Thread: Progress

No real reason for this post other than it is going through my mind while I am bored at work. I finally installed everything in my car last night.

Hardware:
Epia 10K MB, 256 ram
Ampie case
M1-ATX PS
Lilliput 7” LCD touchscreen mounted in dash.

Software:
WinXP, RR, winamp, 40gigs of .ape audio files.

Issues after install:
#1 SPDT switch. I wired a switch in so that I could override the IGN behavior. This allows for always on, always off, or IGN switched. It was hooked up (off) all night and when I came out this morning the switch was too hot to touch. It is a lighted switch and obviously not liking the fact that I hooked it up backwards to provide two inputs and one output instead of two outputs and one input. I removed the ground from the switch and it seems to work fine now. Correct behavior I just don’t have the light on the switch. Fine, I can live with that. Problem #1 solved.

#2 LCD doesn’t come on. This is no big deal as I tested it after I put it in the dash (and it worked then). No doubt the problem lies somewhere in the 3 relays I am using to switch things. I have two relays to provide an AND gate behavior. One gets switched by IGN, one gets switched by amp-on from M1-ATX. The power from the first relay provides power to the second so that only if both are switched will I have power out from the second one. The output of this AND gate goes to all my remote-ons for all my audio equipment. It also supplies the switch input for the third relay which switches on the power for the LCD. I need the third relay because power for my LCD comes from a drive power plug off the M1-ATX. I looked over the wiring and it all seems correct but I’ll have to dig a bit further with a DMM tonight to find the problem. No problem, I just need some time to work on it.

#3 Windows hangs on resume from hibernate. I found this out just before I mounted the screen in the dash. For a quick fix I set windows to shutdown normally. I’ll have to dig further to see if it is due to winamp, RR or if even with nothing running it still hangs. Who knows, maybe it is because the driver for the shuttle express was looking for it but it wasn’t there (but only hangs on resume). Hmmm. Need to dig more.

#4 Noise/flicker in LCD with car and audio equipment off. This is not very pronounced but worries me the most. As suggested I powered my LCD off the M1-ATX. I grounded the LCD behind the dash. My amps/computer/LCD/etc all have very solid grounds (I’ve done the “big 3” too). When I get time I’ll have to test by supplying power to the LCD from a battery charger to see if the noise is in the power or the VGA. I already tried using a big in-line inductor on the power line to no effect.

#2 doesn’t worry me. #3 and #4 worry me a bit.