"What do you get when you put a Shuttle SSF PC, an LCD screen, a Nissan Serena and some creativity in the mixing pot? A Carputer! Wondering what Marauder's Carputer Project is all about? Check out this article now!" Please feel free to post your comments and views here!
Marauder,your power problem is caused by the length of cable from the battery to the inverter.the inverter should be as close to the battery as possible,preferably less than a metre.the supply from the inverter can be as long as you like(within reason).Good luck.your project looks fun!
How do you plan on getting the second battery recharged? I doubt even a Serena has a second alternator in it. By the way, i doubt you could actually call the serena a car. All that aside, woudn't it have been much cheaper just to get a second hand notebook and plug it into your car. Thats what i did, and it uses a whole lot less power then a desktop PC. Also bear in mind that your unlike notebook hard drives, desktop drives are not meant to bounce around when they are reading. You'll just end up destorying it. Just my two cents worth. Other then that great effort into it!!
well, before he did this, he had acutally plugin in the notebook of his with a DVD-ROM long long time ago eh marauder? the problem he had was placing the notebook... so that it can also be used for DVD movies.. not just MP3s...
..... hehehhe, now i understand...... me study too much of business subject, so everything for me must got objective, benifit > cost..... hahahha
watch movie? haha. hands-free accident listen song? got player already so why need that one? play game? hands-on accident. try managing your units while driving. haha. worse. play NFS on it. support to turn in the game, end up turning the car.
On the topic of power. The use of an inverter in this project is almost laughable. I mean converting 12 volts up to mains voltage, and then converting it back again in the process wasting large amounts of energy being given off as heat (notice the big heat sinks on the inverter). A much better approach would be to build a power supply that can output the required voltages needed in a PC ie 12, 5 and 3.3 volts. There are plenty of examples and schematics available and the cost of the components will definatly be a lot less than an inverter. As well as far more efficient.
Hey there everyone, Thanks for all the suggestions. To Sledgy:- Yes I do know it's a waste to do DC->AC->DC, and I do know there are lots of schemetics for Sproggies all around. One of my friends who's also trying to do a carputer DID manage to make his own sproggy, it was VERY tough to get the parts. In fact, most of the voltage transformer chips (if I remember what he said properly) are unobtainable here.
What if someone is interested in your car and steal it? All hardwork down the drain... *touch wood* *touch wood*
Just curious, but have you considered using the hi-power caps that most stereo nuts use for those high watt amps...... If you wire the capacitor in between the battery and the inverter it should act as a buffer and help prevent the drain and cut off that you are experiencing....
