Hints & Tips:

I'd like to include some more meaningful tips, but this is what I came up with so far. One issue that I was a bit worried about was noise, and I've covered that topic in the Power Supply page.

For now, here are some general tips: (even the ones I've ignored ;-)

• If you only plan on playing MP3s (some have other uses for their "carputers"), you really only need about a Pentium 90 to do it. That old 486 you have collecting dust isn't fast enough for the task.
• Depending on your operating system, you only need a small amount of RAM for the MP3 player. You want to have clean uninterupted playback, no no swapping to disk is the goal.:
• DOS: probably 4MB would be adequate - more than 8MB would be wasteful
• Linux: 8MB is workable, but 16MB is nice - more than 32MB is wasteful
• Windows 95: 12MB may work, 16MB is probably adequate, 24-32 is preferable
• Windows 98 & 98SE: 16MB is probably adequate, 24-32 is preferable
• Windows NT: huh, who would use NT? 32MB would probably work, 64MB should be fine.
• Windows 2000: 32MB might be adequate, 48-64 should be fine, and 64MB or more would probably be preferable.
• Along these lines, why choose an OS that is bloated? Many use Win98 or Win98SE, but could use Win95 as effectively. Or possibly use 98lite to have the new stuff of Windows 98 with out the bloatware that goes with it.
• The simpler the OS, the less hard drive space needed. This means more room for MP3s.
• But of course, go with what you know and have. I think Linux would be a better platform than Win98, but this is my first project so I'm sticking with what I know well. I may change it later, or perhaps build a new system for a different car.
• Maybe the OS that would be ideal isn't so if the MP3 player program doesn't support what you want to do very well, like your particular LCD display unit or remote control. Sometimes simple things like long filename support means that DOS may not be the best platform. If you know and like Winamp, then you'll need an OS that runs it.
• If you want to have a LOT of songs, you'll need a big hard drive. Bear in mind that some of the BIOSs of the older Socket 7 motherboards don't work well with hard drives larger than 8.4GB. Buying a new motherboard may be the easiest answer for a large database.
• Plan on a method of getting new MP3s into the car. Some methods that work are:
• Floppy drive: Uhh... no.
• CD-ROM drive: Make CD-Rs with new songs to load? Maybe, but CD-ROM drives may not handle the bumps of the road nearly as well as a hard drive (I'm not talking about playing CD-Rs it while driving - I'm talking about hardware failure due to shock). If you update your MP3's a lot, that could get expensive.
• Zip drive: Again, hardware fairlure is a definate posibility. Also 100MB, or even 250MB, might be constrictively small and slow for multi-album uploads.
• Wireless network: Interesting idea, but I've heard that distance and walls are a problem, at least for the 2Mbps-type. I've heard that the newer 11Mbps wireless network adapters perform much better, both from a speed and a distance/quality standpoint. This is now probably a viable option.
• Removable hard drive sled: I've added one of these to the car MP3 player and my main computer in my house. This is an easy way to download new music, and doesn't cost much. Time will tell if the drive sled will continue to work well.
• Removable computer: Some may want to take the whole thing inside, but I'd think disconnecting and reconnecting the wires would be a chore and not preferable.
• Network connection: In addition to the removable hard drive, I've also set up networking on my computer and have a built-in 100mbps network adapter on the motherboard. I've recently pulled cat5 cable to "the lab" in the basement where I've added another network switch. I've run a 100Mbps line over to my garage and plan on having a wire from the car MP3 player over to a spot in the right side of my trunk where I can easily connect it into my house network. Enabling networking on Windows does add a few seconds to the boot up time, but I like the flexibility that networking allows.
• PCMCIA ATA compact flash card adapter: Stick your memory card from your handheld MP3 player into the adapter to transfer music. Could work well, especially if you used an old laptop that has built-in PCMCIA slots as the basis for your MP3 system. Limited size though.
• With a lot of these solutions, there is a lot of usability issues if you don't have a mouse, keyboard or monitor connected to your system - removing the drive/computer, or remote networking are about the only methods that avoid those problems.

This page was last updated on Tuesday, January 16, 2001

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