Thread: Hardwiring Xenarc 700TSV

According to the instruction manual included with my monitor it will support a maximum input voltage of 24 VDC. This leads me to believe there is a regulator on board already. Therefore mine is fed directly from my cars power and so far has worked flawlessly.

However on my PC I did choose to regulate the voltage but my regulator could not support both the monitor and PC. If I had a more substantial regulator I would probably have chosen to regulate them both.

On a side note my PC said it required 12 VDC in but funtioned poorly with the output voltage on my regulator set to 12. Bumping output up to 13 VDC has made my system bulletproof and rock solid.

Originally Posted by dgaetano

Nearest I can tell there is nothing special about the Xenarc cigarette adapter. It has a 1A/250V fuse. If you look at the back of your Xenarc you'll see that the + line is the center one.

My best advice: take your monitor to RadioShack and find a cigarette adapter that fits the connection to the monitor (it's a standard connection, but I don't know which one). Double check the fuse. Double check that when it's plugged in you get -12v from the outside of the monitor connector to the inside.

Doesn't it have to be regulated? +12Vs from the ACC of the car will be good? I am not too sure about regulation and all. Thought I had read that some people will fry their LCD.

Nope it doesn't have to be regulated - look on Xenarc's website http://www.xenarc.com/product/700ts.html, under Specifications it says "Operating Voltage Range: DC 11V ~ 24V, 1A". So if it's under 11V it just won't work (no problem, the voltage should never be that low anyway except when cranking), and if the voltage hits 24V, then you will need to replace a lot more then just the LCD (just about everything in your car that has power going to it). Car power flucuates from 9V-15V, but should never be under 12-13 except when cranking. Usually its about 14.5V. I'll tell you, the more I read about this screen, the more i love it!

Doesn't it have to be regulated? +12Vs from the ACC of the car will be good? I am not too sure about regulation and all. Thought I had read that some people will fry their LCD.

This isn't a lilliput where talking about here seriously though, I have heard of lilliputs getting fried from unregulated voltage, but Xenarcs will be fine.

Originally Posted by SpeedFreak03

This isn't a lilliput where talking about here seriously though, I have heard of lilliputs getting fried from unregulated voltage, but Xenarcs will be fine.

Thanks, SpeedFreak03

Yeah I had read alot and it appeared that the lilliputs got fried but i swore I saw one or two xenarcs in there as well. I could be wrong. Can anyone else confirm?

Thanks

i'll just chime in to tell what i have had working successfully for the past several months.

I have the ACC line of my Subaru WRX wired to the coil of a relay which switches the unregulated 12v off my battery buss. I use this unregulated 12v to supply the acc line to my opus, power to my cell phone amp, the input side of a 12v/5v dc dc power supply to charge my headset and to my xenarc.

in my car the acc line is low when cranking ( i believe this is the case for most cars) which is a good thing in this case. The xenarc is happy from 11-24v. Outside that range you risk damaging the display, either high or low. Like was posted above your car isn't going to exceed 24v, at least not a US car. Dropping below 11v is another story however, that will likley happen when cranking. This is why that relay i describred above is a good idea. If you'd like to learn more about relays and wiring them check out this link

http://www.the12volt.com/relays/relays.asp

As a side note this setup does deprive the Xenarc of it's normal shutdown cycle by just killing power to it instead of letting it do whatever it would when you hit the power button. I don't believe that this is an issue baced on my understanding of LCD's and how they opperate, and also baced on the fact that mine is still working. I just wanted to mention it.

Ok, i just wanna make sure i can do this since this is an expensive monitor.

-I can use the supplied cigarette plug and cut off the plug.
-I should see a bare wire covering a white wire. The white (center) wire is positive and the outer bare wire is negative
-The white wire should have a fuse inline (how big of a fuse?) and this could be wired to any positive wire in the car, ACC, or not.
-The bare wire should be grounded to the vehicles chassis.

Is this correct? I'm gonna be using an ITPS, can i wire the positive wire from the monitor the ITPS?

Anybody? Answering this will be of a great service to those in the mp3car community. They will be able to look at the end of this thread and know, with a good level of confidence, that they are, indeed, "doing the right thing." And NOT breaking anything. This could even be the first step towards a dream of mine to have a "manual" where newbies, like myself, can look to in order to press forward in the installation of there very own carputer. This will just be a chapter in this manual, dealing with those who wish to hardwire their xenarc monitors to their vehicles. I have already taken the initiative of paraphrasing what i have read in this post, and also adding some questions of my own. Now i leave this to you...great knowledge bearers of mp3car.com to share with the rest of us, for you and the rest of us may very well be the somewhat early pioneers of this phenomenon. For years from now, many many cars will have carputers. Just like how altezza tail lights and spinning bling bling rims have become very common place on todays cars. And remember, "always do the right thing." That is all...

Being its inputs are 11-24 Volts, it should be fine. I for one have my xenarc hardwired directly without any regulation voltage to my cars ACC Lead. This has been now for about a Month without any issues at all. Though I must note that in my car, when i go into crank mode, the acc lead gets off till the engine is started before it regains any power so voltage drop isn't a major issue in my case.