12V transformers or ???? How do i power a car amp for my setup.

[Smidsy]

Wanted to pick the brains of you lot out there. Noticed that sime of you are using 12 volt car amps to powere your speakers. What I want know is what are you using to supply the 12 Volts DC. Can you use a very large PC power supply , or do you use a seperate tranformer. If so what size output do you need? My amp I wnat to use is 125W per channel.

Craig

[Barcrest]

I found this...

MPJA is one of my normal places to go for "enclosed brick" style single output supplies.  Pretty easy to use, and MPJA's prices are decent (though you can do better with used goods or clearance sales sometimes).  You want a 12V supply for a car amp.

Depending on how much output power you need, just using your PC supply may be a good option since you already have it.  Most PC supplies are spec'd to handle a beefy video card and processor which you're likely not using in a jukebox system, so that extra capacity could easily be put to use to power an amp.  PC supplies are regulated, but may have some noise on them from the other PC equipment that may leak through your amp, depending on how well filtered your amp's power inputs are.

Easiest way to pull power off a PC supply is one of the hard drive "molex" connectors.  Grab a SATA power adapter, Y cable, etc. and hack the end off to get wires, or you can buy the actual connector at places like Fry's (it's a 0.093" variant that will usually be identified as a "disk drive connector").  You only want to pull maybe a few amps off that, though, since it's only a single wire.  Be sure to use nice heavy wire (like 18AWG).

A better option for PC supplied power is to use a PCIe connector or multiple HDD connectors.  More wires = more current handling capability.  The PCIe connector is a 6 position AMP 4.2mm PE series (also sold by Molex under the Mini-Fit series as well as several others).  That'll get you 6 beefy wires.  You can easily pull  200-400W off of that, assuming your power supply can deliver that much (check the ratings).


However, a simpler option for many people is to just use a stereo/AV receiver.  These take line level inputs like from a PC and have speaker outputs which are often capable of driving 4 ohm car speakers (but check the specs).  Power for these types of devices is simple: plug it into a wall or power strip.

These posts might also be of help to you...

Converting a JPM Cab.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88886.0

Powering a Car Amp.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88396.0

Also some guy used one in a mame cab.
http://www.mameworld.net/massive/How-to/Amp_Install/amp_install.html

Looks like the 700 watt you mentioned purchasing will be more than sufficent to run the car amp you have. There is more than enough info there to get you up and running....

[eist1]

I have a 300 Watt Car Amp in my jukebox and I am powering it with my 750 Watt PC Power supply that powers my PC, LCD Display and the Car Amp. Just use the yellow wire on the plug as that is the 12V wire, the red wire will only be 5V.

[Smidsy]

Thanks for the replies guys, looks like the 700W power supply I have ordered will fine.

Craig

[Smidsy]

Installed the 700W power supply and it works perfectly. Looks like thats the way to go for future projects.

Craig