View Full Version : DIY: Other uses for a PSU (Audio)
:skel: I am not held liable for any damages to your system and/or self. I am not an electrical engineer. Do at your own risk. :skel:
So the other day my Monsoon Sound speakers desided they didn't want to play anymore, :-( after 7 years I figured they had had enough. And I had been wanting to try my power supply hack once more anyway.
I had some old infinity 3-way 6x9 car audio speakers lying around that sound really nice so I decided I wanted to hook them up. I dug them out of the closet, and cut a hole in the side of one of the boxes they were in.
but, here is the question... How am I going to power the speakers? That's where the PSU hack comes in, A car audio amp runs on 12v and around 20-25 amps, Very close to a PC power supply huh?
A friend of mine had a 50w amp lying around and decided to let me have it.
The first lesson in this DIY is how to make the PSU run without being hooked to a motherboard. Well on the ATX connector, the green wire (there is only one) is the remote start, so connect the green wire to any black (ground) wire and the PSU will run until you disconnect to green wire again (this is also how I'm powering a light display at work).
After that I needed to find which wire was the 12v So I took the power supply and busted out my multimeter and found that the yellow wires (all of them) are 12v.
http://digitalstormstudio.com/personal/speakers/snap0022.jpg
So I mounted my power supply inside the speaker box.
I then cut all the wires off except for 2 Yellow wires (12v) and 2 black (ground) and the green wire (remote start).
http://digitalstormstudio.com/personal/speakers/snap0023.jpg
I took the back panel from the old speakers and mounted it where I cut the whole in the speaker box. notice that the plug for the power cord matched up perfectly to an existing hole. :thumb:
I hooked the green wire and one of the black wires to the existing power switch on the black panel to turn on and off the PSU
You can also see the 3 other wires poking out of one of the air vents.
http://digitalstormstudio.com/personal/speakers/snap0025.jpg
Then I just wired the wires up to the amp I mounted to the back of the box and everything worked perfectly! and It sounds great too.
Any questions?
P.S. I mentioned before that this was the second time i've done this PSU hack... This was the first time.
http://digitalstormstudio.com/personal/speakers/snap0026.jpg
12" car sub and lights... :woot:
FrozenMercury
04-29-06, 02:41 PM
Pretty cool! Get a whole system up and running like that and you got yourself some bragging rights. Thanks for sharing.
I used a PSU to power my 2 500W subs, worked well enough but i couldnt fire too much power into it or they would stop working :P Once the snow left I used the 4 pin 12V cable as a speaker level converter because I was too cheap to buy an adapter lol. Ripped the power switch out of the supply and rigged it to my power mirror fuse (no power mirrors in my car) and used it for a remote. Works nice :) Just flick the switch whenever I want to use the subs.
Oh yeah, reason I need the speaker converter is because I didnt want to touch my stock system. Have the 8-speaker Monsoon in my Grand AM and it does me well.
Maybe I should clearify... This system was used in my office, not in my car.
FrozenMercury, What would you consider a whole system? I have two 6x9 speakers and a 12" sub under my desk. Do I need to step this up to a 5.1 :-)
My next project for this is to create a box for the 2 amps and PSU and then just run speaker wire to the speakers and sub. insted of mounting all this crap inside or outside the speaker boxes. Anyone know how to cut plexiglass cleanly?
Anymore good PSU hack stories?
Yeah was using the subs on my comp during the winter with the extra PSU :P
A BIT CLUELESS
05-20-06, 12:25 PM
that is such a cool idea i was just thinking about doing something simler with an old psu where can you get tecnical info on them like what each wire does and stuff and how to modify the voltage they give out
red is 12 volts yellow is 5 volts right and and black it the circuite back to the psu
im not well today so i may not make scence :skel:
that is such a cool idea i was just thinking about doing something simler with an old psu where can you get tecnical info on them like what each wire does and stuff and how to modify the voltage they give out
red is 12 volts yellow is 5 volts right and and black it the circuite back to the psu
im not well today so i may not make scence :skel:
NO! NO!
yellow is 12v (see i'm using the yellow wires in my pictures).
Red is 5v
Black is ground of course.
and green is remote start for the PSU. Connect the green wire to any black wire and the power supply will run.
I have the green wire and a black wire hooked to the off/on switch you see in the pictures above.
§hinoßi
05-20-06, 04:29 PM
yeah man, this one time right, I like totally unscrewed the second fan out of my PSU and put a new one in...HARDCORE!!
yeah man, this one time right, I like totally unscrewed the second fan out of my PSU and put a new one in...HARDCORE!!
haha, nice.
Customers at my work think I'm crazy when they hear the ideas of how I would fix there stuff.
A BIT CLUELESS
05-21-06, 09:50 AM
NO! NO!
yellow is 12v (see i'm using the yellow wires in my pictures).
Red is 5v
thanks for that that would have been embarrising
how would i say make a turning dial that ajusts the voltage
and connecting 2 red wired and grounding it with 1 black wire give me 24 volts or does the psu have something that would mess this up because they can ajust the voltage
yahooadam
05-21-06, 05:11 PM
lol
2 red wires do not give 24v (apart from the fact in a computer PSU, yellow is 12v and red is 5v)
lol
seriously man, if you know that little about electronics, i dont reccomend that you mod anything electrical
thanks for that that would have been embarrising
how would i say make a turning dial that ajusts the voltage
go to radioshack and get an adjustible resistor for your paticular application. They can help you find the right ones.
and connecting 2 red wired and grounding it with 1 black wire give me 24 volts or does the psu have something that would mess this up because they can ajust the voltage
unfortunately that doesn't work. The PSU will never push out more then 12v unless you run it through an amplifier, which I wouldn't recommend.
now I have a question for the group. What can be done to tone down the amps of the PSU, Let say I want to power something that 20+ amps would kill.
cracklingice
05-21-06, 09:20 PM
The appropriate sized resistor?
yahooadam
05-22-06, 03:45 AM
huh
it only provides as much current as you draw ....
so you shouldnt be getting too many amps :confused:
anyway, otherwise i guess a resistor would work ....
im not 100% sure on the current side of electronics
A BIT CLUELESS
05-22-06, 04:45 PM
can anyone recormend a site where i can learn more about electronics such as the stuff stated in this topic?
chris000001
05-22-06, 05:35 PM
ummm www.google.com its a great resource
A BIT CLUELESS
05-22-06, 08:10 PM
well giveing me the address of google isnt what i was looking for i was asking where the people who are experts at this learned it or got some good info about it in general and about adapting a computer psu
i googled something along the line of modifying a psu for other uses but it had no sucess unless i wanted to buy one :sniper:
yahooadam
05-23-06, 03:56 AM
clueless (lol perfect name :p)
its not just modifying a PC PSU, you just dont know anything about electronics
school / college is a good place to learn stuff like that
google for electronics tutorial or somthing if you cant do it at college
i wouldnt reccoemnd messing around with very complicated power suppys when you dont even know the basics of electronics
No offence man, but these things are kinda dangerous
A BIT CLUELESS
05-23-06, 07:35 AM
ok i will admit i am a bit clueless when it comes to modifying electronic components but its something id like to learn, i may take an electronics class at college next year
dont worry i learned how dangerouse this stuff was when i was 4 :p
yahooadam
05-23-06, 12:20 PM
maybe thats the source of your problems
speaking of electronics, i just failed my exams :p
well i didnt do well, i know that much, gotta wait till like august to find out how bad
94030007900
06-28-06, 12:10 PM
Thats an amazing idea, good stuff :)
thanks, and it is still working and sounds great! although I have to turn the sub off at night because of my naiughbor below.
There actually is a way to get 24v out of a PSU. you will need a dual 12v rail PSU, and then use two 12v leads from the two separate rails. That should net 24v, although then again it might just not be able to handle that much voltage...
yahooadam
06-30-06, 10:55 AM
no it doesnt work like that
For eg, your dual molex to gfx card plug does not create 24v, its still 12v - just at a higher ampage
chris000001
06-30-06, 11:35 AM
There actually is a way to get 24v out of a PSU. you will need a dual 12v rail PSU, and then use two 12v leads from the two separate rails. That should net 24v, although then again it might just not be able to handle that much voltage...
if you wire your 2 rails togather you will more than likely destroy your PSU
yahooadam
06-30-06, 12:20 PM
if you wire your 2 rails togather you will more than likely destroy your PSU
thats also very possible, however, it still wont get you 24v
2 12v rails put together getting you something around 50-60 amps...
Don't touch it, 12v isn't enough to kill you but at 60 amps you'll get a good shock.
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