Thanks and a bit abotu me. Was:Re: [Diy_efi] TBI or TPI?

[Ernest Buckler]

Hey, folks -  HOW ABOUT CHANGING THE SUBJECT LINE TO ?!!!!   please....

20 messages all about the same thing?   Not....

Ernie the grouch


p.s.
oh, thanks (what's the typo-symbol for sarcastic?) for 
trimming/clipping/deleting the repeats, digest readers like myself don't 
need to re-read & re-read all 20 of the previous messages 20 times, 
y'know....nor does anyone ELSE!

last but not least, take the non-EFI stuff off-group, OK?  Yes.  Pls. Tks.

E t G



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian Molton" <spyro at f2s.com>
To: <diy_efi at diy-efi.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: Thanks and a bit abotu me. Was:Re: [Diy_efi] TBI or TPI?


> Ashley Evans wrote:
>
>> I like the car pc.  nicely fitted in to an iso slot!
>
> Thanks :)
>
> Im actually on the lookout for a bigger radio to house it in - the 
> blaupunkt radio in a friends car is about 1.5 to two inches deeper than 
> the junker I gutted originally and doesnt have an annying hole just where 
> I need to put a mobo mounting lug. Time to visit car transplants I 
> think...
>
>> and the usb on the dash is a nice touch.. perfect for copying oggs.
>
> That it is - Im gonna set it up to auto play any mp3s off a memory stick 
> if/when inserted, and will have it pop up a 'copy' button on my (touch 
> sensitive) display for grabbing those must-have tracks.
>
> > I thought about doing
>> one with a wireless card that automatically syncs when in range :)
>
> Im doing that too.
>
> > I'd
>> like to know the full tech specs of the system and costs?  I see you 
>> using ide -> CF which is good but still I think there's going to be heat 
>> issues?  Is the psu a custom job? does it use power saving to run 24/7 to 
>> avoid long boot delays?
>
> Woah! slow down :)
>
> The system pictured is actually in bits - the mobos internal USBs turned 
> out to be dead. the mobo was a Via ME6000 mini-itx board.
>
> Ive replaced it with a SP800E which is very similar, but has a faster CPU 
> and better chipset, and also has *six* internal USBs rather than two and a 
> nicer board layout and connector setup.
>
> the CF adapter was also an early design reject - I've opted for a USB 
> stick instead. the reasoning is that it fits inside the casing. the CF 
> adapter would have required me to buy a low profile DIMM.
>
> the machine has no moving parts at all - passively cooled and boots from 
> the USB stick.
>
> the PSU is an M-Systems one, designed for car use. I was thinking of 
> DIY-ing it but its a nontrivial bit of design to get right *and* eficient 
> *and* small. It also has a few cute features like auto shutdown once the 
> battery drops below 10.5V and the ability to wake the PC from sleep and/or 
> fully shut it down. it will power the PC from a 6V supply during cranking, 
> and up to 30V. it claims to protect the PC from spikes on the powerlines 
> too.
>
> I had to remove some caps from the PSU to get it to fit in my casing over 
> the mobo like that. however the SP800E might allow me to put them back on 
> (remove = attach to flying leads and hot-glue elsewhere on the board).
>
> The system layout is intentionally all USB. it *so* simplifies things.
>
> the boot stick is internal to the machine, and three of the internal ports 
> will be brought out to 4 port powered usb hubs in the dash space (these 
> run from a seperate regulated 5V supply).
>
> the three hubs will run the other devices:
>
> hub a (left hand side) runs the two cameras and the dash mounted ports.
> hub b (middle/accessible via glovebox) will carry a USB audio card (just 
> got that today) a memory stick (1GB at present) for storage (the internal 
> one will be read-only to prevent wear and is only 64MB), a bluetooth card. 
> One spare port.
> hub c (right/drivers side) will run WiFi, DVB, and GPS receivers, which 
> will likely be mounted on the roof in a custom enclosure. it will also 
> (eventually) house the EZ-USB based EMU I have planned.
>
> one of the dash ports will be used to attach the 'head unit' which is a 
> Siemens 'Simpad' PDA (8" touchscreen, runs linux)
>
> > I was going to run a laptop with default
>> lilo option set to "incar" mode would have a VERY minimal kernal.  ide + 
>> sound only. not even VTs or anything and pass it init=my_custom_stuff to 
>> keep boot up times down, but I think there's scope with a permanently 
>> installed device to have it powered all the time, maybe even voltage 
>> monitoring so if the car is left for a long time it will shutdown, but 
>> for day to day use it's always on... just a thought really.
>
> All already planned :-) although since I have suspend / resume capability 
> I will used that for 'instant on' ability.
>
>> What are you going to run on it?
>
> Custom software. I havent written that yet though.
>
> > I see there's something that looks like a camera on the mirror?
>
> Correct. thats a sweex mini webcam. Unfortunaely it appears they dont have 
> the dynamic range needed to be actually useful (sun blinds them). I will 
> have to investigate a camera with an auto-iris I suspect but thats for 
> later.
>
> I intend to run software to measure numberplates to guage distance to 
> other vehicles, and also record a loop of the last 2 mins driving into RAM 
> (which will be stored to flash in the event of an accident (that doesnt 
> kill power)).
>
> > I'm looking up the ez usb thing now. looks
>> interesting, it's not one I'd come across.  I'm very interested in 
>> getting on with my own engine management system running. but the 
>> electronics side is a little beyond me, If I could get a base cpu/io 
>> setup that I could run linux with real time addons on I could program it 
>> up for the uni project, as just the software would be the project.
>
> Well *in principle* you could pilfer a few spare GPIO lines on the e750 
> and use those but I dont know that itd be very robust. You could buffer it 
> somewhat I guess.
>
>> On the llu/dsl thing.
>
> Thanks for that, looks useful - will have to have a proper read.
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