Casetronic Power Board Replacement

[chut]

Hi Folks,

I discovered today that my PC will no longer turn on in the car. It fires up just fine when on the AC adapter. This leads me to believe that the power board in the case has gone "bad" I haven't tested the lines out yet, I need a battery for my multimeter which I'll get tomorow. If it turns out that the board is no longer functioning correctly, I will be looking for options. Perhaps another brand? Don't know yet but will need another option as I don't want to buy an Opus just yet and prefer to stay DC to DC as the only invereter I ever had made one heck of a lot of noise on the power lines, heard through the stereo.

Thanks for any input.

Peter

[chut]

Hi!

Just a little more input...With the engine turned off, I measured the voltage at the plug for the PC and found it to be 14.4 volts. I then measured the voltage at the battery terminals and found it to be 12.2 volts. Could the power board be overheating and shutting down the pc? I can buy another power board if I need to but don't want to buy this if what I need is a new motherboard. Anybody have any suggestions as to how I can test the power board?

Hi Folks,

I discovered today that my PC will no longer turn on in the car. It fires up just fine when on the AC adapter. This leads me to believe that the power board in the case has gone "bad" I haven't tested the lines out yet, I need a battery for my multimeter which I'll get tomorow. If it turns out that the board is no longer functioning correctly, I will be looking for options. Perhaps another brand? Don't know yet but will need another option as I don't want to buy an Opus just yet and prefer to stay DC to DC as the only invereter I ever had made one heck of a lot of noise on the power lines, heard through the stereo.

Thanks for any input.

Peter

[shadowlessman]

Hi!

Just a little more input...With the engine turned off, I measured the voltage at the plug for the PC and found it to be 14.4 volts. I then measured the voltage at the battery terminals and found it to be 12.2 volts. Could the power board be overheating and shutting down the pc? I can buy another power board if I need to but don't want to buy this if what I need is a new motherboard. Anybody have any suggestions as to how I can test the power board?

I had the same thing happen with my Casetronics case setup. Mine ran fine without regulation for a while, and then suddenly the DC-DC board would no longer work at 14.4V. Without regulation, mine will still work with the car off (i.e. 12-12.5V). Were you using any kind of voltage regulation before? My guess is not, because it still works with the AC adapter, but not in your vehicle. Build/buy a regulator circuit or a complete DC-DC PSU.

[chut]

Great, thats what I wanted to hear....so where would I get a voltage regulator? I am not competent to build one. Are they available on any tree?

[MikeH]

Chut,

Are you saying that you are connecting the car's 12v line directly to your Casetronics internal power supply without any regulation? If so, you need to know that Casetronics recommends against this (check their FAQ on their website). They say the input to the case should be 12v+/-5% (or 11.4v to 12.6v). This is because the internal PSU board does not regulate the incoming 12v line. It sends it directly to the motherboard. My guess is that, if it worked before, you were lucky. It if stopped working, it is probably triggering the internal overvoltage shutdown protection on the PSU or mobo.

[chut]

yep!
thats exactly what I was saying and thinking. Where can I get a copy of this FAQ? I looked around but couldn't find it. What do you suggest for regulation?
Thanks for the reply

[MikeH]

chut,

Where can I get a copy of this FAQ

Here is the Casetronic C134 FAQ. See second question.

What do you suggest for regulation?

Here is what I am currently doing for regulation.My Power Supply. I'm not suggesting this for everyone, but if you have the Casetronics case, or the Molex PSU board, this seems to work. It's a 60W regulator, which seems to work OK for my system (slim HDD, slim CD/DVD).

[chut]

Well, Hell!
I'm using a 3 1/2" hard drive and a slim cd\dvd drive, but if needs be, I can switch to a 40 GB slim drive. But, I have my lCD powered from a seperate source, The old radio power lead with a 1 amp fuse. Not the PC power supply. I hope I won't have to.

But, it seems like thats exactly what I needed! Thank you very much for your help. I'm gonna go get me one of them RS adapters today and be motorin' and listenin to my MP3's tonight. one last question if you please, I'm assuming that the only reason you have the ITPS is for the startup\shutdown controls? You have bumped the regulator? I think taht's what your diagram shows?

Take Care,

Peter

chut,

Here is the Casetronic C134 FAQ. See second question.

Here is what I am currently doing for regulation.My Power Supply. I'm not suggesting this for everyone, but if you have the Casetronics case, or the Molex PSU board, this seems to work. It's a 60W regulator, which seems to work OK for my system (slim HDD, slim CD/DVD).

[MikeH]

Chut,

I'm assuming that the only reason you have the ITPS is for the startup\shutdown controls? You have bumped the regulator? I think taht's what your diagram shows?

You are exactly correct. I've bumped the regulator. The ITPS is a lousy regulator. The RS is adequate for my system.

I have my lCD powered from a seperate source, The old radio power lead with a 1 amp fuse. Not the PC power supply

Careful! You should not run the radio power directly to your screen without regulating it. If you have the Lilliput, you either need to use their DC-DC psu that came with it, or run it from your regulated PC supply (RS). It's isn't designed to take the 14+v directly from your car.

.oops, just noticed you have the xenarc....same comment applies.