Newsgroups: sci.electronics.misc
Subject: Re: Can I use a PC PS to power an automobile audio amp?
References: <[email protected]>
From: Tomi Holger Engdahl 
Date: 27 Jan 1999 17:03:14 +0200
Message-ID: 
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Lines: 27
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34
[email protected] (Napalm (mike)) writes:
 
> looking to power my Bass Shakers in my home Sim cockpit, can I use a
> extra PC power supply to power the automobile audio amp for these.
> will it produce enough amps/power?

This depends on the porer of the amplifiers and the capabilities
of the PC power supply. Generally PC power supplies are designed so
that the +5V output is always the most loaded one and all the
output voltage controlling is done based on that output.
So if the +5V output is not loaded enough, then the voltgaes on
other output can drop quite much if they are heavily loaded.
This means that generally you just can't plug the PC power supply
to car amplifier and get the expected full 12V power it claims
to output. So PC power supply is not very suitable for this
kind of applications.

I would recommend you to buy a mains operated audio amplifier
to power those bass shakers. This kind of aplifier will be much
better at places where you have mains power available. And it will
not usually cost much more than a good power supply capable of
supplying really enough power for that car amplifier to give out
it's maximum output power.

-- 
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web pages at http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/