anybody know if there is a circuit in our car that is powered with our key in ANY position, even cranking?

what i wanna do is power my AV Electronic/PS2 from something like this, so if i stop for gas i can shut off the engine and then restart it and keep the movie playing the whole time as long as i leave the key in

otherwise i guess i could wire it directly off the battery and hook up a switch to turn it on and off, but that will be more of a PITA.

 

Your probably not going to find any power supply that stay around12 volts during cranking. This is because it takes a huge amount of current to turn your engine and it will suck power away from all your other devices to operate your starter. Even if you could find a power line that was regulated to stay at 12 volts during cranking it probably would not be wise to try and run additional devices off of it as it may take that power away from the device that the power line was originally connected to.

Also, if you are just using a regular inverter for your PS/2, hooking it up directly to the battery may not help, as the starter will be pulling directly from the battery and lower the voltage that can be used by your inverter, even directly from the battery. I've never tried this and our battery might be good enough to handle the current draw and keep the voltage up enough for your inverter. What you really need is to find an inverter that can work at lower voltages, like as low as 7v, for a short period of time or build a voltage regulator that will maintain the voltage for you.

 

What you need is a tank circuit. This circuit is seperated from the car battery by a diode so that no power is pulled from this tank circuit when the starter is turning. The diode also allows the "tank"--usually a battery but some people spend gobs of cash on gigantic capacitors--to charge via the alternator.



-JustICE

 

Well, here's a new little wrinkle in my PS2 saga.....

The 200watt inverter i was using was loud as a ****, so i replaced it with a little one from RadioShack that is good for 140w. i turn on the PS2, it runs for about 5-20 seconds, then shuts down, at the same time the LED on the inverter blinks for a second.

is the PS2 really pulling too much power for the inverter? i have the inverter hardwired to the driver's side cig lighter. on the inverter package, it says a typical video game console is only about 10watts. What gives?

so, i put back the 200watt ****. now, after a few seconds with the PS2 power on, this inverter beeps at me a little, then settles down and doesn't act up again. very strange.

 

This link says the PS/2 takes ~80W. That is probably not a peak value either. And this link shows the specs for that radio shack inverter. I dont know where you live or what the temperature was but if you look at the bottom it shows the max load for given temperature. High temps can go down to 90W. Plus, who knows how accurate the 140W is to begin with.=)

-JustICE

 

The PS2 draws 79 watts, You're 140watt inverter should work, but typically you want to aim for running your inverter at 50% of its rating. Adding that large of a load to your battery while cranking may not be a problem now, but as your starter starts to age it might become an issue.



Kevin
www.KPtechnologies.net
AIM: KPiersonTec
04 DG Coupe / VDC Memory
OEM Remote Window up mod
Procharged / Crawford / TS

 

so maybe it's too much of a draw for the cheap 140w inverter and maybe the 200w inverter is just barely enough, cuz like i said it kinda beeps when you first start up the PS2.

if i have to get one larger than the 200watt i am going to have to mount it in the trunk or something b/c the noise of the cooling fan is very annoying to me during the quiet parts of the movie. i would say it produces about as much noise as the A/C on fan setting 3 or 4.

 

there is a ignition wire that will stay on through cranking but will not stay on if you turn off the key. you could leave it in accessory position and it would not turn off. i would recommend wiring the invertor to a stronger source than the power outlet. something like the ignition switch or better directly to the battery through a relay.
JT


JT Audio & Accessories
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