Power Rail for head unit?

Mage · 10-19-2004, 12:03 AM

hey have a question, it's for another project of mine.

I have a spare rampage adr-14 head unit that I plan on putting in my home pc would the 5V and 12V rails from the power supply work for it or do I need to run a second power sys I have Allied True 450W PS.

thanks
Mage

megamind · 10-19-2004, 01:56 AM

It will work, only it will give a 12v signal and your battery gives like 13,8v it can make a difference (i know from experience), you wont need the 5v i guess?

Mage · 10-19-2004, 03:17 AM

thinks for the info anyother info would be great

Peace
Mage

Nic · 10-19-2004, 06:48 AM

i would recommend to keep the volume low, a power supply isnt made to supply the amount of current a head unit draws, nor is it designed to deal with the fluctuating power requirements

Mage · 10-19-2004, 06:50 PM

thanks for the info Since I'm going to plug it in to the line in I'm going to control it via the pc Over the Vol control.

Peace
Mage

HybridFox · 10-21-2004, 10:14 AM

it would prob be better to just pick up a 110v to 12v transformer
from the shack for 6$

Mage · 11-05-2004, 03:49 AM

Thanks, I have one but I'm trying to keep my PC down to just 2 plugs (mon and pc) for this. I rather power it inside than out, That makes it a nicer install if you know what I mean.

Peace
Mage

WhiteRabbit · 11-09-2004, 03:04 AM

internat splice to nab power from one coord, internally it gets its own power.

might be nice spliced directly to the PC power supply, but wont be so neat and nice when stuff is on the fritz.....

Nic · 11-09-2004, 03:07 AM

what?

WhiteRabbit · 11-09-2004, 01:21 PM

you said you didnt want a separate power plug because its messy. you can tap AC power from inside the computer case to power the 12 volt radio supply. that way, your radio will be running on an external supply afterall, but you still have only one power plug exiting the case. that power plug just powers both the computer PSU and the 12 volt power supply.

RPI Geek · 11-09-2004, 01:48 PM

I haven't looked up the specs for your head unit and I'm not sure I understand how you want to hook them together, but if you're trying to get FM to your computer from the HU, be careful with the volume. Head units usually don't have a preamp output, they're intended to drive the speakers directly. If you put that much power into your line in, you might run the risk of blowing up your sound card.
If you're using the HU as a volume control / amp, then there's a small risk of getting noise in your sound output. One reason people are moving towards external sound cards is because electrically, the inside of a PC is a pretty noisy environment. I would imagine that head units are already shielded from that kind of noise, but who knows?
Keep in mind that I'm purely speculating and your setup will probably run just fine, but if you haven't thought of these issues you might want to ask around to see if someone who knows more than me can answer any questions you might have.

Nic · 11-09-2004, 07:57 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by RPI Geek

Head units usually don't have a preamp output, they're intended to drive the speakers directly.

how do u think you plug them into a car amplifier?

Jackso · 11-09-2004, 08:06 PM

A 475 Watt power supply will provide 30 amps of 12 power, that's 360 watts, your rampage is probably only about 100watts so as long as your pc isn't going to use more than about 200 watts you'll be fine. Got my info from below, I've seen others but this was the first I found tonight... take a look around.

http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.bat...werRatings.htm

Cris · 11-09-2004, 08:13 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Jackso

A 475 Watt power supply will provide 30 amps of 12 power, that's 360 watts, your rampage is probably only about 100watts so as long as your pc isn't going to use more than about 200 watts you'll be fine. Got my info from below, I've seen others but this was the first I found tonight... take a look around.

http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.bat...werRatings.htm

This is very usefull.

RPI Geek · 11-10-2004, 09:27 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Nic

how do u think you plug them into a car amplifier?

Well, being no expert, I thought that they just took a normal signal and boosted it. My thought is that the VAST majority of head units sold are able to drive the speakers without an amp, and I guess I made a bad assumption that they don't have preamp outs.
Next time I'll put a disclaimer on a note that I'm not sure about