ORIGINAL: JNorton
ORIGINAL: Wayne Miller
Hi,
One thing you may want to consider is to adjust the power supply voltage to 13.6 volts, not 12 volts, usually the power supply will allow you to adjust for this.
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You do not have to have 13.8 VDC to run many of the new chargers. ICE or Elite. My PC supply only puts out 11.6 VDC and I have no problems with it.
John
John and I have had a running discussion over voltage levels for converted PC power supplies and we both agree that folks many times are trying to drive the output voltages higher than are needed for their chargers to function properly. While some PC supplies have internal trimmer pots to control output voltage, the majority I've opened do not and the only recourse is to tweak voltage levels with resistive preloads. It is possible to raise voltages by applying higher loads (lower resistance) to a certain extent, but as long as your charger functions, there is no gain in increasing the load and certainly no advantage in using any resistance below 2 ohms. I start with 10, drop to 5 then possibly to 2 if needed -- on occasion, I have needed over 12 volts for foam cutting, but as John said, most of the newer chargers will function with input voltages in the 10.5 to 11 volt range.
Input voltage specifications for the
Hobbico Mk II is 10 to 15v, but the instructions state further down that 11v is the minimum required for proper operation.