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Music Media Hardware

Enterprise-class Car Audio 293

Posted by Hemos from the car-modding dept.
tbray writes "Dave Edmondson wanted to play MP3's in his car; his solution was perhaps a bit over the top. But then, why wouldn't you want an E450 in your trunk? Check the pix."
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Enterprise-class Car Audio More

Enterprise-class Car Audio

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  • Mirror (Score:5, Informative)

    by infonick ( 679715 ) * on Thursday June 17, 2004 @09:57PM (#9459401) Homepage
    How did i predict this would be nessesary?

    http://members.shaw.ca/infonic/icece/ [members.shaw.ca]

    • Re:Mirror (Score:4, Funny)

      by Joey Patterson ( 547891 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:00PM (#9459422)
      Looks like your mirror is /.'ed. Can anyone loan this guy a spare E40?

      • Re:Mirror (Score:3, Funny)

        by gfody ( 514448 )
        I'm in the S-E 4-double-oh
        Sitting real low, stick in the flo', oh
        The hoe want me to come swoop
        Take her for a ride in my blue Lex Luthor (Lex Luth-ah)
        But the bitch ain't got no gas fetti (gas fetti)
        So I burnt her like Fast Freddy (Fast Freddy)
        Hit me on the first when your mail has come
        And maybe we can go to the mall or somethin (to the mall or somethin)

        Heavy ass shit for the mob -- for the mob
        When I make a zillion I resign -- I resign
        I'm realer than a hundred dollar bill with the line across
        When Christmas c

    • Re:Mirror (Score:2, Informative)

      by infonick ( 679715 ) *
      fixed it. it was relying on resources from the original page.

    • What's *not* necessary (Score:5, Informative)

      by commodoresloat ( 172735 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @12:23AM (#9460287)
      is a honkin' server in your trunk just to listen to music. A server *and* a laptop. I guess it didn't occur to him to just plug the laptop directly into the cassette deck that he has the E450 plugged into. Or, here's an idea, get an iPod! (And a car stereo with AUX input so you're not playing through a crappy cassette deck). In response to why you wouldn't want this in your trunk -- it's damn easy to steal (even has wheels to wheel it away). ... on a completely unrelated note, if this thing is stolen, you might need to worry about an RIAA lawsuit for distributing copyrighted music....
      • is a honkin' server in your trunk just to listen to music.
        Or, here's an idea, get an iPod!

        the only way this can be justified is if you didn't spend any money. i started a similar project in the summer of 2002. the entire concept was to *not spend any money* and get it going with parts laying around the house.

        i ended up putting an old beatup p300 in the back of my car, with a mini keyboard running up to the front. i had it booting up in init 1 (for speed) with a nice female voice announcing she was

      • Re:What's *not* necessary (Score:5, Funny)

        by Onan ( 25162 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @05:45AM (#9461408)
        ...it's damn easy to steal...

        Um, you've never tried to move an e450, have you? Especially one loaded with disks?

        Would-be thieves would probably have an easier time walking away with his transmission. Hell, the added weight probably makes the car harder to steal.

      • Re:What's *not* necessary (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DJStealth ( 103231 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @09:29AM (#9462778)
        Once I heard he had a laptop to manage everything, I realized that this whole thing must be a joke. He probably had to transport the E450 between branches at work, and decided to take some pics of it.
  • ...either that or his car is only hooked up at 128k. Cause it's slashdotted... anyone have a mirror?
  • cuz it died w/out the E450! ;)

  • Fridge (Score:2, Insightful)

    by rd4tech ( 711615 ) *
    His solution is way over the top but...
    The software used is very simple at the moment, nothing more than an rc script that plays random tracks from the mp3 archive stored in the ~80G /export/mp3 filesystem. That filesystem is constructed by concatenating a bunch of 9G SCSI disks (the root filesystem is mirrored across a similar set of disks)

    It it possible to use just a regular 100-200GB x few disks with this box? I mean, as soon as you have a fridge in your car for the purpose of listening music (c
    • the E450 is a PCI system, so you can throw a PCI RAID controller in it for some cheapass drives. E3500 users like myself aren't so lucky, with only FC-AL internally and some SCSI controllers for external drives. It's SBus instead of PCI, so I can't get an IDE controller for it.

  • because (Score:3, Funny)

    by justforaday ( 560408 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @09:59PM (#9459416)
    But then, why wouldn't you want an E450 in your trunk?

    for one simple reason...because i don't have a car (you insensitive clod). and i certainly don't want an E450 in the, ummm, "trunk" that i do have...

  • Kirk and the Enterprise stereo system (Score:5, Funny)

    by Viking5150 ( 97471 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @09:59PM (#9459419)
    The only Enterprise class stereo system I want to hear about is the one Kirk used when scoring with all the green alien babes. ;-)

    • Re:Kirk and the Enterprise stereo system (Score:4, Funny)

      by pr0nbot ( 313417 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @07:38AM (#9461803)
      OT... There was a funny anecdote in some Star Trek memoir I read about the green aliens. The SFX team were painting the chicks green, but whenever the developed film came back it wasn't green enough. So they'd up the green in the paint and do it again.


      After a few rounds of this they went to the guys developing the film and they were like, "What?! It took us HOURS to correct the green tint off your film!"

  • Okay, I laughed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by daviddennis ( 10926 ) * <david@amazing.com> on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:00PM (#9459423) Homepage
    But where'd he get power for this thing? I would think it would require massive alternator upgrades for it to work, but I see nothing of the kind on his page. The only hint is that the inverter link goes to a page suggesting that it needs 30v power, while I thought car power was universally 12v.

    I can see this solution for a motor home where a generator can be available, but not a minivan.

    This seems like something that must have not cost much to do, or he would have done better than that crummy cassette adapter. That implies that standard power must have worked (?).

    Strange.

    D

    • Re:Okay, I laughed (Score:4, Funny)

      by josh3736 ( 745265 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:05PM (#9459457) Homepage
      The system arrived with three power supplies and, though it's clear that this is good for reliability, the space taken by one of them proved convenient to store the power inverter necessary to get from the in-car 12V supply back to the 230V required by the system. It's possible that I might build an alternative plug-in power supply unit that didn't bother with the inverter, but that's a project for another day.

      I'd just hate to forget to turn it off when you get out of the car.

      • Re:Okay, I laughed (Score:5, Funny)

        by WhiteBandit ( 185659 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @11:10PM (#9459824) Homepage
        I'd just hate to forget to turn it off when you get out of the car.

        Not to worry! It has a built in feature that automatically turns itself off after about 3 seconds!

        (also known as the time to drain your battery)

        If you notice though, there is plenty of space on the other side of the trunk. Which is perfect for the companion gas powered generator!
        • Reminds me of the time I went to the RV show. They had the front of the RV pulled out and you could see the engine. I thought, wow, that's only a little bigger than my car engine... but I don't see the driveshaft and the ability to pull it out on rails is a neat trick for easy servicing - I'd like to see how it's done. Then I see the monster cables in the back and realize that the generator for this vehicle is bigger than my engine.
    • I too smell a rat. I'd like to see more pictures of the user interface, or at least the audio system integration.

      • Re:Okay, I laughed (Score:3, Informative)

        by josh3736 ( 745265 )
        • He said there is no UI -- it's just a script that picks a song randomly from the collection. (He plans on mounting a Sun Ray 150 [sun.com] to the dashboard for playback control.)
        • The audio system inegration consists of plugging the soundcard's speaker out into one of those cassette tape adaptors. Yikes on the sound quality...

    • Re:Okay, I laughed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) * on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:29PM (#9459615) Journal
      From the page:
      The system arrived with three power supplies and, though it's clear that this is good for reliability, the space taken by one of them proved convenient to store the power inverter necessary to get from the in-car 12V supply back to the 230V required by the system.

      And from the inverter page:

      Provides 230V AC output from standard cigarette lighter plug

    • Re:Okay, I laughed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by haroldK ( 96625 ) <harold@princessh[ ]ld.net ['aro' in gap]> on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:44PM (#9459699)
      But where'd he get power for this thing? I would think it would require massive alternator upgrades for it to work, but I see nothing of the kind on his page. The only hint is that the inverter link goes to a page suggesting that it needs 30v power, while I thought car power was universally 12v.

      30A does not equal 30V. A cigarette lighter probably isn't good enough for the full rating of this invertor (mine, for instance is on a 20A fuse along with the interior lights and stereo), but it's possible to tie in to the alternator output directly.

  • memories of bye gone days (Score:4, Funny)

    by quakemeister ( 190139 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:02PM (#9459441)
    this server reminds me of my time during the colo/5pagepowerpoint=$5MVC/weneedaNetASAP days and suns *highly* optimistic
    "we put the DOT in .COM"
    advertising in the late 90s. dont know what street value for one of these is today but sheesh, putting one in the car? that borders on sacriligious - call the SUN police! wait, they fired them all!

  • Power consumption (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eltoyoboyo ( 750015 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:03PM (#9459453) Journal
    I did not notice how much he said about battery life on a car-powered 230vac computer system. But you probably do not want to be playing the music without the engine running...(Not that you could hear the engine over the sound of the E450 anyway)

  • trunk space (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:07PM (#9459469)
    The size of the E450 would cut deeply into the space for bodies.

    • Re:trunk space (Score:3, Interesting)

      by morcheeba ( 260908 ) *
      The size of the E450 would cut deeply into the space for bodies. ...especially in an accident! The thing not only isn't secured, but its on wheels!

      p.s. I'm smelling a hoax. Not that it's impossible, but I was looking for photographic proof beyond what it would look like when you're just merely transporting an old server and though it would be funny if...

  • Reasons... (Score:5, Funny)

    by genixia ( 220387 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:10PM (#9459484)
    But then, why wouldn't you want an E450 in your trunk?


    Because I'd arrive at my destination before it had finised the memory check.

    On the positive side, my car would have that cool whoosh sound like Kitt in Knight Rider.
  • Wouldn't the heat from letting the car set out on a sunny day have horrendous effects on the computer? Cars can become virtual solar ovens on a hot day. How does one deal with cooling?
    • My server is in a hot attic and it's not dead yet. Heat that's hot to you isn't hot to the computer. It could be 130F in there, but the CPU doesn't care. It's still in spec.

  • MiniPC (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Saint Stephen ( 19450 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:11PM (#9459497) Homepage Journal
    It sounds like all he has is an 80GB HD, and it serves up files.

    Couldn't an ultra tiny machine do this?

    What a waste.

    • Re:MiniPC (Score:5, Funny)

      by lukewarmfusion ( 726141 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:19PM (#9459537) Homepage Journal
      Not at all! I have a G5 cluster powering my custom PVR system, built a windmill to run the light on my front porch, and I recently installed a small nuclear power plant in my shed so I could power the lawn sprinkler system.

      Overkill? Nah. We Americans like power!
    • Yeah, but you see he didn't want to spend any money.

    • Re:MiniPC (Score:3, Funny)

      by ashayh ( 636057 )
      Couldn't an ultra tiny machine do this?
      You're right. The ultra tiny machine is running his web server.

    • It sounds like all he has is an 80GB HD, and it serves up files. Couldn't an ultra tiny machine do this?

      If you RTFA you would know that one of the reasons he needed a Sun E450 was because sometimes when he was on vacation / on the road he'd need to check whether or not an upgrade / security fix / bugfix would fsck his system, or do a number of other things you can do when you have an E450 running Oracle in your trunk and the ability to play with it that you just can't with a lap top running x86 Solari

    • you mean, like this [apple.com] tiny machine ?

      Not geeky enough I guess
  • I've got ASCI White in the back of my Suburban. Sam

  • Site comes up for me (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JohnnyComeLately ( 725958 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:12PM (#9459504) Homepage Journal
    I've shaken my head at PCs in a car, and some other oddities. This car, though, takes the cake. I'm not sure I'd really want to do this, even if I could. Enterprise servers aren't made for that vibration, and I've seen what a smoked power supply goes for (right after corporate decided to "save money" by dropping the warranties). Even with WiFi, Bluetooth, or wi-flavor of the month, you're just wasting resources. You might as well be in a Lambroghini Diablo, parked in traffic on the 5 in LA.

  • Borrowed from the guy's forum (Score:5, Funny)

    by jeffkjo1 ( 663413 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:13PM (#9459507) Homepage
    Oh, I can just see it now...
    "Dad, I'm sick of this song"
    "Ok, son, just use your terminal to telnet into the e450 and modify the rc script to exclude that song"
    "Can't we just get one of those dvd players like Jimmy has?"
    "No. Use the supercomputer. You need to learn solaris."

  • Slashdot got trolled. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jared_hanson ( 514797 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:17PM (#9459531) Homepage Journal
    I think slashdot just got trolled. An excerpt from his page as reasons for doing this:


    -multiple processors to ensure that mp3 decode is not interrupted by other process activity,

    -good internal storage capacity, including the ability to take advantage of software RAID for reliability,

    -large memory for good caching of tunes being played,

    -easily expandable to allow for future projects,

    -excellent support for Solaris 10, so that I can test bug-fixes, etc. while on the road if necessary. This also means that there is wide application availability (Oracle, great Java tools, etc.)


    Does anyone who knows anything about MP3s think you need large or multiple processors to handle the task? Do you need massive memory to cache the songs? No on both counts.

    Plus, the pictures on the site look like he just set his Sun server in the back of his SUV and snapped a couple photographs. No details on the hookup to the sound system at all.

    If any story ever showed the ineptitude of Slashdot editors, this would be it.

  • I'm not impressed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Y0tsuya ( 659802 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:19PM (#9459546)
    Normal people actually use their trunks to carry things like groceries, tools & parts from home depot, luggages, etc. Hauling a big ass computer in the trunk creates a massive inconvenience in everyday life.

  • Oh yeah? (Score:5, Funny)

    by diesel66 ( 254283 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:20PM (#9459557)
    Pfftt! I got a Cray on my skateboard!

  • "Might as well get an 8-track player" (Score:3, Funny)

    by mopomi ( 696055 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:22PM (#9459570)
    My wife's comment before seeing pictures:
    "Are you going to build one for our car?"
    After seeing pictures:
    "Geez! We don't have room for that--we might as well get an 8-track player."

  • Waste of gasoline... (Score:2, Informative)

    by SID*C64 ( 444002 )
    Hauling around that thing is sure to cut into your miles per gallon. What a complete waste of money and time.

    I mean, what is the appeal of this? It doesn't take much effort to stick a huge computer in the back of your huge car. How is this newsworthy?

  • I Have Now Officially Seen Everthing (Score:5, Funny)

    by Myriad ( 89793 ) <myriad AT thebsod DOT com> on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:24PM (#9459585) Homepage
    Though it actually has nothing to do with the E450 in dudes trunk.

    No, it is the fact that I just saw a reference to Shaving Cream in a /. sig... (eltoyoboyo's [slashdot.org] )

    Wow. An obscure Benny Bell [asklyrics.com] song... on Slashdot...

    I can die fulfilled now.

    Oh god, I just realized this means I actually got it. *feels old*

    Blockwars [blockwars.com]: free, multiplayer, head to head game

  • Do it better in 2 words. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CRC'99 ( 96526 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:27PM (#9459600) Homepage
    Mini ITX.

    Nuff said. I have one sitting under the seat in my car. 7" touchscreen in the dash, GPS and navigation software. All in a mini-case and runs off the 13.8v straight from the car battery.

    Yes, that looks geeky, but touchscreen works better :)
  • I have a Xeenon mp3 shuttle II (which is at least 4 years old) that happily plays mp3s from a 15G drive. No inverter required.

    My boyfriend has a modded Xbox with a 120G drive in his car. Add in an xbox wireless card and it can be updated remotely. Add a Python script and it plays mp3s when the car starts.
    • You mean you don't need "multiple processors"? What about other "process activity"?

      And don't you need "large memory for good caching of tunes being played"??

      Seriously, all the guy's done is taken a picture of the server in his trunk/boot, there's no evidence that it's even connected..

  • Crunk in da trunk (Score:3, Interesting)

    by beavmetal ( 250116 ) <{beavmetal} {at} {hotmail.com}> on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:38PM (#9459669) Homepage
    Bah! to all those who made cracks about dayton ohio. You forget we host the Hamvention.

    Regardless, this guys got the right idea. Personally I decided not to put a computer in my car after ludacris sang about it. However, I still use a laptop and a digital FM converter to play my music.

    But really, think about it. Shouldn't this be the way car audio is headed. No need for damn disk. Also, CD are easy, frequent targets for thieves. If your neighbors don't see the wank stealing the server out of the back of your car, then they should buy your replacement. The e450 is a little big. I mean where are the 4 15"s gonna go. And wouldn't the vibration of my subs kill the E450.

    Even so, when you compare the price of a computer to that of the phatbox [phatnoise.com] there isn't much difference. Really the computer is more fun and could very well be put to more use. Think replacing the head unit with a touch screen that runs software you wrote to control the system. Who needs a dvd nav system. Put the GPS receiver and the software rigth on the computer. Think wireless file server so you can listen to the music on your car at your desk at work and then transfer all your hard work to the backup car system.

    This guy isn't the first person to put a computer in his car. He definitely won't be the last. While there will still be a solid market for component systems, I strongly believe that portable, multifunction car systems will become the norm within 10 years.

  • Power Problems (Score:5, Insightful)

    by whataboutMike ( 787504 ) <mixmastermike@gmail.com> on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:39PM (#9459670)
    One more evidence that it might be a hoax: the E450 requires ~1600 watts of power and the power inverter that he says he uses provides only 300W... A difference of about ~1200W...

  • Thanks buddy, (Score:4, Funny)

    by Brakz0rz ( 773616 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:39PM (#9459672) Journal
    Now Slashdot will never front page my econoline with the Cray XMP in the back! It serves mp3s, controls my dome light brightness level and runs a meteorological simulation for 300 sq. kilometers. It calls me Dave for some reason. I only had to cut a teensy weensy hole in the roof and add nine batteries.

    Hooked right into my 8-track though.

  • Obvious Choice (Score:3, Funny)

    by freeze128 ( 544774 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:41PM (#9459681)
    Yeah, I'd use a Sun server for MP3s if I drove a school bus, too. But I have a CAR.
  • If he didn't want to spend any money, he could have sold the thing, and gotten a real system with a real interface.

    And probably have extra money left over.

  • This was to make life easy? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jm91509 ( 161085 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:48PM (#9459711) Homepage
    Cool!

    "...the interest in getting a large chunk of music into the car without carrying around and managing a big stack of CDs has remained."

    So to avoid the hastle of managing a stack of CD's, this guy has installed an E450 and a SunRay in his car? And after doing all that (no mean feat I would suspect) the audio is connected to his car via a tape converter?

    Funny, but me thinks we are having our legs pulled...

  • Here's a brilliant idea (Score:5, Funny)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @10:49PM (#9459715)
    Why don't you put the server back in your room to host the webpage that's been slashdotted, the Kenwood FM/AM/Apache radio you have does not seem to be doing the trick.
  • This is just a funny joke. Anyone who took this seriously is an idiot.

  • Brilliant (Score:3, Funny)

    by nickgrieve ( 87668 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @11:15PM (#9459860) Journal
    Nice work.

    Stories like this are what drew me to /. many years ago...

    more like this please.
    • right.. for anyone not clear on the "joke" status of this story, here's a few choice quotes:

      "With a four port ethernet card in the E450 it would be simple to connect four Sun Ray 150 terminals and allow both general control of the system and also support each child choosing a video stored in the RAID array."

      "The E450 still has casters at the moment...the machine would be much more stable if they were removed"

      "excellent support for Solaris 10, so that I can test bug-fixes, etc. while on the road if ne

  • Good god (Score:3, Funny)

    by Eric(b0mb)Dennis ( 629047 ) * on Thursday June 17, 2004 @11:16PM (#9459864)
    The funniest thing about this, is at the end, he ends up using a casette output converter.... the SAME EXACT ONE YOU CAN USE ON AN iPOD OR $50 MP3 PLAYER!

    Ba-da---ching
    • The funniest thing about this, is at the end, he ends up using a casette output converter.... the SAME EXACT ONE YOU CAN USE ON AN iPOD OR $50 MP3 PLAYER!

      This is what I was thinking, but I wasn't thinking Ipod but rather a portable DVD player [overstock.com]. It's hard to say whether this unit referenced would do DVD-mp3, I sorta take it for granted I own a stand alone player that just does it. But given the starting price of in-dash DVD players = about the same cost as the starting price of indash mp3 players, well t
  • I've thought about rigging a PC up in my car(s) on more than one occasion, but with the event of DVD support in head units and audio input options, isn't it just infinitely easier (and gives a better end result) to plug an iPod into your head unit? Hell, with current Australian fuel prices (..and you think you yanks have something to cry about..) I'm critical of carrying around an extra few hundred kilos of hardware just to play some more music...
  • Add a wireless ethernet link and in car microphone, so he can take requests from other drivers and play MP3s back for anybody in range. Just think - the world's first mobile, all digital radio station.

    I think I am onto something here!

  • Well that's just fine and dandy... until the RIAA supoenas your car.

  • This is a joke (Score:2, Insightful)

    by asb ( 1909 )

    Check the pic. The box is on wheels. This guy just took pics of an e450 in his trunk and wrote up a humorous article to accompany them.

    But it was funny. I laughed at all the slashdotters who ate it. :-D

  • There's no airflow back there and that cardboard top doesn't help. I've got an SGI Indy with a 36gb 10k drive in it that raises my room temp about 5 degrees. The drive itself takes 5 to 10 minutes just to cool down before you can touch it.
  • Is this the Tron Guy's car?

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