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quote:Originally posted by Bill819

I don't know why you just don't consider using a laptop in the first place. There is also a 12 to 120 converter that plugs into a cigarett lighter receptable. In this way space is not a problem and they work just as good as PC towers.
Bill

Because.. I don't wanna [:)] Thats not a bad idea.. I just like to re-purpose what I already have. Besides, the wife might notice the laptop is missing [8D]

First and foremost problem: power.. heres my proposal, a black & decker electromate 400. In case you haven't seen one (available at walmart), you charge it up and have 110 volts to go. Its designed to power small tv's and appliances. Put that baby in the trunk with the cpu, plug the electromate into a 12 volt converter and it recharges while plugged into the 12 volt supply. The best part is that if you shut off the ignition, like stopping to put fuel in the car, the cpu stays powered up! No shutting Hal down unless your parking for a good while.

The erector set is a good idea, or even stock aluminum from the hardware store machines pretty easily.

Blue Tooth? Hmm... good thinking. I suppose you would attach the blue tooth receiver to the usb slot and sync it to the headset? Will it allow audio transfer? That would be awesome! Blue Tooth works upto 20 feet isnt it? I can see me coming out of the grocery store, arms full and giving the command to open the trunk! HaHa..

Heres my ride, 2008 Toyota Yaris Sport (don't laugh.. its paid for!)



As you can see, not much room for dash monitors.. although modification to the radio display may be possible



Perfect spot for the power button and reset or harddrive led?

Hmm.. chaos would be in order to say the least. My hal keeps saying "end" and "and".. i think he's predicting some kind of inpending doom!

My main purpose is to have a virtually infinite music database. Thats how this got started. I then decided that an "AIRCARD" for internet would be pretty cool. Im still looking for the ideal monitor/s. My first thought was a touch screen, but the cost is hard to justify. So I was looking thru some ebay auctions and ran across a trackpad. The kind you plug in to your ps/2 port. I thought it could be mounted between the seat, below the gearshift.. something like that. Dual monitors would be even better, one to display your hal character, the other for applications and what not. I then thought about using relays or servos for mechanical functions. I thought about the trunk release and had a great idea. I was putting some boxes of girl scout cookies (thats another story) in my trunk and started to mess round with the child/safety release in the trunk. A servo would have more then enough power to pull the latch, mine anyways. I think, in this case, a servo would be perfect. Just re-inforce the servo horn, attach to the safety release handle, and voila... pop goes the trunk. So heres that hardware that I currently have laying around. Im cheap, no since in buying anything when I can re-purpose something else.

2 computers in cases, fully functioning.
Kit 74 relay board
Parallax usb servo controller
couple of small portable dvd players, one for sure with video input. Thought I could plug directly into my ati video out.

So lets do some brainstorming

So heres the start to replace the previous discussion on putting A.I. in the auto. I think this is going to be a great discussion. Anyone that has ideas please share.

Farmer

Ok then, im not sure how this topic veered so far off course.. moving on. Maybe we should start a new topic, I would be game. I will do that now.

The Devil is in the details isn't it? I wouldn't trust Hal too far. I was thinking headlights, trunk, maybe windshield wipers. The little stuff. I was also inclinded to leave the manual controls in place... just in case! Besides, without some kind of battery backup (which I do have an idea for) you would be potentially setting in the ol' driveway until the entire system is up. Not something I want to wait on. I would never hear the end of that! So im still looking for ideas about interfaces if anyone has any, my relay board is neat and all but always open to other suggestions.

"Ferris Bueller, your my hero"

Thank you!!

Has anyone here attempted to "let hal out of the box"? Let me set up a scenario for you. My final plans include installing Hal in my car, mostly for music, internet, etc.. but as well, would like to have Hal be able to operate my headlights and such. My plan was to use a relay board that I have. The board connects to the parallel port and Hal would activate a batch or something similar to activate the relays. You may have noticed a previous post about problems with .bat files. Im in no hurry, and I honestly believe it "could" work.. just wondering if anyone else has done anything robotic esque? Would like to add that I have a USB Parallax servo board to possibly use. Any thoughts?

Yes I can! Keep in mind, I have used this board to control Xmas lights, you know they blink to the music, but used dedicated windows based software which would just about never work with Hal. I will copy and paste from the DOS instructions:

Documentation for PC-RELAY Kit 74, DOS based utilities   October 1995.


There are three DOS-based utilities that accompany the PC-RELAY kit:

1.   RELAY   used to output a hex byte to the designated parallel port
2.   DELAY   used to wait for a user defined number of seconds
3.   WAITFOR   used to wait until a specified time (HH:MM)

Batch files using these programs can be written to control the operation
of any of the eight relays on the PC-RELAY board.

The programs were written using Borland Turbo CC++\3.0. The original C
source code is also provided.



RELAY.EXE

Syntax:    RELAY <hex byte>   or
   RELAY\1 <hex byte>   or
   RELAY\2 <hex byte>

Output the <hex byte> to the specified parallel port. The value of <hex
byte> can be in the range 00h to FFh.

The parallel port can be specified following the command name (see command
syntax). If none is given then LPT1 is used by default.

Example:   RELAY 5A

Outputs the hex value 5A (binary 0101 1010) to LPT1, causing relays RL7,
RL5, RL4 and RL2 to operate.


They have a couple more examples listed for delay and waitfor which I don't have much use. If anyone has ideas that great. I really appreciate it.

Thnaks,
Farmer

New here, must say that I love Hal.. just one problem. I would like to be able to access .bat files so that Hal can talk to a relay board. I have looked around and it looks like maybe the older versions supported this but not now? Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks
Farmer