Single Board Computers

[Robert Edmonds]

Single Board Computers (SBCs) (e.g. Raspberry Pi, etc.) are becoming fairly powerful and could be integrated into a car. Anyone here try such a thing? What does your SBC run for you while chasing? Curious since I own a few, but haven't added them to my car at the moment.

 

[Randy Jennings]

That is an interesting question. I haven't used a Pi for chasing, but I have used them for several other projects and have got them to work quite well even when folks said it couldn't be done. It seems like the biggest issue would be finding software/apps that would be useful for chasing. I don't chase with any Linux apps, and Windows IoT (the Windows OS version that runs on Pi) will not run traditional Windows desktop applications with a graphical interface from what I have read (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-10-on-the-raspberry-pi-what-you-need-to-know/) so running Gibson Ridge would likely not work on a Pi. I guess you could use it for web browsing (SPC, model sites) if you used a Linux OS and installed a web browser, but you may have problems finding a browser that supports what you need to display. On a digital signage project I did I actually had to install an outdated version of the Chromium browser to get it to work, as the current version didn't support features the digital signage system needed to work. Hopefully the latest Firefox or Chromium browser would be able to display SPC and model sites, but I would not guarantee it. Hopefully someone will chime in who has actually tried this.

 

[Drew Terril]

I've never run an SBC but I have run various distros of Linux on various systems and there aren't any good apps for radar, unless you run a VM with MacOS or Windows. Never had any issue getting Firefox to work with the SPC or various model sites, but again, that was a full computer. Never done anything with Pi though, so I don't know if that is any indication or not.


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[James Hammett]

Before the ubiquity of portable music players and then smartphones I ran a SBC in the car hooked into the sound system for use as a music player. The limiting factor then as now being that SBCs sacrifice power for small size. Though relative power has greatly increased demands have increased as well. With as much stuff as I run during a chase I can't compromise much on power. I'd like (and have tried) to be able to just leave a computer in the car solely dedicated to chasing purposes but I've found it's just easier and more reliable to keep a laptop up to spec. Portable so easier to maintain and comes with a built-in hiDPI screen & compact keyboard.

That said I have designed and/or used SBCs for peripheral chasing tasks, like a Pi-based forward web/DNS proxy to make page refreshes faster over slow cell internet connections and save bandwidth, encoding streaming video, and aggregating multiple internet connections. Used to run a hacked router that would automatically search for and connect to open wifi networks (back when cell data was often hard to find). Still run an Arduino-based monitor for engine vitals, aux battery voltage and charging, and power inverter control. And an Arduino-based controller for the Turretcam (my externally mounted camera). Here's the one I use hiding in the center console:
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