FrankenPower! Building a 12V Power Supply

[madmax]

anybody totally wrung one of these out with like 3 polycharge's all charging at the same time? I have no doubt it would work as they are rated to spin up to 5 hard drives, cdroms, and floppys simultaneously... Just curious. Great continuing thread!!

[Boulder]

I'm going to post pics in a minute, I had that problem Mike on the second one I'm doing for the shop. I bought binding posts and put them on the same way as my 5V banana jacks. Figured out the post was touching the case so I overdrilled the holes, slid a thin piece of fuel tubing over the post and sandwiched the post between the 2 fiber washers thus eliminating the possibility of a short. Kind of made my own silicone washer.

[Boulder]

	Quote: Originally Posted by madmax
	anybody totally wrung one of these out with like 3 polycharge's all charging at the same time? I have no doubt it would work as they are rated to spin up to 5 hard drives, cdroms, and floppys simultaneously... Just curious. Great continuing thread!!

You're looking at 3 109's, only at 3.2A though. I don't have packs here bigger than that.

[Chris Puckett]

I used mine a week ago with three chargers running all day long. No problems and everyone loved it.

[Mike Bargman]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Chris Puckett
	I used mine a week ago with three chargers running all day long. No problems and everyone loved it.

YES! That's what I'm talkin' about!

[rcpilot82]

mike i have not had the problem you described but it does sound to me like your shorting against the case.i am working on the 3rd conversion right now! all good so far!

[ckoerner]

Just a note.
A guy I fly with indoors brought his PS with him. It would not power up. There was a 3V sense wire. Hooked it up to one of the 3V wires and it worked fine.

[Chris Puckett]

Here is a nice large power supply at a good price http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4806800

[walkerk122]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Mike Bargman
	If anyone has any questions, PM me or e-mail me at mike@pitsbros.com. Cheers!

Damn Mike, I did not realize you were talking about one of these yesterday. I might need to take you up on the offer to replace the fallen foamie

Na, just kidding...really cool thread though, looks to be a lot lighter then the car battery I carry around!

[Uncle Brett]

Here's a pic of Frankenpower in action, with quite a load.
First charger is a Schulze 6-330d charging two 4s 2150mAh in parallel.
Second charger is a TP-1010c charging two TP3s2p 4200mAh in parallel.
Third charger is a PolyCharge 4 charging four 2100mAh batteries.
Last night when I tried charging this load, I would get a low imput voltage warning from either the Schulze or the TP chargers. This morning I connected the remaining yellow 12V wires to the binding posts. I only had one 12V wire per post before now I have 3 per post. That seems to have done the trick because all the batteries charged perfectly with no low voltage warnings. Cool.

[Marty]

.

[toprudder]

	Quote: Originally Posted by heydick
	I get 12.22V out of all my posts. Here's something that's perplexing me though, when the PS is turned on with no chargers plugged in, and then I plug a charger in, the whole thing shuts off. The only way it will turn back on is if I unplug the power cord from the wall then plug it backin and turn the PS back on. If I have a charger already plugged into the PS then turn it on, it works. Not a big deal, it works and that's all that matters.

The only thing I can think of is that the inrush current to the power supply may be causing the power supply to shutdown. You might try connecting a large capacitor across the 12v terminals something like this: http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family

That will help supply some of the inrush current to the power supply when you connect it.

Bob R.