Hey, I have a 250 watt pc power supply, but I know it has multiple ports for a 12 volt taps (the ones that go into hard drives and cd-roms)
how hard would it be to convert this into something that can be used to power my triton charger?
I would think I could power multiple tritons with this as thier are about 5 12 volt taps in it.

If you are comfortable with electronics and soldering, this should do

http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.bat...owersupply.htm

There are a number of good sites out there with this conversion. This one's just fine. The main thing you need to know is just the color code of the out put wires. Old Pwr Splys go for about $8. Its easy. All you really have to do is solder together all the similar colored output wires to get the full amperage output. Run 'em out the back and label the taps by voltage and polarity (+-). But the main one you're interested in is the 12 volt. I attached an auto cigarette lighter type connector to mine as there are so many chargers with that type of connector that come with park fliers. Also that way there is no confusion about polarity.

I put the opposite connector of the same style on my charger. You can get these auto style connectors at radio shack. You can go on and on. I use the old computer sply to charge one of those tower hobbies 12v gel cell batteries and I take that to the field to charge the plane batteries. (The field is a bit of a walk from the parking area, otherwise I could just use my car lighter.) I put another auto lighter style plug on that. But you need a second plug that matches the output of your charger to charge the gel cell. It also helps to tape a half section of the bottom of a plastic bottle over the bare contacts of the gel cell so you don't accidentally short them. The things really a small car battery.

I converted a power supply. It was my first electronic's project. I followed instructions from Red's site and after a lot of procrastination, finished it up without much trouble.

I didn't end up with 12V on the line though. I ended up with 11.5V. I still need to add a bigger load on the 5V line. I used the auto light bulb and only got an extra .15V or so extra out of it. What you might want to consider is to NOT cut off all the extra connections--leave one to plug in a disk drive. I've heard one person do that and that load was enough to bring up the line to 12V.

Apparently, there are 'sense wires' that some newer power supplies have. Look for any wires that are connected at the connector or elsewhere. Apparently, these need to be connected together for the PS to work properly.

I read that in one or the other of the conversion sites. I just used the cheapest Radio Shack panel light I could find on the recommended line (I forget now if it was the +5v line or the PwrOn line.) and I too got only 11.5V at idle. But you have to measure the voltage whcn charging. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least 18-19 volts when charging my 12V gel cell. How a 12v supply puts out 18v is beyond me, but its not hard to figure out. Its just tedious. You have to find out all the internal resistance numbers adn nominal voltages of the components and then do all the math. As long as it charges my 'stuff', and doesn't overheat anything I don't worry.

There is an article someplace where the guy goes into all of this and he shows how you can, sometimes with a few tweeks, charge almost any battery with any charger within reason. Lets see if I can find it before the server times out on this message......here we go: www.rcbatteryclinic.com

And Bob's your uncle.

TGDF,

I think I measured the PS voltage when charging and still had only 11.5V. I'll do it again to confirm. Regardless, though, my Triton is charging my batteries, so I don't really care to get the full 12V anyway. I suppose if I had larger packs it will make a difference.

You could always order a Vector 6 amp AC/DC converter of eBay, thats what I did. Puts out 6 amps DC, that is probably more than you will need. It was like $10 + shipping.

The problem with that, and forgive me, you may have thoroughly checked it out already, is "What kind of 6Amp DC does it supply?"

Regulated / unregulated? Square wave DC? Sign Wave pulse DC?

That's the beauty of a cheap used PC pwr sply. A regulated pwr sply puts out a steady voltage +- less than 1%. Its a sweet place to start your charging because if something blows up (figuratively speaking) you can start with the charger and batteries because there should be no fault with the sply. The only test you'd have to do is maybe measure the sply voltage. Being a digital device its going to either be working properly or way off.




(So nobody gets confused, I just quoted myself,)


I'm pretty sure I measured the 11.5v at the sply output at idle. I'm not sure if I measured the ,,,,,,now that I think of it I'm pretty sure I must have measured the 18-19v at the input to the 12v gell cell while charging it. The output from the sply which is the input to the charger is the automobile cigarette lighter type connectors. There's no way I can think of to get probes in there when its connected and I can't remember doing it.

I used to stick the VOM probes into the back ends of the Kyosho or Tamyia (or whatever the heck their names are) connectors. They fit well and made good connections for accurate readings but it felt somehow obscene. Like I was doing a prostate exam or something. But it really helps when you first try out a new setup to check a few voltages at informative locations. VOMs (volt/ohm meters) are under $15 these days and if you're into electrics......Yeah, I know, for young kids, this hobby $5 and $10s you to death.

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OK. I charged a few batteries last night and yep, just at a quick glance, I saw the voltage at the 12v gel cell go above 14v. I didn't wait around to see how high it would go. That was between the battery and the charger, not between the pwr sply and charger. Again, how a charger can get 14v out of a 12v sply is beyond me. This is why you can use almost any charger to charge almost any battery as explained in one of the articles at www.rcbatteryclinic.com . Its really helpful to read it. For example that's where I got the idea to buy a $10 AAA, AA and 9V charger at Radio Shack because it is a perfect slow/trickle charger for new batteries. Seems that new batteries are better charged very slowly rather than with a quick peak charger for the first time. It helps to set the battery up for a longer life of deeper discharges. Some battery mfgrs do this for you, but its hard to tell who.