Car Pc

[<ACIDBURN>]

How can you put a pc in a car??? where would you get the power from ???i have been thinking about it for a couple of weeks but i can't figure out were to get the power from any ideas ???

[BLOB]

o.o... maybe you cant put one in a car?

[<ACIDBURN>]

I've seen some pics of some but they dont have any discriptions

[FunkDaMonkMan]

http://www.opussolutions.com/

that company sells power supplies that do exactally this.

a nice screen would be.. http://www.directron.com/700ts.html

[Biznatch]

You can get an AC Inverter from fry's. Just be sure to look at how many amp's your PS uses and get one that can handle it. They plug into the Cig lighter socket and have an AC outlet on it. I have run a laptop off one for like 2 weeks straight.

[McWarren]

You can actually get power supplies that break the a car battery's 12v DC into the numerous voltages required to run a PC. Using an inverter is fine, but it's sort of pointless, because you're going from 12v DC up to 110v AC and back down to 12/5/3.3v DC again.

[twump]

this topic has been discussed in detail at least 5 times. a short use of the search function will answer all your questions.


do NOT use a power invertor unless you don't want your parts for long. goto the website above and pickup a DC-DC power supply that is meant for being used in a car.

[FunkDaMonkMan]

Yes, using a power inverter can cause damage to a car's electrical system.

[EgeWorks]

Go here (http://www.mp3car.com/) . It is one of the best resources on the web for car computers.

[n17ikh]

Originally posted by twump
this topic has been discussed in detail at least 5 times. a short use of the search function will answer all your questions.


do NOT use a power invertor unless you don't want your parts for long. goto the website above and pickup a DC-DC power supply that is meant for being used in a car.

Please elaborate on how an inverter can damage your vehicle's electrical system or a power supply. The only thing I can think of is either using a cheapie K-Mart inverter or an improperly connected one. A good, properly connected inverter will work just fine. However, a DC-DC power supply really is best for your computer because of efficiency issues. Only the best DC-DC power supplies, however, will work as they have to accept an input range of anywhere from 9 volts to 16 volts with very good power smoothing circuitry. Also, most any size will work, as most computers never use anywhere near the maximum rating of a power supply. The formula for finding wattage is V*A=W or volts*amps=wattage. A good multimeter can measure power consumption easily enough. According to my measurements, my full-tower computer with a power-hungry P4, 2 7500RPM hard drives, 2 fast optical drives, dual video cards, several PCI cards and many USB accesories only uses 1.2 amps, or about 144 watts. The 19" CRT monitor uses 1.5 amps or about 180 watts. Most car computers will have an LCD monitor and nowhere near these specs as they are not necessary for a car computer. Power consumption, therefore, isn't really an issue to worry about much, even with an inverter. A full fledged computer isn't even likely to use 30 amps @12 volts, about the same as your heater fan, with an inverter, and 20 amps @ 12 volts with a DC-DC PSU. Most cars have at least 40 amps to spare all the time.


Edit: this (http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NavView?tmplhome=StoreCatalogDisplay&Ntt=48UJ4868P&Ntk=AllTextSearchGroup&Nty=1&Ntx=mode+matchallany&Dn=100010101+111&D=48UJ4868P&Dx=mode+matchall&ss=10101&section=body&firstSearch=1&tmplframe=EndecaCategoryView&catalogId=10101&storeId=10101&langId=-1&URL=EndecaControllerView) and this (http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NavView?tmplhome=StoreCatalogDisplay&Ntt=48UJ4869Y&Ntk=AllTextSearchGroup&Nty=1&Ntx=mode+matchallany&Dn=100010101+111&D=48UJ4869Y&Dx=mode+matchall&ss=10101&section=body&firstSearch=1&tmplframe=EndecaCategoryView&catalogId=10101&storeId=10101&langId=-1&URL=EndecaControllerView) are good LCD monitors for a carputer. (in-dash, hide-away) Also, that above link to Opus Solutions is a very good one, they make nice car cases and PSUs.

[twump]

i think you misunderstood, i didn't mean it would damage anything on the car. i was talking about frying the computer