Car Pc question

[stuartturbo]

One for all you pc bods in going for an all in one so head unit
How do yo get from the 3.5mm jacks on the pc sound card to the speakers.
I assume an amp is a must,but since the output will be at 0.5vto 1v? All amps i have looked at require a bigger line in 3V. And do you just use a 3.5mm to phono
lead

Cheers

[n13l pm]

Hi

Yeah your right mate, in order to get sound from the PC you will need a amp. You have to use a 3.5mm jack to phono spliter then connect a phono cable to the amp. The actual volts is about 2 from a PC MB or sound card. Im currently in the process of testing my setup, which is completely up and running in house. Its best to use a sound card by the way. Only issue I had was that I needed a line driver for the subwoofer output, this is because the subwoofer out is normally shared with the centre speaker and the volts are normally less compared to the other outputs on the sound card or motherboard. The line driver will bascially "boost" the volts on the output. I ended up purchasing a EQ with built in line driver, and the bass output was increased by probly over double. The speaker outputs will be more then ok, trust me, I was originally worried by the idea of not having enough volts too. The sound is crystal clear and works great.

Have a look here mate (http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21573)

So you thinking of the idea of building a in car PC then??

[stuartturbo]

i was looking at building my own but have seen a setup for sale that is pretty much what i want and less than the spare components.
I did see the set up of yours.
I have done monster both types (loud and quality)stereo builds in previous cars and that was my only "concern" with a in car PC.

[Xeroid]

I presume you guys are just using the pc for music ?
What software you using ?
How have you damped the HD to stop vibration/movement damage ?

I was contemplating using a spare laptop and doing some mods to that re power supply, screen etc.

[detonate]

I'm using a laptop disk in a mini-itx box mounted on its side (so the bumps in the road knock the heads along the platters in the disk as opposed to *onto* the disk)

As for software, I'm just using Debian with Xwindows booting up straight into icewm for a window manager and XMMS. I've started writing a ghetto GTK frontend to XMMS. It's ghetto, but it does the job for now, until I get more time to work on it.

few pictures here of the GTK frontend, plus how I've bogged the Lilliput touchscreen into the double din stereo hole.

http://gallery.helix.net.nz/view_album.php?set_albumName=carpc

[n13l pm]

Im looking to run music, dvds/videos and gps sat nav on my pc. Software wise im currently running it on windows media player. Im on the look out for a sat nav software /help

As for vibrations I tested the HD and it seems like its gonna take some effort to give it some damage. Iv used some rubber mountings and mines aswell will be mounted on its side.

Im not too sure about the laptop idea, how you planning to mod that? probly be better off using it as parts for a new car pc. :thinking:

[Nutter_John]

For mounting the hard disk have a look around for some oil filled shocks and springs off an radio controlled car , they will dampen any sudden pot holes etc without damage to the disk . you can now get solid stae flash disks with 16gb of space on for around 200+ from a few places

[Xeroid]

Basically the laptop would be the guts of it, it's all complete, why rip it to bits ?
Mount the whole thing under a seat in a gel cell jacket so it's all shock absorbed. Provide heat control, fan in cell
You can already buy car adapters to provide power to them so that's easy. All is needed is a screen conversion and control system.

In actual fact best way nowadays is just to fit in a PSP unit, it's all there for a couple of 100 dollars and it's small and has all the right software for music. video, browse the web, probably some one has some GPS sw coming along. Feed it to a good head unit for the sounds, mount it on the dash in the lower DIN slot on a pullout, foldup slider. No HD to worry about so no impact protection needed. Add the big USB and away you go...

Now thats got me thinking, .... but I guess Chris (14 year old stepson) would notice if I 'borrowed' his one for while.

But hell, it's an easy solution for sure.

[Xeroid]

...and I ain't no software guru like you appear to be anyway.