# i want to diy a double din carputer



## vails (Sep 3, 2021)

in all honesty I've seen a few examples IRL and would really like to take this on. From what I've seems there is only one place to get the cases from. I'm unsure where to go from there past sourcing the parts and building. what all else should I expect when doing this? I'll enjoy the challenge no matter what happens, along as it doesn't end up in burning down my car LOL


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## DoubleCrown (Jun 26, 2019)

What do you want to achieve? Im jealous of carputer systems running Ableton. My understanding is allows auto EQ to 0.5 db


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## viperguy (Sep 7, 2020)

I've had a few iterations over the years...various degrees of pain in the ass especially once the good front-ends like RideRunner/Centrafuse stopped getting developed.

My current iteration has boiled down to:
Raspberry Pi4
DAC (via optical to my Helix DSP3)
Screen
PSU

For the screen, I modelled a surround for it and got 3d-printed and just hot-glued into my fascia as a non-destructive fitment method (car is a 2000 Subaru WRX wagon).

This is all running OpenautoPro (basically just the vanilla Pi OS with a front-end application).

I ended up doing it this way because it was the least aggravating way of producing a home made solution that supports wireless Android Auto (and they have added CarPlay recently too i believe), along with extras like video playback (via Kodi). I'm not going to say its the flashest looking system but it works really reliably and quickly especially once you overclock the Pi (just make sure you get a decent heat-sink case or active cooling because it does run hot operating like this).

The PSU is adjustable and will instruct the Pi to turn off via USB so no crazy GPIO connections. I have mine set to turn off 15 minutes after ignition off so that if i stop to get gas then its stil up and running when i return to the car.

The Pi just lives in my glovebox with a couple of USB leads for touchscreen/PSU and an HDMI for connectivity, so I can easily pull it out. Then I have a service running on the Pi and my NAS so that when it connects to my home network it wil sync up any new music or music videos.

I tried all the windows-based Android emulators and the "android x86" builds and they are universally a pain in the ass for this kind of use case. Great if you want to just run games and apps on a windows machine, but not a fast and reliable car system with GPS etc.


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## MajorNoob (May 10, 2018)

Hey viperguy, can you confirm you have no floor noise whatsoever with your setup?

Thanks.


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## DoubleCrown (Jun 26, 2019)

Noise could be introduced elsewhere so perhaps this isn't a useful question?


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## viperguy (Sep 7, 2020)

MajorNoob said:


> Hey viperguy, can you confirm you have no floor noise whatsoever with your setup?
> 
> Thanks.


No noise floor that I've noticed however there are occasions where the audio artifacts like it's digitally "clipping". I need to dig deeper to see if it's a Pi/front end/ Kodi issue or a PSU issue because I get the undervoltage lightning symbol at times (only with Kodi playing videos) or even maybe the overclocking... Just lots of factors at play I need to eliminate, but 99% of the time it's clean. My primary suspect is a digital level/sample rate issue because certain songs always manifest it, but it's why those songs are triggering things I need to spend some time on.


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## CrimsonCountry (Mar 11, 2012)

vails said:


> in all honesty I've seen a few examples IRL and would really like to take this on. From what I've seems there is only one place to get the cases from. I'm unsure where to go from there past sourcing the parts and building. what all else should I expect when doing this? I'll enjoy the challenge no matter what happens, along as it doesn't end up in burning down my car LOL


Any updates on this? Being one of the few remaining CarPC users, Im always interested in seeing what other users are running.


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## nhtunes (Jul 31, 2016)

I have had RaspPi (HifiBerry) in my trunk for the last 5 years and it is very quiet.


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## CrimsonCountry (Mar 11, 2012)

Nice setup. I came close to trying one myself but still running my older Windows 10 Mini-itx (7"x7") and love it. Mine is in the cargo cubby in the back of my SUV and it's dead silent.


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