In marketing land, when you want to show people that something is rugged you make it yellow. That is the official color of tough things. Waterproof things are orange (or clear), and red is for heat resistant stuff. That’s the law, and he who breaks the law… Parvus is releasing a “rugged” mobile touch screen system for those of us who wear steel gauntlets while driving (see Superheros or Knights). I suspect it’s also good for the intended purpose, industrial / commercial vehicles. Not as cool as a metal pudded jouster but it should do fine for the likes of us.
Car PCs
There are few things finer than a milled aluminum, anodized case. It just inspires you to do something cool with it. I’ve seen a lot of car PC installs, many of which use some sort of plastic case not made for automotive use. The problem with cases not made for vehicle use is… wait for it… they aren’t made for your car. They are made for 120V power supplies and don’t have little tabs for mounting. Small details, but important is you’re going to bother to spend money, effort, lean muscle, on the project. It’s not a place to skimp.
A few companies have made car specific cases but have also charged silly amounts of money for the privilege. Until now.
Mini-Box sent me their VoomPC enclosure to check out. The case they sent me is pretty much everything you could want for a car computer.
A DC to DC converter from Mini-Box is also available en-suite. The converter makes nice with the 12V automotive system that has never seen a need for keeping consistent voltage and such nonsense. It will allow the computer to sense when the car is on, cranking, turned off etc and lets you decide what you want the PC to do.
The case is blue anodized aluminum with heat dispersing fins. It’s only as big as it needs to be without making you worry about internal clearance. It’s secured to something, um, secure, with 4 tabs. All of the tabs are easy to get to and even come with little rubber bushings which I suppose help with vibration. We all know that vibration = bad for electronics.
More after the jump…
The internal fan connects to a motherboard fan power jumper. That little fan is mounted at the end of the case allowing for an even cross flow. The bottom of the case slides out completely allowing you to build the entire system on the sheet of metal and simply glide it into the case. A panel on the end holds the port bracket in place and also connects to a power socket. This is where I am completely smitten with the box. Most enclosures are not modeled after car audio amplifiers which are proven designs. The power socket here is car-audio design all the way. It clips into place allowing for clean installs and easy maintenance without having to detach and reconnect wires over and over.
Car PCs
I know I just reviewed a VoomPC enclosure but I thought it was relevant to mention the press release that mentions that complete kits will only be $299-$399 which by all accounts is a cheap computer any way you slice it. Add to that the cool case and it’s a damn fine deal.
I’m still hoping that more than 1GHz is put in some of these systems, it’s just enough juice to push your system / multimedia needs.
Car PCs