As to deciding on a power supply, you can go small, big, or extravagant.
Decide how much power you need to draw, keeping in mind there's a lot of fudge in the manufacturer numbers on amps (they want it to look powerful), and keep in mind you want a safety factor of about 1.5 or 2x to make sure you supply enough current, without exploding your power supply.
It's not uncommon for car amps to draw hundreds or upwards of thousands of watts. Running hundreds of watts at 12-14 volts means you are drawing HUGE current (volts*amps = watts) - so you need really heavy duty cabling.
A modified computer power supply might be just the ticket to a cheap high current power supply; but be advised - they SOMETIMES put out lots of noise on the lines - so you want to use one of those gigantic 1+farad 12v capacitors designed for car audio.
Comments
11 years ago
What is this 120W outlet? Odd term for an "inside" thing.
L
Answer 11 years ago
Excuse me. I meant 120 volts. Otherwise Known as 110 voltage/power.
Answer 11 years ago
The details you need should be in this one:
www.instructables.com/id/ATX-Powered-car-stereo-and-3-way-speakers-for-ho/
L
Answer 11 years ago
I'm guessing he meant 120 Volts. In the U.S. its not uncommon to refer to standard household current as either 110, 115 or 120 volts
11 years ago
As to deciding on a power supply, you can go small, big, or extravagant.
Decide how much power you need to draw, keeping in mind there's a lot of fudge in the manufacturer numbers on amps (they want it to look powerful), and keep in mind you want a safety factor of about 1.5 or 2x to make sure you supply enough current, without exploding your power supply.
It's not uncommon for car amps to draw hundreds or upwards of thousands of watts. Running hundreds of watts at 12-14 volts means you are drawing HUGE current (volts*amps = watts) - so you need really heavy duty cabling.
A modified computer power supply might be just the ticket to a cheap high current power supply; but be advised - they SOMETIMES put out lots of noise on the lines - so you want to use one of those gigantic 1+farad 12v capacitors designed for car audio.