| Author |
Message |
    
Taz
| | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 11:15 am: | 
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Have you ever used one for your radio stuff?
All ATX style have 4 rails of power; 12v 5v 3v and the v-core for the Processor which is uaually 1.700-2.5..
The 12v would be usefull if could be adjusted to 13.8v, and most power supplies can be as high as 40amps on the 12v rail.
Any ideas? |
nitemare
| | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 12:21 pm: |
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This has got to be one of those (BF) moment's |
Scrapiron63
| | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 12:57 pm: |
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Taz, yeah they'll work, they're switching type power supplies, no transformers, thats why they don't weight much. I use a small one, its just a 6 amp at 12 volts, 15 amps at 5 volts. Its the old type that plugs to 120 AC, and has an off/on push stitch, its ideal for freq counters, meters and things. Most of those will run off 9 volts anyway. I tied all the 12 volt wires together to one larger wire, and also the grounds. Couldn't get this one over 12 volts, but it will run a small AM cb radio ok, and holds at 12 volts. One of the larger ones would probably run a bigger radio ok, it would be about like running one on a battery without the motor running. As you know, the old ones are cheap, computer guys will give you a box of them free most of the time. I saw some plans on the internet on paralleling two or more of them for more amps.
I did have a 75 amp, 13.8 volts switcher, it was for industrial equipment, and would run a pretty good amplifier. |
Znut
| | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 3:15 pm: |
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Put a bank of good capacitors in the case before the terminals you install. It is a switching PS and is rather noisy!
Just go to the shack and see if they still have a peice of breadboard to mount them with. The more value the better, shoot for .5 farads or more. That will give you some cushion for those big peaks on SSB. Small to medium value caps are cheap so figure that in, 5 or 10 in parallel will be fine. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 7:16 pm: |
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10 1-farad caps,hows that,Znut? 239$ a piece,oh and 6-gauge wire,or better yet buss straps for + and - @ 80$,Radio shack sells a piggy-back system that starts at 80 amps with 20 amp add-ons for up to 200 amps of switcher power at 13.8 volts,add the caps and oooooooo-man POWER!Pretty cute,huh? |
Alsworld
| | Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 7:59 pm: |
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This is not my strong point, but I've read where because they are not regulated (might be the wrong word), that once you key down, voltage can drop to very low ranges, maybe not enough to supply power to your radio.
I have no first hand experience, just read some articles on people who do, and others that don't and why not. Does that makes sense to you more electrical literate folks?????
Alsworld |
Simon
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 9:26 am: |
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I ran a 25w FM 2m rig on one for about 3 years (until I left Australia) with no problems and no extra caps added either. Try it and see.. |
Znut
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 10:16 am: |
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I meant the TOTAL value being .5 to 1 farad, for noise frome the switching PS. |
Viking
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 3:04 pm: |
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Alsworld, yes the voltage does drop. What I have done was take 3 identical computer ps's and ran the 5V in series with good results. I don't recall what the voltage dropped to though, certainly not less than 13.8V. Also, the 5V source's tied together will allow for higher amperage than 12V. |
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