BMW X5 and X6 Forum 2014-Current
BMW Garage BMW Meets Register Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


Post Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
      03-05-2018, 12:14 PM   #1
anon1000
Private First Class
38
Rep
139
Posts

Drives: bmw
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Boston

iTrader: (0)

XBOX and small screen for roadtrip

My kids want to hook up the xbox one with a small screen for a roadtrip.

The cigarette lighter circuit are 20am circuits, right, so would give me 240Ws? Is that enough to power a small screen and an xbox one?

Anybody having tried this, I was thinking a small portable screen mounted behind a headrest. Recommendations on screens?
Appreciate 0
      03-05-2018, 02:05 PM   #2
DuSh
Colonel
DuSh's Avatar
2113
Rep
2,388
Posts

Drives: F15 X5 50i
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: USA

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by anon1000 View Post
My kids want to hook up the xbox one with a small screen for a roadtrip.

The cigarette lighter circuit are 20am circuits, right, so would give me 240Ws? Is that enough to power a small screen and an xbox one?

Anybody having tried this, I was thinking a small portable screen mounted behind a headrest. Recommendations on screens?
I'm a used addict player (played everything from ZX Spectrum to nowadays). I never did it in the car, but if you look at your xbox one power brick (charger) it says 5A at 120V - which roughly will be 600W (probably peak power, but you never know when it will demand that power - so it's better to have that much available).
So cigarette lighter socket will not have enough to power xbox one (and monitor on top of that). Just run a simple (thick enough gauge - 8awg wire should suffice) wire directly from battery to rear seats and you shall be good! Thankfully we have battery in the trunk - just if BMW was designing it for easy computer gaming lol - so it should be an easy work.

And use a good inverter - to have plenty of headroom go with 800W one and you shall happily game as long as you want. It won't consume that much in reality so unless your kids are going to game for more than an hour when engine is off - you shouldn't worry too much about it

P.S. As for screen - depends what size screen you want? A good 15 inch monitor will be enough for both kids to watch it comfortably (btw driver or passenger seat in x5 has width of about 19 inches - just for comparison, so that 15 inch screen won't stick outside of seat contours if you are worried about ergonomics). Like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Performance-P...P7AY3T0TM513J8

It has a 1/4 inch screw mount that you can use with this to mount it on headrest: http://www.chargercity.com/-ChargerC...712-p-558.html

If you think that screen is too big than there's bunch of smaller screens 10 or 13 inches, any will do as long as they have hdmi and 720p/1080p resolution, but you will have to match them with proper headrest holder

Last edited by DuSh; 03-05-2018 at 03:14 PM..
Appreciate 1
SpeedN866.00
      03-05-2018, 02:35 PM   #3
neverdone
Major
Canada
327
Rep
1,394
Posts

Drives: X5, 335, Ford Lightning, 63 me
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: calgary

iTrader: (0)

Back in the day I had a PS2 in my Mitsubishi I had, all custom shit. I used an 800 watt inverter because better safe than sorry.
Appreciate 0
      03-05-2018, 03:19 PM   #4
anon1000
Private First Class
38
Rep
139
Posts

Drives: bmw
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Boston

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by DuSh View Post
I'm a used addict player (played everything from ZX Spectrum to nowadays). I never did it in the car, but if you look at your xbox one power brick (charger) it says 5A at 120V - which roughly will be 600W (probably peak power, but you never know when it will demand that power - so it's better to have that much available).
So cigarette lighter socket will not have enough to power xbox one (and monitor on top of that). Just run a simple (thick enough gauge - 8awg wire should suffice) wire directly from battery to rear seats and you shall be good! Thankfully we have battery in the trunk - just if BMW was designing it for easy computer gaming lol - so it should be an easy work.

And use a good inverter - to have plenty of headroom go with 800W one and you shall happily game as long as you want. It won't consume that much in reality so unless your kids are going to game for more than an hour when engine is off - you shouldn't worry too much about it

P.S. As for screen - depends what size screen you want? A good 15 inch monitor will be enough for both kids to watch it comfortably (btw driver or passenger seat in x5 has width of about 19 inches - just for comparison, so that 15 inch screen won't stick outside of seat contours if you are worried about ergonomics). Like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Performance-P...P7AY3T0TM513J8

It has a 1/4 inch screw mount that you can use with this to mount it on headrest: http://www.chargercity.com/-ChargerC...712-p-558.html

If you think that screen is too big than there's bunch of smaller screens 10 or 13 inches, any will do as long as they have hdmi and 720p/1080p resolution, but you will have to match them with proper headrest holder
THANK YOU!
Appreciate 0
      03-06-2018, 02:03 PM   #5
Hrmmm
Enlisted Member
9
Rep
30
Posts

Drives: X5 F15
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Orange County

iTrader: (0)

If you want to go the extra step, you can actually install an auxillary battery so you never have to worry about accidentally draining your starter/primary battery. Might be a little overboard, but there's a cool product that helps make it easy:

CTEK D250S
https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-677-A...ords=ctek+d250

You basically run wires from the primary battery to the CTEK, and then hook up an inverter and aux battery to the CTEK. The CTEK will make sure the aux battery automatically recharges while your alternator is running, and it also makes sure you never drain power from your primary battery. So if your kids want to play games or watch videos while the car is off, power will only come from the aux battery.

If you do go this route, you should get a deep cycle AGM battery for the aux battery, because typically car starter batteries are not intended to be deeply drained.

I've done this setup in a van, and it works really well. Happy to send you a wiring diagram if interested.

Cheers!
Appreciate 0
Post Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:57 PM.




xbimmers
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
1Addicts.com, BIMMERPOST.com, E90Post.com, F30Post.com, M3Post.com, ZPost.com, 5Post.com, 6Post.com, 7Post.com, XBimmers.com logo and trademark are properties of BIMMERPOST