19/20in 12 volt TVs

[Road Runner]

Right Makro have in quite a few Akura TVs the 12 volt jobbies in with various sizes all on offer.

Now the have the 240 to 12 volt transformer so what stabilizing lead do I need?

I also have the 12 volt sky mini box and hoping this set up is REALLY going to conserve my batteries.

So whats the lead I need for both apparatus?

 

[Mike-H]

Got mine from a very helpful guy on ebay, Link Removed told him what I was trying to do, he refunded me the difference and posted me the right lead.

 

[scotjimland]

John .. you are going to run off the coach batteries ?

you mean one of these ?

stabiliser search

 

[pappajohn]

hi john,
the sky box wont need a stabiliser.

you need to know what type of power plug is fitted to the tv.

if you look on the Amporor website they have an online matching service

amporor plugs

looks like there are two to choose from and no model numbers but both 15"

give them a ring and ask if they do one.

 

[gazznsam]

you really do want to run the sky box on exactly 12 volts or as near to it as you can, the pace javelin (which i assume is your 12 volt box) is very suceptable to overvoltage, people who loose the origional mains adaptor use another one that says 12 volts on it, but if it's not as well stabalized then it buggers the internal psu up,

all pace sky boxes are weak in the psu department, first signs of the psu being dammaged on the javelin boxes is the remote operation becomes flakey, then you get random 'no sattelite signal' messages, usually whilst just sat there watching a proggy, then it'll bring up the blue screen, change chanel up and back down and it clears it,

eventually it'll just refuse to work,

you can get repair kits from satcure, if your handy with a soldering iron, but a lot easier to ensure the box is run on it's origional power brick when on mains, and feed it from the DC stabiliser when in the van,

my stabiliser is an 8 amp model, and it happily runs my 15 inch tv, the sky box and the dvd player, the dvd player is also used as an amplifier... my tv's speakers are on the back and the tv is built in, so the whole lot is on when ever watching sky.

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[Terry]

Oh dear I must be doing something wrong For the last 8 yrs I have run a few tv's -on digi boxes and dvd player direct from the 12v battery without any voltage stabilisers or anything without problem.My mate who wired it all up told me the battery acts as quite a good stabiliser,he mends tvs computers etc and unlike me knows what he is doing with leccy stuff
terry

 

[scotjimland]

Oh dear I must be doing something wrong For the last 8 yrs I have run a few tv's -on digi boxes and dvd player direct from the 12v battery without any voltage stabilisers or anything without problem.My mate who wired it all up told me the battery acts as quite a good stabiliser,he mends tvs computers etc and unlike me knows what he is doing with leccy stuff
terry

Me too Terry, never had any problems, but sods law.. Johns will blow up if he doesn't use one oh:

jim

 

[derekfaeberwick]

.My mate who wired it all up told me the battery acts as quite a good stabiliser,he mends tvs computers etc and unlike me knows what he is doing with leccy stuff
terry

Measure the voltage at the socket with the engine off and no EHU then try with engine or EHU on.

Big difference in my van.

 

[Terry]

Measure the voltage at the socket with the engine off and no EHU then try with engine or EHU on.

Big difference in my van.

God you will have me figuring out how to work the digital thingy next. all I can say is it works
terry

 

[hilldweller]

hi john, the sky box wont need a stabiliser.

you really do want to run the sky box on exactly 12 volts or as near to it as you can, the pace javelin (which i assume is your 12 volt box) is very suceptable to overvoltage,

Don't you just luuuuuuuve forums

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[gazznsam]

yup, some of us have experianced electrical items being dammaged by over voltage, the battery may be a good buffer, but it needs at least 13.8 volts to charge, going upto 14.8 volts if you have a decen charger, that's a few volts over what these TV makers design their sets to run on,

e-mail the makers of the tv set and tell them what you want to do, they will tell you the warrenty is invalid if you do, as the set was made with components rated at the voltage the supplies mains adaptor puts out,

yes you may get away with it if you have a caravan type charger which is really a power supply, set at 13.8 volts to avoid gassing the battery, but it dont charge the bugger very well doing that,

but not everyone has the same equipment, there are a couple of tv's out there that can handle higher voltages, but a lot cant, i wouldent feel too good if i told the OP 'dont be silly, save yer 30 quid on a regulator, just run it direct off the battery, i've been doing it for years'
and his next post is 'my tv screen is now blank, i can hear the sound but no picture, and the maker says no to warrenty repair, can i fix it or is my 1-2-3-400 quid i spent on the tv wasted?'

as for the sky boxes, a little googeling will throw up a fair bit of info on their renowned weak psu's, this is the bits inside the box that drops the voltage to the + and - 5 and 3.3 volts, 18 volts for the lnb etc,
the pace javelins are getting harder to soure, they stopped making them ages ago, they are a damn good box, but abuse them and you get problems, yes you can fix it, i think it cost me about 25 quid for the parts to repair the psu in mine... i had been running it in the house on a 12 volt mains psu, but not the official sky one, the real voltage was nearer 13 volts,

it stopped responding to the remote, i bought a new RF diode, put that in, no differance, contacted satcure for help, and he told me instiantly what was wrong, and looking closely at the caps in the psu i could see them bulging,

that sky box had been in my van running off the action replay 12 volt regulator for 5 years fine, my charging system is a sterling mains charger set to charge a 14.8 volts, the solar panels with it's regulator set for a 14.8 volt charge, and the alternator at a 14.4 volt charge, and every month it goes upto a 16.5 volt equalizing charge,

it was only when we moved into a flat and i wanted to try the sky socket out in there before signing upto sky (had freesat card before) that i cause the problems, as the origional sky psu was long gone.

 

[Frankia]

I'll agree to that. Most of the sky boxes are made to a price and therefore the parts are not always as robust as you might like. At the moment sky are replacing free of charge a whole load of HD boxes made by Pace as they have a problem in quality - costing a fortune!

The Pace Javeline (1000) has a rating plate which says 12v + or - 5% which gives you a max voltage of 12.6v. You can be lucky and nothing will happen (the PSU will not live as long) but you could be unlucky almost straight away and the PSU will fry. I wouldn't risk it!

 

[hilldweller]

i think it cost me about 25 quid for the parts to repair the psu in mine..

I think repair kits for Pace boxes have been around since Pace No1. I can recall getting one years and years ago - I forget what it tuned in those days.

We want cheap, they build cheap and there is no room for errors.

 

[gazznsam]

that's exactly it hilldweller, 90% of consumers shop by price alone,

the only way to keep prices down on electronic goods is to use components rated to just do the job, it costs more to use higher rated components that can handle some abuse,

for something designed and sold to be used on a vehicles 12 volt power supply, then yes they make em with wider tollerances, most car stuff is rated for upto 16 volts, as thats what can be seen on a cars electrical system,

but stuff sold to be used in a home dosent, it's only cheapness on the manufacturers part that these lcd tv's have seperate power bricks,
reason being if the devise operates on a low voltage, it dosent need to be tested and certificated like a mains appliance does, so it's much cheaper for them to make the tv run on a low voltage and avoid all that extra and costly certification lark,
Then they buy in ready made external power supplies from a company that has paid for the certification for the mains side of the psu, they buy them in their millions so get them for pennys,

so when they design the lcd tv, they know the charecteristics of the power brick they will sell with the tv, so they rate the components to handle that and only that, which is usually 12.3 or 12.6 volts,

if they sell a million tv's in one year, only about 100 of those will be used in a motorhome or caravan, so it's deffo not in their interest to re-design the thing to handle the varying voltage we get in a battery based system with chargers in use whilst powering things.


There are some 12 volt items intended for home use that are built to handle a varying voltage, one item is the digital room stat and timer i use for my vans central heating and calorifier heating timer, they do a mains and a 12 volt version, the 12 volt version is sold to be used as part of a home automation system, and has a 2 wire remote control capacity,

i emailed them to ask what the optimal power input was, as i would be using it in a motorhome with voltages varying from 10.5 to 16 volts, and was told the thermostat will run happily on 9 to 20 volts, i was really expecting to have to use a regulator, but it has one built in as they envisanged people using their stats on solar powered houses,

Same with the lidl gas alarm, it's got a 12 volt mains psu, but is rated to work upto 17 volts, as they sell the same item in boat shops with a fag lighter connection... for a hell of a lot more than lidl semm em for with the mains psu, but that's boat chandlers for you.

 

[walnut]

The Akura TV sets have a 12v regulator built in, TV engineer at the Pickering show was selling the 19in set for £269.

What price are they at Makro?

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[Road Runner]

Around £130 plus VAT

 

[lunarman]

Our local TJ Hughes is selling the new 20" Akura LCD TV/DVD Combo for 159.99. This works of 12 or 240v and is a replacement for the 19"

 

[PeteH]

T-V`s

Hi

I just run all my mains stuff via a 2KVA invertor. No problems (yet!!!) this includes T-,V Sat, DVD, VCR, Laptop(s) (SWMBO has her own!!). The only thing that runs off 12v is the Akura T-V in the bedroom. and that is over 15 years old!!.

pete