new car computer idea

[wirednuts]

ok, i have this setup i want to throw out there and see if people have any thoughts. ive had traditional windows computer setups, but of course the software was always lacking.

so, onto the world of plug and play, basically!

i was thinking a raspberry pi running xbmc on a 7" monitor up front. since touchscreen control isnt well supported yet, i figured i could have a 4" android phone underneath that i could undock and use as a wifi remote.

to tie them together, i would use a dual band router.

i have done some preliminary testing, and thats how i found out the android phone as a remote thing works great. i will also have the ability to remotely turn on the pi and router so i can upload new media.. i can do this with an auxillary button on my remote start.

then, i figure, whenever they get touchscreens working well with the pi, i can always add that in.

 

[Zap]

7" monitor? How about just using a 7" tablet?

 

[TheStu]

Seriously, just use a Nexus 7 or something.

 

[wirednuts]

i was going to for the longest time. then i got a raspberry pi and tried xbmc. holy crap!

whats so slick is xbmc remote. i can use the 4" phone as a remote, even take it outside of the car and still control everything.

when im in the car, using the phone is actually easier then trying to touch a screen on the dash. and, if a tablet is built into the dash, i cannot take it out easily to work on it or to use it outside of the car. but if it was just a $200 hdmi monitor in the dash, that can stay there and i can hook anything i want into it- like cameras and even the 4" phone if i want android only features like netflix. a simple video switch could select between eveything.

and, android otg sucks. its finicky and slow. hooking up large drives and handling huge libraries is where the pi really shines. dlna works 1000% better on the pi then it doesn on any android app too.

 

[Darknite39]

Funny--I'm actually thinking of implementing something sorta similar for a multi-week road trip this summer. I've got a HP Touchpad that I'm going to hook to the dash to serve as a media player through a new stereo I'm installing (current one has no AUX). I'm planning to get a cheap netbook and hook up an external 2.5" drive to that and connect it to the tablet over wifi (hopefully w/o the need for a separate router in the car). This way I can have the XBMC interface on the tablet and also use PDAnet (with my phone hooked to the netbook over USB) to have internet access for things like Netflix and browsing on the tablet (for my passengers--I only want to use it for music).

If I can score a 4G tablet, though, I might just use my grandfathered Verizon SIM in there instead of my phone while I'm on the road and just have people call me via Google Voice. PDAnet from my GSIII will allow browsing via Bluetooth, but I can't use google music or anything media-heavy over BT.

Good luck with your project! Post pics when you're done.

 

[piasabird]

I am not suggesting you buy anything at this website but there are probably other websites like this out there.

http://www.mo-co-so.com/default.asp

Maybe you are better off with a tablet?

This place sells some of those little touch screens.