okay im going back to my dorm room next week and i wanna bring up my car subs to hook up to my stereo... i thought about picking up a DJ amp to power them but i figure i have 3 car amps sitting around i may as well use em...

how would i rig a power supply so i can plug my amp into the wall and have it power my subs. the amp is a 1000 watt amp and wil be powering my 2 10's.

any sugestions....ive thought of using a battery charger..

 

A battery charger is NOT a power supply. You need a high current DC power supply. Something like MCM Electronics' part #72-6180A ($200) which is a 40 amp power supply.

Either that or you can take a battery or two and wire them in parallel and use them as your power supply.

 

Funny you should ask. My computer sound system consists of 2 car amps, 1 car crossover, and a spare 10" sub I had in a sealed box with some indoor/outdoor speakers. I just used a spare computer power supply for the 12V DC. There are two pins you have to short together on the supply so that it will turn on, but it is easy to determine from looking at the wiring diagram on the power supply.

I even did this with 2 10"s I had in another spare box and hooked it to my TV. It rocked hard till I had to use the amp in my TA.

 

This will work if the amp you're using is low power, a computer power supply is not able to supply enough current on the 12v line to run anything over about 150W RMS.

 

True depending on your power supply. But I have the loudest computer on anyone I know. It will flat out rock.

 

Did you take the power supply out of an old computer? I'm thinking about doing this for my dorm.....I would have the loudest computer at UCONN

 

Yup. Works like a charm.

 

um....im sure that works fine for u but im going to need 60 amps going to my amplifier.

guess my only real option is to say screw the amps and just buy a dj amp..

any other ideas?

 

I would say to try it first. You will be surpised at how little power you need when you are in a quiet environment. Cars are the worst possible environment for decent sound, why do you think that a 100W home system rocks, and a 100W car system don't? Anyhow, I am MORE than satisfied since it didn't cost me a thing.

 

Ok I have another question. I have access to 2 computers that I can take apart, one is a '91 IBM and the other is a '96 Gateway. Which one has a better power supply? Do the years make a difference?



thanks,
Mark

 

They should both have a label on them, use the one with the most watts.

 

Do you run the postive and negative wires from the power supply directly to the amp? Is this ok since in my car I have an 8 guage wire running from my battery to the amp, this wire would be significatly smaller.

 

The power supply has a label on it, they usually give specifics of how many amps it can do on whatever line (computers use 12v, 5v) and the total wattage of the supply. I have here laying in my room an old AT power supply, it's a 300W supply (which is farily good for an AT) and is rated at 12A on the 12v line. 12A isn't very much.

If you want to try it hook up to a black for negative and a yellow (usually yellow, some supplies have weird colors) for + 12v. Use a short piece of wire to connect between the amp's + 12v input and the remote turn on terminal.

 

Oh and yes, you can use thin wire. It's only a short run of wire and you won't be drawing much current anyway.

 

I got the computers today and took them apartment. I have a Newton Power Ltd. with 200W output. It has orange, red, black, blue, green, white, yellow and purple wires coming out. I can't figure out how to make the thing turn on. Do i tried twisting the yellow and red wires together and connecting a black wire to the old computer ground and it still doesn't work. What did you guys do? Do I have to wire all the blacks together and figure out which of the colors has power?



thanks,
Mark