Amplifier & Subwoofer 12V Power

[enskpo]

I'm trying to hook up a decent 12V 30 watt Alpine amplifier and a 12" JBL subwoofer inside my cabinet using a 120V power adapter.  I'm using a heavy duty Dictaphone  power adapter at 13V 2.1 amp but it's not enough power to drive the sub properly and  the coin door lights beat to the music (they're hooked up to the same power supply).  What can I do to make this work?  THANKS!

[richms]

3 options.

1 buy a bigger power supply
2 turn it down
3 unplug the coindoor lights if the flashing bothers you

only #1 is a good solution.

[Kevin Mullins]

1 buy a bigger power supply
only #1 is a good solution.

Ditto ... you need something with a higher amperage rating.

[heffe2001]

I'm using a higher-powered Corsair 750w power supply to power my Clarion 4x90w amp in my Wurlitzer jukebox, along with the flip-book assembly (probably overkill, it's 60a on the 12v line), but it works perfectly, absolutely no problems at all.  I'd suggest something along the lines of a 20a 12v for that particular amplifier (a Corsair 400cx has a 30a single rail, it would work for both your lighting and your amplifier, and probably any other 12v or 5v stuff you put into  your box, link below, and it's on sale as well)

The Corsair 400cx (12v30a) on sale at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

The one I'm using is currently on sale at Newegg (99.99 after rebates):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006


ANY power supply will work, as long as it's got at least a 15-20a 12v line, so dig around and see if you have anything.  The 12v lines are the yellow/black that connect to your drives, just splice them in, and you should be good to go.

[Kevin Mullins]

The 12v lines are the yellow/black that connect to your drives, just splice them in, and you should be good to go.

True .... heck, I should have mentioned that because that's how I have my amp in my juke powered. (another duh moment on my part)
And it only has a measly 90watt power supply.

[heffe2001]

I'd just about bet a good chunk of change that the one I'm actually using (the 750), could power at least 2 of these amps I have, it's output is absolutely perfectly stable running the one, even when using the flipbook (and it draws a good bit of power).  I've not had a drop out, flash, or anything else yet (but to be fair, I don't have any lights on that supply just yet, but will as soon as I can order a couple of the LED bars from GroovyGameGear).  That's all I lack at this point hardware-wise is lighting.  I had a thought about using a LEDWiz and putting bright LED's behind the backglass, as it's got a bunch of concentric circles cut out for the lighting, and have them pulse to the music, but that might be a project for later .

[enskpo]

Thanks for the help!  I jumped the gun a little and ordered a 25 amp model from Radio Shack for $115.  I should have waited and bought the one you have for a much better value- oh well.  I'll be happy again once the bass starts thumping!  Rock on!

[heffe2001]

The Radio Shack supply should work fine, although I'd much rather get something like a Pyramid PSV300, it's only 20a, but it's made much better than the RS supply (supplies 13.8v too, which is optimal for car stereo stuff).  I was looking at their 52a at first, but couldn't justify the 170ish price-tag, and the Corsair on sale couldn't be beat...

[enskpo]

I just ordered the Corsair 750 from Newegg- $119 with free 3 day shipping before $20 rebate.  I'll return the Radio Shack if it ever gets here.  Still a better deal even with paying to ship the Radio Shack unit back.  The Corsair also has a 28 amp 5V output which will be great for the GGG RGB's coming soon.  I can't wait

Thanks for the help!

[heffe2001]

If you aren't going to power a PC with the supply as well (just the amp & 5v items), you may want to convert it totally like in this article:

http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Computer-ATX-Power-Supply-to-a-Lab-Power-Supply

I did this with my first bench-supply conversion (to run a 12v battery charger for my airplanes, works great, and I can connect any 12v/5v item to it with the adapters I made).  The Corsair I have I didn't do as much of a radical mod (I just took a few power adapters and trimmed them back for the resistor part of the mod, not needed if you have something 5v plugged into the supply, and ran a jumper between pins 15 and 16 (green and black) on the main power supply header that goes to the motherboard.  I'm working on setting that up switched from the other PC supply so it'll kick on when the PC comes on, and not run all the time as it does temporarily now, just need to pick up a relay I can use with it.)

For the initial tests, I used a old hard drive as a load for the supply, and used the HD adapters I had laying around for powering the amp & flipbook setup.  Once I had it working, I cleaned up the wiring a bit (didn't remove anything yet, but that's on the to-do list eventually), and used several of the drive connectors to give a bit more wire to the 12v amp's lines.  One other thing you'll need to do is jumper from the 12v input to the cut-on circuit for the amplifier (any size wire will do, all it's there for is to turn on the amp, could also use that with a relay to cut it on and off via a serial control, see the carmp3.com site for info on that). 

**EDIT**  I just checked the pinout on the main power supply connector, and shorting 15-16 is for a 24-pin header, the older 20-pin header you short 14 & 15 (still a black and a green pin on the standard wire colors though).  Just thought I'd mention it in case anybody was using a slightly older supply..