Thread: how long is your serial extenision for xenarc 7in ts?

HereFishyFishy:

"Have you tried uninstalling the TS controller & unplugging the serial cable that goes to it to see if you still get the same problem"

When the touchscreen cable is disconnected, windows will load perfect every time even with the drivers/software installed.

"Do you have the same problem with the CoPilot GPS receiver not being able to be plugged in when windows starts? "

I've had no problems with the copilot reciever and leave it plugged in all times.

Does the nic cause problems with the AC-DC PSU?

I think in your case the 5V rail may be overloaded. After you install the driver, the next boot will required the device to be queried/initialized and takes a little more power.

In your sig, I see you have an Athlon XP 1100, is that a typo? I can't find any specs on the 1100. If its a .18 micro chip, you are really pushing the 5V rail. The lowest clock rate chip draws 60W or 12A on the 5V rail. The Opus can provide 10A with a temporary peak of 13A and so is overloaded by the CPU alone, but you still need power for the hd, pci cards, usb, etc. If you have a .13 micro chip, its a little more forgiving. The 1700, uses a little under 50W or 10A and is within spec.

If you underclock the CPU, you may be able to save some power. Try underclocking to lowest fsb and multiplier and decrease the vcore if not automatic. Also, do a before and after of power usage. The PC health section in bios should show you the stats.

I checked my power stats in the bios with the AC-DC and OPUS PSUs.

______ AC-DC OPUS
vcore __1.45___1.45
vtt____ 1.48___1.48
3.3____3.23___3.24
5______5.1___ 4.91
12____ 11.55 __11.79
-12____-11.86__-12.19
-5_____-5.04___NA-
vbat____3.13___3.13
5vsb___ 4.94___ 4.89

Only the 5V rail is lower with the Opus, but it is still well within ATX spec. Nonetheless, I will test with the AC-DC when I get my hands on an inverter or access to a garage.

Do a similar comparison and see how your setup fairs. And see how much underclocking helps with voltages. You can also try using motherboard monitor and running a cpu intensive task to see how the voltages get affected with both the AC-DC and Opus. If the 5v falls to low, it may explain the reboots.

Thanks a ton man...that's exactly what Kris from Opus said about the 5v rail being overloaded. Now I just have to figure out how to change my volt. settings for the processor. I know it's *supposed* to be in BIOS, but when I upgraded to the new ver. of BIOS they seemed to take out that feature. Isn't there software similar to MB monitor that will do this from within windows & reset it on reboot? Just throwing the question out incase anyone knows off the top of their head. thanks again for the help, now I have something else to keep me busy with the carputer this afternoon!

Phil

Please post your power stats for comparison.

If you can't find the cpu settings in the bios, there should be jumpers on the motherboard. I would change the fsb to a 100 and the multiplier to the lowest setting and test the system. The bios may automatically set the voltage depending on the speed of the cpu. If this helped, slowly start increasing until problems pop up again.

Thanks a million! I looked at the CPU specs like you mentioned and you were right, that 1100 was drawing way too much power. Luckily I had a 1000 in my indoor desktop & swapped the two. I know it's not much of a power difference (5 watts the specs claim), but it was enough to allow me to install the wireless NIC & the FM/TV card.

Phil

Solution to my original problem:

USB-to-Serial adapter.

I connected the same chopped 25ft (now ~18ft) serial cable to the adapter and it has worked great so far.

The touch component is really picky. In my testing , I tried using a usb to serial converter - the system rebooted. As soon as I click the button in the touch control program , it reboots, and then continues to do so untill I remove the converter.

The converter is top of the line, its the only USB to serial that will run a garmin GPS... It didnt really matter though, I just used the usb to serial for gps instead.

Easy fix. The problem that you guy's are experiencing is that the RS232 specs use the -5V rail. This CAN be reproduced with a Max 232 chip, however the Zenarc 7" does not have a max 232 to the best of my knowledge. Which means it's having problems with the -5V.... Easy fix.... switch to a USB converter, it'll generate all the voltages that are needed for the full rsr232 swing.

(Also, since you are now running it with USB, you have greater distances, with better cabling options, and cheaper cables because there is less wires.

Knight.

Thanks. I thought that may be the case. -5V rail is all but obsolete now, but some older logic still uses it.

USB adapter has yet to give me a problem.

Just for information, the rs-232 spec says it can run a full 50 foot without any repeaters. rs-484 can run aprox 200 feet without repeaters, and usb can run about 20 without repeaters, with repeaters, its around 1000 feet on all.

Knight.