document updated 22 years ago, on Jul 25, 2003
It might be nice to conect all data ports within the car to the laptop via a single USB connection so that the laptop could be easily removable — just connect power and data, and voila! A USB hub would be embedded in the car, and all USB/serial ports that need to be connected to the computer would be connected to it. Eg:
- keyboard input
- audio output
- GPS (via serial)
Problems: serial→USB converters are at least $25 each, USB hubs ain't cheap, and the optimal solution — building my own bigass hub + serial converters — is expensive as well since I don't have SMT soldering equipment (well, maybe I do, but not the experience to do it that way). So I'm guessing $100 - $200 to do this. :(
On the other hand, putting a separate computer in there (even nicer with 802.11b or something) can easilly go well over $200, so some extra USB stuff isn't gonna kill me...
- Koutech KW-586 — 3 USB, 1 Printer, 1 Serial, ~$25
- Lava SPH-USB — 3 USB, 1 Printer, 1 Serial, ~$25
- Mini-ITX board w/ CPU ($150), PSU ($50), RAM ($25-50), floppy($5), WiFi card ($50), tupperware case ($2)