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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 404
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Consider a Schmitt trigger circuit instead of a timer for your auto circuit. Turn off a little above 12 volts and on just below your regulated voltage. A timer wouldn't make up for different loads or environmental conditions. I was looking at the relays used to turn audio amps on/off... One of those would probably work, although for the type of activity I have in mind (grid computing), I would need a safe shutdown. The simplest solution would probably be amplifier relay > inverter > UPS > computer, using a UPS that reports power status to the computer--shutting it down when inverter power is switched off. I would have to buy a new UPS, as the one I have under my desk has problems with its status reporting feature. This is one of those projects I've been thinking on for a while, and have never actually done anything about.
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,928 Likes: 34
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If you use a laptop it will usually have the ability to detect low battery and shut down.
If you use a desktop, just wire in a parallel power switch and power it down before you shut off the car ... if you can remember.
Unless you are actually doing something, most PCs will tolerate just being turned off. My wife's standard procedure for any computer glitch is pull the plug.
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 251
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Windows XP PRO office & laptop, win 2000 shop, redhat on IRLP node 3962
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 174
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Work: XP Pro
Home desktop 1 & 2: XP Pro
File server: Win98
Laptop 1: Win98 Lite
Laptop 2: Win95
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,213
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Working PCs only, I imagine? In that case:
Work PC: XP
Main PC: XP
Son's PC: XP
Daughter's PC: XP
Wife's Laptop: XP
Work Laptop: XP
My Laptop: XP
Son's Laptop: Win95
Cellphone: Win Mobile
Old Kids PC: XP
Wife's old Laptop: Win98
My old PC: Dos 6.2, thanks to my dad deleting the OS in his botched attempt to delete his files when he gave it back to me for the kids to use. To my chagrin, I discovered I only have win95 and win98 "update" disks, which means I'd have to install win 3.1, upgrade to 95 (both via floppy disk), which only then would let me upgrade that to 98. It's a Pentium 100MHz with 32mb RAM and was my first "real" PC in college, so has a lot of sentimental value. I installed DOS on it so I could troubleshoot, but even the 400MHz machine the were using was painful, so I just bought the kids new computers for christmas instead.
...Wow, looking back up at that list, I've got a lot of computers, lol
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,928 Likes: 34
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Steve I can send you a real W/95c disk that will cut out a step or two on that machine. (or I could send you a W98 copy or even just the .ISO you could burn yourself)
Any good set of numbers will work with any disk of that type.
Since you paid for a W/98 I do not see an ethical/moral question in getting back to what you paid for quickly.
I just had a disk crash on one of my W/98 machines so I am going to have to dig up the SP2 update myself. If I can still find it I could send that too.
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 812
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I'm mainly a Mac guy so hold your fire!
Main computer/laptop: Core 2 Duo Macbook w/ OS X 10.5.6
Backup laptop/backyard MP3: G4 iBook w/ OS X 10.3.9
Light Room MP3 player: G3 iMac w/ OS X 10.3.9
iTunes Server: G3 iMac w/ OS X 10.3.9
Powermac G3: OS X 10.3.9
Powermac 6100: OS 8.5
Whole family/downstairs computer: Emachines w/ Xubuntu and Vista Dualboot
Ian A.
Last edited by Theelectrikid; 05/22/09 06:11 PM.
Is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,213
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Thanks, Greg, but I'm not terribly concerned about it. I'd wanted to give each of the kids their own PC (set the 400MHz and 100MHz up for it), but I knew it was just a stop-gap until they got older and needed more power. I just hadn't realized how quickly that day would come, lol... those flash games on playhouse disney, nick jr and PBS kids websites take a lot more processing power to run than you might think! The 400MHz machine just couldn't cut it, and I knew it'd be futile with my old 100MHz. They've each got 1.8GHz computers now  I'm got XP slipstreamed on a disk with SP2 that I use on my machines, but didn't want to try to put XP on a PC that old.
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 404
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XP should be fine on the 400 MHz, as long as you've got enough (minimum 256 MB) RAM. We're still pushing a couple of Pentium II 350's w/384 MB of RAM, and they're fine for email, Word and basic browsing. Heck, we've got around 100 Pentium II 233's w/128-256 MB of RAM running Windows 2000... Get lots of complaints about them being slow, but you have to give the hardware credit for running reliably for 12 years.
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,928 Likes: 34
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The "kid games" are usually a lot more CPU intensive than real "computing".
If people could get over the need for a cartoon interface, I bet most businesses could be run on an XT class 4.88 mz machine with DOS. (inventory, payroll, billing etc)
I guess I am too old. I came up in a world where big corporations ran on 16k machines with 11.5 microsecond clocks and they still got all their bills out on time.
(on 1100 line a minute printers)
Greg Fretwell
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Posts: 4,116
Joined: October 2000
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