy a multimeter, you can buy a cheap digital one from maplins for about £5.00 i wouldnt risk destroying it for the sake of not double checking eveything.

as for the hard drive well you maybe ok

but if your hdd is mounted in the shuttle case its directly connected to the chasis and they are not designed to be bumped, you may find that even with foam or anything like that you still get problems. i ended up having to construct something like the damping system used in a car cd changer and even then a pot hole would crash the hdd. :(

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as for the hard drive well you maybe ok

but if your hdd is mounted in the shuttle case its directly connected to the chasis and they are not designed to be bumped, you may find that even with foam or anything like that you still get problems. i ended up having to construct something like the damping system used in a car cd changer and even then a pot hole would crash the hdd. :(

I am thinking of maybe mounting it under the rear parcel shelf where alot of guys have DVD Players etc.

....DAMN Bank Holiday.........everything is closed! :hehe:

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Well done Anees :D

Thanks Mate, I'm getting their!

Right.....

I have not wired the cigarette lighter socket to control the OPUS because when I got to the bottom of it I found the two wires (one is pink the other is white with stripes on it) but wasn't sure which to use. I was sure it is the pink but the connector the white striped wire come out of said 12v not the pink wire so I got all :blink: :duh: and thought may as well leave it - I'll borrow a multimeter from somewhere as Brettster advised. :D

I have got the reversing camera working however!! I spliced the wires that are used to power my parking sensors (so they only come on when reverse is selected). It works :D :D. When I select reverse the camera and the sensors activate. The screen automatically flips over to AV2 (which is the camera) and back to the PC when any other gear is in use. :zee:

I have a few issues however.

1) When I was driving today (to test out the Map Monkey Sat Nav software) the PC suddenly just went off! I was worried. I tried to restart it and it wouldn't work. I thought :tsktsk: :tsktsk: :tsktsk: , BUT.....I unplugged the power connector and put it back in and it worked again. It is a mystery why that happened!! :ohmy::ohmy:

2) I am getting some electrical noise when the car is started. When the car is not started (but the ignition is ON) the screen is fine and I get no "shaky picture". This seems to come and go - its not that bad when I am using the PC but the picture from the camera gets quite distorted.

The OPUS is grounded to the -ve on the Battery - maybe I should gound it to somewhere in the boot and make the cable much shorter?? At the moment it is 5m long (boot to bonnet) very thick 8AWG cable.

3) The sound from the tape adapter I am using only comes through one side of the speakers. As I drive I can hear the odd bit comming from the other side - I am 99.9% certain the Tape Adapter is screwed up. I'll get another one to test.

Overall once I get the ignition wire sorted and everything looking half-decent again I hope I am pleased.

The way it just went off just worries me and has slightly dampened my mood! :shifty::blush:

Thanks to Brettster and Fargo for all their GREAT advice so far!

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re the screen,, the connectors can be a bit crap, just make sure its seated correctly and wrap some insulation tape round it to secure,

ive also ran power cable from the front to the rear so dont worry about it, i think there is an issue with grounding the psu to the same ground as the screen, ie if they are then you may well get interfernce.

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Today at work I managed to borrow a millimeter. I tested the wires under the cigarette lighter and found that they both had power! I have connected the OPUS wire to the bolt in the center. I then went to the back and tested the yellow (ON/OFF) wire for the OPUS – it had power! I have not got the PC with me – since I haven’t got it secured in the boot yet, but will test it when I get home and it stops raining.

Because I am getting electrical noise on the screen when the camera is used and a bit when the PC is on I am thinking of maybe grounding the OPUS to a place in the boot instead – since its much shorter. Do you think it is worth trying?

I am not sure how to ground the screen to a different ground then the OPUS since the screen is powered off a molex connector from the PSU.

Also for the HDD I am going to take it out of the case and put it instead into the 5.25” drive bay - surrounded by foam in the Shuttle case. I know this may increase heat slightly – but I hope it will be ok.

I am off work on Thursday (Polling day ;) ) so I’ll do more then. Still worried about why it went off yesterday. Any ideas??

Thanks,

Anees

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Thursday was a crap day progress wise. It rained all day so I didn’t really get a lot done.

I did however manage to secure the Car PC wiring to the Battery terminal properly using some connectors. I also bought and ran and extra long USB cable to the back and a 5M phono cable for when the ProLex AUX-IN is ready ;).

I also went to a scrap yard and bought a new centre console but (the bit around the gear box) onto which I made holes for two LEDs which will be the PC status lights. I also soldered the wires to the LED – unfortunately they don’t light up!! I tested using a normal 1.5v Battery. :S

Worse still the PC started playing up –every time it got into Windows the screen would just go blank. I could only get the system to boot up in Safe Mode or VGA Only mode, which made it pretty obvious that the problem was graphics card driver related. I uninstalled and then reinstalled the nVidia drivers and it now seems to be working again.

I investigated the “Road Runner” frontend too since I had heard so much about it – I was pretty impressed. I may use this instead of CentraFuse since Road Runnter can be voice controlled with Navi Voice (cool or what! ;)) It also has skins that looks more factory and OEM and also its skins have be adapted to work at 800 x 480 resolution quite easily.

Also I found that the ignition wire still didn’t turn the PC on when the car was turned on – I will have to mess about with it further.

Overall not a great day. :(

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Sorry for the lack of updates . but progres has been made.

The PC is now in the car. Still got a few bugs to sort out but getting their!!

Here are some PICS (having trouble with my Camera so had to use my camera phone - sorry! :()

USB Hub at the front (not stuck on yet)

PC Status Lights that I extended from the PC in the boot - I think they look cool! :D

The PC Boot Up (Replaced the Windows XP boot up screen with my Lexus Version!)

The Frontend (with spinning Lexus Logo)

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Thanks guys! :D :D

Its not the finished article yet (LOL - does a Car PC ever get finished! :D)

Fargo - sure mate I can send you the files for the front end.

Need to get the screen to look more stock and get some better navigation software.

The Auto-on is now working.

The biggest thing however is the sound - hate the TAPE ADAPTER!!! Should be sorted very soon thanks to Pro-lex! ;) :whistling:

I've got my reversing camera working too - comes on when I select reverse! Unfortunetly the camera is a bit too big to fit in the boot lock, so I'm finding a smaller one!

Its still a mess in the boot yet - need to sort my cables out and make them more secure.

Going well minus a few bugs!

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nice spec B)

I have worked at places where they have provided lower spec machines than that - for that matter, not even my server has a gig of RAM.

great thread - please do keep on updating it ;)

Thanks mate.

I KNOW the Ram is too much - but can you ever really have too much ram?

It only cost my £26 + Vat ( Trade account ;) ) for the Ram so I thought I may as well get the full gig. The extra ram module (according to a power calculator) only adds an extra 3 - 4watts to the power needs so I thought I may as well.

I use a pretty old PDC server at work and that only has 256Mb Ram!! :lol::lol:

The Nforce2 Chipset on the Shuttle is also optimised for Dual memory setups and the onboard Nvidia is again going to benefit by having 128Mb allocated to it.

Also I thought that since I have the ram I could actually play a few oldish (Unreal Tournament 2003 etc) games too - I have the power! :D

1 GB of ram is standard nowadays, both my home (admittadley top spec) and work laptops have 1GB of RAM/.

My next HTPC project (due october) will have 2GB of RAM!!

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