Xbox In The Car - Interference

[Mr-Lex]

Some of you may know I am currently working on this...

Installed an X-Box in my Lexus, and am having interference problems, im getting three lines travelling down the screen and a hissing noise from the speakers. This is my set up:

Pioneer AVIC-X1 h/u with separate hideaway box

Durite 0-727-18 12 volt 180 amp relay

Nikkai 300w DC to AC power inverter. AC output 230/50hz

The power is supplied by a direct feed from the Battery which is fused and runs straight to the relay, which is switched on/off via the remote wire from the h/u. The power is then supplied to the inverter. Both the inverter and relay are earthed to the bodywork.

When I first saw the interference, I thought it was the earth, so I tried several different earth points and even earthing the Battery. No luck. I then tried earthing the hideaway box that the wires run into. This has helped a little, now scattered lines rather than the three lines. What seems to be the problem? I believe it’s the inverter at fault!?!? Some say earth the xbox :duh: Anyway I am currently waiting on for another "proper" inverter that specifically designed for X-Boxs'...I think something like this!?!?

Any other suggestions

Thanks in advance :)

[Brettster]

thats a very expensive psu!!

i heard somewhere that the Xbox sheild shold never be earthed as its a bad thing, maybe something to do with the isolated psu in the xbox.

is the problem to do with the video cable? have you tried a large ferrite ring with the cable wrapped around it a few times?

or one of those ground loop isolator things?

also do you get the noise when the engine is off?

[Geoffers]

The invertor will be isolating, therefore the the negative output won't be at the same potential as the vehicle ground.

In this case you would have to ground at least the video shield on the Xbox - there is probably now a potential difference between the screen side shield and the Xbox side. (Similar to a ground loop).

thats a very expensive psu!!

i heard somewhere that the Xbox sheild shold never be earthed as its a bad thing, maybe something to do with the isolated psu in the xbox.

is the problem to do with the video cable? have you tried a large ferrite ring with the cable wrapped around it a few times?

or one of those ground loop isolator things?

also do you get the noise when the engine is off?

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[LennyLexus]

that is one expensive inverter mate

[Mr-Lex]

Thanks for all your replies and your PM's :)

The matter is almost resloved When I grounded the main brain (the hide away unit) I tested it first but did not use one of the relay ground wire correctly. Today had a chance to muck about with it again and correctly used all the wires...IT WORKS :o ...no lines or scattered lines! Picture looks perfect!!! But, and theres always a but with me I get a engine/whining noise running through the speakers when pressing down on the accelerator even while the car in stationery. It only happends when the the XBOX is menu mode but seems to dissapear when playing music, movies etc Had a brief test grounding the XBOX and only helped a little...

I was grounding the xbox to one of the bolts/(long gold like screws) inside the boot (above the wheel arch - if you know what I mean :duh: )

Geoff, you mentioned "earthed to the vehicle negative?" where about is that

It's not a huge problem now but can be annoying if the xbox stays on "menu mode"...

Any last few suggestions :winky:

[Mr-Lex]

Chipped XBOX up and running with 120GB hard drive :D

pix 1

pix 2

pix 3

pix 4

pix 5 - nice hide away

pix 6 up and playing!!!

Edited November 17, 2004 by Mr-Lex

[rajhirani]

Hi

I am doing the same thing :)

the only thing you need now is some wireless controllers for the xbox,

i have two of these ones

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?searchtype...ess&page=search

they work very well :)

[Mr-Lex]

Hi

I am doing the same thing :)

the only thing you need now is some wireless controllers for the xbox,

i have two of these ones

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?searchtype...ess&page=search

they work very well :)

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That's great! How good and fast in sensitive is it? Will it able to travel thru from the boot to inside of the car without any interference? Are they re-chargeable batteries in the control pads?

[gianno]

Hello to all! I am a new registered and i have a wonderful lexus is2000...

I come from italy and this morning i was looking in internet how to install xbox machine..I have a pioneer avic x1 and i got the same problems while installing in my car: noise, lines going down and up and speaker noise..

I found this topic that you were already speaking about the problem and i read that you ave solved too :)

Can i ask you what have you done? i didn't understand more well..

Thank you very much for the help!

[Mr-Lex]

Hello to all! I am a new registered and i have a wonderful lexus is2000...

I come from italy and this morning i was looking in internet how to install xbox machine..I have a pioneer avic x1 and i got the same problems while installing in my car: noise, lines going down and up and speaker noise..

I found this topic that you were already speaking about the problem and i read that you ave solved too :)

Can i ask you what have you done? i didn't understand more well..

Thank you very much for the help!

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For some reason the xbox doesn't get a good enough ground signal through an invertor and it's normal power connections. You will need to ground the hide away unit (main brain avic-x1) inputs. You will also need to ground the xbox as well. Take the cover off the xbox and attach a decent guage wire to the metal grill-type inner casing of the xbox (solder it on if you like), then wire it up to your cars grounding! I drilled a little hole in the boot and used that as one of my grounds!

Hope that helps ;)

[gianno]

Thank you very much for the help! now i'll try!

:zee:

[Mr-Lex]

Let us know how it goes ;)

[P4UL T]

cough cough

[Mr-Lex]

cough cough

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and @ your signature :winky: You gotta admit, im good at holding the the "flood-lights"

[ukazn]

cough cough cough cough

[TheDon]

wow this is gonna be a piece of ***** putting my one in now, seeing as u lot have found all the problems! lol.

Gonna get me a clear xbox for the car, and have it all chipped etc. just gotta find a place for the screen!

[Mr-Lex]

I haven't forgotten you Alex mate :winky: You are the man...cheers budd :)

[tsugantino]

Mr. Lex,

I have the same exact problem, I'm using the AVIC-N1 (I believe the difference in models is just what's sold in our locations). I noticed you were saying something about grounding the A/V inputs on the hide away unit and was wondering if that's something I extra I need to figure out. In other words, do I need to modify the unit to ground it or does it have an actual means of grounding the A/V inputs?

I had a major electronics store install my unit and I'm not very technical when it comes to cars and their wiring, but if I had some additional info to go back there with I'm sure they could fix it for me. They're dying to know why the XBox doesn't work right away as all the technicians there want to do the same thing as we're doing.

Currently I have a 350watt power inverter and it's wired to the car Battery w/ fuse and relay. Before the power inverter was wired differently and after someone regrounded it and took the wiring from the ignition to the Battery, not only did my car respond better, but the picture and noise eased up by 50%.

Thanks!

[Mr-Lex]

Mr. Lex,

I have the same exact problem, I'm using the AVIC-N1 (I believe the difference in models is just what's sold in our locations).  I noticed you were saying something about grounding the A/V inputs on the hide away unit and was wondering if that's something I extra I need to figure out.  In other words, do I need to modify the unit to ground it or does it have an actual means of grounding the A/V inputs?

I had a major electronics store install my unit and I'm not very technical when it comes to cars and their wiring, but if I had some additional info to go back there with I'm sure they could fix it for me.  They're dying to know why the XBox doesn't work right away as all the technicians there want to do the same thing as we're doing.

Currently I have a 350watt power inverter and it's wired to the car battery w/ fuse and relay.  Before the power inverter was wired differently and after someone regrounded it and took the wiring from the ignition to the battery, not only did my car respond better, but the picture and noise eased up by 50%.

Thanks!

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Not sure if I understood your question properly I personally did not ground the unit but what I saw and understood from it, is you need to ground the inputs, soldering was used to ground each inputs (if that makes sense :duh: ), so yes you need to modify it by using the internal grounds-(?)...I'm sure a good electronic person would understand by grounding the inputs of the hide away unit. Also, you may need to ground XBOX (as mentioned above) for some reason the ones in UK (possibly other europeans) don't give good ground signal. Another point to mention, my ICE dealer advised about using a proper/correct power inverter specially made for the XBOX's as the "standard" ones is not a best one to use. Something to do with the amounts of watts etc :duh:

Hope this helps....let us know how it goes... :)

[tsugantino]

Mr. Lex,

After the technicians having the car all day, they still couldn't figure out the A/V noise problem. The tech did re-ground the hide away unit with a 8 gauge wire and bolt, but nothing was improved from where we were. It's likely I'll need to buy that special adapter you provided a link to for the XBox. I wonder if that'll work though, I'd hate to spend 100 or so dollars to find out I'm still where I am with it.

At least after all this trouble, it's safe to say that XBox just wasn't intended for such things unless massive grounding measures are taken. I can't see doing all that for one console. Luckily my PS2 and GameCube work golden. I was really hoping one day that some friends and I could all show up at work in the parking lot with wireless adapters and just go off on a serious networked game of Halo 2. It’s not like it couldn’t happen, but the noise makes me nervous like I’m damaging the AVIC or Xbox.

Hopefully there’ll be an answer out there soon and I could give a more positive update on this project.

Thanks for your quick reply before and hope all is well.

[lexy200]

i bought the crystal xbox for in my is200 but found it hard to find a place to put it , dont want it in the boot as cant be bothered to get in and out to change disc etc , so installing a PS2 under the dash and to save on the bulky invertor need which runs from a 24v supply (not good for the car) i found a company that will modify the internals of the PS2 from an 8.5v to 12v so can run it straight off the Battery in car .

[tsugantino]

i found a company that will modify the internals of the PS2 from an 8.5v to 12v so can run it straight off the battery in car .

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Does this company you're sending your PS2 modify XBoxes also so you could run those off the car Battery, too? What's the name of the company? Do they have a website or a way to contact them?

[tsugantino]

All this time I have still been investigating possible solutions and have just found something promising. I should know by tomorrow if this works, but I stumbled on using a $15 audio ground loop from Circuit City (http://www.tsunamionline.com/product.php?id=52) to assist in removing the audio interference (couldn't find a video one in the store). When I saw that actually work at making the audio 1000 times better, I did a search for one that could be used for video and found this VB-1RR from Jensen Electronics (http://www.jensen-transformers.com/iso_vid.html). I ordered it yesterday and should be delivered to my job sometime tomorrow afternoon. Either way, I'll post what happens.

On another note, I tried using one of those Mad Catz 7" mobile screens and it worked with the XBox flawlessly in my car (using my hard wired 350watt power inverter and the 140watt cigarette lighter one). I suppose the Pioneer AVIC-N1 is just super sensitive to things like this.

Crossing fingers...

[Kazi]

The main problem with X-Boxes aside from the fact that there a hideous size is that there rubbish.

Other than that, can't help, sorry. :P

[lextcy]

How did you end up going with this?

All this time I have still been investigating possible solutions and have just found something promising.  I should know by tomorrow if this works, but I stumbled on using a $15 audio ground loop from Circuit City (http://www.tsunamionline.com/product.php?id=52) to assist in removing the audio interference (couldn't find a video one in the store).  When I saw that actually work at making the audio 1000 times better, I did a search for one that could be used for video and found this VB-1RR from Jensen Electronics (http://www.jensen-transformers.com/iso_vid.html).  I ordered it yesterday and should be delivered to my job sometime tomorrow afternoon.  Either way, I'll post what happens.

On another note, I tried using one of those Mad Catz 7" mobile screens and it worked with the XBox flawlessly in my car (using my hard wired 350watt power inverter and the 140watt cigarette lighter one).  I suppose the Pioneer AVIC-N1 is just super sensitive to things like this.

Crossing fingers...

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