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Car computer selection In my quest for a suitable car computer I have recorded a few notes which may be of interest. Screens :- There are a horde of screens in the market place, but beware, they are with very few exceptions, designed for playing TV and DVD and have PAL/NTSC TV signal inputs, i.e. they are TV monitors. If your quest is, as mine is, to run a computer with software such as mapping, vehicle maintenance, digital camera downloading and the like, these screens can be made to work by using a VGA to TV decoder or converter, but the quality is BAD!!! Manufacturers of VGA or CGA screens are few and far between, I have found two and the one sells branded screens, they are :- Xenarc :-
www.xenarc.com There are essentially 4 different types of screen, dashboard mount, whether in the dash or on top, sunvisor type, either a clip on or a replacement of the entire sunvisor, and a console called flipdown which mounts on the roof of the vehicle betwen the sun visors, and the headrest mount, not on my menu as I am driving a Landcruiser bakkie. I have not spent time on the first two models as I do not have room for this type of gear on my dash, and the sun visor screen is too close to my face for my liking in addition I consider that for the driver it is a temptation and therefore a safety threat. I have considered the Xenarc screen with some seriousness and have in fact ordered one twice, on both occasions I was under the impression the vendor would do a credit card deal and in the end I have ended up with only one option, that being the Inimitable SWIFTEX transfer that so confuses our banks and causes them to rub their hands with glee at all the bank charges they are going to scam off us for no real effort. That not to mention the out of date exchange rates they so inflexibly apply. as if they invented the exchange rate and have sole custodianship and understanding of the mechanisms thereof. That having been said, at some length, in short SWIFTEX transfers suck, the last time I did one through Standard Bank it took me the best part of 6 months to unravel the mess they made and cost me a bloody fortune. Lilliput do not yet make a flip down screen yet, their screens are 1/2 the price of the Xenarc equivalent and the market place would have us believe they are brighter and more easily viewable. I am negotiating with Lilliput now about the cost and purchase of a screen from Newision, which appears to be a subsidiary company of some sort who are marketing a flip down with Lilliput guts inside. This I have from a representative of Lilliput sales. Car computers The screen is the first consideration, the next is the PC itself. Be very aware, there is an awful lot of rubbish out there. A car PC is NOT a miniature desktop PC, It has to be able to withstand extreme heat, vibration beyond the norm, and a particularly destructive type of vibration (frequency) where PC components are concerned, and then there is the power supply which depending on battery condition can be anywhere between 11 and 14 volts (roughly speaking) By far the greater majority of the machines I have found are simply compact desktops, and some of them even proudly advertise a free external power supply, which smells just like a 220V inverter to me. There are a few options in CPU's, a great deal of these machines are Celerons or PIII machines. A Celeron is essentially a slightly watered down P4, I wouldn't go for one of these processors, Intel is making the M with Centrino technology for low power consumption, therefore low heat applications, if you like Intel, that is the processor to go for. I have not considered a PIII (or mmx266, yes there are still some around) and would advise you to do the same, it is a dead end street. The P4 machines without exception have a lot of fans in them which is bad for business in a car PC, the fans will be the first to go unless they have somewhat better lubricated and more robust bearings than the desktop rubbish we see these days. So the quest is for a fan less machine. There are a few fans around designed for these portable operations so if you must go for a machine with a lot of fans, find a fan designed for the job. Memory, as you know is what makes the PC spin, I don't appreciate a PC with less than 1Gb of memory these days, but it may be necessary to compromise to find the right car PC. There are machines that can do 1Gb, try to get the memory know as 1U it is 1/8" high and very compact, or go for a configuration like the Via motherboard with notepad type RAM in it. The Via chip :- The AMD M series :- The Intel M series :- So where do we go to from here, Logisys has a good range of systems :- Xenarc, attractive P4 fanless :- A few options here too :- Homebrewed :- Here is a story about an Apple Mac in a car pc form :- CONCLUSIONS Apart from the decision to wait for a Lilliput screen or go for the newision unit if its spec and price are right, I have not yet made any decisions. I think I am going for the Via CPU, it really is small and compact, I dont think I want to build my own machine, there are too many pitfalls with processor and RAM compatibility, the cost of buying the parts cheap and building your own machine, constitutes a smaller saving than the blow of importing this expensive RAM and having made a mistake, having a second go at getting it right, at your own cost, what if it becomes a 3rd go!! I also intend to look for one of these boxes that is all aluminium heatsink, I will update this page as I get time for the exploration, be sure and call back to check where it is all going. Donald Pittendrigh |
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