In Car GPS Set up

[me3@neuralfibre.com]

half a laptop strapped to the cargo barrier (broken screen removed), gps mouse on the roof, DC-DC power supply, USB external HD for mp3/maps/divx etc, 8" touch screen on the dash, remote power button, pcmcia wifi with roof mounted antenna, roof/rear view/under car webcam, bluetooth for phone, main/aux battery monitor, inside/outside/fridge temp monitor through roadrunner frontend, running ozi, garonav (like mapmonkey), netstumbler, freefone, plus web browsers, email, aprs etc etc...

Can you give more details on the software / hardware for the battery and temperature monitors?

Thanx
Paul

[festy]

software and hardware are both home made.
Hardware is a pair of MCUs with 3 x 10 bit ADC inputs each, connected via rs232 to my laptop. The voltage inputs use voltage dividers giving a range of 0-20v with an accuracy of about 0.1v across the range.
Temperature probes are 3 x LM356(?) temperature sensors (to92 pkg) giving temperatures accurate to about 0.5 deg C from memory.
These sensors require calibration, but I do that in software to avoid stuffing around with trimpots etc. I wrote a little app that sets up the calibration automatically.
I was considering using a spare I/O line to control an isolation solenoid for the aux battery, but thought better of it...




Software is via a Roadrunner plugin I wrote, it just presents the numbers to the RR skin to do whatever you want with them, ie -


(the power/state fields are the laptop battery, not the car batteries)

[TEE JAY]

Are these touchscreens available ina roof mount (flip down) version.
I run a laptop dash mounted and the TJ is not very roomy.

Damme it cant get the pic to work...
Can i run one of the Monitor plug on the pc as i dont think it has a video out.

[LOCKEE]

thoughts on a set up like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/CarPC-Carputer-V ... dZViewItem

[da13ro]

If you are finding that hard-drives are an issue offroad there are some work around's. Flash memory, which would happily load your OS and applications, and you could then push for a no moving parts system eg. passive cooling etc.

Linux is also a option for you out there too, also chances are you dont need a full fledged system, so you could run a cut down distro, though im not sure how many GPS nav applications there are for linux, and running a emulator would defeat the purpose.

If I where you I would look at using a laptop (already small, low power, shock resistant HDD) or a barebone system which dont cost all that much. Try http://pluscorp.com.au

[GUJohnno]

Lockee, get in touch with Rudi and sus out his system.
He got the computer for around $100.00 and has bought others for friends since.
He's built in an inverter of some sort and a touch screen.

Hasn't cost him much and has been running for a couple of years now and uses it all the time for setting up the Navruns and Cliffhanger etc.

[Hardcorr]

half a laptop strapped to the cargo barrier (broken screen removed), gps mouse on the roof, DC-DC power supply, USB external HD for mp3/maps/divx etc, 8" touch screen on the dash, remote power button, pcmcia wifi with roof mounted antenna, roof/rear view/under car webcam, bluetooth for phone, main/aux battery monitor, inside/outside/fridge temp monitor through roadrunner frontend, running ozi, garonav (like mapmonkey), netstumbler, freefone, plus web browsers, email, aprs etc etc...

Which webcams are used? I have tried normal webcams to have them not real good with bright light. My next option is to go for helmet cams.

Cheers
Corry