Thread: I have a question.....

Originally Posted by HybridMike

ah....but I thinik you are the one with the foot in the mouth, its not the size that I was wondering about...even though the PC we use is more powerful and capable of doing more than the epia ones....just do a
dimensions: 5.75" x 9.84" x 1.65" <---- with case and power supply and DVD slot loader
P4 3.4ghz
12v input

dimensions epiaM10000 6.7" x 6.7" x ? <---just the motherboard dimensions
via 1ghz
Opus Power Supply: 3.94" x 4.92" x 2.5"
now if you were to put these two items in a case and add peripherials you would be at a much larger size than I am talking about

so back to my original question.... is it because the opus that has power monitoring and key start capabilitys that make users favor this setup or is it the price or what....because we are using 12v cpu's and weve designed our cecu's to do the power monitoring and integrate with mobile media center to do the shutdown and key control. I just want to make sure us at Hybrid are on the right track

I'm for the P4 and anticipating AMD joining in the future. VIA hasn't had a very bright past with their cpu's, and I'm amazed they are still hanging on. It seems their board chipsets is what's keeping them alive. Personally I've had many problems with their products and plan to stay away from their products.

I just recently purchased the Morex 3677 P4 (Intel 845GV chipset) barebone system that has onboard 120w dc, but requires an external ac source. Needless to say I don't have any type of power management and the monitor is showing the power spikes and dips from using an ac to dc inverter. Today I ordered an Opus power supply due to the power management capability of the unit. I'm hoping this will extend the life of my equipment.

Something I would like to see is a shock and vibration absorbing mount system to help extend the life of our pc's. Like this, just add a dampening system to it.

If you could build your system with the power management, small footprint, low heat output and an affordable price, they will come.

Well, afaik, the Opus is the only PSU with power monitoring and startup/shutdown controller!

Im sure I havent read every messege board....that would take alot of time away from developing free software for everyone.. but I can assure you that the Opus is not the only one that does it.....if you read my post i said that with mobile media center..(our software (MMC)) and OUR cecu control unit, we accomplish the same thing as the opus only it will work on ANY motherboard/power supply.. not just ones with wake on lan or power button headers...

Originally Posted by HybridMike

Im sure I havent read every messege board....that would take alot of time away from developing free software for everyone.. but I can assure you that the Opus is not the only one that does it.....if you read my post i said that with mobile media center..(our software (MMC)) and OUR cecu control unit, we accomplish the same thing as the opus only it will work on ANY motherboard/power supply.. not just ones with wake on lan or power button headers...

Yeah, it will ! But does it do it already? you're asking people why they don't use your controller, when it doesn't even exist yet!!?

If you could build your system with the power management, small footprint, low heat output and an affordable price, they will come.

thats what I wanted to hear!!! thank you...we have accomplished this, you see the dimensions... as for heat that same model comes as a fanless version as well...the model with the fan stays at 75deg

Yeah, it will ! But does it do it already? you're asking people why they don't use your controller, when it doesn't even exist yet!!?

READ.....Im not asking anyone to use our controller...im asking why people use the via/opus setup....over a small dc cpu....i wanted to know the pros and cons...it seems like you guys are so quick to jump someones case on here... By the way...it does do it already we all use it, but thats not the point here.

Originally Posted by HybridMike

READ.....Im not asking anyone to use our controller...im asking why people use the via/opus setup....over a small dc cpu....i wanted to know the pros and cons...it seems like you guys are so quick to jump someones case on here... By the way...it does do it already we all use it, but thats not the point here.

If a small dc cpu, existed at the same price/convenience as the epia/opus solution, over the last couple of years, don't you think we'd have been using it?

aCtually, there are a lot of other DC-DC solutions, comercial units like arise and keypower, and the sprogy homegrown psu that seems to have fallen out of favor as of late. There have also been a number of stand alone shutdown controllers over the years, and alternate custom dc-dc psus. People buy an epia and opus because its one stop shopping, no soldering, calculating, sourcing, etc. Plug and play simplicity. Just like the 7" vga touch screens are more or less the defacto standard for a carpc, so are the opus's and epias.

Also, a simple "12v" powered pc is useless in a car without regulation, as we all know, when the car is on, you're getting closer to 14.5v, and the voltage can easily drop to 9 or 10vdc when you're cranking. A lot of the 12v power brick supplied mini home computers are completely unregulated, atleast on the 12v line.

Originally Posted by MP3DUB

aCtually, there are a lot of other DC-DC solutions, comercial units like arise and keypower, and the sprogy homegrown psu that seems to have fallen out of favor as of late. There have also been a number of stand alone shutdown controllers over the years, and alternate custom dc-dc psus. People buy an epia and opus because its one stop shopping, no soldering, calculating, sourcing, etc. Plug and play simplicity. Just like the 7" vga touch screens are more or less the defacto standard for a carpc, so are the opus's and epias.

Also, a simple "12v" powered pc is useless in a car without regulation, as we all know, when the car is on, you're getting closer to 14.5v, and the voltage can easily drop to 9 or 10vdc when you're cranking. A lot of the 12v power brick supplied mini home computers are completely unregulated, atleast on the 12v line.

Yep, there are a lot of dc-dc solutions (I use a Power & cooling PSU) but the Opus isn't just a dc-dc solution, It's a startup/shutdown controller and regulator. 7" screens are defacto because thats the size of your dash!

Your setup sounds interesting. I have 3 questions however:

1 - Does your setup survive crank?
2 - If so, does it work using some sort of delay?
3 - Do you have any pics of the setup that you will post?