Does anyone know an EE, or know where I can find (at a reasonable price, or the plans to make) a 12v DC to 12v DC transformer? I want to electrically isolate my iPod from the rest of the car.
Oh, and no, the problem still isn’t solved. :(
So, yes. I finally got my iPod problem solved. It was, in fact, the Radio Shack noise filter. It seems that their idea of a noise filter just isn’t an isolating transformer, it also has a cap in it, which manages to keep a bit of juice going through the Key/Acc line. I noticed this manifesting itself in the radio, which would continue to play for .5 seconds after I’ve flipped the car off. I never remembered it happening, anyway…
But, I removed this filter and the problem is gone. Everything’s working great, just a little alternator whine at loud volumes when no music is playing. Perhaps I’ll investigate a better quality filter in the future. For now, I’m glad it’s done.
Anyway, there’s some pictures of my iPod hooked into the car at http://www.dingleberrypie.com/gallery/ipod_incar.
I just need to wait for the eBay person to ship my Belkin TuneDok, then I’ll have a proper holder that will allow viewing while driving…
Ahh, iPod problem solved. It *was* the noise filter on the power line. Unfortunately, I’ve got a little more noise now, but it’s an acceptable amount until I can come up with a better solution.
I *think* I may have found the source of the iPod troubles that I was having. It seems that when I have the power filter connected in with the Key/Acc line, it almost holds a charge of sorts, keeping Key/Acc high for a little while (maybe 1/2 second when the radio is on) after I flip the key to off. I’m thinking this bit of extra charge there is possibly keeping the iPod from properly thinking the power has been removed.
I tested this by:
1) Leaving the radio on and quickly switching the ignition from accessory to off. Radio stayed in for .5 sec extra.
2) Cut the line running to the filter (and thusly the iPod adapter).
3) Repeat step one, observe that radio does not stay on for .5 sec extra.
After dinner (and some King of the Hill) I’m going to throw some laundry in, then reconnect the iPod adapter, sans filter, and see if the problem still exists and if there is any additional noise. If no noise and problem is gone, I’ll be a happy Steve. If the noise is still there, it’s time to investigate 0:0 transformers for coupling purposes. I’m not sure how to set this up… I’m not sure why the Radio Shack filter seems to hold a charge. Maybe there’s a cap in there to prevent voltage drop? Not sure…
Okay, so tonight I managed to smoke my GPS. The cable is made per the published pinouts as well as those found online in various places. I hook the GPS up to the car for power, it lights up, and slowly gets warm. Peering inside, one of the ICs now has a smallish hole in it. Suck. The power was obviously hooked up correctly, as it lit up. The voltage specified for it is 10v to 35v (or something like that) so that’s right. I guess it’s time to buy a new GPS. There’s another $70 down the hole. Suck. I did manage to find a 6.4GB hard drive for my grandparents computer. That means I can take the 120GB that I got from Best Buy back and save a bit of money.
This is just getting frustrating. I do things right and they blow up in my face. Ah well.
Wow, it seems that one of the neat things I picked up this weekend is four pieces of original IBM magnetic core memory. This rules.
Reading through these lab notes, it seems that Mr. Jan [CENSORED] once read about a home-made mini-computer called the HAL-4096 and wanted to build one himself. Enclosed in these notes are letters passed back and forth between Mr. [CENSORED] and Mr. Hal Chamberlin. Thanks to Google, I’ve learned that the HAL-4096 was built by Mr. Chamberlin and a Mr. David Cox back in 1966. Mr. Chamberlin was also the first person to demonstrate music synthesis on a computer, the old classic recording of ‘Daisy, Daisy’ that I’m sure everyone remembers hearing at one point or another.
I’m just amazed… Read on for more…
Gee, the lot of uranium-doped marbles that I ordered are less radioactive than the calibration sample on the side of the geiger counter. This sucks.
Okay, so I did it. I put a hard drive in my PS2. And guess what? Nothing happened. The disk spun up and there would be occasional activity on the IDE bus, but nothing beyond that. I was hoping there’d at least be a new menu option or something that showed up. Oh well…
Just FYI in case anyone feels like playing with it, a Quantum 840MB disk fit in there perfectly. I would have tried something bigger, but that is all I had to play with. See the previous post for information on the Maxtor disk.