Mr.Cookie

Just aswell a scoob takes longer to warm up eh, and i bet we all know what you'll be doing in the cool down minutes .
Are you taking piccys of install coz i'd love to see them.

Simon
Ps Sorry cant help on the name front

chiark

Someone's feigning interest! Cheers Simon! I don't take much encouragement, so yes install pictures will be available soon

My site will be updated soonish with a picture diary of the mp3mobile, lists of parts used, all that guff.

Hopefully it'll look a bit neater than this (found on the web):
<img src=http://www.chiark.com/scooby/image/danger.jpg>

chiark

For those with a vague interest:

It plays MP3s! Now I just need to write the controller software.

There's CAJUN out there that someone has already written, but where's the fun in that?

Problems:

The software will be made available if anyone's interested...

chiark

One thing needed: a name for the thing.

So far, it's MuppetMobile. Any wonderful suggestions?

harryh

What spec is the MP3 machine, Chiark? I ask because I have an old motherboard with a Pentium 90 and 24megs of RAM on it and it has no particular use so an MP3 playing PC in the boot might be a possibility. Hmmm......

BTW How well does the Linux file system deal with the ignition being switched off?

chiark

P90 should be fine, though it may be a bit marginal. P133 works well and the system is still responsive. 24MB will be fine, too.

The PSU is independent from ignition and will be turned off by a timer relay, switching supply coming off the "ACC" line, or via a switch on the dash (a use for the bright switch, I think ). If I pull Pin 1 (I think) on the serial port high with this, the power daemon will think the UPS is failing, and will shut the system down.

The first implementation, unsurprisingly, will be using a simple switch with no timer relay and require me to shut it down (/sbin/halt) .

harryh

Have you thought about using this PC of yours for in-car navigation? You could dangle the 14" monitor from the rear-view mirror.

Mr.Cookie

Chiark

Im not fiegning interest i might be after some advice soon although i intent to do a p2 333 version with lcd monitor connceted to tv out of a tnt2 ultra and use one of the accelerometers from demon tweeks for some fancy screen saving (a la skyline r34) should be fun though .

Simon

Mr.Cookie

Also how did the power supply work out

Simon

Mr.Cookie

Here ya go harry only problem is im not sure if there is such a thing as a pcmia inputty(nice word eh) thing for desktop pc's, anyone else know

Jake

why cant you use a lap top or just a normal MP3 player?

harryh

Grrrr, foiled again. That Street Mate thing from Sony (ain't that a naff programme on Channel 4 which is only saved by having Davina McCall in it?) only does Mainland Great Britain i.e. not Northern Ireland (again). You'd think NI was a different country or something.

chiark

Jake: laptops are expensive (well, not really once I've paid for it all), and an ordinary MP3 player just isn't cricket. The sound quality of cheap laptops is also a bit poor in my opinion.

Gives me something to do, keeps me off the streets...

harryh: I've considered it. I have a NavTrak system which has GPS on it, and a serial port. The thought has crossed my mind many times, though NavTrack say that it's "impossible" to get positioning data out of it.

Simon: PSU seems fine, no problems with it! (Other than postage...). I did consider a TFT screen and tv out card, especially with maplins doing LCD panels for 120 quid, but couldn't find a nice way to integrate it into the dash because I want to add gauges and wanted to keep component count down to minimise the risk with vibrations, etc. It was a marginal decision though. And for navigation, the TVout option would be great.

One problem with TFT/video out may be if it's more susceptable to noise. I don't know this one, but a mate (the one with the Evo VI and EMPEG) has bought one to play with (IT contractor: more money than sense) and we'll give it a bash to see how much noise it picks up.

P2 233 may be a challenge, as the PSU doesn't give 3.3v (AT, not ATX) - can you get AT style Pentium2 boards?

Sanity

Sheesh,

I just bought an empeg

chiark

Sanity: I'd like to, but can't justify the cost

Today's update... I'll be hacking CAJUN for my player....

Mark_S

You can get baby AT Socket7 m/boards with built in video/sound. They may take some of the older Pentiums but are mainly sold for use with AMD K6-500's nowadays running at 66-100MHz bus speeds. Probably about 100 quid all in.

<P2 233 may be a challenge, as the PSU <doesn't give 3.3v (AT, not ATX) - can you <get AT style Pentium2 boards

Mr.Cookie

Hi Chiark

Think i may try one of them car to 240v power converters as otherwise i'll have an extra pc power supply, also have i had a reply removed or am i just dreaming, could of swore i swore about the power supply doing a 3.3volt .

Cheers
Simon

chiark

Hi Mark: I looked at these, notably the Jetway AT board, but apparently the on-board sound is somewhat lacking in quality. So I went a different route...

Mr C: No, no-one will have removed your reply, so dunno what happened there! A way around the 3.3V "problem" is to chuck a 3.3V regulator onto this PSU, or just wire it into a loom somewhere. SG Thompson make one, and the Evo Muppet is trying one to see if it will pass enough current to allow him to run a dreamcast, which needs 3.3V...

I doubt that this regulator would flow enough for a PC as its max output is .3A...

Mr.Cookie

Cheers Chiark

Dreaming again then , spoken to some people today think im gonna go for a AT motherboard with an AMD K6 550mhz same graphics card but think ive got a problem with the PCIMA needed to run streetmate, noone seems to mafe a pci pcima input card.

Simon

howardb

Peak Development,

howardb

or you could try

Mr.Cookie

Cheers Howard

Simon

Mr.Cookie

Just incase im not the only muppet trying to do this here a pci to pcmcia card

Mr.Cookie

And there UK distributor is1 Berrywood Business Village
Tollbar Way, Hedge End
Southampton Hampshire
SO30-2UN ENGLAND
Phone:44-1489-796979
Fax: 44-1489-796798
Email:

chiark

For anyone being a cheapskate and using an old board, like me, which uses the old Cache On A STick (COAST) cache memory... TAKE IT OFF THE BOARD!

This memory appears to be very sensitive to vibration as the mounting is extremely poor - nothing to secure it at all.

I've spent two days going nowhere with random crashes, CMOS registers being screwed up, hardware being shafted, PCI bus strangeness that's all down to this little stick of plop.

Removing it has sorted *all* problems.

Update: LCD screen now displaying progress, and rudimentary playlist support...

CAJUN is a great package, but it's being hacked about a bit...

Mr.Cookie

Hi Chiark

Bought this to the top just to see if any more news on how things are going .

Simon

chiark

Things have been quiet recently due to workload. However, hopefully I'll be able to spend some time this week on it. In short, everything is working, and I need to work out how to mount it.

The other challenge is designing a user interface that works well. I think empeg is a good stab at a good interface, but I'd prefer more buttons to be able to alpha-search things.

I'm using a 12 key keypad (16 key with the bottom row hacked off - it works ) so have some flexible options.

There's some info on

Mr.Cookie

Cheers and good luck

Simon