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Led-Wiz and powered USB hub [noob question]

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modemman:
Just a quick update, I ended up using this mini PSU:

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f

This thing is essentially a DC/DC converter (runs on 12V DC from a standard brick), very efficient (up to 95% with the proper input power) which for me means no heat (I can cram it into a rather tight and stuffy spot inside my cab). Its output is very well regulated (lots of folks reviewed this thing). Also, it meets the wife criteria, who asked me to do whatever to lower the electric bill - I intend to give this cab as much 24/7 life as possible. I looked into this years back when I was building an HTPC, but it was a novelty and hard to find at the time. It gives me 6A (8A peak) on the 5V rail, plenty to drive all of GGG's RGB goodness and I want to use the 12V rail to run some 5050 SMD RGB LED strips through another Led-Wiz. It's slightly on the expensive side (vs. "free" ordinary PSU from the garage/attic/closets), but I have plenty of 12V bricks laying around, so at least I didn't spend on that. And a new thought just came into mind - this thing would make a wonderful compact workbench power supply for testing and projects...

PS. Like any other computer PSU, in order to turn it on without a motherboard, you have to trip its load sensing circuit. Not sure if I'm breaking any "code" here, I know this was intended for a momentary switch and to stay on only if there's an appropriate load present, but I just jump the green wire (on a PSU harness) to the ground. On this little thing, it's pin 4 looking at the top row of the connector, starting from the left, with the clippy thinghy on top and I use one of the 3 pins to the right of it (all grounds), but you can find plenty of ground points elsewhere.

Next is figuring out Mala/Mame/LedWiz/Ledblinky/plugins etc. stuff... So much to configure, so much to learn.

RandyT:

Interesting device.  I don't think you'll have any problems with the way you are forcing it on.  It's done all of the time with ATX supplies, and I haven't heard of an issue.  Looks like it has lots of power for other add-ons as well.  Nice find for powering bartops too, where space is a consideration.

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