Hack55.Control Your Car PC with a Keyboard and Mouse

Hack 55. Control Your Car PC with a Keyboard and Mouse

If you're a passenger, a compact mouse and keyboard are the most familiar way to control the in-car computer.

Before we get into the various ways a driver can safely control an in-car computer, let's look at how to get the passengers going. Many in-car PCs are designed for rear-seat or passenger entertainment. In this case, there's no particular reason a keyboard can't be used to control the PC.

5.2.1. Wired Keyboards

In a moving vehicle, the use of any conventional mouse is difficult, due to vibration and lack of flat surfaces. Thus, a keyboard with an integrated mouse is probably best. Integrated mice on wireless keyboards usually come in the form of a small trackball or joystick. Their wired counterparts are usually bigger and come with an integrated trackpad.

If smallness is what you are after, so you can fit the keyboard in a glove compartment, the center console, or under a seat, a wired keyboard is your best bet because the keyboard manufacturer doesn't have to include room for batteries or a wireless transmitter. If you know the keyboard is going to be used, for example, in only the front passenger seat, you can run PS2 keyboard and mouse cables under the carpet from the computer to inside the dash and hide the keyboard in the glove compartment.

If the keyboard needs to be usable by passengers in the front or back seats, another good solution is to run a USB hub to the center console between the front bucket seats [Hack #51]. Then, you can store your USB keyboard (or other controllers) wherever it's convenient, and plug it in when you need to. Again, this solution keeps the wires hidden so your car doesn't look cluttered when everything is stowed away.

5.2.2. Wireless Keyboards

A wireless keyboard with an integrated mouse is the least tangled way to control the PC from any seat in the car. Fortunately, the home theater PC market has generated a variety of keyboards that fit these parameters.

A basic keyboard with a built-in mouse is shown in Figure 5-1. This unit uses an infrared receiver that plugs into the PS2 keyboard and COM ports on the back of the computer. The keyboard itself can last for months (with light use) on four AA batteries.

Figure 5-1. An infrared keyboard with a built-in mouse

One of the most popular keyboards for in-car use is the Gyro keyboard (http://www.gyration.com). These units are great because they use radio frequencies (RF) instead of infrared, so they don't require a direct line of sight to a receiver to work. You can get just the mouse, just the keyboard, or both together, but they're a bit expensiveover $100 for the pair. When the mouse is sitting on a flat surface, it acts like a conventional optical mouse. But when you pick it up, a gyroscope inside the mouse (hence the name) detects movement, and you can move the cursor just by moving the mouse in the air.

There are two drawbacks to using the Gyro mouse in the car: when you inevitably set the mouse down, it turns back into an optical mouse and the cursor moves unexpectedly, and to keep the mouse charged you have to mount the mouse recharging dock somewhere convenient. However, the convenience of being able to mouse in the air rather than having to find a suitable surface in a moving vehicle is a strong plus.

A good site for finding keyboards of all kinds, one of which may work for you, is http://www.fentek-ind.com.