mazda3uzr

I have a xbox and shuttle in my car which are powered through a 300w xantrex inverter. when the xbox was turned on, it use to make a very loud buzzing noise until i wrapped some solder around the rca grounds at my zux input adaptor which eliminated the noise. but now with my shuttle, everytime i plug it into the inverter, there is some kind of buzzing sound that sounds like morse code haha. then when i turn it on, there is a very buzzing sound. I also am getting these lines going up my lcd which i cant seem to get rid of. BTW, none of these problems exsist when everything is plugged into a regular wall outlet, and i am sure it is not the inverter because i have tried about 7 inverters and this is the best one yet. someone, please help!

Phobos0001

im no auto electrician, but i think a ground-loop icolator may help. i had a setup using my n-gauge mobile phone, a pre-amp and PC speakers in my '88 magna and i had a horific buzzing when i pluged the phone to the charger, because that created a ground loop, a negative only short circut if you will...... then again i may be completely wrong... im a noob you see, just repeating advice i was given

well, goodluck at any rate

RedGTiVR6

part of the issue is the fact that you are using an inverter. See, a car produces DC current, the inverter takes that and turns it into AC, when it goes into your computer it then has to change it BACK to DC....I would guess that an XBox would do the same thing since it's essentially a computer as well....

Without tearing off into your X-box I'm not sure how you would be able to use it without using the inverter.

So, how far apart are all of these items? Is the Inverter relatively close to the x-box and shuttle? If so you might try moving them further apart in the car (if that's possible), also, where are you power wires run? Are they along side your signal cables? If so, move them apart immediately. Move them apart as far as possible (like opposite sides of the car). You could be getting interference from your power wire crossing over into your signal cables.

Wall power is going to be cleaner than most any inverter, this is another thing to consider.

Have you grounded everything correctly? By correctly I mean did you scrape away any paint that might be between your grounding location and the wire? If not, do so. It could be any number of things. Let me know about the few I listed if you get a chance.

=]

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mazda3uzr

that is the thing. the only thing ui grounded is the inverter and taht is to the - of the battery. how do i ground everything else from the computer, xbox and the rca cables? i am guessing i just wrap wire around the rca ground and run it to the ground

RedGTiVR6

not sure I understand what you are saying..

your RCAs shouldn't need to be grounded. The plug its self is the ground. The center of the RCA is the positive, and the outside is the ground. The computer will need to be grounded as well. I know that the power supply has gound wires, but I don't think that they do the job adequately. You should be able to ground to a point nearby. Is the mobo in a case or it is open?

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wizardPC

I'm gonna treat you like an idiot for a moment--not because I think that you're an idiot, but because I have no idea what your level of knowledge is. If you already know some of this stuff, great:


Unless your inverter is under the hood, this is problem #1. You need to run 6-18 inches of cable for your ground, no more ( and no less). An excessively long (or short) ground cable will cause problems.


Go to radio shack and buy some ring connectors. To ground the computer, take a case screw out--preferably one that holds the the power supply in. Make a cable about a foot long with ring connectors on each end. You don't need to use REAL thick wire, but thicker than regular speaker wire. Put the case screw back in with the ring connector around it. Now find a bolt or screw in your car near your computer that goes into metal (this is VERY IMPORTANT) and take it out. If the area around the hole is painted, clean off the paint with sandpaper or just scrape it off with a screwdriver. Put the screw back in with the other end of the cable you made around it. Now you have a wire that goes from your computer case to a metal part of your car, ta da--it's grounded!

Ideally, all your devices will be grounded to the same point, including your inverter.



Once you ground everything properly you won't have to do that.

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RedGTiVR6

This is VERY important actually...can't believe it slipped my mind! Good call wizard!

Now here's a question for you, what do you do if you don't have a case for your mobo? What if your power supply is a DC-DC plug in power supply?

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z0rz

First of all, the "morses code" that your hearing is most likely your hard drive reading/writing. Now that can be either on your shuttle or your xbox, but from what I understand it seems to be your shuttle.

So to trouble shoot this let's start with the basics.

First take your invertor and computer to the hood, hook up the inventer's neg/pos terminals directly to the battery. Plug it all in and see if she whines. If not then it's most likely a bad ground or maybe a signal wire causing interference (bad ground on shielding). So to fix this, follow what these other guys said. Find a good ground and sand it down. Also if you wanna try wrapping your RCA cables with aluminum foil pretty think, and then ground the aluminum foil (again, find a good ground). I'd also wrap the aluminum foil with electrical tape and then maybe put some heat shirnk over it to make it look a little less ghetto.

That should hopefully fix the problem. Nothing new here. Just do what everyone else suggested and it should work.

Edit: If you get into xbox modding, you can possibly use an opus 150watt (or even less) on an xbox. You just have to reroute the the wires. There are diagrams all over the net (xbox-scene.com). I'll test it out sometime (maybe in a few years). my mp3car is far from started. I've just been gathering ideas.

-z0rz

RedGTiVR6

If the RCAs that they are using are even half way decent (read: not the walmart $7 RCAs) then this will be absolutely unnecessary. Cheap RCAs can make or break a system. If you think I'm kidding and you have a set of cheapo RCAs, go buy a set of good ones and plug em in and see if you notice a difference, if not just return them and say they didn't do what you wanted. But I doubt you will return them.

NEVER go cheap on RCAs...I cannot tell you how many people I have had come to us to trouble shoot their problems all to be traced back to the RCAs...

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mazda3uzr

thanks a lot for your help guys. but one question. if all teh grounds should go to once place, and my lcd and deck are on one end fo the car, and the inverter and xbox are on the other end, then how would i keep a ground that is only about 15 inches? any solutions? i was thinking of using 8 awg for the inverter and maybe 12 or 14 for the case and xbox. what do you think?

RedGTiVR6

that rule of thumb is for where it's possible. You might just have to have two grounding points. As for size, use the same size if not larger than what your power wires are. ALWAYS.

=]

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mazda3uzr

can someone give me a link to radio shack or somethin where i can see decent cables that i should be using. i am lokin at monster cables now but they range from like 20 bux to 300 bux so which ones should i use?

mazda3uzr

could one of the problems be in the adaptor i am using from the pc with the rca cables? because the shuttle obviously has a 3.5mm jack and i used a converter type cable to switch that to 2 rca cables but it seems to only be a mono jack on the 3.5mm end.

RedGTiVR6

honnestly, as long as it's Monstercable, stinger, Daxx, something of that nature, you should be fine.

http://www.monstercable.com/caraudio...r.asp?pin=1561

those would be good for you and they are relatively cheap too.

If you can swing it:

http://www.monstercable.com/caraudio...ar.asp?pin=180

Or even these - but I haven't seen these for sale anywhere honnestly...

http://www.daxx-usa.com/audio_cables/r50.htm

(i'm using these: http://www.daxx-usa.com/audio_cables/r99.htm)

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RedGTiVR6

this is what I used the first time around when I was going from the mobo into an EQ to boost signal voltage:

http://www.monstercable.com/computer...r.asp?pin=1731

works like a champ and can be found at best buy for a decent price.

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