Attached is the setup that I am (roughly) looking to do for my carputer setup. I don't have any of the USB stuff shown (GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc) but you get the picture. The main thing that I am concerned about is power. Namely, how do I get the power from the battery to all my components? Since my carputer is going to be in the trunk, from what I've read I'm going to need about 8-10 guauge wire to run to the trunk. But the part I get confused on from there is how do I get it down from 8 AWG power cable down to 18-24 AWG cables of the devices themselves? Pretty much most of what I've seen on the net are distro blocks that only go 4->8 or 8->8. How do I convert the 8 AWG into multiple 18 AWG? Also, since my touchscreen only has like an 18-24AWG cable for it (and I doubt that it's long enough to reach the battery anyways), am I going to need a second distro block up at the front?
In the picture,
Red = Power
Blue = VGA
Orange = RCA
Green = other
Oh yah, and there's supposed to be a 20A inline fuse between the battery and the distro block.
The components in the picture are:
M2-ATX
XM-Direct
Backup Camera
Xenarc 700TSV 7" touchscreen
USA-SPEC Aux audio converter (self-powered).
Any help/criticism would be greatly appreciated. I would really rather not have my car turn into a car-b-q because I screwed up something simple.
dont need no stinkin distrubutionblocs, just splice the wires and solder em, use a shrinkingtube on the solderpoint, not exactly rocketscience,unless u use gauge 4-6 u can get away with soldering, for the monitorcable,just extend the wires with solder and same size wire, would reccomend atleast a 40A fuse for the setup,.... do you have an amp in\near the trunk? if so what gauge wire goes to it?
Just factory speakers/stereo, so no amp. 40A seems to be a bit overkill don't ya think? As far as the monitor goes, how long of a run can you safely do with 24 AWG?
i ment a 40 amp on the main powercable to the trunk\computer, not on the monitorcable... the monitorcable dont need more than 5-10 a fuse... correction, MUST not have more than 5-10A, because if something shorted with a 40 amp fuse on gauge 20 or so it could start a fire, atleast make a hellofa lot of smoke, u can run a gauge 24 for miles if you like, the real question is how mutch load is on the wire, in a car u would run out of space before the resistance in the wire is any problem, but its always a good idea to oversize a bit, and to use wires ment for automotive enviroments
and a few A dont get you far...just do the math: voltage x current = watts ie: 12v x 10A =120 watt, so for a main powerline 40A is not an overkill, always oversize so you got a bit of leeway if you later deside to install something more later on
You're right. 12v x 10A = 120Watt. But I'm only using an M2-ATX power supply and it's the main power hog. If I put in a 40A fuse than I'm looking at 480Watts before the fuse pops and my components are going to fry up WAY before that fuse will.
the M2-ATX power supply has an onboard 10 A fuse, (atleast i think its 10A) so that'll pop before the 40 A on the powercable, what i was suggesting was to leave a bit of capasity for a potencial future upgrade of psu or afterinstallment of an amplifier, but its your setup, i won't force you if you dont want to,
just saying that its not fun having to pull out the wire and fuse just because u didnt oversize the first time
An interesting point about the maintainence. I'm just uber paranoid of electricity and fire (been shocked one too many times). Maybe that's why I switched from CompE to CompSci...
For a setup like this why not use existing wires in the car?
Does you car have a 12v power source in the trunk.
Mine does and has been powering my pc/2nd battery for 2 years with out a problem. Upgrade to stouter copper when you need it.
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