Project: Truckputer

Well, I'm finally getting around to building my carputer (truckputer actually). I got about halfway through before I started documenting, so I'll try to catch everyone up.

The goal: Easy to use single purpose computer that takes the place of the car stereo. Must be able to perform GPS navigation, play MP3s (and other formats), play DVDs (for the passenger), AM/FM radio, CDs, have wireless internet (to do research on the road), and have flexibility for future added functionality (engine monitoring, cameras, etc). It also has to take up minimal space.

The case:

A 1990 Chevy S-10 Blazer. Not the newest of vehicles, but paid for, well maintained, and nicely modified.

The target install area:


I wanted as clutter-free of an install as possible, so I have to work in the space available. At first I thought about putting everything in the space where the current radio is, but it's just too small, even if I removed the cigarette lighter and rear hatch button. So I decided that I would replace the head unit with my own that contains most of the accessories. I thought about tucking the mobo under the seat, but there's only 1" of clearance. I then thought about putting it in the center console. Enough room, but lots of cable runs for power and USB. On a whim, I tried the mobo in the glove compartment and it's a perfect fit! Only about 1/4" to spare on each side, and room for all the plugs out the back. Perfect! Plus by removing a small panel, there is easy access to the back of the radio!

Next: Parts

Parts:

Looking at my requirements (and my budget), I decided on the following parts:
Microsoft 2007 USB GPS reciever
Griffin iMIC USB soundcard (already had)
Griffin Powermate (for volume control)
Griffin Radioshark (doesn't have a good reputation, but hopefully a good antenna will help)
Three generic USB 2.0 four port hubs
nMEDIA vacuum flourescent display from Newegg
Sun notebook slot load DVD drive (Ebay for $25, cheaper than a new Panasonic at $90)
notebook to IDE adaptor (Directron, $10)
External DVD/CDRW drive (drive went into a friend's computer, USB controller I'll use)
PCChips CLE266 1.0 GHz VIA C3 mobo (actually built by VIA, so it's good)
Thermalright HR-05 heatsink for CPU from Newegg
ATX-02 power supply from mp3car.com
20 GB laptop hard drive (already had)
Stock head unit from E-bay
8.4" touchscreen LCD from Chinavision
Three AMP-32 aplifiers from 41hz
Front panel for the head unit from Front Panel Express

<3 car mods, cant wait!

Lets hope you can get it all together and working.

Looks like a fun project. Subscribed!

First thing I did was remove almost everything from its plastic case. There will be no wasted space in here! After a lot of planning and measuring, I gutted the stock radio and Dremeled the front and back plate to make room for everything. Sorry for no before picture, but here is the after picture of the head unit chasis without the top plate (it's upside-down in the picture:



When I figured out where everything would go, I made up a front panel template and ordered from Front Panel Express. This is what I recieved back two weeks later. It's next to the original faceplate (from a similar but not identical radio):



Here's the VFD, USB-IDE adapter, and one of the USB hubs. The USB hub will go in the top slot of the panel, the VFD in the middle, and the DVD on the bottom.



This is the power in board for the new head unit. Pretty simple, just a molex with some caps and inductors for power filtering. It is a different pinout since one of the grounds will be replaced by -12v. Just gotta make sure I don't accidentally plug that one in wrong! There are two USB in plugs, one to each of the USB hubs inside the head unit. You can see one of the USB hubs is naked and mounted on the power board. I made new smaller connectors for it out of cut off resistor leads.



Here's the back of the board. The green board is the iMic connected directly into the USB hub. The grey/orange/yellow wires are audio in/out. The black/orange/yellow wires are power. Potentially confusing, but I didn't have that many colors of wire to work with.



Here's the naked RadioShark on the left. In the middle is a small board that I made that takes the left and right channels and buffers and combines them so they can be send to the subwoofer (which has a lowpass filter already). The RCA is an output to the subwoofer. The board on the right is a fader to control the front/rear balance.



Here's the underside of those boards. You can see the direct wiring of the USB and audio connections:



Here are two of the three audio amps that will be in the head unit. They're class D amps from 41Hz.com rated for about 15 watts. They're only about 1" x 2" in size. I screwed the third one up and fried the Tripath chip, and then damaged the PCB removing it, so I've got the third on order.



Next post: the main audio board and putting it together

Here's the main audio board. The circuitry across the top is a buffer and active electronic crossover that separates the highs and the lows for the front speakers. Each of the front speakers will have a separate amp for the woofer and tweeter. The rear speakers will only have a single amp since they have a built-in crossover and their position near the feet of the rear seat passengers is already not optimal. The three rectangles are where the three amps will go, and the connectors at the bottom of the picture are where the speaker wires will connect. The space between the amps and the antenna is where the RadioShark will go. That will make for a short connection between the PCB and the antenna jack, which will be a straight hookup to the stock antenna line.



This is the bottom of the audio board:



And here it is with two of the amps installed. The wires between the amp board and the amps are all solid core and should provide sufficient mechanical holding power.



And the complete and very unwieldy wiring harness:



Test fitting everything in the chasis (the chasis is upside down, the amp board actually goes on top, but this is easier to see):



Closeup of the right side showing the AM antenna siliconed to the chasis, the radioshark siliconed to the amp board and the subwoofer out mounted, as well as a bit of wire management.



Closeup of the left side showing the power board mounted against the side and the location of the fader.



And a more overall view:

subscribed

cant wait to see the results

The Griffin Powermate before and after:



And the underside:



The aluminium trim ring had to be cut off and the USB cable modified, but overall, it wasn't too bad of a mod. The four pin connector is what I'm using for internal USB connections. It's compact and I had a few spares.

A little JB Weld on the Powermate and the USB hub and a couple of screws on the VFD and:



I wanted the front plate to be removable in case I neede to do future maintenance or upgrades, so most USB devices can be disconnected

I took the DVD drive



and attached it to the bottom plate using foam weatherstripping tape and spray glue (picture to come later). This is what it looks like with the final test fitting:



There's almost no clearance between the VFD, USB hub, and the audio components, so my planning was just right.

I'm going to replace the steel button head screws with black socket cap ones, I just don't have any long enough right now. I'll probably replace the fader knob with something more subtle, but again, I don't have anything else at the moment. Also, I'm going to take a black sharpie to the visible gray JB weld between the USB ports, but that's just cosmetic.

To Do (in no particular order):
Wait for new AMP-32 and socket head screws to arrive in the mail
Intall all the software and Roadrunner front end (this is tedious and unexciting, so there may not be many posts during this time)
Build bracket for LCD
Build brackets for mobo, hard drive and PSU
Test out all USB devices and audio

good choice on those 41hz amps... they are quite nice and have quite a bit of power for their small size...

nice seeing someone making their own PCB's also... very cool man cant wait to see it done

although i probably would have used an intel "little valley" ITX board, its a mini ITX board with an onboard celeron 1.33 and can be found for like $60~80 online

FLECOM said:

good choice on those 41hz amps... they are quite nice and have quite a bit of power for their small size...

nice seeing someone making their own PCB's also... very cool man cant wait to see it done

although i probably would have used an intel "little valley" ITX board, its a mini ITX board with an onboard celeron 1.33 and can be found for like $60~80 online

Click to expand...

I would have too, but I bought the mobo about 2 months ago, just before the "Little Valley" became available. It only cost me $65 on Ebay, so the price was about the same. Maybe a little less horsepower than the LV, but the VIA has better video decompression. Plus I already had a 512MB stick of DDR, so I didn't have to buy a new stick of DDR2. The four USB ports on the back of my mobo will be handy, although you can tell I would have no hesitation splicing into a header. I do like the s-video port on the LV, it would make it easier to add additional monitors, but I'm not sure I would ever use it. And looking at the heatsink mounting, it's probably not possible to put an aftermarket heatsink on the LV. The VIA uses standard 60mm hole centers, so a good northbridge heatsink can be used.

Very nice job. Remember to post installed pics when youre done.

Very nice, I plan on doing a similar project some day. I have a 2000 Blazer, except I plan on putting in a head unit for right now then just hooking up the pc to that along with a 7" touch screen.

wow, good call on that Griffin Powermate!


looking good

def. subscribed!!! I've always wanted to do this.

Quick update: I'm doing front-end and software integration right now. I'm using RoadRunner as the front end. I have to update my install to the latest version that supports the RadioShark natively, but everything else seems to be working. I was using WinDVD for DVD playback, but the old version I had didn't support the VIA hardware acceleration. I'm using WMP 9 right now, and it plays back flawlessly. Now I just need to work on a skin for it that makes the buttons usable. After that, I just have to beat MS Streets and Trips into submission and that should only leave software tweaking. This weekend I can hopefully work on a monitor mount and a way to mount the mobo, PSU and hard drive in the glove compartment.

will this still have radio?

all4spl said:

will this still have radio?

Click to expand...

yes he is using a radioshark AM/FM tuner... read

lol i didnt know what that was.. thanks

this looks cool... why did you chose a stand along monitor instead of an indash flip up single din one and replace the VFD?

just wondering?

Motorized touch screen: $440
My 8.4" touchscreen: $180
Plus a motorized touch screen would have blocked the air vents. I like my fixed mount one because I can mount it higher and not have to shift my eyes from the road as much. Also, GM uses non-standard DIN sizes. The one I have available is about a 1.5 DIN rather than a 1 or 2. I wouldn't have been able to fit all the stuff in the "head unit" that I made in less than 1 DIN of room. Plus, the way I've done it, it's bolt in and can be removed without much hassle.

I like the VFD for such things as time, visualizations, or any other data I need to display in addition to the main LCD.

good GOD people are amazing.

Where'd you get an 8.4 inch touchscreen for 180 dollars?

wow, looks great. subscribed for future posts.

filthysanchez said:

Where'd you get an 8.4 inch touchscreen for 180 dollars?

Click to expand...

Whoops. My mistake. It's $165 (plus shipping) from Chinavision. As mentioned in post #2. Hopefully this week I can update with posts that were deleted by the forum reload.

OK, here's what I posted before the forum outage:

Here's a picture of the mobo. The HSF seems to work pretty well. The brackets are made from PCB material (fiberglass) and hold the HDD on the bottom and the PSU on the top.





I'm planning on upgrading the mobo to the Albatron KI690-AM. A review can be found here. This should be a SIGNIFICANT upgrade - probably about 5-6 times the processer power, even underclocked, and much more GPU power. I might even be able to play some relatively recent games. I just have to get a 90nm CPU so I can boot the mobo and flash the BIOS for my BE-2300.

I also removed most of the wood trim in the truck and refinished it. While I was at it, I drilled a 3/4" wide, 1/8" deep hole in the front panel trim. I then drilled two smaller holes for blind screws and installed part of the mounting bracket that came with the monitor:





And here's what it looks like installed.



With the monitor installed:



The monitor doesn't block any of my view of the road, only some of the hood. It's also high enough that I don't have to look down and take my eyes off the road.

I guess my question would be "why"

Uniqeness factor:10
Needness Factor: 0

JLangevin said:

I guess my question would be "why"

Uniqeness factor:10
Needness Factor: 0

Click to expand...

Try going on a long trip. I'm driving 4000+ miles next month and an old radio with no CD and the right channel not working (some jerk stole my old head unit and damaged the wiring harness) just doesn't cut it.

1. GPS navigation and tracking. Plus, I plan to be able to track and automatically download my location to my server. Steal it and I'll be able to track where it's at.
2. CD player (note the high tech cassette tape player currently installed)
3. DVD and video player (for passenger on long trips, or while waiting somewhere)
4. MP3 player
5. Ability to check web and e-mail using Wi-Fi or cell phone's data connection
6. Ability to do research (store locations, ATMs, food, phone numbers, etc)
7. Future ability: forward camera with DVR. Good for proof if in an accident.
8. Future ability: backup camera to be able to see if the cargo compartment is full, trailer hitch camera to be able to easily position while solo.
9. Possibly playing games (passenger while driving or driver while stopped), depending on how well the GPU works.

Most of these functions can be done with stand-alone units, but I want it all integrated into one. Plus there's expandibility in the future for whatever software that might come out.

this is a really cool project! keep us posted

JLangevin said:

I guess my question would be "why"

Uniqeness factor:10
Needness Factor: 0

Click to expand...

I think that if you spend a lot of time in your car (like if your job requires extended driving, etc.), the "needness" factor goes through the roof. I routinely drive between Boston, NYC & Philadelphia because of my consulting job, and if I could ever find the time, I would love to do something similar.

Fenris_Ulf makes mention of a number of things I would find useful based on my own time spent in my car. Aside from the .MP3, Internet & navigation functionality, I'm diggin' the car location tracking idea he has. It sounds like a homebrew LoJack.

Normally, I am not a big fan of "convergence" devices that combine multiple functions into one unit. However, when considering the small amount of space available in a car, having all of this functionality combined into one unit makes sense. Otherwise, you would be looking at a new head unit for the car, an .MP3 player to plug into the head unit, a GPS unit stuck on the windshield, a laptop for the Internet capability, etc. You would have nothing but wires and electronics spread all over the dashboard & front seat. Plus, buying all of those individual items would not be cost-effective.

Nice work Fenris_Ulf!

subscribed

where are all the update!! lol

I'm moving in a couple of weeks (hence the need to get this done before the 3000+ mile trip), so getting my household ready to move is competing for my time. I think I finally debugged the third amp yesterday, so I installed it and the new head unit is finally complete. Unfortunately, I have to take the truck in for some routine maintenance this week, so I can't install anything further. Also, the AM2 motherboard that I ordered was DOA, so I sent it back to the dealer. It'll probably be another two weeks before I get it back, so I'll just have to stick with the VIA in the meantime. I also found that I need to do a bit of plastic bending to get the head unit to fit since the original was never designed to accomodate the depth of a CD.

/subscribed

any updates?

I'm currently driving from Albuquerque NM to Anchorage AK. I'm in the middle of Canada right now. The truckputer is in place, but the wires are everywhere. It's functional, but has a few issues. The USB isn't as reliable as hoped - I sometimes have to unplug and re-plug the GPS and Powermate. The GPS has proven invaluable in a long distance trip, especially finding your way around a new town and finding restaurants, hotels, and gas stations. It's better than my wife's TomTom in several ways - you can zoom in and out, it has a bigger screen, and is easier to reboot. More to follow...

Do you have a picture of how you have everything set up?