Computer Sound

BartTN · 05-19-2005, 08:29 AM

Hello all, I have been a lurker for some time now. I am about to install my carpc (e-pc) in my 2001 alero. I PM aleromaster (because he has a carpc) but I know he is busy sometimes. So I thought I would ask this incase anyone else was thinking of it.

I am wandering if anyone that has a carpc can tell me:

Can I hook it up to the stock system with out a HU and will it work (will the monsoon be enough to push it)?

If not, can some tell me step-by-step a better route is?

PLEASE PLEASE I am almost there and now I thought I had it all figured out but then I saw the monsoon. ANY help would be great. Thank ya'll very much.

niral622 · 05-19-2005, 11:21 AM

I use my computer in my house with some car amplifiers and it works fine. I'm not sure what's different about the monsoon, but as long as it has pre-amp inputs, you can get 1/8" to two RCA converters to go from your computer to the amp and it'll work fine. In fact, if you have a four channel amp, you can have surround sound

I can never get the picture's on RS's site to work, but here is a link of what I am talking about:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?cata...%5Fid=274%2D883

Hope it helps...

05-19-2005, 01:54 PM

[quote=niral622,May 19 2005, 07:21 AM]
I use my computer in my house with some car amplifiers and it works fine.

where do you get the high amperage 12 volt power from?

BartTN · 05-19-2005, 07:14 PM

Thanks niral622. I will have to play around with the monsoon and see what I can do. Thanks

niral622 · 05-21-2005, 12:29 AM

I use some OLD AT computer power supplies that I had lying around the house (god knows why they were, but they came to good use

)...either that or you can buy bench power supplies that give around 20A at 13.8V

The PSU's I have are 8A and 6A, which is plenty of power for me

opc1:

mikegett · 05-22-2005, 10:44 PM

The monsoon is looking for a high level or speaker wire input. You don't want to run the low level rca out put into it. I believe you need a inverter for the signal. I tend to get them confused. The Line out converter turns high level speaker wire to low level rca. The line out converter turns a low level rca to high level speaker wire. You will then need to find a 12 volt switching source to turn on the monsoon amp. Anything that gets 12 volts after turning on the car will work. Your climate control will probably be the easiest. Just be sure to get a good power inverter for the computer. The cheaper ones don't allow for voltage fluxuation. You will find the computer having erratic errors and could damage some parts like the cpu. A bad or insufficient power supply is one of the most common causes for parts failures.
Niral622, I still have to say that your computer power supply is not a wise choice. Even when rated for high amps, they are not meant for continuously high draws. Hopefully, the power supply would be the first to go and not the extremely small wires (HINT) or you will be looking at a fire. Find a electronic store that sells old bench models. I have seen tons on ebay.

niral622 · 05-23-2005, 01:05 PM

yeah fire=no good haha....i'll try to find some benchtop models...but the thing is, i never draw more than an amp maybe two from the power supplies so i'm not stressing them...and when i use them, its only for maybe an hour (hard drives draw about 1.5 amps on the 12v line of a computer power supply and people leave their computers running for days at a time with no break, and that's only the hard drive, CD-roms and other stuff draw about that amount also)....but its definately good to be safe

BartTN · 05-27-2005, 12:35 PM

Thank you both very much!! I will take a look around and see. Thanks again for the replys!!

Bart