Owdi!

[Evilgoat76]

Ello all. Just saying Hi.

Have an M reg S2 Avant thats been neglected a little. I orginally purchased her as something to do but lost my jon in march so shes being the day to day car untill I can afford to give her some TLC.

Nothing much special about her, rear brakes were redone with EBC partsafter I realised how shockingly bad they were. Other than that she has a failry powerful on board computer setup I use for my business and to carry around about 4 weeks worth of music

[Greg_S]

Welcome to the forum, have you got some info on the in car pc?

[Evilgoat76]

I'll get some pics up at some point BUT theres a lot of custom bits around it. Its actualy a prototype product for my business. Specs as it stands are:

PC Bits....
Intel Atom 230 Processor (intel board) with 1Gb DDR2 667
160 Gb WD Caviar Blue SATA (3.5in, final product will be smaller 2.5in)
MATX Automotive PSU with remote on/off, set for 30 mins runon, 30 mins standby, hard off at 1 hour. Amp output

Also in the case.
DSI (thats us) USB to system bridgeboard giving the following outputs
* Sony Unilink bus interface - Talks to head unit
* DSI TRnet master interface - Monitors internal fan and controls it, talks to module in mirror control switch and a few misc other bits
* Serial for GPS module
* Filtering for Audio Outputs
* Fan controller and onboard TRnet temp sender

Case is a custom build from scratch with a big a??? neutrik connector for powering it up out of the car.

Big bundle of wiring from the unit to the fron carries 1 Usb, 1 Trnet, VGA, BUS Audio, Unilink, head unit ANT signal, monitor power signals and microphone return up to the front. 54G Wifi and GPRS USB dongles buried in the rear trims.

In the front panel pas side foot well lives a USB hub feeding a Video capture device, dash USB port, OBDII interface, Bluetooth module and the touchscreen. Will eventually feed the Autocheck Interface when I have time to make it stop freaking out.

Unilink, Power control and bus audio feed the head unit, pretty standard there. The PC shows up as a CD changer to the head unit if I want to use the system with no monitor.

TRnet loops around and into drivers door ending underneth the mirror switch. Plan is to mess with the mirror switch for use with the auto-check interface as a configuration thing. Allowing pc to be turned off/rebooted along with any other bits I add. Also as vol up/down next/prev when both mirror buttons are up. In theory I can pull back the status of any car signal through this with the right modules and picking up the signals in the harness.

Monitor is a 7" Linitx touch screen. Mounted on the dash above the central vents on a cunningly designed bracket that needs no screws. Behind it on a bracket is a Pulnix video camera (scares the hell out of people when they realise its there)

It runs an serioulsy monkied with WinXP Pro install that was made as small as possible. On top of that is WinVNC (so I can get to it remotely, see whats going on before it shuts down etc), Centrafuse (day to day music, nav, video, Bluetooth, OBDII, handsfree etc etc) Netstumbler is on there for abit of Wardriving (used to work for a network security firm) then two bits of our own software. One runs on a 5 minutle loop filming everything that happens through the cam. This has been used in anger twice. On, when I was hit by someone and it was all 'taped' second timeina road rage incident. Video is timestamped and stored with GPS data (UTC Time, SOG, lat and long). The second EVIL bit of software is being developed for a client and performs very very fast, accurate ANPR and logs it with a photo, all the above info and performs a check on the veichle. Its significantly faster and a lot more accurate than the systems in use by Hampshire Police right now.

Finally, when it powers up, provided it can get a GPRS signal, it connects back to the server at the shop and tells me where the car is.

Was that enough info?

[Greg_S]

Yeah, sounds like a meaty project. Got alot of potential too hasnt it. Has your company got a site too?

[TDi90]

Welcome Evilgoat!
Good to see you!
Rob

[Jamo]

Sounds better than mine!

Monitor is a 7" Linitx touch screen. Mounted on the dash above the central vents on a cunningly designed bracket that needs no screws. Behind it on a bracket is a Pulnix video camera (scares the hell out of people when they realise its there)

Any pics? i'm not using mine as I need a new monitor install and need inspiration

[Jersey Paul]

Love to see a picture of that in situ.
Thinking of a much more basic in-car PC set-up for my VW Transporter.

[HPmuirt]

The second EVIL bit of software is being developed for a client and performs very very fast, accurate ANPR and logs it with a photo, all the above info and performs a check on the veichle. Its significantly faster and a lot more accurate than the systems in use by Hampshire Police right now.

Speed is not the issue with most ANPR systems with todays processors, but accuracy still can be - particularly when people are trying to disguise their plates or when the skew angles etc are just too high. That said, most ANPR systems can deal with much higher skew angles and manay can use algorithms to predict partially obscured characters.

The other thing that I find odd is that the government has taken away the control of static cameras (including ANPR systems) from the police and given this job to the Highways Agency. This means that there is now a single design being rolled out across the entire country, giving a larged single standardised network, rather than the 34 previous police networks in England alone! Yet with mobile systems, each force chooses its own system, seemingly independantly of the desision criteria, knowleadge or experience of any other force

E.g. I believe ANPRtech supply the Hampshire police mentioned above, yet others use Appian, CitySync etc.

Big brother is watching you, but not always on the same system as he was yesterday

Cheers n

Si

[Evilgoat76]

Speed is not the issue with most ANPR systems with todays processors, but accuracy still can be - particularly when people are trying to disguise their plates or when the skew angles etc are just too high. That said, most ANPR systems can deal with much higher skew angles and manay can use algorithms to predict partially obscured characters.

E.g. I believe ANPRtech supply the Hampshire police mentioned above, yet others use Appian, CitySync etc.

The system under the hood here is a learning based neural net, the system gradually gets better as time goes on. When its been running for a while I get to go through is snapshots and correct it. The project it is for is actually a static setup but this seemed the easiest way to get it up and learning. We aroginally went with the SHARK system (cant remeber the manufacturer off hand) that Hants Constabulary and a fewPetrol stations used and I have to say it was horrific.

I'll get some pics ons Sun when I pull the car apart. Themonitor bracket has a hook cut to fit into the centre demister vet,small andstrong so asnotto messwith airflow. The bracket then hooksround and tucks in under the topof the centre air vents, basically these points only provide location. The shape of the bracket and lots of sticky foam onit take most of the load. Anyway this is getting OT, I'll post it in the right place on Sun

We have a Webby but its only the run of the mill PC stuff on there right now. The linky is in my profile.

Heres 2 Early pics of the CarPC and the 'other' car. Dont have any S2 pics on here and the monitor mount isnt done in these pics.