Guest bluex_v1 Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 I want to buy or build a rectifier setup so I can have a constant 12vDC power source in my garage (wired with 110vAC) while wiring up my z and experimenting with power window and wiper swaps I want to try. I know several of you here are EEs...any advice or a good site that would tell me how and with what? I want to do it cheap of course, but it would still need to handle 5 amps or more I suppose. Thanks! ---I just realized even cheapo computer power supplies output 12vDC @ 5 amps or more...is that likely to be enough to operate a wiper motor or power window motor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 How about a battery charger - don't they provide 12V at about 10 amps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 I'm not an EE but I'll try an answer here until they do reply. A 5A rectifier sounds a bit small (60watt) but I've not ever metered the current drawn by various devices on a car other than lighting. I've built such recifiers for garage use, but without spending a lot of time and money on creating a smooth (fairly smooth anyway) wave rectifier, you can get away with a typical Radio Shack transformer, and bridge retifier. But I've found out that many garage sales have battery charges that go for cheap money, and this was the way I eventually went. I did not get the same satisfaction that one gets when building his own, but is sure was less time consuming and I ended up paying less than it would have cost for the components to build one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluex_v1 Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 Geez, that was quick I don't think I got my edit in there in time for you guys to see. I'm sure I have a good spare ATX computer power supply somewhere...12vdc@5.5 I think. Aren't power windows usually routed through the fuse box along with several other accessories? If you are able to run 2 or 4 power window motors all at the same time and whatever else might be on that fuse, then they probably would be less that 5 amps right? I will keep my eyes peeled for the battery chargers for sure...thanks for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 Battery charger works great. That is what I use to power the old car radio I installed in my garage. If you want to get fancy you can hook it up to a small car or motorcycle battery to help regulate the voltage with sudden current draws. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 Heh, Terry isn't an EE, but he's probably done cooler electrical stuff than any EE I know! You've gotta love the Tesla coil... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 If you get desperate, Rat Shack has these, I dont know the A rating though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bluex_v1 Posted February 24, 2003 Share Posted February 24, 2003 This is just for anyone else that may search for this later: http://www.geocities.com/n2uhc/pwrsupply.html Pretty basic instructions for using a computer power supply for a 12vDC bench supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted February 26, 2003 Share Posted February 26, 2003 http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_experiments_charger.html Here's one. 60 amps!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.