My In-Dash Car PC project

Well 16ft is the total length of the run. I ran my cable from the trunk and underneath the floor trim under the doors up and around the glove box and then into the radio area. Total length of wire to get there is about 16ft. One 10ft and one 6ft USB cable is what I was using. Plus I could not find a shorter active repeater cable.

I just finished testing my USB 2.0 hub thats in my car and it works great. I don't need that repeater cable for my car but I still might be able to use it for something else. I removed the extra cables from my car and installed the POL device to turn on only when I have my PC on so it wont drain the battery. After everything was hooked up I was able to successfully burn a DVD in my car for the first time! Now I can pirate DVDs while I drive. Well not actually while I drive because one bump and I get a failed burn but I can burn just fine while the car is parked.

 

Well I finally got around to fixing my WiFi problem. I upgraded to a Linksys WRT54GL router and installed Tomato firmware on it to boot the power a little. I also removed the b/g USB adapter from inside the car PC case and mounted it externally beside the case. This allowed for better reception. I can now surf priuschat.com from my car in the garage now. I can also finally do some war driving with netstumbler.

Still on the to do list
1. remove ground loop in video signal.
2. make the cables nice and neat.
3. there is always a 3 but I cant think of it right now.

 

The gear that lifts my screen just went out today as I was leaving from work. !!!!! !!!!!
!@#$!#@$%#@!$!#@%#$%#@%#$!%^#$!%#@!%#$!%

I felt like I was driving blind without my can-view.

I'll report back as soon as I get the screen out of my dash.

 

A laptop could have done the job but I wanted to build the PC myself. Plus it was cheaper or about the same price as a laptop of the same features. I also use the in dash screen for my can-view so the LCD on a laptop would be like wasted money.

Here is what the problem was. A broken lift gear. I thought this was fix when I bought mine but I guess I may have gotten one of the last ones that was not fixed. I tried fixing the gear by melting the ends a little and sticking it back on the motor axle but when I stuck it on the thing just split again. It like the gear shrunk a little and the pressure just made it split.

I have another LCD on the way and yes its the same model. I'm giving it one more shot. If this next one fails I will just have to make or find a fixed screen that will work.

Here you can see what gear split. Its almost like the motor axle was too big for the gear.

 

Well I got my replacement screen. One thing I did not notice when I bought it was that this new screen has the TV tuner. Cant really use it since its analog only but oh well.

The screen is installed and was just a simple pop in and hook everything back up. I looked at the gears and this new one has what looks to be black gears and they look a little thicker. We will see how this one goes.

Here is the good and bad news.

Good news is that the screen looks much brighter and clearer then the original. I cant wait to test it out in the sun to see if I can read it any better.

Bad news is that it does not work with my can-view. The can-view will not even respond to any touches. I ordered a programmer adapter from Norm so I can reprogram the can-view. Norm updated the software at the beginning of the year because of a code change Lilliput made in the other screens so I'm hoping this new software will work with my screen. If it does not I guess I'm SOL unless Norm would want to try to write some new code for my screen.

Some other good news. I was able to make some modifications to my broken screen so I could use it as a stand alone touch screen. The only reason I'm not putting it back in the car is because I had to remove the lift gear and thats what keep the screen secure from flapping up and down. All I did was adjust the spring to try to keep it upright. The spring is not enough to keep it secure so I'm just going to use like a regular screen for now.

I hope my programmer adapter will come in soon. Right now I have my screen on the data I want to see but I really want to start capturing data again and cant start capturing again until I get the screen to work and turn on the serial data.

 

I got my programmer adapter from Norm today and reprogrammed my Can-View. Everything is now working like before.

 

Well I'm just about ready to give up on this damn thing. As I was doing some P&G I look down and there is nothing on my screen. It was completely black. The only thing that functions was the clock and the screen did move in and out.

It was pretty hot in the car so I'm hoping its some kind of thermal protection that caused it to shut off. I went out to the car after having it off for an hour and the screen still would not turn on. It was still pretty hot. I guess I will just wait until in the morning and try again. If it does not work in the morning I know I wont have a working screen to display at Hybridfest this year. I guess I could try to transplant my old screen into this one but I really like the new screen and I don't want to void the warranty. The new screen is a lot more clear during the day. Or at least it was.

 

Well it looks like its dead. I will rip this damn thing out when I get home and try to rig up my old one to work for now until I can get the new one replaced.

 

Well I got my replacemet screen the other day and installed it yesterday. So far so good. I just hope this one lasts a long time.

 

I don't read Russian??? and from what google was able to translate it looks like someone was able to make a touch screen to USB converter for Toyota Lexus? This would be a great step forward if it works on a 2006+ Prius. The only thing really holding us 2006+ Prius owners back is that the MFD uses a digital connection for its video instead of RGBs. The digital video is in GVIF format.

If we could get a RGBs or RGBHV to GVIF converter and get that AVC-lan to USB converter thing to work on the 2006+ Prius we would be all set.

 

Since the weather has gotten colder my car PC locks up pretty quick after it boots. I'm narrowing it down to the laptop hard drives causing the issue.

I have placed an order for two gskill 64GB SSD from newegg.com for $145. I hope they will work better in the cold weather. I will be putting these drives in a raid 0 for performance.

 

Well from the reviews of these cheap MLC drives if you put them in a raid 0 they perform very well. The first thing I'm looking for in these SSD is cold weather performance. Since there is no moving parts I'm hoping they perform well in cold weather. They are rated to operate in 0c-70c but most solid state equipment can operate well below 0c. The reviews say that putting them in a raid 0 will speed up read as well as write speed. I'm hoping it will make my computer start faster as well as make programs respond faster.

 

Well the few reviews I found on raid 0 SSD's show that it can decrease boot time and decrease application load time. It can also decrease the time it takes to write files.

I'm not worried about an SSD crashing in raid 0 for car PC use as there is nothing stored on the drive that is of any importance. All I have on my car computer is music and video files which I have a copy of on my raid 5 in my desktop PC.