Hi all,
Some months back, my brother and I took on a rather ambitious project of making a "shop radio" for my dad out of all car stereo parts for his birthday. I realize that this is far more expensive and convoluted than just purchasing a stereo, but that was never the point really. He's a huge Nascar fan, so we made 2 shelf speakers out of open faced motorcycle helmets styled as his favorite driver, and the main unit is crafted out of MDF covered in standard subwoofer-box style carpet. The head unit is a double DIN Pioneer with fairly standard features as far as power requirements go. In fact, it's actually slightly less powerful at the preamps than many other head units, but it's perfect for him. Overall, it's just a basic 4 speaker setup with a head unit. I had an old PC P&C 510 power supply collecting dust, and I decided to use that to power the unit.
Specs listed here:
http://
Now, the issue:
Accessory lead and 12V constant lead are connected via butt connectors to one yellow 12V wire on the PSU. Black is obviously grounded to black. The green wire on the 24 pin connector has been cut and butt connected to another ground wire. The radio powers on, and plays beautifully clear music . . . for about 5 minutes at a moderately high volume. Then the head unit cuts off as if it has lost all power. The time to failure seems consistent, but on accessory mode (no music, just idle power) it worked without failure for 15 minutes. From all the information I have gathered, this isn't supposed to happen. Once powered from a stable source, it should stay powered. I know from all of my PC build experience that power issues such as this can point to a bad PSU. With this, however, I'm concerned that I'm not getting the appropriate power to the unit. We've blown no fuses, so I'm fairly sure that it's not too much power. I've also tried grouping two yellow wires from the PSU to increase amperage (similar to how you would increase power if you were powering an amp using the same method). When the unit fails, the PSU fan stops. A quick flick of the switch turns the unit right back on and I can repeat the process with consistency.
What is my issue here? Should I be wiring this thing a different way? Or do all signs point to a bad power supply? My parents will be here from out of town tomorrow afternoon and I'm really burning the midnight oil trying to get this project completed in time. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
P.S. Found this at Radio Shack.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103960&umt_content=SG_powerSupplies&umt_campaign=CMS&umt_source=Cat&umt_medium=RSCOM#showFullReviews
Don't want to purchase this just to test a theory, and I don't have another PSU to test either, but I may have no choice. It's only 15 AMPS but that should be enough if I need to go this route.
Some months back, my brother and I took on a rather ambitious project of making a "shop radio" for my dad out of all car stereo parts for his birthday. I realize that this is far more expensive and convoluted than just purchasing a stereo, but that was never the point really. He's a huge Nascar fan, so we made 2 shelf speakers out of open faced motorcycle helmets styled as his favorite driver, and the main unit is crafted out of MDF covered in standard subwoofer-box style carpet. The head unit is a double DIN Pioneer with fairly standard features as far as power requirements go. In fact, it's actually slightly less powerful at the preamps than many other head units, but it's perfect for him. Overall, it's just a basic 4 speaker setup with a head unit. I had an old PC P&C 510 power supply collecting dust, and I decided to use that to power the unit.
Specs listed here:
http://
Now, the issue:
Accessory lead and 12V constant lead are connected via butt connectors to one yellow 12V wire on the PSU. Black is obviously grounded to black. The green wire on the 24 pin connector has been cut and butt connected to another ground wire. The radio powers on, and plays beautifully clear music . . . for about 5 minutes at a moderately high volume. Then the head unit cuts off as if it has lost all power. The time to failure seems consistent, but on accessory mode (no music, just idle power) it worked without failure for 15 minutes. From all the information I have gathered, this isn't supposed to happen. Once powered from a stable source, it should stay powered. I know from all of my PC build experience that power issues such as this can point to a bad PSU. With this, however, I'm concerned that I'm not getting the appropriate power to the unit. We've blown no fuses, so I'm fairly sure that it's not too much power. I've also tried grouping two yellow wires from the PSU to increase amperage (similar to how you would increase power if you were powering an amp using the same method). When the unit fails, the PSU fan stops. A quick flick of the switch turns the unit right back on and I can repeat the process with consistency.
What is my issue here? Should I be wiring this thing a different way? Or do all signs point to a bad power supply? My parents will be here from out of town tomorrow afternoon and I'm really burning the midnight oil trying to get this project completed in time. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
P.S. Found this at Radio Shack.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103960&umt_content=SG_powerSupplies&umt_campaign=CMS&umt_source=Cat&umt_medium=RSCOM#showFullReviews
Don't want to purchase this just to test a theory, and I don't have another PSU to test either, but I may have no choice. It's only 15 AMPS but that should be enough if I need to go this route.
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