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Pc power supply

K

K

Jan 1, 1970
0
Any idea's how to power a PC (exlcluding monitor) from just a 12 volt
battery?


K
 
B

Bughunter

Jan 1, 1970
0
A cheap little inverter should do it. I'd look for one around 400watts and
about $30.
 
W

William P.N. Smith

Jan 1, 1970
0
K said:
Any idea's how to power a PC (exlcluding monitor) from just a 12 volt
battery?

You can look in the archives of this newsgroup for details, but
someone does make such a beast. However, it's extremely expensive
compared to a normal PC supply and an inverter, and you don't lose a
lot of efficiency with a decent small inverter, so that's really your
best bet.
 
D

Dennis Davis

Jan 1, 1970
0
K said:
Any idea's how to power a PC (exlcluding monitor) from just a 12 volt
battery?


K
I've seen a site that was from homepower, a link possibly, where they
modified the power supply to work from 12v or 24v. Try using homepower's
site and google to search, its been done just gotta find it.
 
S

Scott Willing

Jan 1, 1970
0
Any idea's how to power a PC (exlcluding monitor) from just a 12 volt
battery?


K

I'd echo the other responses here. I ran a notebook-based office, with
printer, scanner and external disk drives, from a refurbished
Statpower 125W inverter, 5 days / week for a couple of months. This
would probably run a desktop machine as well (they rarely draw
anything like their sticker-plate ratings), but small inverters are so
cheap now you'd be wise to get something larger.

With enough inverter, you could easily run a monitor as well, though
apparently that isn't part of your plan. Battery capacity is obviously
an issue.

If you value your time, this is the fastest and cheapest solution,
with no significant disadvantages.

Compared to a dedicated solution such as replacement PC supply
(commercial or home-brew) with 12V input, you have additional
advantages: the PC remains unmodified, and the inverter is also a
standard item that can be used for other purposes - even if only to
run a soldering iron for a couple of minutes. Finally, if something
fails, you're not faced with trying to replace an oddball item;
everything's "off-the-shelf."

-=s
 
G

Graybyrd

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thousands and thousands of big rig truck drivers are rolling over the
highways today running satellite TV setups, personal PC gear, microwave
ovens, and other off-the-shelf electronic stuff.

All of them are using DC to AC inverters of various sizes, up to 3 KW
rating.

I did it for several years. Based on experience, I learned these
valuable lessons:

a. 12 VDC power is an extremely lossy affair, involving high currents
and large drops across poor connections and underrated wiring. Thus, the
most efficient solution was to use a single run of heavy cabling as a
direct connect from the four-battery truck bank to the inverter. Most
stuff made or converted to run directly from 12vdc is pure _crap_.

b. Off the shelf DC to AC inverters are very efficient, cheap, and
reliable, but _only_ if you use them at about half rated capacity for
_long_ service periods. They will run fine at rated capacity for _short_
periods.

c. All of my gear ran flawlessly and reliably off the inverters. I did
find one inverter that didn't like to run certain types of computer
power supplies, but I found an easy startup sequence work-around for
that.

d. It is surprising what you can power up and run continuously from
off-the-shelf inverters: in my case, I had a small office-type
refrigerator in my truck cab that ran just fine. The starting current of
the hi-efficiency compressor was well within the rating of my 1500 KW
inverter.

Just a few observations ...

Gray
 
C

Caleb Hess

Jan 1, 1970
0
...snip...
The starting current of
the hi-efficiency compressor was well within the rating of my 1500 KW
inverter.

Uh, did you have room to haul anything else beside that inverter? ;)
 
G

Graybyrd

Jan 1, 1970
0
Uh, did you have room to haul anything else beside that inverter? ;)

Um sorry . that should have read 1.5 KW, or 1500 Watt .. small typo.

The 1500 watt inverter was about the size of a carton of cigarettes, and
was mounted on the forward wall of the bunk compartment, just behind the
driver's seat. The #4 gauge cables ran straight from the inverter input
posts to the battery bank under the cab floor.

Solid state inverters are very compact, even with the ventilation case
and internal fan.

Truck stops sell 3500 watt inverters that are about the size of a
compact laptop, but a bit thicker .. maybe 4 inches.

Gray
 
C

clare @ snyder.on .ca

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've just starting looking for a 12v power supply for a PC I want to install
in a motor home, and have found the following unit, don't know how well it
works. I don't know how efficient it is compared to using a inverter, but I
like the idea of being able to run the PC from the battery. Also saw one on
ebay.

http://store.mini-box.com/ituner/pw70a.html

Ernest

It is only good for computers using the VIA Mini ITX motherboard.
 
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