Thread: All this talk of voltage regulators...

I dont think its a matter of frying the computer but a matter of the computer rebooting when you start the engine. If you regulate the 12V DC going into the PSU, you'll have less chance of unexpected problems. Also The site mentioned wiring 2 diodes in series which drops the voltage by 1.5V. That's fine when your engine is running. When the engine is not running, the voltage could drop down to 10.5V. which is a bad idea. That'll gurantee reboot everytime you start your engine. You can put a cap on the +12V line between the diode and the DC-DC PSU. That's basically what a tank circuit is. To answer your frying sutff with unregulated 12V, I fried a Xenarc screen using unregulated 12V line.

Are you sure the Xenarc fried because it was unregulated 12V?
Shouldn't the input range be fine for cars?

I recently switched it from the opus to a cig lighter to save a few watts for the PC. But I would rather not risk RMAing this sucker again.

yes im pretty sure. a few seconds before it fried, the screen got bright like over voltage. anyway its powered by opus now. The screen doesnt dim during starting like it did before.