Touch screen for centre console

**newo** · 22-05-2006, 11:20 AM

Hey,

What I want to do, which I have seen some of the guys do, is put a touch screen in my car with an onboard PC etc. The question is about the touch screens. I have seen a few units on ebay, but the ones I have found don't have VGA output. In order to use the touch screen function with a windows based PC, do I have to get one with a VGA input?

Thank you!

**mouce** · 22-05-2006, 11:50 AM

Depends on the output that your PC (or in my case, laptop) has. The laptop I'll be using has both VGA and S-Video, so I can take my pick. I will end up running VGA though, however S-Video should work just as well.

Only trick is that you need to make sure that your computer can do S-Video out from the graphics card.

**MBS206** · 22-05-2006, 11:53 AM

I'd advise NOT running a windows based PC.

You can run a very simple player on a dos system, can be run on almost any PC.
Player is called MPXplayer.

Have a search for it. Will work out cheaper then buying one of those custom computers for cars.

Can't help on the touch screen though.

**mouce** · 22-05-2006, 07:02 PM

Why would you advise against running Windows on a carputer? Admittedly windows isn't the best OS around, but for a carputer that's just going to handle MP3's, and a few movies, what's your reason?

DOS isn't much better? Anyway, if you setup windows properly, you wouldn't need a keyboard for general operations, the touchscreen would be enough. DOS is entirely text based, so a keyboard is a must.

**hakhawk** · 22-05-2006, 08:08 PM

id advise towards using windows, ive had my carpc running for 12 months now, using windows xp, with not a problem, software or hardware.

as for the touchscreen, i dont think they make a touchscreen with an input of anything else other than vga, mine has vga and svideo inputs, but as far as i know, the touchscreen doesnt work when svideo is selected.

what ones are you looking at? got any links? i have a 8" lilliput va touchscreen, you can get ones in 7", 8" 10"

external screens, din size fold out screens, etc.

**mouce** · 22-05-2006, 08:17 PM

How much did the 8" lilliput set you back? I'm looking at either that or the xenarc, I figure the price should be similar.

**hakhawk** · 22-05-2006, 08:48 PM

i paid just under 400 posted, ebay special.

theyre worth about 350 now on ebay.

**Atreidae** · 22-05-2006, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by MBS206

I'd advise NOT running a windows based PC.

You can run a very simple player on a dos system, can be run on almost any PC.
Player is called MPXplayer.
.

Ahh mpx play. i remember (with alot of tweaking) getting it to play mp3's on a 486 66.

Screen. check out the response touch screens. 500 bux from memory. decent res with an internal resizer i can get it to run at 1920x1200. (obviously it resizes to suit the native rez of the screen, but the main point is it doesnt realy care about timing) and its a nice bright screen.. and you will need a bright screen if you expect to see it during the day mounted in the dash.

heres a pic of mine in my unfinished center console
http://www.chibiko.net/ausrevs/console/DSC00884.JPG (big image. not dialup freindly)

as for software check out Media Engine. its on the mp3car fourms. both 12 volt and I are building our systems around it (if 12volt is still building his carputer?) and im also currently coding a heater control plugin for it. (check www.chibiko.net for details on that)

**hakhawk** · 22-05-2006, 11:43 PM

lol, nice fabrication work on the screen.

im quite interested in your climate control app, how are you hooking it to the car itself? have you got factory climate control or just standard aircon controls?

**Tasmaniak** · 23-05-2006, 01:15 AM

he has just standard aircon....he keeps talking to me about how he is making the pc move little things around his desk.....

**hakhawk** · 23-05-2006, 01:18 AM

lol, ok. ive been looking at the same thing, got a few ideas, just need to get around to getting the hardware and trying it.

**newo** · 23-05-2006, 01:40 PM

Hey,

Thanks for the replies. I've been looking at a few units on ebay, but from the pics on some of the seller's sites, the cabling doesn't appear to have VGA. I send an email, and as it is with some, it takes a while for the reply.

Hakhawk, that lilliput unit - did that come from overseas, and was that 400 AUD or US? Plus, I had another thought. In terms of hooking it up to a mini pc (I've found something called a shuttle PC which I am thinking of using); if you have mp3's on your carputer, then naturally you need to hook up the output to the sound system. How do you go about doing this? Do you have to connect it through, say, the headphone/speaker jack out, or is there a better way?

Cheers

**hakhawk** · 23-05-2006, 02:24 PM

it was 400aus

in regards to audio, my speakers just run from the headphone socket, to rca converter, then to an amp, runs fine, good sound.

my sub i run from the sub channel on the soundcard, as its 6channel sound, to a dicksmith preamp kit, then to the amp, as the soundcard doesnt have enuf pre-out voltage to run my amp/sub combo without the gain up all the way.

i use onboard soundcard, with no problems, but some of the car audiophiles out there, prefer to use a pci or external soundcard with better sound quality, etc.

if you're not going to do competitions or arent extremely picky about the sund, just use the onboard card.

**yosy** · 23-05-2006, 06:32 PM

Are you using crt? cause doesnt lcd fade in the sun like like junk mail left outside to long
but i guess that if its lcd for a car then it will be uv resistant
crt would be the way to go.

**hakhawk** · 23-05-2006, 06:37 PM

lol, crt, haha, nice one.

nah, tft lcd is wats used, mines been in there a year and only the brightness has dropped a little.

**holdensupporter2005** · 24-05-2006, 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by yosy

Are you using crt? cause doesnt lcd fade in the sun like like junk mail left outside to long
but i guess that if its lcd for a car then it will be uv resistant
crt would be the way to go.

CRT monitor stands for "Cathode Ray Tube" it has a glass tube that is filled with gas, typically used in older style pc monitors and tv's, hence the reason for the depth to the monitor.

LCD = "Liquid Crystal Display" these monitors are a matrix of tiny squares that are filled with liquid crystal. these tiny squares change color electronically and make up your picture on the screen.

to put a CRT monitor in a car is just not practical as they would take up too much room.

LCD monitors are great for car pc's as they are small and compact

**ascension24** · 24-05-2006, 12:31 AM

This is the setup I had not long ago, got rid of it because looking at getting a new car and a better setup.

Computer in the boot, custom EWF and HORM setup to give a boot time of under 7 seconds. (windows XP)

The front end you see is frodoplayer, hats off to frodo from mp3car for creating this software, best user friendly touchscreen software you can find out their. Designed specifically for in car use.

Has wireless so can surf the net when im parked in my drive.

Had an antenna hooked up and could watch tv but never found a really good antenna for a decent picture

Screen is a xenarc 7".

Did a dodgy job of installing it into the dash, but did it all myself thats what counts

Thats, insert key, turn.. computer is booted into windows and playing music in under 7 seconds.

Yes you want VGA for ths screen, because you could always go RCA out from the comp but then the quality is crap and you wont be able to read the screen.
Look for a lilliput or a xenarc, their the screens you want.

With the prices you can get screens and computer hardware these days, a complete setup can cost you under 500 bucks.

**newo** · 26-05-2006, 07:46 PM

What's EWF and Horm?

**hakhawk** · 26-05-2006, 07:54 PM

horm stands for hibernate once, resume many. means when you hibernate the pc, it will return to the same setup everytime, something im not a fan of myself.

ewf is enhanced write filter, from memory, it stops xp writing to the disk, so you can boot from compact flash cards without killing the life of it.

i think thats all right

**holdensupporter2005** · 26-05-2006, 11:25 PM

I'm interested in this HORM and EWF procedure.
any more info on it?
What hardware is required to perform this??
Any procedures and how to's???
Cheers
Holdensupporter2005

**hakhawk** · 26-05-2006, 11:43 PM

no special hardware needed, you dont need a compact flash card for ewf. i havent used either enough to help, but i can only suggest heading over to www.mp3car.com signing up and searching for them. lots of info there. it certainly helped me out.

**Atreidae** · 04-06-2006, 11:26 PM

oh and for those that "Think" their smart in getting a laptop screen.. dont bother.. unless you of course have the laptop the screen came from the controlers cost more than a liliput plus a pro install.

**hakhawk** · 04-06-2006, 11:44 PM

lol, yup, its an easy mistake, i looked at it once for a case mod, laptop screen on side of computer tower, til i found you need the extra controllers n shit.

**ascension24** · 05-06-2006, 07:14 PM

Yeah, sorry missed this thread for a while.

To find out how to setup ewf and horm, go to mp3car.com theirs heaps of tutes their.

But the purpose of it is, i could be in the middle of playing a song or movie and just switch my car off.

The power cuts to the computer complety and shuts it off in the middle of any process. In a normal computer application this would be bad, causing a whole lot of errors.

But with EWF and horm, when I turn the car on, it boots straight back up into my media plyer within a few seconds.

You never have to shut down the computer or boot it up.

So it behaves just like one of the 2grand touchscreens media centers from alpine, but a whole lot better

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