PS2 - LCD SCREEN

[ajsmith 0]

Hi guys,

Over the long weekend I installed an 8in LCD screen, TV box and a Playstation 2 slimline into the e36. After alot of swearing I finally finished everything off on Monday afternoon.

Only problem I have is that the audio from the PS2 (red and white RCA's) that plug into the AUX input on my Panasonic head unit. There is alot of "static" or "interference". The sound plays alright and when its loud enough you cant hear the the static but its pretty crapy when the sound is on low or theres a pause in the sound from the dvd or game.

Does anyone have any experience with this or anything similar and any ideas on a fix?

A couple ideas I've had so far is perhaps there is a poor earth for the headunit or PS2 (doubt this is it). Or perhaps the impedance from the PS2 and the headunit are to far apart. My iPod work sweets but I can't find the impedance for the PS2 slimline to compare the two to confirm if this is a possbile problem.

Any thoughts?

Cheers guys.

[ED1RTY 2]

Pics?? What Panasonic Headunit do you have? Ive had no problems with Ps2 or Xbox on mine ive got the Panasonic Car DVD CQVD7003W is your PS2 what you are playing your DVD's etc from? maybe you might need to install a 'noise filter' on the power feed running to your headunit, PS2 and if your screen has audio chuck one on that to...

[ajsmith 0]

I'll get some pictures up soon when I manage to find my digi camera.

Headunit (from memory) is C7303-N it has a small (aprox 2 in) scrreen on the headunit but it is unable to play video on the headunit.

I purchased an 8in Reaper LCD TFT screen which came with a Reaper TV box (with external attena, gets tv recepetion, pretty cool).

Yeah the PS2 is what is playing my dvds/games etc. The PS2 itself worked fine when hooked up to house TV.

Can you eleborate on the "noise filter" as I think thats the sort of thing that will fix the problem as the headunit did the same thing with a cheaply branded MP3 player I had before the iPod (hence the reason I swapped it for iPod).

Thanks for your help dude

(edit) P.S The screen doesn't produce sound. The tv box has its own speaker and obviously thats working fine.

Edited October 24, 2006 by blak_bmer

[ED1RTY 2]

Noise filters can be purchased from dick smith and jaycar etc. most car audio shops will have them to. Im keen on a TV tuner for mine but I cant seem to fid any one that sells the panasonic ones in NZ!! GRR basically the noise filter just goes on your power cable like an inline fuse and it just takes away any feedback you may get from other devices.

[cainchapman 0]

Cars are notoriously noisy (electrically).

My first suggestion would be to run it from another Power supply (not connected to the car) and see if the noise goes away.

If it does, then your DC is the issue, and I would buy a decent DC/DC converter (Nemic Lambda) from Powerbox.

If not, then you are getting noise induced into the cables from the car elsewhere. You could fit some clip on Toroids, or run a shielded cable.

I am assuming that it was working perfectly before you installed it and that this is a fitment fault and not a factory problem.

[ajsmith 0]

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

Just read this post this morning. I had the same idea last night and hooked the ps2 up to mains from the house and guess what, it works sweet! So from that im assuming atleast for now its the power supply (earth/12V). I tried hooking the earth straight to the battery but this didnt make any difference.

I dropped the standard and aftermarket power supplies for the PS2 off to my old man who is going to open them up and compare.

I'm also off to Jaycar this arvo to pick up a 300W inverter and going to hook that up to see if it works better with a cleaner power.

Cheers guys (will let you know when its fix for FYI)

[far4ngn 14]

Sorry guys, just reading this with interest...but where do I buy a converter to switch from 12v DC to supply the 240v AC for a PS2 or Xbox?

[ED1RTY 2]

Sorry guys, just reading this with interest...but where do I buy a converter to switch from 12v DC to supply the 240v AC for a PS2 or Xbox?

Just a tip read the whole topic before asking questions. Jaycar, DSE, Powerbox, most auto electricians (althougth they will try and scam the install at $50 an hour)

[MADBMA 0]

Sorry guys, just reading this with interest...but where do I buy a converter to switch from 12v DC to supply the 240v AC for a PS2 or Xbox?

Trademe or any place like dicksmiths or jaycar, fusion do a good little small one thats big enough to power playstations and what not.

[ajsmith 0]

Or if you know what you are doing you can make your own dodgy converter to swich the 12V from the car to the 8.5V that the PS2 slim line needs (note that PS2 slim line is the only one that runs of 8.5, most others run off 230V). However if u do the dodgies then you will prolly end up with the same problem I have. Oh and you will need (I estimate) atleast a 300W inverter.

Just finished speaking with one of my dads work mates ( who has a masters in electrical engineering) and he said 9/10 it will be an earthing issue and it sounds like I have an earth loop. One expensive way of isolating the earth is to get the invertor but he has explained to my dad how to isolate the earth with a few cheap things for DSE so were going to try that tonight.

Edited October 24, 2006 by blak_bmer

[far4ngn 14]

Thanks... my luck I suppose as I have one of the larger PS2's

[ajsmith 0]

The fact that its a standard PS2 and runs off 230V AC doesnt really make any difference. I'm only using the slim line as I didnt have a console prior to this so I had an option of buying what ever console I wanted. I opted for the slim line as its tiny and suited where I wanted to mount it.

Just to point you in the right direction, heres a couple of trademe links for things that will do the job.

Basically you can either plug the cigerete lighter apartor that comes with it in or chop the adaptor off and hard wire the 12V and earth to something so its hidden and you connect the other end of the inverter to your console.

Couple of things to check on, you want the inverter to be atleast 300W (IMO) and you want to see the words 'modified sine waves'. Things like low voltage alarms and cutouts are extra bonuses.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=74638578

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=75127313

Keep in mind you get what you pay for.

Good luck if you decide to go ahead.

[cainchapman 0]

www.powerbox.co.nz

www.powerware.co.nz

Powerbox would best the most cost effective decent power supply for your application.

If you are running something Electronic, I would stump up for a Sinewave device (or at least as close to it). Modified sinewave is a rough arse solution and I would only use it for an Electrical load.

If you are unsure, ask them what the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) will be.

[ajsmith 0]

Ahh still not fixed.

Last night the plan was to cut the earth loop. The idea we had was to take the audio RCAs from the PS2 that connect to the headunit and mod them so that at the end that connects to the headunit the earth was not connecting. Didn't make any difference

Still confident there is an earth loop and that it what is affecting the quailty. Simplest way to solve it is to get an inverter but the whole exercise has already cost me over $500. The old man recons he can make some kind of dodgy transformer for cheap that will also isolate the earth so were going to try that. Failing that then I'll cough up for the inverter.

Cheers for all the help guys.

[bravo 34]

Try this

[ajsmith 0]

All sorted. Picked up a 300W inverter from DSE for $68 (very cheap deal and has most standard features). Modified sinewave and seems to be working sweet. Still a bit of AC interference comming off the alternator so I might see if I can run a filter over the +/- on the alternator to supress it.

Cheers for all the help guys.

Will post pics once all mounting is completed and I have redone the head lining (I ripped the head linning down during the installl as it was shagged anyway, going to try and re do it myself, figure im no worse off than I am now).