Powering LS-371 ??

**galvitron** · 08-30-2007, 01:21 AM

Hello all,

I am building an in-dash PC using this board:

Commell LS-371

It takes "8 ~ 24 V full range DC input" but probably operates best at 12V.

I am very familiar with PC hardware but not with a car's electrical system. What exactly would I need to power this board + Solid State Disk + CD + Core2 + fan,etc.

I was thinking of the M2-ATX HV because of high load and features. Is this overkill?

Thanks in advance

**DarquePervert** · 08-30-2007, 07:06 AM

The M2ATX is ATX compliant and that board isn't an ATX-compliant board....

**_dopehead_** · 08-30-2007, 10:27 AM

You don't need a DC-DC psu for this board, i have the LV-677DC which also has the 8-21vdc regulator, and i am running a HQCT, harddrive, 2 usb hubs and a wimax modem of the internal 5/12V connector on the board, this should also be there on yours. Look at page 37 in the manual. For controlling shutdown/startup i use a mpegbox uSDC20, which runs just fine.

**_dopehead_** · 08-30-2007, 10:31 AM

Oh, and i forgot to mention the board is powered directly from the uSDC20 which doesn't regulate the cars voltage, and it also survives cranking, just give at a good size wiring, and good grounding and you should be just fine.

**galvitron** · 08-30-2007, 10:09 PM

Thanks for the advice!

I will probably go with the mpegbox uSDC20 then. Is there a way to power this outside of the car for buildup/testing?

Do you think the LV-667 is a better choice? I can choose either...

Do you see any advantage to going with DC version over the ATX connector version of the LV-667? Won't the ATX PSU's give more features/better regulation?

Also, do you put your PC into shutdown when the car is turned off? What about 5V standby power draw?

Sorry, I am only familiar with standard style PSUs...it is hard to sort through so much info on this site.

**_dopehead_** · 08-31-2007, 01:22 AM

You can power it with a regular ac/dc adapter in the 12-19V range, just remember to get one with some juice, my old 60W psu that came with my morex case works, but gets pretty hot :-(

I think the LV677-DC saves you a lot of trouble, of course if you need to power more than the built-in regulator it can be a problem and you will need another psu, but as i said i power a 3.5" hdd, hqct radio module, 2 x 7port usb 2.0 hubs and a Wimax wireless box on that, so to me it is all i need. I use hibernate, and the clever thing is that the uSDC will cut of the power to the pc with a relay after it detects that the pc has been shut down (it measures 12v out of the pc), which means no dead batteries and such. I also have it set for around 10min delay before it shuts down, so i can get gas and go do some quick shopping before it has hibernated.

**galvitron** · 09-11-2007, 05:44 PM

Do you have a screen? Do you power it off of the uSDC20 or the commell?

I am trying to figure out how to power my screen...

**_dopehead_** · 09-14-2007, 04:07 PM

I power 2 x 8" lilliputs off the commell 12V, the uSDC doesn't regulate anything, don't put anything that only accepts 12V directly on the uSDC.

**galvitron** · 09-14-2007, 04:22 PM

Ah, I see. No regulator on it.

So the Commell has a 12V output similar to a molex that can power peripherals. I am assuming you power your HD off of this too. Does it have the full range of Molex pins with the different voltages?

I found out about a problem with the LS-371 and dimilar 3.5" boards that accept Core 2 Duos. There is only one memory slot onboard and the Core 2's use dual channel memory. So essentially your Core2 will act as a single core because only one memory pipeline. And intel has officially discontinued everything but dual cores and above. I was recommended to use the T5500 for cost/performance ratio.