A GThing Science Project

So Dave and I got together to work on the Carputer tonight. Things were going well, we got almost all of the cable run and were ready to start hooking things up. I wired up a hidden female cigarette lighter port to to power the touch screen.

Before plugging the touch screen in, I wanted to test it to make sure I got the polarity hooked up right. Finding no cigarette lighter accessories handy to test with, I decided to just go ahead an plug in the monitor. Surely Lilliput would have sprung for the 2 cent diode that protects against reversed currents. I mean, this thing is for a car after all, right?

They didn't spring for any such diode.

A quiet pop, and the smell of burning electronics. Delicious.

So the PCB for the screen is fried. Remember kids, when you get impatient you get sloppy. At least I only burnt out the second most expensive piece of equipment in my carputer setup. But it's not so much the cost that bothers me as the fact that I'm going to have to WAIT for another screen to show up. :( :( :( <---3 frowny faces = sad panda.