Thread: Power supply questions

I too have some questions.
I battled with the ITPS and vendor B PSU's and just plain crappy results, I saved my interest in the hobby and got the Opus150.

I was running a MII-12000, slim dvd-r, 1 80gig 2.5 internally, THEN, I have 3 powered usb hubs that are getting their power from the +5v/gnd rails of the opus, 3 usb hubs, 2 more 80gig 2.5" drives, however, both the 2.5" drives are not getting power from just the usb line, both have had power adaptor plugs spliced into the 5v rail of the opus. There is the GPRS card, the GPS, The XMpcr, the Adaptec usb MPEG2 capture/a/vi nput box, and the 2 touchscreen usb overlays for the monitors on powered "extended lengths", and now an "vga/composite video dongle device that gets its power from having to be hooked up to a primary USB port so that the computer thinks its just sending video out to the VGA, and the box "splits it" so as far as the pc knows, only 1 device (eliminates the dvd/divx playback not showing up on both cheap composite LCD's and the touchscreen vga's.

I have a 200 gig IDE drive in a aftermarket usb 2.0 case, IT WILL run, BUT gets write errors as there is just not enough power. If you've read my previous posts, you would know that my #1 priority was to have a mobile video bank of over 300 gigs of DivX dvd's I encoded my self.

Well the MII-12000 just CANT cut it.

So I just bought a LV-670 with a 2.6Centrino 533fsb (it might have been 400FSB), added a ddr266 1gig memory module, HAD to add a PCI to Carbus controler so that my GPRS pcmcia card could be used as the 670 has no pcmcia slots like its cousin the LV-671.

I also ordered a Casetronics Travela C137 with the 90watt powersupply. I also have 3 or 4 of those SNAP in PSU's with the ITPS just lying around and NOW will have whatever casetronics gives me.

I plan on using the OPUS 150 to power the "case and its guts" and tring to figure out which of what I have to use (Im leaning to the 90 that is coming with the new case since its not one of thiose PSU's that snap onto a riser on the MOBO). It would be real easy to tap into my relay that I created from FAQ help from all my buddies here (your reading this now!) to propperly shut down the OPUS +5rail that flaws and stays lit even when everything else is off.

I dont see why one of the 12v rail wires from the molex plus couldnt work as the "remote turn on to this 2nd power supply" with constant +12/GND directly to the battery like the Opus 150 does now.

Then I would simply splice into the 2nd powersupplys available molex connectors for +5v for all the USB hubs, usb extention cables, AND grab some of that extra +12rail to combine with the +5v to be able to give the power I need to my 3.5" ata hard drive converted to a USB drive by mounting it in one of those cases.

My truck has 3 Optima Yellow tops, so I have the power available, its just I KNOW that moving up to a p4 from the doggy MII-12000 system is going to add more of a draw from my opus (which already technically cant run what I have right now,BUT, I bet if I was to ditch the 3.5" drive I might make it work, but I dont want to, as a matter of fact, I have a 2nd 200gigs setup the same way. (Again, I want every DVD I own DIVX compressed and on harddrives, just something that excites me, a rolling blockbuster).

So, anyone want to tell me some suggestions, can I pull, externally mount, and protect the c137 90watt dc-dc supply by feeding its ignition/remote on from a +12v rail from the OPUS, eliminating a ITPS at this location, thus allowing the 2nd PSU to startup/shutdown on the opus schedule usings its sequences.

I dont know enough about psu's to know if the 2nd has to have the +5 stndby and power on connections extended to it, one person told me that these PSU's need the signals from the motherboard to turn on, and that its not a simply remote power on that kicks them on (although thats what my Opus does, it turns on even when the carputer isnt in the truck so thats why I might think thatas a crock of crap).

Also, will the +12v feeding into the switched +12 input on the c137 PSU cause problems to the opus or vice versa?, if it was a posibility then I would actually wire in a relay so that the opus remote on source is just opening the gate for direct attached +12 from the battery, I think I remember somewhere reading that a SPST relay takes like .01 watts or something rediculous like that.

Any comments?

Just ditching the external 3.5's to make the one Opus 150 work isn't really a option, As I also have a internal +12volt camera and a external/rear +12v color camera that I want to add at some point (they even have built in webservers for remote checking out, kinda choppy at my 150K GPRS connection, but none the less, it does work, I can control the camera moters for left/right/up/down from a home pc and see what going on in the truck, I've even wired the Viper alarm to false the computer to boot when it goes off, and have a 3rd button on the remote that allows me to leave the system running, so technically, I could be at school in class, and leave my system up and web browse the cameras at my truck. And I even still have the 2more 200gig IDE 3.5" drives, now Thats out of control, but why not if I WANT to....


Wow, that was a BOOK. Anyone with the knowledge, PLEASE chime in, as Im not evening having to spend any money, I have the extra 200watt (YEA RIGHT) snap onto the motherboard PSU"s, the original PSU from my Caetronics 3688 Mini-ITX case, and the new 90watt that is coming in the c137.

help, and Thanks

SD