Asus Eee Box good choice for a Carputer?

Thinking eventually of going the carputer route. Saw those Asus Eee Box PCs that look small enough to fit in the glove box. Anyone have/know of any experiences with these as a carputer?

 

Link for reference:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220002

Looks ok. how would you setup power for startup/shutdown when you turn the car on and off?

I was going to wire it to a switch and only use it once the car is on. I wonder if i can find something like a timed relay switch and use that.

 

I like the idea of something like the M3-ATX but i dont think its possible as the Eee Box uses its own power which is soldered to the board.

Bumping my old thread for any other (newer) options.

 

A friend of mine just gifted me an apple TV. Seems like it could be a viable and easy solution...

If you're going to go the route where you adapt a non CarPC to a CarPC project, it will be easiest if you find one that supports Wake on Link (wake on lan thing).

 

With PCs that have no battery, an automotive power supply can handle the startup and shutdown stuff, but the wiring is more complex.

 

The easiest way is to find a netbook that supports wake on lan. Most of the 9 inchers will fit in the glove box. Check this thread on how to setup a battery based netbook for startup and shutdown. Pretty smooth.

 

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/software-software-development/84847-shutcontrol-laptop-shutdown-controller-software.html

Good info. Thanks!

Nice stuff. I've been thinking about setting up something like this. Have a cheap net book sitting in the glove box that wakes on car start. Script in start ups for logging software to start and your golden.

 

Ideally, I would like to talk an e-tuner in to doing a "road tune". Use a cell phone to connect the net book to the internet, have the tuner remote to the net book and he can tune as if they were sitting in the car. It would be a little better than the an e tune and also saves the tuner time since there is no logs to send back and forth.

Yeah, it could work well. Personally I use a mifi (Novatel 2200 i think?). It's a cellular based mobile hotspot, so I just put the wireless network I am broadcasting into the top spot and works great. Charges off +5 volts so that is easy to adapt.

 

I already had a GPS, but these models include a GPS that could possibly be used when plugged into the laptop via USB (but I haven't looked into it yet).

 

The 3G model is currently free from sprint, and supports up to 5 devices. Cellular tethering is good, but with most you cant talk on the phone while you tether. If you are in a position where your job pays for you to have a wireless usb stick, I recommend seeing if you can sub one of these units.

 

Sorry for being off topic, but I think it's important to have a good grasp of the avenues you can take before you make any purchases. If I knew then what I know now, I probably still would have done the netbook route but would have ensured mine supported wake on link.

I just plan on linking from my phone. Don't need to get another device just for this when it will only be connected to the internet once in a while.

 

The end of this build will be using a VGA to RCA connection to my Nav screen and a track ball mouse in one of my cup holders. Would be able to watch the logs and check anything on the fly. The set up is really simple. If I really needed could set up a keyboard under the passenger seat as well, but I think if I need to be typing I'll just pull the netbook up.

 

All in all it will cost me about the same as an Accessport.

If that is really all you will be doing, it should work great. It will probably take a bit of screwing around to get the text nice and readable over the composite cable. Good luck!

With PCs that have no battery, an automotive power supply can handle the startup and shutdown stuff, but the wiring is more complex.

 

This is the main thing that steered me toward using a laptop, and I'm really happy with the results.