In-Dash DIN-form-factor Car PC

kraksmokr writes "Xenarc Technologies have introduced a cool new in-dash DIN-form-factor Car PC. It features built in hard drive, audio/video, and GPS, among other things. Estimated price will be about $1200. I can't even begin to list the possibilities for mobile computing bliss." I'm even more impressed that they can fit it into the dash than I am with in-dash CD changers. If you buy this thing, use it safely. None of us want auto PC users to end up in the same category as annoying cell phone users.

Re:Great..

[mirko]

DivX ?
With a Pentium 266 MMX ?
I hope you're not expecting all the FPS.

Re:Great..

[Lussarn]

I have had fun on computers since the day they reached 1 mhz. Whats wrong with this one?

$1200?

[grumm3t]

It's upsetting the $1,200 price-tag pays more for the compact-type computer than for the computer parts itself. I'd like to see a release of a more asthetic and powerful computer. Removing the CDROM would free up some room for upgrades and since many in-dash CD players are regular PC CDROMS some sort of uplink through that doesn't seem so farfetched.

Nice, but...

[shadwwulf]

...I see shortcomings.

Personally the Pentuim 266MMX is a little underpowered unless you just want an MP3 player or something along those lines. I personally think that taking the approach of what many high end car audio systems do(e.g. put the UI in the dash and the major hardware in the trunk) would have been a better approach. Having the audio, PCMCIA and the like in dash is great, but having a nice long(and heavily shielded) cable running to the trunk would be more effective because the space constraints aren't as big of a deal.

Just my $0.02

Hmm.

[sekzscripting]

Is it just me, or does the damn thing look ugly? I personally wouldn't sport that 'thing' in my car.

Not A Good Idea

[Anonymous Coward]

I ride a motorcycle. The three times that I have come closest to death in my life were on the freeway when someone with a cell phone held to their left ear did not bother to do a head check before moving left into me. I started coding on PDP-8s and Alpha Micros and I'm all for CPUs everywhere, but I don't like this thing one bit.

If you wouldn't use it while riding a motorcycle, paying attention to the road and to other things around you with both hands on the steering mechanism, then you shouldn't use it in a car.

Re:Road Rage!

[Anonymous Coward]

Awesome. Now I can finally play Grand Theft Auto while cruising through the Ghetto.

On a Pentium MMX-266? Good luck! :)

Computer in the dash...

[QuasiRob]

Its all very well having that lil DIN sized box in your dashbooard, and having all those features to hand but its absolutly useless cos theres no way to control it. Lets face it, the main reason you want a computer in the car is to play music or as some kind of satnav device. With no display or input devices it cant be used for that, and every car I've owned only had room for one DIN device. So where do you put the control/display devices?

I know they have a link to their little 7 inch monitors in the article, but again, where do you really put that? Cant go on the dash, its too big. Cant go on the front of the dash cos it would covers the air vents and the PC its connected to. And its a bit too easy for thieves to see.

I like that the computer is small and designed for use in a car, but its better off in the glovebox or under the dash, with a connection to a touchscreen flat panel in the DIN slot.

The best car computer/mp3 player I've seen so far is the Empeg player ( http://www.empeg.com ) but they stopped making them.

Beige

[martingunnarsson]

Why do they make these things beige/white?? I mean, how many cars have a white dashboard? Perhaps the computers come with front panels in different colors?

Dead hard drive?

[juniorkindergarten]

Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid, but wouldn't the first nasty pot hole/speed bump kill the hard drive?
Have hard drive manufacturers made notebook drives able to withstand the extreme g forces that could be encountered in a vehicle on a day to day basis? Does someone have real experience/data having a hard drive last for any length of time in a car?

Re:Great..

[gilesjuk]

They should have used the C3 processor instead of the an old Pentium chip.

Linux is the ideal OS since you can recompile plenty of apps to work with the particular CPU. Although I don't want to leave the car engine running while doing a Gentoo build :)

Re:Great..

[Basje]

With a car, fan sound is less of an annoyance than in an otherwise silent office of living room. A car already makes quite some noise. As long as the fan noise stays under the car noise, it's not a bother.

Maybe you'll say that modern luxury cars are actually more silent than a 'puter fan. I do not think that is true, except for the high end lexus, volvo and bmw. Those are always equipped with airc, so they need less ventilation because they can are cooled with cool air anyway.

Not just for MM

[spectrokid]

You slashdotters see this thing as a multimedia machine. I think their biggest market is the enterprise. Base-station in the truck with GPS, handheld connecting with bluetooth, GSM connection to the main office... Think of all the shipping applications, visiting nurses, the guy recording the meter,...

Re:$1200?

[BiggerIsBetter]

And here's the link [casetronic.com]. Yes, it fits in your dashboard too.

$1200 is pretty steep, for just an underpowered small PC - it's probably an overpriced "industrial" board that's been repackaged, and I'm not sure the 266MHz box will play DVD's and run those funky xmms plugins quite as well as a GHz VIA board. When counting the cost of you're in-car PC, don't forget the touchscreen and tiny-LCD display either - typing's a bitch when you're driving.

/whoring

Re:Not just for MM

[BiggerIsBetter]

the main reason for me to put a computer in my car is to untether myself from work

Actually, it sounds like you're tethering yourself to work even more.

where's the radio?

[Wing_Zero]

we're paying $1200 for this device that fits into the same space as our radio, so where do we put our radio? I don't know about you, but sometimes I jsut want to hear my favorite station and laugh at the morning show personality.

Re:Not A Good Idea

[Anonymous Coward]

THREE TIMES??? You woulda thought you'd have the sense to not ride a motorcycle by now.

HUD

[Mostly Monkey]

Once I get around to installing a PC in my car I think I'll go the route of a HUD. This way I'll be able to glance at the interface without taking my eyes off the road. I've noticed in the past that papers on my dash in certain places reflect a certain ammount on my windshield. It's enough to see the paper and the road at the same time during daytime. At night it's very hard to see the reflection. I figure that a decent LCD with a brightness adjustment would work wonders. Of course I would have to figure out how to reverse the characters since I would be looking in a reflection. The only issues I can think of is dust collection and heat damage during the summer. A cover would work nicely for the dust, but making it removable for the heat problem would be tough.

Wow... what a blunder.

[tlianza]

Check out this message at the bottom of the page:

We are currently working on a version with faster processor speed. Please check back with us in a couple of months for more information.

These people should have learned the lesson Intel (coincidentally) learned. Don't announce faster products before they're released! All that does is cut into the sales of your current products. Why would I drop $1200 on this machine when I know it's faster successor will be out "in a couple of months"?

good car computer case...

[Ransak]

A few weeks ago I decided to put a computer in my car, using an IBM Netvista Flex ATX case from Ebay, and such fun things as a in dash LCD screen [yahoo.com] (using a USB PC to TV converter [grandtec.com]), Deluo USB GPS receiver [deluo.com], USB Happy Hacking Keyboard [yahoo.com], and spare parts. It's half completed, but the goal is to make it as unobtrusive as possible. For anyone building a home brewed PC appliance, I'd recommend the IBM Netvista case. It's small, cheap (off of Ebay), and fairly pleasing to the eyes. I've seen them used for a few [miim.com] other [k12ltsp.org] projects. Just be very picky about what Flex ATX motherboard you use.

Another good site for small PC's is mini-itx.com [mini-itx.com]. Fun stuff.

Re:You "can" build it cheaper yourself...

[CustomFort]

Well, for starters, the reason you don't want to use a Compact flash for a HDD is because they wear out after about 100,000 read/writes. That will last you about a month. HDDs OTOH, will last you about 2 years, even with the shock of everyday driving. You decide.

Cooling is not a problem

[llauren]

Hey, the car already has a cooling system. Real Men would just route some of the car's air conditioning to cool the computer (Real Women would probably be doing something more sensible).

• ~llaurén

Happy Sysadmin Day [sysadminday.com]!

This is a specialized system....

[Friendly]

The package mentioned in the article includes software. You are not just paying $1200 for a box, you get the GPS software and the OS installed and configured. Also have any of you considered the whole issue with system power? If you notice there are not any AC outlet in your car. If you are considering a invert then you now have two heat sources to cool, plus you have to worry about draining your battery. These specialized systems come with DC to DC (because the computer PS just turns AC to DC anyway) power supplies that can sense when you power off your car. They also will shut the system down if they sense a low battery. If you want more power check out these PIII and PIV systems:

http://www.i-zone-3.com/components.htm [i-zone-3.com]

http://www.opussolutions.com/ [opussolutions.com]

You are still talking $2000 to $3000 for complete system (including the touch screen), but now you have a much more powerful computer.