Hey All,

I've been thinking about a Startup Controller for the Carputer, and I want it to be cheap and reliable. I like relays, they almost never fail, they're cheap and they're simple. I also want the Carputer to start as soon as possible. I know that I can buy a Startup / Shutdown controller, but I don't believe that 'Custom Made' means buying off the shelf components and plugging them in. Anyway, what do you electrical gurus think of this -

Step 1 - Car off and locked, Carputer off

The interior light is off, so the first relay will not close - nothing happens.

Step 2 - unlock car

When I unlock the car, the interior light comes on which closes the first relay (normally open). This is like pressing the power button on the computer - it sends a signal to the motherboard telling it to turn on the PSU

Step 3 - PSU powered up

When the PSU receives the command to turn on, it then opens the second relay (normally closed) which is like releasing the power button on the computer. This happens almost instantly.

So, while the Carputer is on, opening or shutting the doors or swiching on or off the interior lights will do nothing, because the 2nd relay is open. Of course this does not turn the carputer off, but with a seperate battery for the carputer it doesn't really matter, I won't kill the cars battery.

Hopefully, with this controller, by the time I get into the car the carputer should be running, even if it was turned off altogether (I normally just put it in standby though). What do you think?

Panda

Its a good idea and can easily be done...but I would wouldnt a cut off circuit.

Power on one yeh is a good idea...how i have my xbox n everything wired up in my car but shut offs for that sort of electrical equipment aint a good idea.

You can risk damaging components...espescially corrupting the O/S system files or losing data on ya drives.

When the carputer is running files are being held open and so on so cutting off the power can corrupt these open files....since most are system files you might find one day ya turn it on and it wont boot anymore.

Just could set up a relay I spose or separate circuit based on a timer that goes to ya power off carputer circuit so that if soft off power down is enabled on ya box....when the ignition or what ever is cut off it send the shutdown message to the carputer and lets it shut off properly....you have to setup a timer tho that once the cars off theres a 1min delay or whatever before the accessory power is cut..givin time for the box to shutdown.

My thoughts anywho
Cheers
Kev

You could just make all your files read-only so you cant curopt them

Yeh true but its the operating system id be concerned with....making the system files read only - most are anyways wont help.

Ya wouldnt wanna have to be rebuilding/re-installing the OS everytime this happens.

This is only startup, no shut down feature at all

Panda

Well my PC is going to be running linux with a transactional filesystem so i dont have the problem . Also make sure you look into the suspend feature for faster boot times.

Yeh thats it n hibernate unless thats what ya was referin to....let us know how this turns out panda

Well, I made up this circuit and it works a treat - unlock the doors, and by the time I get in the car the carputer is up and running.

All for about $6







Panda

I have changed the Auto-On Circuit on my carputer.

Instead of having an external box like this -


I have made it on a PCB Board -


and slid it into a spare PCI slot -




I've also made up a simple relay so that instead of switching the ICC via a manual button in the front, it the carputer is running, the ICC switches.

I'm getting lazy I guess.

Panda

nah well done dude... hehe innovative or what I love it !!