Had a quick search but couldn't find anything specific to this.I will be using an Arduino in a car as a lighting controller,but need to know what problems I might encounter with the wildly fluctuating power supply voltage when the engine is started?
Will it be as simple as running it through voltage regulator,with maybe a large electrolytic capacitor and TVS (Transient Voltage Surpressor) across the supply? It's a petrol engine so has ignition noise but the car has a sound system fitted with a LOT of gain and no noise is audible through the speakers,indicating that very little if any pulse noise makes it's way into the passenger compartment.
So will it be plug and play,or plug and play around with it until it works?
The Arduino has a built-in regulator and some filtering so you can hook the (nominal) 12V supply to the Vin pin and expect it to work. If it doesn't work to your satisfaction, add more filtering.
The regulator on the Arduino should manage most of the noise. I'd be tempted to put in a big, old, crude, iron core choke too, just to be on the safe side. Modern cars are pretty quiet compared to the old point/coil ignitions of yesteryear.
Imagewerx:
the car has a sound system fitted with a LOT of gain and no noise is audible through the speakers,indicating that very little if any pulse noise makes it's way into the passenger compartment.
Just because the sound system has filtering does not mean it'll surpress noise in the entire system.