Opinions needed RE: High Powered AC devices in car

michael.benn, Sep 14, 9:58am
Hey there guys :)

I had this mad hatter idea the other day, when I was bored, and I decided I'm gonna make a go of it.

So basically what I've planned out, I want to run a media PC rig, INSIDE my car, along with an LCD monitor. I realize I'm going to need an inverter, but my main question is; what would be my best plan of action for executing this idea.

So I have :

-Custom rig that I made, designed just for media, nothing fancy
-LCD monitor , 17"

I need:

- An inverter, not sure how many watts
- Help with choosing an inverter :)

What sort of wattage am I looking at here, and is it worth it! Also, how fast will it drain the battery (we're talking through a 12v cigarette lighter socket, which I thought could only draw 100w, which I don't think would be enough for a PC and a screen) !

Chuck us your experiences with running AC devices in cars, just to give us a general idea. Realize some of this post seems a bit broken, don't worry, I'm just tired :)

Cheers
thejazzpianoma, Sep 14, 10:04am
This is not an uncommon thing to do at all. However you normally build them with an ITX Motherboard and run a standard 12V power supply. There are even car cases that look like amplifiers for the job.
Don't be discouraged because its been done before, do however use the multitude of proper bits that comes with popularity to do the job well and inexpensively.
Oh and power draw is very low with an ITX board and suitable processor. Likewise LED monitors can draw very little and again there are plenty that are designed for the job or at least are 12v natively anyway.
ralphdog1, Sep 14, 10:16am
What JPM says, otherwise you are taking 12V, converting it to 230, jamming it into a PC which promptly converts back to DC.nope, nope nope.
michael.benn, Sep 14, 10:21am
>>Shows how little I know about electricity.

Of course, PC PSU's convert it back to DC. I do know that much. lol. I just wasn't thinking. So you can run an itx straight from the 12v cigarette lighter socket! Would be handy. You learn something new every day!
lugee, Sep 14, 10:51am
You still need a power supply, just not a standard one. It will take 12v from the car, drop it down into the rails it needs (3.3v, 5v and 12v) and regulate it as well (as vehicle "12v" can be as high as 14v, not good for computers)
thejazzpianoma, Sep 14, 10:54am
Not quite. you use a 12V ATX supply adapter which splits it down to the couple of voltages the board needs along with appropriate connectors etc.You could plug the same 12V adaptor into any motherboard but it wouldn't supply enough wattage for regular sized boards and CPU's. No doubt someone makes one thats higher wattage but thats not the point anyway.

Don't worry there was a time when I had a steep learning curve too with ITX gear when it first came out. Do some reading on the net on car PC's there are just so many handy things you can get from solid state drives to great linux based media systems etc.

Have fun!
thejazzpianoma, Sep 14, 10:55am
Snap, better said than I too!
Although before someone says we are both wrong, there are some boards now with the regulator etc built in, that do indeed just take a 11v-15v 2 wire feed. But for the most part its how we described.
r15, Sep 14, 1:15pm
easier these days to just mount a tablet. likely cheaper if you had to buy the parts for the other method
fordcrzy, Sep 14, 7:35pm
you need to do some reading first.try the "in car pc" forums and mp3 car sites and look at the PROPER PC power supplies for PC in cars they are proper DC power supplies and dont use 230v at all. even better is that they start up and shut down the PC when the ignition goes on and off.
whats your PC setup! what motherboard etc are you using!

heres a few google items you should be looking at:
Lilliput touch screen
minibox dot com
mp3car
indashpc.

it will give you ideas on how to do it properly including proper car software like centrafuse and roadrunner.
Using an inverter is crazy.
fordcrzy, Sep 14, 7:39pm
oh by the way you can get a proper "M4ATX" power supply for about a hundred dollars which is going to be similar if not better than an inverter in terms of cost.

if it were me id be building a new mini ITX based system running an intel i3 and a 7" lilliput touchscreen and a centrafuse software, and one of those m1,m2,m3,m4atx power supplies depending on load
fordcrzy, Sep 16, 7:41am
oh and if its just for media playing only then you should seriously consider a western digital media player.thats what i have in our car hokked up to a 320 gig hard drive. we have about 120gigs of music and the music videos on top of that.

the best thing is that the WD media player runs off 12 volts. win win
michael.benn, Oct 30, 6:44am
I think I'm gonna go with a 12v LCD screen attached to a netbook that can sit in my glovebox - so much easier.

:)

Cheers for the help though guys anyway.