Next project: Car Touchscreen Jukebox

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:11 pm

about a week ago, I was looking through my closet. I spied with my little eye, a laptop I have. A few years ago, I bought this at a garage sale for $20. This thing is, well, quite old. However, this isn't your ordinary laptop, this is a tablet PC Its specs are:

50Mhz
~10" 640x480 touchscreen
24MB RAM
2 hard drives, both removable: 1 is a 170MB, the other is 105MB
1 CD drive
internal sound card
2 PCMCIA slots (1 taken by hard drive)

I don't have a picture of the actual unit I have, but here's one just like it:

The keyboard and stuff is all optional, all you need is the screen part (it has the CPU inside, as you may expect)

So, what do I do with this? I asked myself. Then, I thought about the car I drive. It's about 20 years old, and only has an AM/FM radio, along with a tape deck, no cd player. I don't have the money to buy a new stereo with cd player, and I don't want a portable cd player laying around on my floor, so I thought to myself: why not make this a jukebox? Sure, the hard drive space sucks, but I can just burn a CD full of MP3s! And so it was, I decided to make... the first (that I know of) Ricoh G-1200S Jukebox, mounted right on my car, wired directly to the car battery! Oooh, this is going to be great!

For the Jukebox software, I'm planning on using the DOS version of what I use on my arcade. When running, it will look a little something like this:

I'll send some more pictures once I can find the digital camera, if my dad didn't take it with him. If he did, expect more pictures soon

To do list:
Put operating system on hard drives with compact flash/PCMCIA adapter. The laptop has no floppy drive, and cannot boot from the cdrom. I'll use a compact flash card, and an $8 adapter I need to order.

Install other software

Figure out power. this thing uses 9.5 volts at 2 amps, or 7.2 if I wire to where the battery goes. The 2 amps may get tricky

mount in car

use it!

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:19 pm

Sounds good!

If it takes a standard notebook hard drive you could always install a larger one and partition it as necessary...

What's the name of that Jukebox program?

usbcd36 · Post by **usbcd36** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:30 pm

Nice idea, you know some people have been doing this with Mac Minis because they are smaller than car stereo head units. That would be my choice, but you did it with parts you already had. I compliment you!

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:03 pm

bicostp wrote: What's the name of that Jukebox program?

i wanna know too

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:08 pm

The Jukebox I'll be using is Wincab Jukebox, though I'll be using the DOS version, Doscab. I hope to make my own skin, if possible, since I like a different one they have, but that does not let me page through the list. The reason I will use the one that looks like a Jukebox is because it's the only one that lets you use more then 16 songs at once.

it does use a laptop hard drive, but a PCMCIA one. The problem is, it doesn't go very big, but you may be able to partition it. I'll probably use a cd with MP3's for holding music, though

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:15 pm

what are you gonna do for speakers?

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:19 pm

probably go through the car speakers

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:26 pm

yep, I have an FM transmitter that will plug into the headphone port on the laptop, sending it to the stereo. I could use the speaker, but that's weak. Also, it only uses one channel from a stereo source. Hmm, I hope the headphone port doesn't, come to think of it. I don't think it does, but I should check that out.

Edit: cool, the instructions say it's a stereo headphone port

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:16 pm

Ok, I just hit my first brick wall. I need to power this thing! I could use an inverter, in fact I already have one, but that's probably too hard on a 20 year old alternator. Also, I'd like this to have more of a direct connection, because I could have the laptop turn on and off if I tie it in to the 12 volt plug (it goes on and off with the key, so it will go off with the car)

Anyway, I'm thinking of getting a few universal 12 volt converters, wired up in series to provide enough amperage. The tablet takes about 2.1 amps at 7.2 or 9.5 volts, depending on where I plug it in. Does anybody have any suggestions for reducing cost of powering this? I'm guessing it will cost $20 to have 3 800mA adapters, and I know radioshack has a nice high-current car adapter, but that costs over $30.

Thanks,
Your favorite (and least favorite!) spongey

Post by **Triton** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:28 pm

i wouldnt worry too much about your altenator, its at least 105 watts peak i think before the diodes blow. i cant remember but they can have a lot of load on em before they give out and 2ah load on a cars electrical system is not very much

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 8:49 pm

Triton wrote:i wouldnt worry too much about your altenator, its at least 105 watts peak i think before the diodes blow. i cant remember but they can have a lot of load on em before they give out and 2ah load on a cars electrical system is not very much

It's not the current of the laptop itself, it's when you put an inverter in the mix that I'm worried about. I would imagine that would make things worse. Plus, I'd have to hide the thing, and do a bit more to get it running (the fewer things between starting the car and choosing the song, the better)

new york cheech · Post by **new york cheech** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:21 am

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... 273%2D1863

why not use something like that

edit: nvmd its only 1 amp

new york cheech · Post by **new york cheech** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:24 am

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... 273%2D1818

you could use that but its 32 dollars

or what about a simple regulator?

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:33 am

new york cheech wrote:http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... 273%2D1818

you could use that but its 32 dollars

or what about a simple regulator?

Yeah, that's what I mentioned in an earlier post. I'd be glad to use a regulator, but am having a helluva time finding a regulator that would work (so many choices from digikey, gets overwhelming)

If somebody could link to a (cheap) regulator that can give a decent amount of amperage (1-2 amps) that would be awesome. I'd use an adjustable regulator, but the resistors would have to be just right, which is hard to do

Oh, and Mouser would be nice, since they don't have a minimum order like digikey

Thanks,
SpongeBuell

new york cheech · Post by **new york cheech** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:38 am

http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch ... 87&Site=US

im pretty sure that'll work