The Conclusion Of The Vectra CarPC / Carputer V1

Version one worked but not exactly as I hoped. There were two main problems and they were not software related. The first is the PC at the hart of the system is a bit slow. I would prefer a faster 1ghz machine but unfortunately this will have to wait until another time due to funding, I may be able to get one cheaper later next year. Another aspect of this symptom may be the version of Windows XP which is why I am using SR1 for version 2 - yeah I know I said I did not think is was software but that's life. The main problem only came to 'light' ( and there's a pun for you ) when I started using the screen in the car and in the day. The problem was that during the day the sunlight reflected too much off the screen to make the system usable. I could combat this using special anti-reflective film ( I believe 3M do some ) but for version 2 I have decided to go with a real XGA screen - the only problem there is they are known to be too bright some times - you just can't win.

In conclusion - its worth doing but the more money you can throw at the project the better, if funds are limited spend as much as you can on the screen as this is the most important bit of the whole system - after all your going to be using it day in and day out. Good luck.