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After dealing with the numerous issues of my previous AMD Geode carputer motherboard, I decided to upgrade.  Some of the problems I had were hanging at POST, bluescreens due to driver issues, and overall weird behavior.  I also wanted more features, such as the ability to boot from a USB drive.  Not only that, but the board ran pretty hot in my glove box and lacked performance that I wanted.

Alas, the Intel D945GCLF2, based on the Intel Atom, is finally released.  One of the key features that caught my eye was the dual core Atom processor.  Not only is it dual core, but its power usage is outstanding.  It’s estimated to use 4 watts under load while consuming milliwatts (thousandths of a watt) when idle.  Being in a carputer, power consumption is a vital specification because you need to figure out how large of a power supply you will need.  The power consumption spec can also give you an idea of how much heat will be disappated, because after all, the power not  used for computing will dissipate into heat.

Intel D945GCLF2 Dual Core Atom Motherboard

The power supply I am using is an Opus 120.  It’s rated for 120 watts and has powered my previous build just fine.  I ran into one snag that I didn’t expect, however.  The motherboard uses a 12v P4 ATX connector (see pic below) as well as the standard 20-24pin ATX connector.   The power supply I have (and most that I’ve seen) do not have this connector incorporated into their harness.

P4 ATX Connector

To solve this problem, you can either purchase a molex to P4 adapter, or you can mod your existing wiring harness and add the P4 connector.  I chose to mod my existing wiring harness and add the P4 connector to one of the existing molex connectors.  Basically, I cut off the P4 connector from a regular ATX power supply, stripped the wires, and crammed them into an existing molex connection.  See the pictures below to see what I mean.

Closeup of P4 Connection

Closeup of P4 to Molex Connection

Molex to P4 Adapter

After everything was setup, I installed the full Windows XP Pro with SP3.  I opted not to use TinyXP because I felt that it could cause issues down the road with all the drivers it has stripped out.  After the installation, I installed the usual Winamp, VLC media player, SpeedFan, iGuidance, Centrafuse, and finally the drivers.  Instead of configuring Windows to hibernate after the car was shut off, I chose to shutdown completely because I’ve had lots of issues with hibernation such as it not resuming correctly.

With 1GB of RAM and a 2.5″ 80GB 4200RPM hard drive, the performance isn’t too bad.  You would think that a 4200RPM hard drive would be kind of sluggish, but I can hardly notice it.  Windows starts up from a cold boot quickly and so do all of the programs I use.  I’m never left waiting for the next song to load or a program to open.

The low power consumption of the board is also very noticeable.  With my old board, the CPU temperature would always be at least 45C upon boot, and rise to a little over 60C after being used for awhile.  On a cold morning, at about 55F, The Intel Atom managed to boot up at 30C and after 20 minutes, it had only risen to 35C!  Now, when I open my glove box, there’s no more hot air oozing out.  The air inside the glove box is almost the same temperature as the air in the cabin!  However, the temperatures will differ based on the ambient temperature inside the cabin, so the CPU will run hotter on a warmer day.  On an 80F day, the CPU boots at 30C and rises to about 55-60C, still not bad on a very warm day.

All in all, the Intel D945GCLF2 is a great buy.  At only $89.99 from Mini-box.com, you get tons of features, and best of all, a dual core processor.  With low power consumption, low temperatures, and high performance it seems as if the board was made explicitly for carputer usage, in which it excels.

Full Carputer Setup in Glovebox

Caputer without Fan Showing P4 Connection

After using a bluetooth TomTom GPS receiver for months on end, I got fed up with the slow satellite acquisition and slow bluetooth pairing every time I turned the device on.  I mainly used the bluetooth GPS receiver with my carputer and iGuidance 4 for GPS navigation.  However, it gets annoying when the receiver only connects half the time and waiting for satellites can take minutes, not seconds.

It was time to look for a new receiver that could acquire satellites quickly and require no user intervention to turn the receiver on and off.  A USB GPS receiver was the solution for me since it’s A) powered by the computer, B) turns on/off based on if the carputer is on/off, C) SiRF III chipset, D) waterproof.  I ordered a Globsat BU-353 USB receiver and I was wondering why I didn’t purchase one from the start.

Installation was extremely easy and iGuidance 4 reconized the receiver right away.  Being waterproof, the Globsat BU-353 can be externally mounted.  This is a plus because if externally mounted, the receiver has a better line of sight to the sky, which results in faster satellite acquisitions.  It also has a magnetic base so you could attach it to anything metal on your car (roof, door, hood, etc).  I chose to mount it externally, right outside the windshield where it meets the hood.

Globalsat BU-353 @ Amazon.com

The performance of the receiver is simply amazing.  By the time my carputer boots into Windows and iGuidance is launched, the receiver already has a lock of at least 8 satellites.  So far, I’ve never had to wait for the receiver to lock onto satellites, it is always instant.  I’ve never had it lose it’s lock on the satellites and I haven’t had any problems with it thus far.  Simply said, this is an amazing GPS receiver that I’d be happy to recommend to anybody.  The downside is that the receiver is USB, so it can only be used with a computer, not cell phones.

I bought my receiver at Amazon.com for $36.95, which is the best price I could find; even better than eBay.

Why a computer in your car you ask? Well one, it’s pretty cool! You can basically do anything on your carputer that you can on a regular computer. Also, one of the main reasons I chose to build a carputer is because it is much cheaper than buying an all-in-one unit like a Pioneer or Alpine in-dash player. To add to that, the carputer runs Windows XP so the software combinations and the functionality features are endless.

Want to access the internet internet on the go? Use bluetooth to tether your phone and get internet where ever you have signal. Lost? Use a bluetooth GPS module and GPS software to navigate your way out. Just want to play music and videos? No problem, install a front end like Centrafuse and have at it.

Hardware
The setup I have right now consists of an AMD Geode 1.4GHz processor with 256MB DDR RAM and a 30GB 2.5″ hard drive. The screen is a 7″ Liliput motorized touchscreen and the power supply is an Opus 120watt. The whole setup even fits in my glove box. The motherboard is a Mini-ITX form factor board and the dimensions are 7″ x 7″. The power supply sits to the right of the motherboard and the hard drive is secured under the power supply in the little corner crevice. Then there’s a USB 2.0 powered hub to hook up bluetooth, wireless keyboard, etc.

Operating System
The operating system is TinyXP Rev. 06. TinyXP is basically a stripped down Windows XP. The entire installation only takes up 400MB and only uses 40MB of RAM. Even with only 256MB of memory, the computer still boots blazingly fast. From POST to the Windows desktop, it takes less than 15 seconds! See the video below for a demonstration.

Peripherals/Addons
To receive internet, I usually tether my phone to the carputer via bluetooth. I’m using a Treo 755p with PdaNet installed to connect to the carputer. Throughput is pretty good while tethering using the Sprint EVDO network, but it’s nothing close to spectacular. Web pages will take an extra 2-3 seconds to load, but nothing major.

For navigation, I use a bluetooth TomTom MKII receiver with the SirfStar III chipset. The software side includes iGuidance v4 which uses Navteq maps. The GPS navigation system is pretty accurate and comes with a ton of POI.

Wireless 802.11 communication is handled by a Zonet ZEW-2500P USB 2.0 card. It has a Ralink chipset which can inject packets and is therefore compatible with many of the wireless penetration tools available today. Eventually, I will replace that wireless card with a Fonera that will stay on 24/7 running in client-mode with AutoAP. That way, the Fonera will automatically find open wireless networks (there never fails to be a shortage of em), connect to them, and allow me to remote control the Fonera from the internet. I could then use wake on LAN (WOL) to turn on the carputer. Furthermore, I plan to use a USB switch module to control different functions of the car such as remote start, alarm arm/disarm, lock/unlock, etc. That means that the car can literally be controlled from the internet!

Want to listen to music or watch movies? No problemo. Front ends like Centrafuse present the user with a nice interface with big buttons that compliment the touchscreen and fat fingers :). Within the interface, you can play music, watch movies, check the weather, launch a web browser, and more.

Input is handled by a MadCatz wireless keyboard which is generally used with PS3s. However, there is nothing special about the setup and it works fine when used with a computer. I like it because I don’t have to carry a bulky keyboard around and it can be hidden very easily.