zaway

Scafremon, just a side question, what resolution are you running your PC at and what driver did you pick for the LCD screen?

My waves on the screen is not a grounding problem. I regrounded and checked again and the waves only show up the second Windows boots up, I played with different refresh rates and it made it worse and better but didn't eliminate it.

zaway

Scafremon

Right now I am running 640 x 480. Color: Highest (32 bit).
Display: Default Monitor on VIA/S3G CLE266 Graphics Driver
6.13.10.0021-01.19.01

I'm trying to stay at this low resolution so that the desktop is larger, but most navigation software seems to want something larger. Having problems with portions of windows being off the desktop.

I'm also still having problems with my video display going blank while I drive. Seems to be a loose connection, either power, or VGA signal. Thought I had found the problem and fixed it, but no go. I'm hoping it is just some type of loose connection....by the way it goes black, then comes back on, it seems it would be. Hope to troubleshoot and fix this weekend.

alphared

Scafremon, have you tried increasing your dpi settings. It'll make the font's larger (icon will still be the same)
If it goes blank its the connector, I had the same problem when I took it out of the case and tested it. If it gets loose just slightly, it loses the signal and goes blank. Thats why I did what I did in the pic. I just used the cable to push the connector in.

zaway, sound like it is a grounding problem. Have you tried having the screen on and starting the car? The wave could be noise from your pc (assuming that it's grounded to the body as well) Could be feedback from the cpu or harddrive. Another quick check is to turn on the radio and see if you hear any static.

Scafremon

I haven't messed around with the settings much yet, but will - thanks for the reminder on dpi settings.

I ran my cable similiar to the way you, except I went straight down instead of around the top of the screen. I also pushed the cable in like you did so that pressure from the case would hold it in. Then, I tie-wrapped it. I don't think my loose connection is at back of screen. I actually think it is the other end of the cable, since when I jiggle that end, the picture will appear. I could be jiggling the screen end when I do this, but with all the tie-wraps I have around the cable between the dash and the computer area, I don't think so.

I really just need to spend some time troubleshooting it I guess.

Scafremon

Here is a pic of my screen installed (on an occassion when it was working...lol).

Question for others with Touch-screen:

Do you also have that small "Desktop/Drawing" in lower right corner? What does it do?

35ounces

iTrader: (5)

PC in car = for what ?

I like the ID of getting away from the PC when in my car!

zaway

Scafremon, thanks for the settings I'll have to try them out and some other ones and see.

Alphared, I have the LCD grounded to the body of the car. If you pull the front console out where the cabling for the 3 round gagues there is a big ground cable there screwed to the chassis, that is where I grounded the LCD to. For my PC I'm using a power inverter which is fed off of the cigarette lighter connection, I should probably ground it to the body instead of the ground cable of the cig lighter. I do not notice any noise while playing MP3s off the PC or while listening to radio/CDs(while computer is running). The wave seems to come from a refresh rate/resolution mismatch of some sort. When I play with different resolutions and refresh rates the wave changes that's why I think it's caused by those things. The wierd thing is that I never saw this when I had it running at home, that's why I thought initially it was grounding problem.
Just like Scafremon, I'll be doing some debugging this weekend

thanks for the help

zaway

alphared

Scafremon, that little icon on the bottom right of the screen is for the touchscreen button swap. Since its a touchscreen you can only perform one type of mouse down, so that little icon will toggle back and forth the right and left mouse button. If its the other end, might want to see if the connector isn't touching the car, or try another cable.

zaway, sounds like could be a number of things now. You could have a grounding loop (I've ground everything to one point, no noise) The inverter could be giving out noise too. Is your vga cable next to any power source? if you think its the refresh/resoultion try using the lowest settings, keep the refresh rate at the lowest (65hz) It's a LCD, no point in having a higher refresh rate than that.

Scafremon

Thanks on the icon answer. Seems so obvious now. Doh!

The connector may in fact be touching my custom shelf mount thingy I made out of aluminum. Hope that is it - that would be easy to resolve.

aggie300zx

zaway,

It is most likely the Power Inverter for the PC that is causing the waves on the screen. This is exactly what I have happening to mine right now. A quick way to test that theory is to plug the PC into an outside power source, such as an extension chord from your garage or inside your house. As soon as my damn Opus power supply gets here, I hope to be through with using the inverter.

good luck!

zaway

I'll have to try connecting the PC to an extension cord and see, that's a good point tho.

zaway

rodion

Can someone, please, tell me, when you install Xenarc and run the VGA cable through the console to the glovebox area, what's the farthest point the connector will reach? Maybe, someone has a picture that will give me an idea of how long that free end of the cable is?
Thanks!

alphared

Thats pretty hard to say, depending how you run your cable. If you did it the way I did (as shown) you going to lose maybe a foot or so. Just buy an extention VGA cable. That way you can run it anywhere you want.

Scafremon

I bought a VGA extension cable, and also a serial extension cable for the touch-screen. I did not need to use either of them.

I ran my cables through the console, and ended up with only about 6-8" of cable left in the compartment behind the drivers seat. I had to rotate my computer so that the front of the PC is actually pointing to the rear of the car. Makes accessing the DVD drive very tough, but, I don't plan on using that drive, except to possibly hold a navigation CD/DVD. I have another drive mounted in a mailslot which I use to load software, movies, etc.

I'll look and see if I have a pic.

Scafremon

The pic below shows how mu computer is installed. Although this pic shows an external VGA cable hooked up to my computer (I was trouble shooting a video problem at the time), you can just barely see the end of the video cable from the xenarc underneath the bundle of power cables.

That is how much of the cable I was able to get poked into the compartment.

rodion

Thanks for the replies!
Looks like I'll need an extension cord, and that's bad news. I've used one of those in the past, and it caused ghosting.
I hope it doesn't happen this time.

Scafremon

Like I posted above, it's possible to do without an extension, depending on how you want the compartment arranged. I was glad that I didn't have to use extensions.

alphared

yeah, depending hold your setup is you may or may not need the extension. If you going to have your pc in the glove area, might not need one. I have mine in the mail slot storage bin, behind the passenger seat, thats why I needed one. If you get a decent cable (mine was $10, triple shield) should not have any problems with ghosting or noise (never really heard of a cable causing ghosting before, thats more of an LCD problem then cable) Didn't get the extra serial cable either, got a serial 2 usb connector for the touchscreen and just connected it to my hub.

BlueDragonZ

iTrader: (11)

Hey guys I know this is a very old thread but it seems like you guys are the expert on the subject. I have the new Xenarc 700TSV (touchscreen) that I'm installing along with an XM and PS2. I know how I can power up the screen but how do hook it up to the PS2? the wires are set up to only hook up to PC and I'm not at that stage yet. Thanks.