Thread: Should everything be powered by OPUS?

no, OPUS is never a mistake. it may be the greatest thing ever. (IMO hehe).. i would power everything by the opus... its safe, its clean, and its easy, and it should handle your system pretty well.

also, i think you'll get shorter ground lines which should keep the noise down, but im not totally sure.

not sure for the answer, depends on the opus model, also depends on what you mean by ****load of usb in the fute, all i do know is if you plan to not use you opus, no big deal, people will buy it of you, well, hell i would buy it, since i need one.

Thanks Nav attack, and Faiz your worthless...


Nav attack could you please explain what you mean by noise?

corruption -
i think he means interfecence on your audio and video lines (noise). As for your first question - its fine to power everything off the opus, as long as you dont go over its rating (usually not a problem) - remember, each of your "USB toys", as long as they are bus powered, can only draw 500 milliamps. as far as powering it all off your ignition.....not such a smart idea. the ignition wire goes to some very important parts of the car (starter, solenoid, main electrical system, etc),a nd drawing pwoer off that does not seem smart. Rather you should run a fused line from the battery. BUT, this line will give you somewhere between 13 and 14 volts (depending on the health of your battery) while the car is on. So running a 12V device off that is not a good idea unless you plan on regulating it, i.e., your opus. Bottom line: use the opus, thats why you bought it.

Will there be a problem with running power cables all the way to my opus (in the trunk) to the front of my car to power these devices? Doesnt this cause a significant about of power loss due to travel...?

Also.. Should I somehow shield the 25 foot VGA cable and audio with some sort of protection to avoid interference

Damn can i get some feedback :P

no and no

get a good gauge wire and get a good shielded cable and start searching dude - both those answers i have read in the past 3 months on this forum :P

Perhaps I'm confused, but for those of us with lilliput screens, doesn't the 12v adapter come with a line conditioner on it? I can't speak for Xenarc as I don't have one, nor have I seen one, so I don't know if they also have this apparent line conditioner. I opened up the round gray thing and it sure looked like a voltage conditioner to me. So it wouldn't matter if the battery is producing anywhere from 10-15v, it should still be providing a clean 12v to the screen. Maybe I'll take out the screen and use the multimeter to test it this weekend. I personally used a good solid body ground and it solved any screen interference that I had.

If you do power it off the OPUS (which I think is a safe idea) the easiest way to see if it's technically safe is to add it all up.

The M10000 board is rated at 24W under load (this includes the CPU). 512MB (PC2700 or PC2100) is going to use anywhere from 5-15W under load. Typical 7200RPM desktop hdd runs anywhere from 5-15W under load. All USB devices can have a maximum of 2.5W under load. Not sure on the Audigy2, but if it's USB, then obviously 2.5W; if it's a PCI card, I'd say no more than 10W.

So at most, the total is (m/b+cpu) 24W + (RAM) 15W + (hdd) 15W + (6 USB devices, including the USB hub and touchscreen) 2.5Wx6 + (PCI Audigy2) 10W = 79W. And this is at MAXIMUM values. Subtract 7.5W if it's the USB Audigy2. I believe you should have NO PROBLEMS running the screen as well (although I have yet to see any information on it's power draw, but I suspect it's less than 20W). 150W goes a long way when you're not using an ATX board with a Pentium or Athlon.

As for the total draw on the car battery, it won't matter if the screen is powered via the OPUS or straight off the battery, or even on the ignition switch - it's the same amount of overall draw on the battery.

One last thought - powering the screen off the OPUS will increase the heat produced by the OPUS power supply. This might be one factor for why NOT to use the OPUS to power the screen.

gubon - good post.

one correction - if the audigy is the USB version, it too needs external power (5v barrell plug adaptor), so its power draw is not limited to 2.5 watts.

also: if you power the screen off the opus, it will come on with startup/shutdown of opus (ignition). just thought i would throw one factor that may persuade you TO power it off the opus.