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10 January 2004
Opus? Pah!
Firstly I'd just like to say thanks for everybody
who e-mailed me about my Strifeputer web-server side
project. It's good to know that their is so much geek
talent out there, you go guys! :)
Fellow carputer addicts, we all know that one of the
holy grails of carputer design is getting the power
supply right. You can use invertors connected to normal
main voltage PSU, then on the other hand you've got
DC to DC convertors. As these normally aren't regulated,
it can lead to problems.
The only company around for the longest time to answer
this problem was Opus,
but their pricing is *ahem* elite...
 Now
there is no need to re-morgage your house to get the
power sub-system you've always wanted. pc mcgarry from
our very own forums found this
little beauty which when paired which an ITX
DC power board gives you the perfect carputer power
solution!
Here's a quick run through of what this board will do
for you (grabbed from here)
1) Ignition=OFF. Nothing happens.
2) Ignition=ON. ITPS waits for
3-4 seconds then turns on the main 12V rail. This provides
enough time for battery levels to reach a stable output.
After another 1 second the MCU sends an "ON" signal
to the motherboard via the 2 wires connected to the
motherboard's ON/OFF pins. The motherboard will turn
ON and your system should start booting.
3) Ignition=ON during driving:
Nothing happens. Your computer will remain ON.
4) Ignition=OFF. IPTS waits for
about 5 seconds and then it turns the motherboard OFF
by sending a signal to the motherboard's ON/OFF switch.
Your computer should turn off gracefully (shutdown procedure).
During this time, power will still be available for
your PC to perform shutdown.
5) Ignition=OFF after 5 seconds.
Power will still be provided for another 45 seconds,
long enough for most soft shutdown processes. In the
event where the shutdown process is hanging, power will
be shut down hard, turning off your computer's main
power source to prevent battery drain.
6) ITPS will go to step 1, until
ignition is tuned ON again.
So it seems that my dream of fully integrating the
carputer into normal car operations if here! By wiring
up this power control system with my voice command software,
whenever I'm driving my car the carputer will be running
and able to be access via voice control.
I've already ordered my unit (which cost more in shipping
than the price of the unit!) so they'll be pictures
and happy times coming to this page shortly....
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