[aprssig] APRS In A Car

[Ron Tonneson]

Ron,

I would guess that you lost a ground somewhere and the small cables were trying to carry the power ground currents.

Ron - K0QVF

Ron Wenig wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I see the notes about LCD in a car and had to share my
> experience.  I still don't know how this happened.  Maybe
> someone else had this problem, it was a scary experience.
> 
> My set up was a laptop with a port replicator, the new
> laptop I have does not have a serial port.  A GPS 12XL into
> a D700 Radio.  The laptop was connected to the D700 with a
> normal serial cable with a db9 connector.  The gps was
> connected to the D700 with the thin cable that came with the
> radio into the 2mm stereo audio type connector.  I was
> running UIView.  I normally don't run a laptop in the truck
> but I had a passenger and wanted to show him how I could
> track with the moving maps.  We were trying to figure out
> why it wasn't tracking and the gps wasn't sending any
> positions.  We finally gave up trying to figure it out when
> I saw smoke coming from the wires on the floor.  I pulled
> over and discovered that the serial cable from the computer
> was hot to the touch with the insulation at the d700
> connection melted and the label on the cable blackended.  I
> imagine if it was left unattended it would have caught fire.
> I don't think there was a short.  No fuses blew and when I
> got home everything seemed to work.  This really has me
> concerned and alerted me to the fact that you can not only
> have trouble with power connectors that have high power
> running through them but also low power signal cables.  Does
> anyone have any ideas.
> 
> 73, Ron ny3j at comcast.net
> 
> 
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