Xenarc straight into car´s 12v ?????

PORTUGAL · 04-18-2005, 04:47 AM

I have the xenarc indash screen and its suposed to accept 11-24v, so i conected straight to the car wiring, and it worked great, it was in fact brighter than when i tried regulated 12v (from opus )....

Who else has their xenarc conected dirctlt to the cars 12 v?
Can i damage my monitor in the long run using this method ?

Im asking this because my headunit also reads dvd´s and i wanted to turn on the monitor (for av use) without turning on the car pc....

Thanks in advance

MaleBuffy · 04-18-2005, 04:56 AM

Use a FUSE ASAP!!!! Its ok to have it directly on the 12V but as I said, you have to fuse it or you might experience a very bad moment!

BeaverWise · 04-18-2005, 05:00 AM

What size fuse would you recommend?

PORTUGAL · 04-18-2005, 05:54 AM

The indash monitor already had a fuse.

12v(unregu)-----fuse ------Monitor.

Does anyone had bad experiences conecting the monitor this way ?

Cris · 04-18-2005, 05:57 AM

I don't think it will be a problem since it was written on the monitor itself.
Any pics?

PORTUGAL · 04-18-2005, 06:03 AM

No pics yet, full install in the will be saturday.

Took a pic of the monitor conected to the psu, you can se the wires and the fuse

Crappy photo

MaleBuffy · 04-18-2005, 06:16 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by BeaverWise

What size fuse would you recommend?

1 A should work fine since the Monitor uses less juice!

Scouse Monkey · 04-18-2005, 06:17 AM

Portugal, your screen will be brighter because you are feeding 14V+ from the car alternator into the CCFL inverter. Now the specs say that this should be ok as it can take up to 24V but remember your cars supply is unregulated and may have all sorts of nasties in it - espectially when your start your car! Normally tour car stereo etc is cut when the car starts but if you connect direct from the battery you won't have this protection.

Running form a higher voltage should be ok but prlease do it from some sort of regulated supply as Xenarc controllers cost about $160! I have actually wondered about running a Xenarc off a laptop DC-DC at about 15V but as it runs the screen brighter I would assume the inverter is being fed directly and over powering your CCFLs will shorten their life.

As for fues, the Xenarc site rated the screen at 12-24V 1A so a 1.5A fuse should be sufficent but you may find you need something a bit higher. put a nice accessable fuse in and if it blows and there is nothing wrong try a slightly higher one.

PORTUGAL · 04-18-2005, 06:38 AM

Maybe i will conect it directly to my opus and save troubles in the future, the problem is that i wanted my screen to be powered and leave the pc off sometimes when i wanted to see movies with my dvd headunit.

Does anyone have xenarc connected for a long time to the car wiring without any problems ?

Gobby · 04-18-2005, 06:43 AM

Get hold of an ITPS or similar and power the TFT Directly from that. Thats how I am now powering my LinITX screen - works perfectly

PORTUGAL · 04-18-2005, 06:54 AM

I didnt remember itps ....

Thanks uk mp3car

Scouse Monkey · 04-18-2005, 07:06 AM

why not get a cheap 1-1.5A DC-DC converter used for portable DVD players etc and wire that up to you ACC line?

Gobby · 04-18-2005, 07:16 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by PORTUGAL

I didnt remember itps ....

Thanks uk mp3car

Also means your OPUS has more juice to power the CarPC for later additions :-)

nl4jy · 04-18-2005, 09:54 AM

well, I went to Radioshack, and bought a cig. adapter that has the same dc plug as my xenarc. and I know all cig. adapters have a fuse in it.

Scouse Monkey · 04-18-2005, 10:00 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by nl4jy

well, I went to Radioshack, and bought a cig. adapter that has the same dc plug as my xenarc. and I know all cig. adapters have a fuse in it.

Is it regulated??

Make sure the power is the right polarity. I seem to remember the xenarc is not the normal polarity.