DON'T throw away that junk computer BEFORE you remove the power supply ! "12v" packs that run computers are real good for operating things in the work shop such as SuperNova chargers, etc. . With a little work you can make a nice power pack for your work bench complete with on/off switch and any types of plugs !

there is an article in the sept. issue of aviation modeler about using these it tells all the thing you have to do to make them work

anyone have a link?

Not sure about the other article but you can find instructions on this by going to www.marcee.org

Hope this helps. There have been several post to this in the Battery & Charger section of RC Universe.

Chris

thanks

Here's a link to another great article on converting a PC power supply. Putting a load on the 5V side is usually necessary so that the 12V output is high enough.
http://www.marcee.org/Articles/PCPowerSupply.htm
I converted one for use with my Triton charger, and it works great.

hehehe they are the same link

There was a recent article about this in one of the model airplane magazines. It had a much better idea for the load on the 5 volt side. Does any one know what publication tjis was?

Thanks,

Mark

it was in last months edition of the magazine you receive with your AMA membership

THe AMA magazine article was pure horse dungola. Lot's of misinformation there. Go with the marcee web site.

Here's a crude drawing of how it can be done.


Blackie

Blackie,

Thanks. Simple and effective.

Mark

I have built 2 of these, the simplest way to do it is this way. Get the computer, pull the power supply, keep the on/off switch connected, and you can use this as an on/off to your power supply. These supplys will not power on without a load, so take an old hard drive, or floppy drive and just plug it into a power on the supply. Then you can use a voltmeter to identify the voltage of the power outputs on the unit. mark the ones that you want. You will see -12V and +12V and -5V and +5V leads. be sure to keep a black ( - ) lead for every + lead you keep. What I did was keep 2 - 12V+ leads and one 5V+ lead and a negative lead for each. once identified, unplug the unit, then take the cover off and remove the leads that you are not going to keep. remember that you need to keep one 5V lead, this lead you are going to solder a 10watt 10ohm resistor to it and the negative for it. This lead provides the load for the unit to kick on. The reistor will get warm, not hot, you can touch it and not get burned, I just used a nylon zip tie and zipped it in front of the cooling grille on the power supplys case. then I took a pc of teflon I got from the cutoffs at a local plastic company and made a power buss if you will and double face taped it to the top of the unit. I have used these for almost a year now and my Supernova works great on them ! Any questions, feel free to pop one on and i'll do my best to answer it the best I can.