I have a car show in about a month I'm getting ready for.. I want to hook my radio and a couple of other things up to AC power. I have seen this done before with a power invertor/transformer. Anyknow know what I need to get? I've looked and have found DC/AC convertors, but not AC to DC.

 

a DC to AC converter is what you want...they're sold all over the place

i dunno why you would want an AC to DC??

 

I'm wanting to hook up my car radio to an AC outlet wich would be AC to DC right? They make you disconnect your battery at national shows, but I still need to run my accessories for the display.. including radio.. I have one of those Sony 32,000 color CD screens with video of a burnout on it that I want running. I have seen people do this, but have not seen what they hook it to. It just hooked connects to your battery wires.

 

i havent come across any of them, but im sure they're made...i would be worried about your battery going dead though. You can try hiding another battery somewhere?

 

i'd also worry about your alternator and hope it can dish enough juice to run everything your wishing to =]

 

look for a normal DC power supply. they're sold all over the place.


the lil "wall warts" the things that you use to plug in your cordless telephone base, your in house cell phone charger, ect...
all thoes things with the lil round connector...


now, if you're pushing serious sound or drawing alot of power, you want a bigger power supply, still not too hard... you could goto any real electronic parts store and get one... you want somthing that outputs between 12-13.5 volts..... 13 would be perfect... get one that can handle a few amps too... a lil miliamp thingy is just going to burn up...

if you dont know where a real electronic parts store is, and theres none in your phonebook, radio shack carries a few that will work for you...

 

a power supply out of a computer would work excellent, they take plugin power(AC) and convert it to many (DC) voltages, which one is 12v DC, and pump out about 20-40amps, so that would work for you perfectly

 

ummmm, I wouldn't be using a computer power supply.

Former Navy Electronics Technician, Electronics Technicians Association member, A.A.S Degree in Computer Electronics and MECP (mobile Electronics Certified Professional) here, I'm not an expert and I'm not a novice. The heavy duty 120VAC 60 Hz - 12VDC power supplies used in the car stereo shop dispalys are what you need. Your local stereo shop should have several to power their displays, they might sell you one if they can. The transformers used in these can make them expensive.

I could build you one depending on when you need it, just let me know what you want to power with it. I built a few in my high school electronics shop, I still have a couple, but only one can light up a HU and power small amps. The other two are 12v but they won't even light up a HU because they are too light duty, more for bread boards and such.

A computer power supply might power a head unit, but it would not be practical to attempt to use with your entire sytem, especially if you want your car's power windows and things to function.



Another thing you could do is try to find a regulated battery charger, I forget the shop name for these, but they are for preventing the battery from deep cycling while the car worked on in a shop. I'm not sure if these would provide a stable supply of power if you ran high powered amps all day long, but it may be a cheap alternative. I would still use one from a quality automotive tools distrubuter, Snap-On for instance, It might cost a fortune but at least it will work forever. These cost $70 and up (any brand). Not only would it install easilly, since it just clips on the battery, it would be usefull any other time as well. I think I would rather do that than invest in an expensive power supply, unless of course you could really get some more use out of it in your house or something. The charger may be prohibited, even if it is an automaticly regulated, becasue some safety inspector may speculate that it creates an explosion hazard with the battey. I don't know enough about the rules of these events to get into that. In the mean time, check out Parts Express online or order a catalouge. You will need to know the total RMS power used by everything together and OVER ESTIMATE, then find a supply of sufficient quality....or I could build you one.

 

i have successfully run a small, headunit and speaker setup with a computer power supply... but i wouldnt run any amps off it.

if the volume is low (not thumping bass hard) and you're only running small lights or somthing, you shouldnt need anything too big or expencive..


if you're planning on cranking the sound up loud, you're going to need somthing bigger like what junkyarddog suggested.

 

I hooked my Head unit and 2 6x9"s and 2 3.5"s to a 12v power supply that can display the amp draw... it was around .8 amps, peaked at about 1.5. So, without amplifiers, it could definately be done with a computer supply.

 

it can be done, and that amp draw sounds accurate for a head unit, but that type of power supply isn't the best choice for lighting up a car's electrical system. I would rather have something that is bullet proof, unless there's room for more than one computer power supply..to keep for back up. the 250 watt or whatever is total power, it would work for small equipment but there are still better choices.

 

exactly, computer power supplies today can output up to 40a or more, and i know they work because ive done this setup for a friend

 

if you're just dying to use a computer supply, they make some that go up to about 480 watts. goto Tom's Hardware Guide and they have some nice write-ups about the ones that are most stable at high load.

 

I agree that a power supply is a power supply. Not only can you run stereo equipment off of a computer power supply, but you can hook up a 60Hz signal generator or run a 60Hz test tone CD and power the whole computer off of the amplifiers speaker output with the right amp....that's another story.

I'm not trying to butt heads with anyone here, it's just that this man says he is going to an event.

I don't picture his car with a HU and speakers to show off. For some reason I'm imagining a couple of 4awg wires and distribution blocks, 12" subs,4 channel amps, doors open, necessity to pop power locks and trunk release, move the power seats back and forth....if this is the case, then the PC power supply with it's skimpy pvc wires is not up for it. That's why I'm talking about a heavy duty 1000+ watt power supply, infact as much as you can pull from the wall.

And again, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but 480 watts X .50 is 240 watts. if the total power is less than 240 watts then this would be an ok power supply, otherwise i don't think it would allow the stereo equipment to perform it's best.

why do I multiply by .5 ?....it's a personal philosophy that hasn't failed me one time in dealing with electronics, the minute you try and squeez the juice out of something, it's utter disapointment.

 

I’m going to back up junkyarddog on this. Your run of the mill computer power supply will not keep up this a system (HU, Amp, lights). You should be looking at a 40A (480W) as an absolute minimum. I’ve picked up one of these used and have it in the shed for testing amps and it will get warm with a bigger amp after some run time. Add the HU and any lights, pop the trunk, move the power seats, you’re pushing it.

http://mcm.newark.com/NewarkWebComme...sp?id=72-6180A

This is what Alan84TA should do. Fined a high current DC amp meter, not you little 10A job but a real high current job. And (brainstorm here) actually fined out how much current he will pull at max load.

Wow, thinking of that hurt.

 

That's the best idea I've heard yet!.....yea, don't try to check that with your multimeter.

I looked for power supplies on line, the heaviest one I could find was 1000 watts. Those are more rare than I thought!

I wonder if TGO runs a huge UPS on thier network? They're always up, ask them if you can borrow it for a day or two.

I can't wait unitl the automakers get this 42v system off of the drawing board...I have the feeling I'll be rewiring a car or two