doctorbeat

Hi everyone, this is my first post, but I have 'lurked' a good few times and learned a lot.

I have searched, but I couldn't find any info about my particular setup.

I have just bought a HDD enclosure that has a built in media player. I have an old psone lcd monitor that I intend to hook up to it so that I can play mp3's and videos in my car.

I decided not to go down the full blown pc route (although this was my original intention) because this media player does everything I want it to (ie music and videos) with the added bonus of being low power, small, and removable.

The idea is to mount the screen permanently in the car, and have the media player in a 'dock' of sorts so I can grab it and take it with me or lock it in the boot.
The screen conveniently comes ready to be powered from a lighter socket, so that's easily sorted, but the HDD enclosure is slightly more complicated.

It requires the same power supply as a normal hard drive, ie. 12v, 5v and ground.
I did think about a power inverter, but this seems rather a clumsy and inefficient way of going about it.
The unit only draws around 30w. Is there a DC-DC converter that would meet my needs?

I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty and I am reasonably proficient with a soldering iron, but I'm not to hot on the electrical systems of cars, and I'm a bit concerned about voltage spikes and so on, so I need my hand holding.

Has anyone else done this, and if so, how did you do it?

Bugbyte

If you only need 12 volts, then what you are looking for is a regulator. Carnetix makes a nice one, called the 1290. There is an older model that is only 60 watts called the 1260.

Look in the classifieds to find one.

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doctorbeat

Thanks, but I also need +5v. I'm thinking that if I used a 5v regulator, it would get pretty hot.
Another concern is that regulators usually need the same or higher voltage to work properly, so what happens when the voltage drops on starting the engine?

JimmyFitz

The M1-ATX (and its bigger brothers) would provide you both voltages regulated and startup/shutdown control with the ignition. You might find a better solution of two devices but if you get up to the $75 range to do them, this might be easier.
http://store.mp3car.com/M1_ATX_90_Wa..._p/pwr-008.htm

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doctorbeat

That's more like it, maybe it's slightly overkill but it would certainly do the job.

I'm thinking that if I'm going to be spending that kind of money, would an inverter possibly be a better option?

I'm new to all this, so please excuse my ignorance...
Exactly how inefficient is an inverter? Would it be a real waste?
The reason I ask is that I have this 17" LCD monitor lying around, and I'm beginning to think that if I have to go to all this trouble to supply power to my media player, I might as well go the whole hog and have a nice biig screen too!

From my existing electronics experience, an inverter seems to be an incredibly clumsy way to accomplish what I want to do, but the lure of a 17" screen is pretty big!

Would one of the cheapo inverters I've seen on ebay do what I want, or are they interference nightmares? Are they terribly inefficient?

The impression I have of inverters is that my fuel cost will go up astronomically, my car will catch fire, my alternator will die and I'll have noise all over my screen. If this isn't the case, I might just take the lazy way out....

Bugbyte

Rule of thumb is the cheaper the inverter, the more likely you are to have trouble with it. Mostly from noise. I don't think the fuel economy is much of an issue and you aren't using enough power to kill your alternator.

Since you need both 12 volt and 5 volt power, you either need to buy a DC power supply, which includes regulation, or go the inverter route. Either one will work for your needs.

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dMand

"The reason I ask is that I have this 17" LCD monitor lying around, and I'm beginning to think that if I have to go to all this trouble to supply power to my media player, I might as well go the whole hog and have a nice biig screen too!"


Doctorbeat, you are going to ruin that 17" screen if its plugged into a cheap modified sine wave inverter.

If you want a large pc flat panel screen in your car, look for units that have a power brick with 12Vdc input. Pawnshops would be a great place to start.

doctorbeat

Yeah you're right, there's no way one of those things is going to give me clean power.
I think the 17" was a bit of a brain burp anyway. Mounting it would also be very problematic.

Psone screen it is.
Luckily, the unit I'm using has a TV out, so the screen will just plug right in with no modifications. and it comes with a car adapter (which I'm assuming has a built in regulator) so no problems with power either.

Rob Withey

Not sure how dirty you are willing to get your hands, or exactly how proficient you are with a soldering iron, but here goes... My system takes only 12v and 5v, so I got my hands dirty designing and building my own power supply/shutdown controller/servo/digital output controller (over the motherboard in this image):

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/1038282-post7.html

The 5v is supplied with a PT6625, the 12v with a PT5071, the shutdown controller is with a 16F88, connected to the PC with a serial port for servo/backlight/digital output control.

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doctorbeat

That's interesting, I see from a datasheet that I found that they are a standalone component.
Does that mean that you can just connect them like this?

http://www.acegames.us/forum/motor-w...r-install.html

This guy's method seems to good to be true, but if it would work ok, it would be an ideal solution for me.
Anyone care to burst my bubble and tell me why it won't work/ isn't safe/ will ruin my HDD?

Edit:
I just reread that, and it seems that the guy is using 12v straight from the car battery!
Nothing to stop me using an additional 12v regulator though...