Some people don't like the idea of another player other than the empeg (don't worry, I'm one of those after using it for a while) but for some reason I've always had the desire to build my own car stereo system based on mp3s.

Once I got the empeg, I completely stopped working on my senior project (which was a tablet hooked up to an external mp3 decoder that was supposed to run in a car) because I realized how bad it was when compared to the empeg.

I have found some problems with the empeg. Since I bought it from during the closeout I can't find a tuner within a reasonable price. Also, the ability to play cds isn't there anymore. I wanted more.

Here's my idea for a homemade car player. It will only fit into a double din dash. Everything goes into the dash just like the empeg. The motherboard is a Mini ITX from VIA with a C3 processor in it. I just got mine today and it was $180 shipped for the motherboard, processor, and case (which conveniently includes a DC-DC power supply).

The hard drive will of course be a 2.5" drive. It will also have a notebook dvd-rom drive. I have measured everything out and I know it will all fit.

The DVD-ROM drive can be used to play dvds, divx files, mp3 (or other audio files) off a CD.

Also it will have full graphical GPS support (by loading an external program).

The best thing about this system isn't even the mp3 playing. It's my favorite feature, the NES emulation. It will play NES games through Nesticle 0.42 for Win9x.

The whole system will run Win2k because I don't like XP. Win2k supports hibernation without bios intervention. With my notebook I got Win2k to boot in 26 seconds from pressing the power button to full music playing. The VIA motherboard's bios posts a lot faster than my notebooks so it will most likely be under 20 seconds.

I willl also have FM/TV support. 802.11b is also an easy option. I have no need for it since I can used CD-RWs to update the music.


You may think, hmm, this sounds great and all but it's impossible. Actually I have most of the software done already. It will be easy to read on a 5" LCD. It displays about 7 lines of browsing information with the clock in the lower right, scrolling title in the lower middle, and track elapsed time in the lower right. When a DVD starts playing, it loads up fullscreen. When the DVD is done, it returns to the browse window. Full playlist support is already done. The only thing I haven't done yet is the FM and NES stuff.

I am no expert programmer. It's just a frontend for winamp. Winamp can do just about everything. FM support will require nothing else to program.

I just need a GPS receiver but until then the only thing I have left to program is the NES emulation.

I have a website up:
http://www.geocities.com/tbdombrosky/diesel.html

It's almost done and it looks very promising. I also forgot to include that it has SPDIF support so I will use that to send a digital signal to a D/A like the Nakamichi (don't remember the model number) and then to my amp so it won't be able to pick up engine noise until after it hits the D/A which will be in the trunk. I also plan to have buttons from a hacked SNES controller controlling everything. It will all be in the dash.

Tom

The whole system will run Win2k

Well, that would exclude me from wanting it.

It otherwise sounds like a fun project to build though -- good luck with it...

I have found some problems with the empeg. Since I bought it from during the closeout I can't find a tuner within a reasonable price. Also, the ability to play cds isn't there anymore. I wanted more.

Here's my idea for a homemade car player. It will only fit into a double din dash.

Maybe I wouldn't have thought about this if the two lines weren't juxtaposed, but did you ever consider one of those in car cd player / tuner thingies? You know, one with 0 second boot times and designed to work in a car environment for cheaper? (I don't actually have one of those, but I've seen them in other people's cars )

All kidding aside it sounds like a fun project. And the 5" LCD will be fun to play with. Good luck!

John

One thing you have to consider: How do you plan on shutting down and syncing your drives? Your "Mpegbox" controller doesn't seem to support shutting down in anyway. It only seems to hold the power on a certain time after the ignition goes off.

As far as I am aware WinAnything has no support for read only devices.

Good luck, I've been there and it's a lot of work.

This sounds like a very ambitious project. Good luck with it.

I praise you for having the initiative to start and hopefully complete this project. I wish there were pics on your site of the actual unit... not just components. Anyway....

This thing probably sucks, but it's a tuner for $57. Maybe you could just have mounted it in your glove box if you're shameful of its crappiness. Of course, you would only need it until PCA's tuner kits were available.

The problem with that is you have to switch the mode all the time and one unit has to run through the other. This way, everything's in one unit.

I forgot to write about that. I have this planned out as well. I'm going to build up a serial port thing that monitors the car's ignition. When it goes off, it sends a signal to the program to go into hibernation. To make sure it's off, I'm going to get one of these which cuts power after a certain amount of time:

http://home.attbi.com/~zootjeff/shutdown/

Tom

If I had a digital camera, I would have put pictures up. I can probably take some screen captures of the playing software. I'll try to put that up later.

Tom

Screenshots are up. Keep in mind I've only been working on this thing for a week so the GUI has a lot to be desired.

Tom

If you are really going to get into it, go for a touch screen. More to code, but much nicer with the GPS. It would probably simplify controlling the unit as well. It looks like a really cool project. Keep us updated on it.

I thought about doing that but I couldn't find a touchscreen kit for a 5" screen. I saw them for 6" and 7" but not 5". If anyone knows of any I would definitely do it.

Tom

I'd prefer to use Linux but SPDIF is a must (for any decent sound quality coming from a computer) and for this board it is not supported under Linux.

Also, programming for Linux would take a lot more time for me since I have very little experience with it.

The good thing about this is I'm using the Allegro gaming library and there is a Linux port of it too. I wouldn't have to change much to get it to work under Linux. The only thing is I use Winamp as my player so I would either have to find something for Linux or start from scratch. I really like Mplayer so I may use that if it hibernation works under Linux for my computer.

Tom

Tom

I also forgot to include that someone has already done this for Linux. It's called the DashPC but I emailed the guy and he said it took a very long time to boot. I think it was just under a minute. That wasn't acceptable for me. Also his doesn't fit in a double din dash. It does use a lot more expenseive screen. His screen cost as much as my whole player ($700).
Tom

The only thing is I use Winamp as my player so I would either have to find something for Linux or start from scratch.

The best Linux alternative for WinAmp I've seen is xmms. Not that it will help if SPDIF isn't supported under Linux for the board...

how did u get windows 2000 to boot that fast?

You need to have hibernation support enabled. It's in the power management settings in control panel. If it's not there try updating your drivers for some of the hardware in your computer. What it does is instead of shutting down it saves the ram to the hard disk and then powers off completely. Then when it loads up, it loads the data from the hard disk into the ram and starts wherever you left off. So it will start playing whatever song you were playing when you turned it off.

Tom

Just a thought but why dont you use Cobra for your software? http://www.mp3car.com/software.html .. it has just about everything you want done and the guy who mkaes it is really cool. Im sure you could get him to change stuff or possibly get the source from him. I believe its written in c++
-Greg