Hi folks,

I'm considering using a 810 as a car computer, mainly for access to OBD engine management info, as well as Navigation. The 810 would be installed in a pod on the dash, so only its screen will be visible, no access to any hard-keys.

My question is, if the 810 is wired into the cars electrics, will it turn on automatically when external power is supplied to it?

thanks for any help

It'll turn on and go into battery-charging mode when power is applied; it could be tweaked to boot into runlevel 2.

Shouldn't be too hard:

thanks for the quick responses ..

is runlevel 2 fully booted and operational? (excuse my ignorance!)

as a side-note, is there even an OBDII program available for the N810 that'll read data from the diagnostics port on a car? Also, do you plan on simply using a 12v plug (cigarette) to charge the device or hooking it up directly to a 12v source somewhere in the vehicle wiring? How would you do the latter?

Yes. Every Linux distribution has various run levels (typically 0-6). 0 is halt, 1 is sort of a rescue/maintenance mode, 6 is restart. Some distros have one runlevel for booting to the command line and one for booting to X. In Maemo runlevel 2 is the default X session.

Wikipedia has a good rundown of runlevels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runlevel

There's Carman. I've never used it but it looks nice.

Yes, Carman is the one is was going to try ..

On the power question, I'll be taking it to my local car audio shop for advice .. but there are usually a few options like using spare connections on the fuse box

Carman works great for viewing the data.

Quick description of my setup (similar to most folks I'f guess). I have a Nokia N800 which I use in car for satnav (Wayfinder), Media Playback (Canola2), and Engine Data (Carman).
As I don't have a aux-in on my stereo I use a Griffin Itrip universal+ FM transmitter which has a usb port for connecting chargers etc. However I don't find that it supplies quite enough power to charge the N800 well. My friend, who also has a N800, has the Nokia FM transmitter which has a retractable lead and a built in flylead for power, which works really well - much better than the Itrip. I also use a bluetooth GPS receiver, and bluetooth to my phone which has a data connection. I use the keys on the frontpanel to swap between the 3 applications as needed and find that as a removable carcomputer it works great.

A few points on the initial post - If you are intending to mount the 810 in such a way that the hardware keys are hidden - why not buy an 800, which has a lot more storage capacity (i have 32GB), and is a lot cheaper. Also you could purchase a separate GPS receiver and mount that somewhere that will get the best possible signal and then connect to it via bluetooth. I also would suggest that in my experience you need access to at least the D-pad and home,menu and back buttons. The N8x0 is not entirely touch driven yet, although for media playback Canola is.

Also the charge for the N8x0 is 5v so you will need a converter. I would suggest obtaining a multi accessory socket unit, hide it, and either hardwire that to the car supply (fused of course), or just plug that into the car's accessory socket. Then use std in-in car mobile chargers for the tablet, and phone if required.

Gary

Please keep us updated with the status of this as I'd be very interested in the results. Then I'd have an OBDII + GPS tool for my car!!!