Touch in a car

[Howard Passman]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227517

1TB PCI-e with 1.4GBs read and write speeds.

Sell the car!

Howard

[jbraveman]

I'd like to try to use the touch in the car using a mini-ITX server. I'm going to have a professional do the wiring and mounting for me. What I'd like to know is if I need a router? If so which one is a good choice? If not, I'd like to connect the touch via ethernet directly to the server. If I do this, how will I need to configure the network settings on the touch to work?
If the router is the best way to go, how should I configure my home wireless network, so it picks up the car network, when in the driveway?
Thanks.

[JJZolx]

I'd like to try to use the touch in the car using a mini-ITX server. I'm going to have a professional do the wiring and mounting for me. What I'd like to know is if I need a router? If so which one is a good choice? If not, I'd like to connect the touch via ethernet directly to the server. If I do this, how will I need to configure the network settings on the touch to work?
If the router is the best way to go, how should I configure my home wireless network, so it picks up the car network, when in the driveway?
Thanks.

You shouldn't need a router. I assume you'll be using wired ethernet between the Touch and server within the car itself. You should just be able to directly wire the two to each other.

It would probably be nice, though, to have a wireless card in the server (a lot of mini-ITX motherboards have onboard wifi) so that you could connect it to your home network and transfer music files to the server. Hard to say how good the wifi reception will be from inside the car, I've never tried it. If the server is in the trunk you might have to open the trunk to get a connection.

If you do plan to connect the server to you home network you'll want to give the server static IP addresses on same subnet of your home network. The wireless card and the wired ethernet port will use two different IP addresses, and the Touch will use a third address. Make sure that the DHCP server on your home network (probably running on your home network's router) doesn't hand out any of the addresses that you're using in the car. Use addresses outside of the DHCP server's address pool.

To configure the Touch to use wired ethernet it will need to be connected via wired ethernet to something (it has to see a connection). When you set it up, do so via wired ethernet on your home network. This will allow you to update it to the latest firmware and is also necessary to get past the myqueezebox.com registration step. To assign a static IP address I believe you'll need to temporarily disable the DHCP server on your network before connecting the Touch, otherwise it will automatically use DHCP. When it fails to find a DHCP server, you should be prompted to enter an IP address. You can turn the DHCP server back on after the Touch has been configured.

[toby10]

You could use an add on WiFi antenna to the car's PC wireless card for much more coverage area. Maybe such an antenna could be discretely placed inside along the back deck/rear window?

I use this one for mobile WiFi (unrelated to SqueezeBox):
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/an....4-mobile7.php

They have a smaller and less expensive one ($20):
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/an....4-mobile3.php

I'm sure there are others out there.

[jbraveman]

You shouldn't need a router. I assume you'll be using wired ethernet between the Touch and server within the car itself. You should just be able to directly wire the two to each other.

It would probably be nice, though, to have a wireless card in the server (a lot of mini-ITX motherboards have onboard wifi) so that you could connect it to your home network and transfer music files to the server. Hard to say how good the wifi reception will be from inside the car, I've never tried it. If the server is in the trunk you might have to open the trunk to get a connection.

If you do plan to connect the server to you home network you'll want to give the server static IP addresses on same subnet of your home network. The wireless card and the wired ethernet port will use two different IP addresses, and the Touch will use a third address. Make sure that the DHCP server on your home network (probably running on your home network's router) doesn't hand out any of the addresses that you're using in the car. Use addresses outside of the DHCP server's address pool.

To configure the Touch to use wired ethernet it will need to be connected via wired ethernet to something (it has to see a connection). When you set it up, do so via wired ethernet on your home network. This will allow you to update it to the latest firmware and is also necessary to get past the myqueezebox.com registration step. To assign a static IP address I believe you'll need to temporarily disable the DHCP server on your network before connecting the Touch, otherwise it will automatically use DHCP. When it fails to find a DHCP server, you should be prompted to enter an IP address. You can turn the DHCP server back on after the Touch has been configured.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I use my home router to assign the addresses based on the mac address from the high numbers down. That way any new people coming on the network should take the low numbers.

So I need to initially hook everything into my home network in a wired fashion (server and touch) to setup. I should also configure the wifi as well at that time. Then I should be able to put everything back in the car and only hook the server to the touch via ethernet.

Any suggestions for a mini-itx case that can sit where the cd changer is and hold around 4tb worth of 2.5 inch drives?

[JJZolx]

I use my home router to assign the addresses based on the mac address from the high numbers down. That way any new people coming on the network should take the low numbers.

OK, but do you understand what I was saying above? Give the car components _static_ IP addresses, not addresses assigned by the home router. Make sure they're outside of the address range handed out by the router.

So I need to initially hook everything into my home network in a wired fashion (server and touch) to setup. I should also configure the wifi as well at that time. Then I should be able to put everything back in the car and only hook the server to the touch via ethernet.

Right, but if you're smart you'll pull the components off of your network and hook it up like that for testing, before moving it all into the car.

Any suggestions for a mini-itx case that can sit where the cd changer is and hold around 4tb worth of 2.5 inch drives?

4TB?? That's a lot of MP3s. I haven't done a car PC installation, but the server doesn't have to sit in the dashboard.

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.101/.f

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=45

Some of the audio solutions on this site make the Touch redundant:

http://store.mp3car.com/

[jbraveman]

OK, but do you understand what I was saying above? Give the car components _static_ IP addresses, not addresses assigned by the home router. Make sure they're outside of the address range handed out by the router.

I think I do. Rather than let the router hand out the ip based on mac address, you think it would be better give everything a fixed address outside the normal range so that nothing else can take it's slot.

Right, but if you're smart you'll pull the components off of your network and hook it up like that for testing, before moving it all into the car.

Good idea.

4TB?? That's a lot of MP3s. I haven't done a car PC installation, but the server doesn't have to sit in the dashboard.

My collection is in flac. That's why I want to go with the touch. The Cd changer is in the trunk. I was thinking of switching that out for the server. If my head unit would play flacs from hard drives, I wouldn't be thinking about this. I considered a mobridge product with an ipod that would let my head unit control the music. However, I don't think I can get everything to fit on an ipod unless I tried to hack it to run off a larger hard drvie. Other thoughts were to buy a used phatbox and hack it to accept a larger hard drive.

The touch seems ideally suited, except for the challenge of finding a good place to mount it.

[JJZolx]

Do you really think you can hear a difference between well-encoded MP3s and FLACs in a moving vehicle? A 4TB FLAC collection should fit on a 1TB 2.5" drive. It will take days to transcode it all, but many people are doing this already for portable MP3 players.

[jbraveman]

Do you really think you can hear a difference between well-encoded MP3s and FLACs in a moving vehicle? A 4TB FLAC collection should fit on a 1TB 2.5" drive. It will take days to transcode it all, but many people are doing this already for portable MP3 players.

That remains to be seen (heard).

[tmauceri]

i think i do. Rather than let the router hand out the ip based on mac address, you think it would be better give everything a fixed address outside the normal range so that nothing else can take it's slot.




Good idea.




My collection is in flac. That's why i want to go with the touch. The cd changer is in the trunk. I was thinking of switching that out for the server. If my head unit would play flacs from hard drives, i wouldn't be thinking about this. I considered a mobridge product with an ipod that would let my head unit control the music. However, i don't think i can get everything to fit on an ipod unless i tried to hack it to run off a larger hard drvie. Other thoughts were to buy a used phatbox and hack it to accept a larger hard drive.

The touch seems ideally suited, except for the challenge of finding a good place to mount it.

y