In Car PC System
Discussion
Hi Chaps,
With eyes tightly shut and fingers in ears I turned the power on tonight... No fizzes, bangs or smoke! God I'm good!! :-)
Slight problem with the in car PC system though. The amp picking up a lot of interference from it. I have tripple screened speaker cables, but lots of background noise still. I know a few people have run PC systems in their cars. Has anyone else had problems? As soon as PC is off then radio is fine. Perhaps I need an RF filter to the PC power supply. Head unit has one but not PC. Odd question, but any advice is welcome!
Cheers,
Mart
With eyes tightly shut and fingers in ears I turned the power on tonight... No fizzes, bangs or smoke! God I'm good!! :-)
Slight problem with the in car PC system though. The amp picking up a lot of interference from it. I have tripple screened speaker cables, but lots of background noise still. I know a few people have run PC systems in their cars. Has anyone else had problems? As soon as PC is off then radio is fine. Perhaps I need an RF filter to the PC power supply. Head unit has one but not PC. Odd question, but any advice is welcome!
Cheers,
Mart
- are you usinge toridal rings on the power cables.
- have you earthed all chasis componets of the computer, amp, and power supplies.
- could also install some filtering cappacitors into the power supply lines as well.
on a seperate note, does you pc switch of on removal of the key or just go into sleep mode. i have seen this done with a voltage sensing circuit to then shut the computer down when the power gets low.
what software are you running.
- have you earthed all chasis componets of the computer, amp, and power supplies.
- could also install some filtering cappacitors into the power supply lines as well.
on a seperate note, does you pc switch of on removal of the key or just go into sleep mode. i have seen this done with a voltage sensing circuit to then shut the computer down when the power gets low.
what software are you running.
ezakimak said:
- are you usinge toridal rings on the power cables.
- have you earthed all chasis componets of the computer, amp, and power supplies.
- could also install some filtering cappacitors into the power supply lines as well.
on a seperate note, does you pc switch of on removal of the key or just go into sleep mode. i have seen this done with a voltage sensing circuit to then shut the computer down when the power gets low.
what software are you running.
Hi ezakimak,- have you earthed all chasis componets of the computer, amp, and power supplies.
- could also install some filtering cappacitors into the power supply lines as well.
on a seperate note, does you pc switch of on removal of the key or just go into sleep mode. i have seen this done with a voltage sensing circuit to then shut the computer down when the power gets low.
what software are you running.
Not sure what you mean by toridal rings on power cables....? I have no past experience with in car audio... I have just ordered a couple of rca suppressors off ebay to put in line on the inputs to the amp. These cables run behind the PC, so could be the problem area.
All components are properly earthed, but haven't checked them with a meter yet.
PC goes into sleep mode when head unit is switched off. This is in turn switched by the ignition. The PC power supply is a self monitoring unit which will switch the PC off if battery voltage drops too far.. This is to protect the car battery if left on standby.
How have you controlled the switching of your amp? was thinking of doing it from the ignition as at the moment, it is only on when the PC enable is on from the head unit, which means I can't listen to my radio without the PC on...
Starting to think an ipod and headphones would had been easier! (but less fun) :-)
Just running XP at the moment with some software that came with the PC. It's not bad, but I'm looking for something a bit more flexible to allow me to display the MOTEC data etc. What are you using?
Cheers,
Mart
Steve_D said:
Whilst you say triple screened are they earthed?
Steve
Hi Steve,Steve
They are 'triple screened' RCA, so I guess there are 2 screens per cable with an overall screen.
To be honest, as an aircraft engineer, most of the audio stuff you see with gold plate and 'triple screens' is meaningless. The aircraft cable I used for the amp power is 1/3 the dia of the stuff in Halfords and rated to over 300A.
With the RCA cable, I could cut down to the overall screen and then bond to chassis earth.. Is this what you were thinking?
Mart
The screen will only work if it is earthed.
If the connector has a metal body then it will be easy to check as the screen should be connected to that body which in turn should earth to the connector mating half and thence to earth. Very important to get everything down to a good solid earth, ideally the very same point.
Toroidal rings are a ferrite ring which you pass the power lead through the middle then round the outside to pass through the middle again in the same direction. Don't ask me how or why they work as I'm not an electrical person.
Steve
If the connector has a metal body then it will be easy to check as the screen should be connected to that body which in turn should earth to the connector mating half and thence to earth. Very important to get everything down to a good solid earth, ideally the very same point.
Toroidal rings are a ferrite ring which you pass the power lead through the middle then round the outside to pass through the middle again in the same direction. Don't ask me how or why they work as I'm not an electrical person.
Steve
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