Thread: a cheaper power option

hey, I just purchased my psu from a guy on ebay for $30 with shipping, its one of those casetronic ones, I do not know the exact wattage, but i believe its around 70? Anyways, the important part is, my cousin and his uncle came up with a little solution for his carputer, that only costs about $30 and works wonderfully. I am going to build mine in the upcoming days, but the total cost is about $30 + $30 for the psu, and this makes it so you have a spare battery that lasts about 2-3 hrs and will automatically pulse the computer and make it shutdown, it is awesome, and much cheaper than an Opus. For a quick sketch just email me and I will forward what he sent, but for the exact parts and diagrams gimme a day or 2 ... good luck

i read the power.pdf file mini-box has ... in their schematic for a regulator / power control circuit they indeed use the LM1084IT-12 ... looks like this'll work just fine.

for now i think i'll wire a momentary switch up to the system power button and just turn it on and off manually until mini-box comes out with their solution.

i e-mailed them asking if they had an idea of when it'd be out and how much it'd be and simply got a response saying "we'll e-mail you when it's ready". pet peeve of mine when people don't take the time to answer your questions, but what are ya gonna do?

2000i30cg,

Was just looking @ your post about the cheap PSU + battery shutdown controller and was interested to see if you had any specs or details you could email me...?

I've been tryin to send you an email but it just doesnt want to work!!!!

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Phil

yeah i got your e-mail ... i'll try and shoot you someting back today.

If you want to run two linear voltage regulators in parallel, make sure you have small loading resistors on the output.

Use a short length of resistance wire (maybe 2cm) to decrease the output voltage a little (less than 0.1V is probably good). You need this because if you parallel two regulators, the voltage outputted by both of them won't be exactly the same. When you parallel the two straight together, one will have to drop it's voltage to match the other's and this drop has to take place within the regulator, which'll make it run hotter than normal. If you use resistance wire, it'll make this small voltage difference insignificant compared to the drop due to the resistors.

Originally Posted by shakes

for now i think i'll wire a momentary switch up to the system power button and just turn it on and off manually until mini-box comes out with their solution.

i e-mailed them asking if they had an idea of when it'd be out and how much it'd be and simply got a response saying "we'll e-mail you when it's ready". pet peeve of mine when people don't take the time to answer your questions, but what are ya gonna do?

Well, it's better than what they told me over a month ago: "Two weeks."

- Taytay