Carputer

As a Car PC or Carputer a PC is called, which is permanently installed in a car or truck, usually with a touch screen for easy control.

Features

Usually ( vibration, heat, cold ) are used components due to the lower power consumption and extreme conditions in a vehicle, which are intended for notebooks. Car PCs are often installed in very small enclosures, so they will fit under a seat or in a glove compartment, or they are built into the spare wheel well or in the trunk.

In order to simplify the control on the touch screen is commonly a dedicated software used, the individual functions can be controlled with the aid of. The control relay is enabled as a result. May be controlled by the PC, for example, the window or the heating. Even the reading of engine data is also possible to let yourself about the current speed and the speed, to the PC.

Development of a multimedia -Car PCs

A Car-PC is an ordinary computer that has been installed in a car, often based on the small - ITX motherboards, some with specialized processors such as the VIA C3. Furthermore, barebones notebook, a variant ITX Intel Pentium M or normal ATX computers are used.

Image output and input are done via a small touch screen, or even on a TFT screen and a mouse. Commercially available 7 "touch screen monitors usually have a base with which they can be fixed easily. For higher demands individual consoles are produced, which are tailored directly to the corresponding car., It makes sense to build in the monitor in the center console of the vehicle. Many new cars already have a navigation display, an integrated display in combi- instrument or on the instrument panel. This usually quite high -resolution original vehicle displays are suitable for the image output of the Car-PC.

The data storage is often taken from a notebook hard drive, newer models are liquid- stored and highly impact resistant, which is very important especially for vehicles with sports or coilovers, as these feathers very hard and otherwise to read or write errors to a complete failure may cause hard drive. To further protect the hard disk is suspended in a U-shaped profile with a special rubber band design. In the same way a Laptop-CD/DVD-Slot-In-Laufwerk is used.

Power supply

In a vehicle, there is no uniform DC or AC voltage, when starting the engine, the entire on-board voltage decreases, for example due to the high current consumption on the starter motor with 10 V from. So there is a special power supply needed to ensure smooth operation. The PC is booted up a few seconds after switching on the ignition. This waiting time is used to secure enough power to start the engine. If you switch on the ignition again, the PC shuts down after a period of a few seconds to several hours. Next, however, an operating voltage of 5 V is maintained, which is switched off when the PC is turned off completely, to avoid problems with the battery, which could be caused by the power consumption of the PC even when turned off.

Input Devices

Since keystrokes via touch screen keyboard are just clumsy possible, a keyboard should be installed. Here are those for example in laptop format for server administrations. Speech recognition is also a possibility to control.

For cars with multifunction steering wheel, this can easily be connected via a relay card to the PC. This is action for the respective circuit can be defined, such as changing the music volume. Instead of a multi-function steering wheel can also be retrofitted a steering wheel remote control that is sending infrared signals, which in turn can be processed with the matching recipient.

Audio System

Most motherboards have an integrated sound card is sufficient as a basis for hifi. However, additional sound cards allow for better sound quality or 7.1 Kanalabmischung and some have RCA outputs for lower quality losses. To control the speaker to the audio signal from the sound card, an additional amplifier is required, or a radio or " Head Unit " called with AUX input.

Useful extensions

To connect enough extensions an active USB hub is useful, as a passive draws power via the PC power supply and not directly from the car battery and therefore can not provide enough power under certain circumstances.

A GPS mouse determines the position of the vehicle using GPS. It is the centerpiece of a navigation system.

Many newer phones have a Bluetooth connection, and with a Bluetooth USB adapter can such be networked with a PC. With special software, it is eg possible to provide automatically lower the music for incoming calls and make calls using a microphone. In addition, you can send them via SMS or voice recognition can be read incoming SMS. With a UMTS or a narrow-band GSM mobile phone which is connected to the Car-PC, a wireless Internet access is provided.

A webcam can be used as a rear-view camera, which allows the driver via the monitor checking the rear. Newer cameras even have infrared sensors and can make night vision. So you can use this parking aid at night.

With so-called relay cards circuits can be controlled from the PC. With this function, the on-board electronics may be remote-controlled, such as the power windows, or the air conditioner. The relay card can also record signals eg to switch on the vehicle or open circuits, as in the case of defective bulbs to respond. A special interface known as OBD-2 allows access to the engine control unit of the vehicle. It is possible to carry out diagnostic operations while driving (e.g., temperature control, fuel economy or performance check). In addition, this interface hidden functions of the vehicle can be activated (eg the Mitleuchten the front turn signals as in a U.S. vehicle ) or the injection code fields to customize how it is used eg for chip tuning. Additionally, the standalone reading the fault memory may save unnecessary visits to the workshop.

Via LAN, WLAN or USB flash drive data can be easily transferred from the home PC to the car PC and vice versa.

Touch- friendly environments

Since a touchscreen allows only rough inputs, a special surface is helpful, which has also usually also built all the important functions, such as a media player, and often a navigation system. In many cases can change the appearance of the surface of the own car customize some programs change with a day - night function from a certain time contrast and brightness.

An overview of the currently current surfaces:

• Free / partially open source iCT - In Car Terminal
• Mediacar
• CarFlash
• Media Engine
• CPos - Car PC Operating System
• Road Runner ( now known as the "Ride Runner" to avoid conflicts with trademarks )

• Commercially C.E.S. 4 - Chameleon
• Centrafuse
• Streetdeck
• Artemis - obd 2.2 ( Itunes App Wifi OBD2 for Apple iPad)

Market distribution

To date, Car-PC are only as accessories - often as a kit - offered. One of the first vehicles with standard Car-PC is the 2012 gekom pating in the market of electric sedan Tesla Model S.

Common areas of application

• Speakerphone: phone is connected via Bluetooth to the PC
• GPS navigation
• Media Center: Music (MP3, CD), video, television ( for example via DVB- T ), radio, photos
• Reversing camera
• Vehicle diagnostics via OBD