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Car PC?

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:16 pm
by Gogamukh
What else would I need apart from a LCD to use the fit-PC2 as a car PC? Specifically the power.

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:23 pm
by irads
fit-PC2 would work directly from the car's 12V. The power supply is 8-15V tolerant. You would probably want to use SSD rather than HDD for improved shock tolerance.

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 3:33 pm
by coppertubing
Would an intelligent automotive dc-dc power supply be necessary so that it could survive an engine crank, or since it's so tolerant, is this not needed? Also will it shut down gracefully when ignition is turned off?

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:02 pm
by irads
Surge protection is advised. For graceful shut down you need an always on power supply from battery and sensing of ignition turned-off (maybe a sensor through USB).

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 5:27 pm
by CptDondo
Google for "Load Dump". It's quite common for voltages in a car system to spike to 70VDC. Also, the power is quite dirty - there is RF noise from the alternator, ignition system, etc.

So make sure you have a good DC-DC power supply, and a choke-cap at a minimum to filter the noise.

Here's a buck-boost board that should work nicely:

http://www.national.com/an/AN/AN-1819.pdf

I'd also add everything from CONN1 to C1 from this design:

http://linuxcar.sone.jp/schem/reg.png

So you're looking at ~ $100US. But the power supply should filter everything - and provide 12VDC from a car battery even while starting and charging, when swings can go from 6V to 14V.

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:59 pm
by halestorm
irads wrote:For graceful shut down you need an always on power supply from battery and sensing of ignition turned-off (maybe a sensor through USB).
Are you aware of any such device and/or software for performing this function you suggest?

Thanks,

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:08 am
by kuno
Hello Everybody,

I am also thinking about using this device as the center of my car entertainment system. Power filtering should not be such an issue, the auto-on comes in handy but would not be so 'tragic' using linux. Power down could be achieved with a delayed interruption of the 12 VDC. Is there any power fail input available for the device? I assume if used in more professional applications such an input would be vital to initiate proper shut down and avoid loss of data. maybe any clue here form the developers?
I intend to use it together with a small touch screen, so I have everything at hand in one small package.
another thing where i have not found details: what is the frequency range of the audio output?
I intend to connect it to the main amps.
on top of that i would need a DAB(+) USB connected to it: any recommendations here?
a GPS antenna would be next, any experience here?
anyone expereince with bigger disks, let's say 320G or 500G. the available 160 is a little small for my collection of songs.

The only concern i have about the operating temperature range, where the bottom end is a little too high for applications round here in winter time.

kuno

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:57 pm
by 9812713
Hi Kuno,

There were posts on a different forum regarding the larger hard drives. The only limitation regarding a different sized hard drive would be the physical dimensions of the drives. Some 2.5" HDD's are a bit larger then the spec, causing some difficulty during installation. I think these drive contain 3 patters, versus 2... so doing some research and good return policies might help out in a situation such as this.

W.

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:03 pm
by kuno
thanks for the feedback.
It also seems that the win version is available with a 250 G disk, so it seems to be easy if one knows the outline dimension of the disk.
kuno

Re: Car PC?

Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 1:20 pm
by shestero
I suppose a good solution is to bye a car adapter for some notebook that eat 12V DC (or "universal" adaptor).
For example for Asus EEE 900/901.
It can supply safe 12V 2A power from car 12/24 V.