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In Car PC

Tue, 2007-05-01 18:40 — badboy

I plan on purchasing an in-car PC for my Chevy S-10 Extreme. I wish to base the design somewhat on The Coolest Car in the World.

The computer will run Linux and feature MythTV configured for my setup. If everything goes well I will document the build and the software here. This will be a never ending project.

Lets start with the hardware wishlist:

What Where How Much Acquired?
VIA EPIA EX10000EG Fanless mini-box $266.99 Yes
VoomPC-2 mini-box $119.95 Yes
M2-ATX mini-box $89.95 No
VM7000 LCD Touchscreen mini-box $215.00 No
120 Gigabyte Laptop Harddrive Newegg $79.99 Yes
1GB DDR2 Memory Newegg $44.99 Yes
TN-200 GPS MightGPS $79.99 No
iGuidance 3.0 INavCorp $109 No
D-Link DBT-120 Bluetooth Dlink $39.99 No
D-Link DWL-AG530 802.11a/g Dualband Wireless PCI card Newegg $65.99 No
ElmScan 5 USB ODB-II mp3car.com $129.95 No

I plan to setup the computer with Ubuntu Linux and run MythTV. I would like to generate a custom menu structure to fit my needs. I am also working on the other customization ideas such as stepper motors to run the HVAC controls and integrating my in-car-pc with the garage door opener.

Comments

Sat, 2007-05-05 20:07 — badboy

More updates

After some searching and reading and searching I have learned a few things:

1.) VIA Sucks in the Linux driver world right now. I am hopeful that this situation will get better as VIA seems to be willing to now work with opensource developers (see this post on the openchrome users list). I think I am still going to purchase a VIA system. I may attempt to assist with the Openchrome development. (ViaArena Linux Area, Older unichrome driver.)

2.) MP3Car.com has a good forum on Linux. One of the posts lead me to LinuxICE. I attempted to register that the LinuxICE forum, but phpBB spewed at me and I am waiting for my account to be activated. I may help develop LinuxICE.