19" LCD, How should i power it?

**vairu** · 02-14-2006, 04:43 PM

That would be cool, but if i had $1000+ for a screen believe me it would be invested in other parts. Anyhow, this LCD wasn't purchased by me, i'm just borrowing it for the show ... down the road i might get 2 15" for the rear passengers and house them in the rear of the front the seats (maybe glass them in or something). Not too sure yet ...

I just wired my inverter straight off the battery via 8ga wire (maybe 6ft from the battery it was ran, probably less). I tried to turn on my 15" CRT flat panel off of it with the car running and it didn't come on lol ... so my guess is that LCD's use a LOT less power than CRT's ... cause i powered the 19" LCD off the inverter from the cig. lighter with the car OFF. This makes me feel better about running the LCD and not killing it. I'm just glad that the inverter isn't causing any "noise" problems like it has in the past (i guess it was too close to the HU or my CarPC).

I'm going to mess with it some more tommorow and try to find a good place to mount the LCD

**TheLandYacht** · 02-14-2006, 11:14 PM

OK. Lets see if I can address some of the questions.

First...yes, the entire system with the exception of the sound is run off a single 1200 watt inverter.

Does this cause any problems? None that I've seen yet, and I've been running a system similar to this with various configurations for going on 6 years now.

I do have some transient issues, but believe them to be more vibration related than something that the inverter caused.

Plan on replacing your inverter every 18 months or so if you're running them anywhere near (within 70% of) full rated load.

The monitor will either have a 3prong power plug like you do on the back of a standard desktop computer, in which case it either runs directly on 120vac (unlikely) or has a ac/dc converter inside the chassis. The more standard configuration, though, is to have some kind of proprietary plug (usually a small round plug) for the power...the cord between the monitor and the wall will have some kind of big honkin rectangular box in the middle of it. If this is the case, that's where the ac/dc converter lives.

If I'm reading you right, everything ELSE lives on 12vdc...am I right? If so, then the most reasonable solution is to find out just what kind of power this monitor needs (most likely a variation of DC...usually 12v) and buy a DC-DC power supply for that voltage or run a lead from your already existing dc-dc power supply that the computer uses if it allows for that.

The ONLY reason I'm using an inverter is that it was the simplest solution at the time and there are items in the van that use 120vac...since I was gonna need an inverter anyway, I decided to run everything off of it.

**vairu** · 02-15-2006, 12:07 AM

Thanks for the info m(__)m

The monitor must have the inverter built in (probably why it's heavier then i expected) because it uses a standard cable that would be used between a wall and a standard computer PSU. It plugs right into the back of the monitor with no brick in between. It would probably be easier for me to just run it off the inverter because finding a right DC-DC PSU and hacking the LCD (which i'd be real nervous about) would be more expensive in the end i would think. If it's not really needed then why should i do it u know. Also, at this point i will probably put the PS2 back in the car now that i "hard-wired" the inverter and it's not causing any noise problems like it was when i had it plugged in the cig lighter (and the inverter itself laying near the computer and RCA cable).

You have any pics of your setup man? I couldn't find any ... just curious to see other ideas out there.

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Let me get this straight tho .... from the car battery i have 12v DC? Which my inverter is converting to AC (how many volts? 120 like in houses?)? And then the inverter inside the monitor is converting this back to DC and probably 12v? Crazy

**gnomad** · 02-15-2006, 12:59 PM

Most LCDs with an external power brick take 18-19 VDC, and you should be able to drive them with a Carnetix P1900. (The P1900 would be dedicated to the LCD.)

-g.

**vairu** · 02-15-2006, 04:30 PM

Cool, mine has an internal one but i'll remember the Carnetix advise...

Also, i played with it some more today and it runs great even with the battery off ... only thing is i noticed there are a lot of like "waves" running through it ... like a TV with a semi-bad reception. I don't know what the word is for it but i notice that with the LCD on and the inverter on (obviously to make the LCD on) that my in dash 7" Lili (powered via my Opus) has the same waves ... it sometimes has these any ways but it is hard to notice .. with the 19" LCD on the 7" has the same waves tho. What is this caused by? The inverter causing "noise" Is that what it is?

**JimmyFitz** · 02-15-2006, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by vairu

Cool, mine has an internal one but i'll remember the Carnetix advise...

Also, i played with it some more today and it runs great even with the battery off ... only thing is i noticed there are a lot of like "waves" running through it ... like a TV with a semi-bad reception. I don't know what the word is for it but i notice that with the LCD on and the inverter on (obviously to make the LCD on) that my in dash 7" Lili (powered via my Opus) has the same waves ... it sometimes has these any ways but it is hard to notice .. with the 19" LCD on the 7" has the same waves tho. What is this caused by? The inverter causing "noise" Is that what it is?

Try switching display scan rate, especially if you are currently set at 60 Hertz.

**vairu** · 02-15-2006, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by JimmyFitz

Try switching display scan rate, especially if you are currently set at 60 Hertz.

The refresh rate? If this is what you're reffering too then i did up it. I set it up to 75 and i was worried to go beyond that. Raising it too high won't damage my 7" Lili will it? My resolution is like 640x480 i think. I can raise the refresh rate a lot higher if it won't affect the Lili. Thanks for the help

**JimmyFitz** · 02-15-2006, 11:15 PM

yeah, um, refresh rate. That is what I meant. My Xenarc had awful wavies when I first set it up. Then changed refresh rate from 60 to 70 Hz and all is good. Try all settings to see what is best. Won't hurt the monitor.

**gokee2** · 02-16-2006, 11:16 AM

vairu, you got some great plans. This show you are goin for, is it just for cats with carputers or whatever mods ones got in their car. also, where do you intend to install the dual 19" monitors in your scion?

**vairu** · 02-16-2006, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by gokee2

vairu, you got some great plans. This show you are goin for, is it just for cats with carputers or whatever mods ones got in their car. also, where do you intend to install the dual 19" monitors in your scion?

Thanks for the support

.

The show i'm going to this weekend is a show a member of my club is throwing thru his own custimization shop. A local college/University came to him (for whatever reason) and wanted him to throw a show because they plan of having car shows anually (for whatever reason). So he's having our club host a general car show. I guess there's going to be some vendors maybe and anyone can enter any car ... there's going to be broken down Scion class's i know that much, but as far as other car models they'll probably be just broken down by brand ... and then they'll probably be best A/V, interior, exterior, best mild/wild, etc.

I'm not entirely sure .. just going to chill with the club and hang out in Orlando for the weekend ... and also show all the club peeps and anyone else the DvD i made of our clubs "show season" so far. We have like 85 members but i don't think they all own scion's ... maybe like husbands and wifes both join separately so it makes the number go up or something. As far as i can tell we have like 40~ active members who show.

Also, i'm not sure what i'm going to be doing as a permanent install ... I think dual 19" for the rear passengers might be too big so maybe just 1 19" in between the front too passenger seats, maybe make it drop down from the headliner (flip down) ..... or else like 2 15" in the back of the front seats. My only concern with that is they might be mounted too low and might get damaged easier then one mounted up high that flips up out of the way you know.

We'll see what happens