Thread: My 2001 Sport Trac Install

The ground loop isolator is good, but it will get rid of only half the noise..

Originally Posted by wkolodny

Well I guess no one has tried to set up an ITPS with this configuration so i'll be the guinea pig. I dont think there should be an issue cause the 12v all comes from the same place. Hopefully it wont feedback into the ITPS from the output side. I'll post my results later. Hopefully it wont be a picture of a smoking ITPS.

Stop me now if you think this is a bad idea.

Thanks to the guys in this thread. They have solved my problem. Here is the diagram MikeH made of how it will work:

Decided to add an LED to indicate when the ITPS override mode is active. I don't want to screw up and let my battery drain down.

The circuit will look like this:

Well I havent had time to add the ITPS override switch yet but I have an update for the Radio Xtreme:

I would have to give Radio Xtreme a grade C overall. It is alot better than D-Link but still no where near as good as a real receiver. It is better than no radio at all. I may have to bring back the head unit though.

I decided to go ahead and pick up an FM amplifier in my search for better radio reception. I was told on another thread not to bother because it wouldnt make much difference but I went ahead and bought this 20db amp from buy.com anyway. It was pretty cheap. Only 16 dollars shipped. The amp that arrived looks nothing like the picture.

It was easy to install. I just plugged car antenna plug into the amp and the plug that came out of the amp into my jury rigged Radio Xtreme connector. I then wired the red lead to 12v switched.


Not much in the way of controls. Just one big power button on the front and a red LED.



Here is the top side of it.



My results were great in terms of receiving previously inaudible stations. Go to this URL for a little audio visual demo:
http://members.cox.net/wkolodny/demo.htm

You will hear some garbled noise and then I press the power button. Pretty cool. Stations that had a constant amount of static became much clearer. Overall it makes for a much better experience in this regard.

The downside is that it had little to no affect on stations that I already received reasonably well. There are still random bits of static that have not gone away. Dont get me wrong though because I am much happier now that I can use the radio for most of the stations I used to get on my head unit.

Overall with the 20DB amp I would now give the Radio Xtreme a B- . I highly recommend this amp to anyone who wants to receive more stations.

Fixed the demo link above. Try it again.

Originally Posted by wkolodny

Works great. I am powering both my Lilliput and my Cappuccino PC off of the output from the ITPS. Just a note for those of you who may want to copy this setup, BE SURE to apply a solder bump as described in the installation manual to disable voltage regulation. It will not work if you dont do this. I found out the hard way.


Also make sure you enclose the ITPS in something nonconductive as the manual states the heat sink has +12v on it. I put it inside a little plastic drawer and wrapped it with electrical tape afterwards.




Also here is a picture of my modification to the Lilliput.

If you look closely you will see a small switch attched to my new 9 pin connector. The switch is wired to both sides of the screen power button. When I want it to turn on automatically I leave it switched ON. When I need to adjust some settings I turn it OFF. When it is in the ON position you can still manually turn the screen off and on by hitting any button besides the power button.

Thanks for the tip. One question, though. Why would you want to disable voltage regulation?

Originally Posted by asci01

Thanks for the tip. One question, though. Why would you want to disable voltage regulation?

For some reason the PC and screen were not getting enough power. I don't know if the ITPS's built in regulator was limiting the amps but for whatever reason the screen was washed out and the PC just made a buzzing noise. Its no biggy though because the Lilliput comes with a little Egg shaped regulator and I am using a laptop regulator to power the PC.

Originally Posted by wkolodny

DC Converter can be found on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&rd=1&tc=photo

I have a pushbutton wired in parallel to the pulse leads coming from the ITPS. This allows me to remotely restart my PC. I also have a hardwired cutoff switch wired in series that stops the screen and PC from getting power for the times when I dont want the PC to start.

Again, thanks for your detailed install instructions. I have some questions.

Why run the screen through the ITPS?. The cigarette ligher is a switched connection, isn't? so your screen is turn off when you turn off the engine as opposed to the 45 sec ITPS delay and because your screen power button is shorted, it will come on automatically anyway when you turn the engine on, right? Also, you have a bypass switch for the shorted power button for the screen, so if you don't want it to come on, just flip the switch and it won't turn on automatically, right?

Last question: I understand that when you short the screen power button you can't control the screen with the display buttons. If this is the case, can you at least control it with the remote?

Thanks for all the help !

Why run the screen through the ITPS?. The cigarette ligher is a switched connection, isn't? so your screen is turn off when you turn off the engine as opposed to the 45 sec ITPS delay and because your screen power button is shorted, it will come on automatically anyway when you turn the engine on, right? Also, you have a bypass switch for the shorted power button for the screen, so if you don't want it to come on, just flip the switch and it won't turn on automatically, right?

I thought about doing it that way but this way hopefully puts less strain overall on the screen because it doesnt get a surge of voltage while starting the truck. It comes on after the engine is going. I can also monitor the PC shutdown for occasional hibernation issues. If the monitor shut off when I turned the key I wouldn't be able to see if it shutdown properly. It will also work out well when I wire up my ITPS override switch.

Last question: I understand that when you short the screen power button you can't control the screen with the display buttons. If this is the case, can you at least control it with the remote?

Yes the remote does work fine when the button is shorted out. It's just not always handy. Kind of small and easy to misplace.