Teensy, riding along in my autombile....

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Andrew1

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I am not a programmer. But I am trying!
I am a mechanic and I love adding and tinkering. I have come up with several "better" ways of doing things in my old cars via an Arduino but an Uno is ~expensive, bulky and would require extra work to get them to be "automotive ready" i.e. standard connections would need to be soldered, etc.

So:
Is Teensy 2.0 a viable option for using my Arduino programs in a permanent automotive install? (Vibration, heat, cold, has a decent life span?)
Can I hook it right up to the +12v? (which is really 14.7v and has the potential of 17v if something goes wrong)
Am I reading the website correctly that the programing language is the same?

Sorry if that is only as clear as mud, ran out of mountain dew today.

Thanks!

Andrew
 
You will need a voltage Regulator to convert from 12v-17v to 5v for the Teensy 2.0. Unlike the Uno the Teensy does not come with an onboard regulator.

THe Language should be the same, you just need to select the correct Board in the Arduino IDE and as long as you haven't coded something specific for the UNO then you should be good.
 
If you use a linear voltage regulator for that stepdown, just make sure you know how much power is going to be dissapted by the regulator. You may need to add a heatsink to it.
If you are feeling up to it, maybe look at a buck converter.
 
I can't speak for the Teensy 2.0 but we are using Teensy 3.1 in a variety of automotive applications, some permanent all in pretty heavy NVH situations.
If you give more particulars regarding your car's M/M/Y/E (Make/Model/Year/Engine) and your application concept I can probably be more helpful.
Depending on the car and your application, you can draw directly off the battery with something like a buck converter (as Botagar suggests). If your car has any type of PCU you might look at leaching off of that power circuit or at least consider tying in somewhere that makes sense.
 
Andrew1 said:
Can I hook it right up to the +12v? (which is really 14.7v and has the potential of 17v if something goes wrong)
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One cheap and easy solution is to use a 12V -> 5V converter designed to plug into the 12V socket (cigarette lighter) and just hardwire it, although the cheap ones may not be suitable for permanent installation.

By the way, my understanding was that auto electronics were supposed to withstand a "load dump" up to 120 V for about half a second, which can happen if the battery cable comes off while the alternator is at a maximum charge current setting. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_dump
 
There are SAE standards on all this.
I doubt the cheap USB/cigarette lighter power sources deal with this. Load Dumps, back-EMF from inductive headlights, starter motor, etc.

Note too that some of these adapters are 200mA. Some are 1Amp. Some have two USB ports, one at 2Amp, one less, and many other variations.
I've yet to find a 2A one USB port one to properly charge the iPad.
 
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