I saw Scott's thread on sticking a car-pc into a C5, but has anyone tried it in a C3? In place of the gauges?

Of course, outright deleting the gauges is a BAD idea, so I'd want to plug all the connections (and convert mechanical to electrical where applicable, like with the oil pressure gauge) into the computer and have it display the data along the bottom of the screen or in its own sub-menu on the screen with an alert that pops up if something goes above/below a user-defined threshold. Think it's doable?

 

it's possible but will take some research and r&d. i think your best solution would be to use fusion brain:
http://www.fusioncontrolcentre.com/F...e88e11ff644251

and then figure out what sensors you'd need.

 

Like Scott said.. its doable... but anything is doable if you are willing to put the time into it. I would have to see pictures of the interior of a C3 to really think what all might need to be done (been a long time since I sat in a C3).

 

The gauges that are already there are: Fuel, Oil Pressure, Coolant Temperature, Clock, and Ammeter. All it would take for the fuel and Coolant Temperature would be calibrating measured +VDC to correspond to actual temperature/fuel level. Same with the Oil Press. sensor, as there are electric units out there, but the car is still plumbed for mechanical at the moment. So it would all boil down to looking at the sensor ranges. The Fusion Brain that you linked to has an ammeter already present, and it looks like it has provision for measuring voltages as well. So it would require a custom frontend application but that's about it. I should probably also add in a bung for WBO2 and monitor A/F mixture, which could be done in the same way. Doesn't sound too hard... *knock on wood*

Thanks for the replies.


That's a C3 center console. I'm thinking I might modify it so that it's completely flat, make a hole for a 7" touch screen and stick the "Door Ajar" and "Fasten Seat Belt" lights at the bottom where the radio is.

Who knows, I may even be able to fit the whole computer behind the dash? Of course cooling would be a concern, but I could cut the console's "kick panels" for fans and run some ducting up in there.

Now, another concern, how do the computers handle power interruption? I.e. if your computer managed something engine related and you were to start the computer and then start the car, how would the power interruption affect the computer? ACPI would shut it off? Battery Backup?

 

Doing one in my C5 as we speak.

Why delete the gages in your C3? You may be able to fit a fold out display right in the radio spot, or, in the spot that says corvette.

I chose the Xenarc 700 IDT (google that) for a display.

The PC doesnt have to go anywhere near the dash. You can mount it in the back. All you have to run to the dash is : the power for the display, the USB cable from the display (for the touchscreen feature) and the vga cable from the display.

The system unit can go anywhere you can fit it, in the back, or behind the seat.

Regarding the power. All you will need is a good constant 12V for the red wire (I ran mine off the cig lighter fuse I deleted when I removed the ash tray) a good accessory powered line (I ran mine from the windshield wiper fuse) to the white wire (so the computer knows when you start or shut down the car) and a good ground (I used an OEM ground pac on the B post on the C5, make sure its a good ground) for the black wire.

The PC will have an automotive grade power supply that will handle starting up and shutting down the computer (settable by jumper). You dont do anything different, just get in and start the car, the PSU waits for a programmable time (mine is set for five seconds) then it powers up the PC.
When leaving the vehicle, just shut the key off. The power supply will send the signal to the computer to start the shut down process (or hibernate if thats what you choose) and it will power down after how ever long you set it for (mine is 45 seconds) using the power from the red wire.

This is by no means a pop in and it works perfectly every time (like just installing a radio) type of thing, but it is very doable.

You can get as nutz as you want with this thing when Im done I should be up and running with a Core Duo proscessor, 2 gigs of ram, Wi-Fi access, GPS, , BlueTooth connectivity (to connect to my cell phone for hands free calling), Nav, the digital media (good bye CD's), XM, Satellite weather radar (as long as I have wi-fi access), satelite nav (thru google earth), and Im thinking of putting in an Infra Red Night vision camera <== ya I know . . .thats nutz, should help with spotting the deer though

you can learn more at

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/

Enjoy

 

your car pc is more powerful then my home pc!

Just an fyi, 2 gigs of ram is going to take longer to boot up then 512mb. Since you are using such a powerful computer I hope you are going to take advantage of that power and go full out on your sound processing! You can go fully active and do all your x-over, eq'ing, time alignment, etc.. with that computer

 

Yup, 2 gigs will take longer to post then 512 megs will, but not apprciably so. The vast majority of time spent in startup is getting windows to load. The post part of the startup (even with 2 gigs) only amounts to less than 10 seconds, so since we know proscessing power and available ram are like oil to windows (the more you have the faster is runs) I figured 2 gigs would be a nice medium.

When its all set up, the shutdown will place the computer in (s4) hibernation (basicaly it saves the state of the machine in ram to the hd). So when we start back up all it has to do is run the post (10 seconds) and load the image to ram (about another 10 seconds), it doesnt have to load all the windows stuff again.

Regarding all the audio proscessing you spoke of; sounds good to me I dont really know much about sound proscessing. I understand what crossover does and what time eq does. Not sure how much of that will be available to me through the onboard sound proscessor on the Jetway JP9F2 motherboard I'll have in there, but whatthehey, I'll give it a shot.

Of course, from an audio purist's point of view, the sound will probably be pretty mediochre. I'm running the XM audio into the line in on the PC and everything goes out from the PC through an adapter into the AUx input on the stock bose head unit to the stock bose speakers.

Not exactly the bleeding edge of high performance audio but I'm half deaf from work anyway, the stock system sounds pretty good to me

The high definition audio driver on the pc seems to have a boatload of little do-hickeys and equalizers, so I guess I will be able to tweak the sound and may wind up with something a little better than the stock bose sound.

 

i'd stay away from onboard audio. I've been through about 4 different audio setups in my sytstem right now and i just tested onboard audio for ****s and giggles and it's pretty noisy and you'll have no customization. at the very least get an old soundblaster live 5.1 pci card, kxproject drivers and an audiocontrol 24xs or similar linedriver/active x-over.

 

Idea for the gages: Look into some transducers and a meter.

A transducer is used to take a measurement (temperature, pressure, etc...) and sends out a signal to a display (meter) for a readout. Some are 0-5 volts DC output, others are 4-20 mA. (I'm not sure if you can get them for 12 VDC or not... haven't looked into that yet.)

You could have a single meter/display with multiple transducers and just switch between them when you want. If you are really crafty, you could have your PC read the transducers and display them on your screen. (It's done with PLC's all the time.)

No matter what you do, it's cool to see someone wanting to put a CarPuter into a C3!

Mark