The Well-Linuxed Car

[Ted Ozolins]

Alma J Wetzker wrote:

> You will need to be carefull buying OTS parts.  The expected operating 
> temperatures inside the cab will be out of spec for most comercial 
> devices, thought mil spec should work.  You may also consider if any 
> of these sensors need to be mounted outside the cab, making 
> survivability an issue (as well as keeping the lens clean).
>
> Sorry to try being practical, but a car is a harsh, HARSH environment 
> for electronic gizmo's and gadgets.
>
>     -- Alma
>
Excuse me! If these devices work well in an environment such as a paving 
train, then there isn't a passenger vehicle on this planet capable of 
dishing out a more adverse  environment.  Sphere Research  Corp. has 
been developing and manufacturing embedded systems for unfriendly 
environments for quite some time without every having to redesign or 
recall its products. In a properly encased system with good thermal 
design a system can withstand any vehicular installation.  This isn't 
theoretical but actual taken from actual existing products.  Most system 
that would be more than adequate for such a project run cool enough that 
a fan is not required to cool the cpu.  Of course you would be advised 
to use a well designed power supply to protect the system from glitches 
caused by starting a vehicle and other electronics. Basically some 
common sense is all  that is required in putting together a mobile 
system. Once again as in my previous post, the possibilities are 
endless.  Kurt, if you need info on any part of your project, let me 
know. I'll see if some of the suppliers will fork over a few sample 
products.

-- 
Ted Ozolins(VE7TVO)
Westbank, B. C