36 replies to this topic

[dave1324]

It doesn't work anywhere in the world I spoke to a guy recently who had the mobile broadband in his city centre flat while he was waiting for his home broadband to be activated and he said the signal was terrible, and when he did get connected it was painfully slow...

Anyway, why would you want or at any point make use of internet access in your car?.. for mobile broadband, just get one of those new small style laptops and stick a mobile broadband pen into that and it'll do the same job for cheaper

actually it does i had it for 6 months so i could get a free laptop from 3g, it works on similar gsm frequencys mobiles use and i took mine to turkey and worked fine and depending on which provider you use and how much your willing to pay you can get upto 6 meg but you do get a realy bad signal indoors

i dont want internet in my car, i didnt bring it up but its just a possibility

[PMM]

1st Mobile broadband uses the existing Mobile phone network not Sats in space and subject to all the usual getting a signal issues and while you have internet where a signal exists your now going to be capped by the 3 to 5 gb per month download limits and paying like £15-20 month.

If your wanting a computer in the car to be honest I'd just get Netbook.

End of the day your not going to be able to use it for anything other than Music / GPS on the move and musically I'd rather have a head unit with USB loaded with MP3's than a computer.

GPS... get a Garmin / TOMTOM

At least its all removable out of sight...... Anything fancy in the car even if well secured really won't stop somebody insistent on having an attempt. in stealing it.

Also if the computer is HDD based and located in the dash board area then I agree bad idea and also lack of ventilation to the computer and it could potentially be a Fire Hazzard !!

Then you really need to also factor in Startup / Shut methods ... Remember it has shut down fully before turning the power off else you risk corrupting the HDD.

Avoid Direct powerfeed...((Bad idea) PSU remains operating to a degree even after computer is off (Standby power) and internal power consumption will cause a constant power drain so you want the PSU switched but equally you need a method of ensuring PC is shut down before the engine power is terminated.

Equally you need to safe guard the PC against the probability of if/when you stall the car.

There's ways and means but its additional work.

Edited by PMM, 05 December 2008 - 06:06 PM.

[buddylove]

That's my solution, I'm getting a netbook.

[tom275]

If you want the internet you could use 3G, thats quick enough, and you can get 16gb pen drives for £20, most motherboards support USB boot so that would work.

[chappy]

i have a great way to get around these problems!

Just drive your car... enjoy driving the little car that we all own... your never going to use it while your driving, except for music, and that when stereos come in... if you want all your tracks, buy an 80GB or 120GB ipod and get a dock system fitted...

easy as pie.. if you really neeeeed the computer side then get a laptop, then you can take it wherever you like not just the car.

[roofless]

Could set it up to be able to monitor your cars performance through a megajolt system. Also, if you add a wifi card, you could have internet access right in your car or set it up like a media center.

yep run diagnostics ect, if you get mobile broadband you can access the net anywhere in the world:P it uses satalites.

It doesn't work anywhere in the world I spoke to a guy recently who had the mobile broadband in his city centre flat while he was waiting for his home broadband to be activated and he said the signal was terrible, and when he did get connected it was painfully slow...

Anyway, why would you want or at any point make use of internet access in your car?.. for mobile broadband, just get one of those new small style laptops and stick a mobile broadband pen into that and it'll do the same job for cheaper

I have 3 mobile broadband, never failed me yet, does tend to slow down the longer your session, but so far it has worked in:
UK - england wales and scotland
Holland
Germany
France
USA - Vegas, Chicago, New York and Orlando

it costs no more abroad, but you have limits to data transfer.

[insamoufonyx]

just had a thought, how are you going to get good enough sound quality output from a netbook?

[PMM]

just had a thought, how are you going to get good enough sound quality output from a netbook?

No worse than a Ipod setup... just get a RCA to 3.5mm phono jack lead and plug it into the Headphones Socket
audio in a netbook just as good as onboard audio in a PC.

My Dell Mini 9 works just as well plugged into my home Hi-fi as the dedicated Audio Card in my home computer
it has a graphic equalizer utility as well to adjust the sound to taste.

[insamoufonyx]

I asume the way you have described still uses a head unit, if so that defeats the point in getting a netbook to use as a car pc, the whole point in a car pc is it replaces the headunit completely.

an if thats not what you mean there is no way you will get the same quality sound if you just plug that into a amp, and you only have one output on the netbook.....

The whole point in having specialy designed car pc's is because they act as a headunit and produce the same quality sound.

Edited by insamoufonyx, 20 December 2008 - 01:02 AM.

[buddylove]

I just meant, I am getting a netbook so I have more of a versatile tool When I eventually set my sound system up, I am going to go with the headunit - usb stick route.

[PMM]

If that's aimed at me and not Buddylove then....

I was not refering to using a netbook for Audio just as an in Car PC for other purposes and mention in an earlier post about Using a USB enabled Headunit and a TOMTOM type device for the GPS.

However...you can connect a Netbook up direct to an amp if you wanted and I have done this and happy to make a vid proving it just ask.

Onboard Audio in computers has come a long way over the years alot on onboard sound uses the Analog Devices range of Analogue to digital converters and these are not just PC solutions but go in a wide range of consumer electronics including Car Stereo's.

However you can take the quality to another level via a USB offboard Sound Solution and just run a USB lead from the PC/Netbook to where you have the AMP and then a short RCA lead between the Audio Device and the amp.

Equally there are 5.1 digital car amps with digital inputs as well as analog and again there are pro-devices that connect to a USB port and give a Coax or optical output for a digital amp and that will outclass a typical headunit.

...
For info I have a very high computer know how, Used to be a Forum Moderator of a Computer Hardware Forum and have built my own specialist computer systems and been featured in PC Format magazine for one of my Computer Builds.

[buddylove]

Interesting, didn't realize there were those kind of capabilities... So, can you get one of these digital amps and just wire up all 4 speakers to it, then plug in via USB to your netbook. Am I understanding correctly, or what audio device are you referring to?

[PMM]

I mean an in-between device (essentially a soundcard with digital outputs) like this... http://www.soundblas...u...17751&nav=1


You then feed that to either a Digital amp (Quite hard to find to be honest and major money but the best sounding)

or to a... DSP unit like an Alpine / Pioneer then that feeds usual std amp/s ((Again still lots of Money your looking at £500-£800 but you get options like alignment to compensate for distance each speaker is from you))

But you will get great sound just locating a device like the Soundblaster X-Fi next to you amps (Short distance between the line outs and no 3Mtr like line Cables coming from a head unit potentially picking up electrical noise.

Hope that makes sense.... to be honest I have no issue just taking an analog audio feed but if you want good headunit quality the offboard device like the soundblaster is the way to go.

All a question of money at the end of the day... But I rather just have a good quality head unit with USB input

//Edit.. Not quite sure which catagory this fits but a typical example of a Digtal amp/DSP unit... http://www.alphacara...;prod_code=3085

Appears that one you can drive speakers at 50w per channel or send output to an AMP/s ... so that would plug into a digital out on the offboard soundcard as an example then connected to the computer of choice be it a netbook/laptop/special in car PC.

However a good quality offboard soundcard like the soundblaster is probably just as good sounding using the line outs direct to std amps.

Edited by PMM, 21 December 2008 - 02:49 PM.

[karl & his cooper]

How about 1 of these, build a recess or hiden area into your dash http://www.trustedre...35-IMG5972s.jpg
Spec http://www.gottabemo...cs-and-pricing/

Its got a 7.5" touch screen and vga out if you want an aditonal monitor, wifi and bluetooth and SD/MMC card slot, 60GB HDD, 2GB ram I put an extra 1GB ram in, 1GHZ intel A110 processor and runs vista sweetly as ive got an additional 200Mhz out of it than spec'ed, HD Audio with jack out, 2 USB ports and 2 cameras and you can get about 5 to 6 hours out of the battery or 8 with the larger battery....

I will sell you mine for £300 inc UK delivery ) . Cost me £800 this time last year. reason for selling, my mini is off the road to much to use it for its intended purpose!!!

Edited by karl & his cooper, 31 December 2008 - 01:45 AM.

[roofless]

How about 1 of these, build a recess or hiden area into your dash http://www.trustedre...35-IMG5972s.jpg
Spec http://www.gottabemo...cs-and-pricing/

Its got a 7.5" touch screen and vga out if you want an aditonal monitor, wifi and bluetooth and SD/MMC card slot, 60GB HDD, 2GB ram I put an extra 1GB ram in, 1GHZ intel A110 processor and runs vista sweetly as ive got an additional 200Mhz out of it than spec'ed, HD Audio with jack out, 2 USB ports and 2 cameras and you can get about 5 to 6 hours out of the battery or 8 with the larger battery....

I will sell you mine for £300 inc UK delivery ) . Cost me £800 this time last year. reason for selling, my mini is off the road to much to use it for its intended purpose!!!

hey - I might be interested in that - what specific model is it please?