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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: leapinlew on April 14, 2006, 01:24:40 pm

Title: Electrical Question - is 12v from a cigarette lighter the same as 12v from a pc?
Post by: leapinlew on April 14, 2006, 01:24:40 pm: I am building a jukebox that I plan on posting in the projects section soon. I have some red neon subwoofer lights that mount to those subwoofer boxes those crazy kids have nowadays. It comes with a 12v cigarette lighter adapter and I am assuming I can hack the wire and connect it to the 12v on my power supply of my computer.

What I know is they are both 12v and they are both DC. But, I don't know much about electric and not sure if there is a amp issue that could cause the lights to burn out quickly.

So, my question is: do I need to do anything special to get these neon tubes to work with my 12v PC power supply if they were intended for a 12v cigarette lighter?

Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Electrical Question - is 12v from a cigarette lighter the same as 12v from a pc?
Post by: JeepMonkey on April 14, 2006, 01:52:43 pm: You should be fine running them off a PC 12V. I used to run 12V 80mm computer fans in my old truck to keep the amps cool.
Title: Re: Electrical Question - is 12v from a cigarette lighter the same as 12v from a pc?
Post by: missioncontrol on April 14, 2006, 02:04:19 pm: I have seen a cabinent once that had a car cigarette lighter on his CP... I was considering this but decideded against it what I quit smoking........
Title: Re: Electrical Question - is 12v from a cigarette lighter the same as 12v from a pc?
Post by: leapinlew on April 14, 2006, 02:22:34 pm: 1 other questions:

How many of these 12v devices can I run off a single 12v connection from the power supply? Could I double them up? to get 2 devices to run off a single 12v wire?
Title: Re: Electrical Question - is 12v from a cigarette lighter the same as 12v from a
Post by: ChriX on April 14, 2006, 02:31:55 pm: You will be fine connecting more than one device to a 12V line on your PSU, especially with such low current items. The lines are only connected together when they get back inside the PSU anyway. You are right to think about the current flow in the lines, if it were too much the wires would most likely melt or the PSU would cut out, but with something like this the current is low anyway so you don't really need to consider it.
Title: Re: Electrical Question - is 12v from a cigarette lighter the same as 12v from a pc?
Post by: MikeDeuce on April 14, 2006, 05:51:48 pm: I'm not being too serious, but there's always: http://www.thinkgeek.com/pcmods/cables/6b35/

:)
Title: Re: Electrical Question - is 12v from a cigarette lighter the same as 12v from a
Post by: danny_galaga on April 16, 2006, 04:46:04 am: there's nothing mysterious about all this. know how many watts your 12v supply can, well supply! and how many watts your devices draw. if the info you ahve is in amps well volts x amps = watts.