Using ps to power nonpc 12v items

eidsvik

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Aug 15, 2005
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I'm interested in utilizing a power supply from a retired pc to operate a car cd player in my shop. Wire colors are standard. Output ratings meet the minimum required to operate the cd player and don't exceed the maximum power input for the cd player unit. Can this be done?

LITEON pa-4022-68
 

poly4life

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Feb 4, 2004
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Of course it's doable. IMO, I think it's slightly overkill but this is your project. You'll need to manually determine the pin functions or search for a schematic of the cd player to determine the voltages. This link will give you a rough idea (it's slightly different) of how to proceed with this project (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/71). This is to power the car cd player OUTSIDE the vehicle, do I have that right?

Because your car battery operates on 12V, it's probable the car cd player is the same. I imagine all car decks run on 12V, but I may be wrong; perhaps some decks are configured with a different voltage. If you could provide the model of the car cd player, I'm sure the forum can assist you better.
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Probably, but you might have to combine a few leads. Cars use red for 12v, power supplies use yellow. For ATX power supplies, grounding the green wire to any black wire or the housing of the PSU will turn the power supply on.

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eidsvik

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Aug 15, 2005
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If anyone is interested in doing this...

Still not there yet but this is what I've come up with. I decided I'd use the plug for the hdd. Figured it would give the most juice seeing as it's made to power 2 hdd's. I pulled out my multimeter and found it read nothing? it wasn't until the fan came on inside that I got a reading. So then I was thinking that the ps needs to sense a load before it delivered. So I taped the red 5v wire and it's ground to a light bulb and sure enoughmy needle jumped to 12v! I got power! Almost there! The cd player still won't turn on though. That's where I'm stuck. The cd player must need some sort of trigger to turn on as well. Not sure what?

The reason I want to do this is that I have an entire car audio system complete with an mp3 cd player just sitting in a box. Wanted to put some tunes out in my shop for next to no $.

Thanks for the info