Which 12V DC SMPS for amps?

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Hi there. Long time reader, first time poster, so please be gentle with me!

I'm working on a new build for my car. I currently have a few car audio amps driving the equipment, however, I think I need a change!

The reason I'm changing all this is because I'm planning on driving my speakers actively, ditching the crossovers they came with; I'll be using something like a Pioneer DEX-P9 and DEQ-P9 to do all the filtering and crossovers. I just don't have enough space in the car boot to put normal car audio amps and so I'm looking at going down the Class D route to save space yet get decent quality power.

My current thought it to have the following:
  • 2x Hypex UcD180 for each main woofer driver
  • 2x Hypex UcD180 for each tweeter
  • 1x Hypex UcD400 to drive a subwoofer.
I sent an email off to Hypex asking about PSU possibilities because obviously being used in a vehicle, I only have a 12 - 14.4V DC supply and no 230V AC.

They recommended I have a look at coldamp's CPS80 and I think I would possibly need two of those units to comfortably drive the above UcD amps. Although getting two ends up being rather pricey :(

Can you advise what you think on the above? Are there 12VDC - +-40V DC ready-built kits other than the CPS80 available? Ideally, if there was something with more power, then I could have just one. Or is one CPS80 enough for the above? I'm an electronics engineer and pretty handy with soldering and all that, but my electronic design skills are abandoning me so I can't see myself building something from scratch and making up my own windings for transformers, etc.

Recommendations gratefully received :)

P.S I posted this in the Class D section and not the car audio as I thought it pertained more to class D and powering it than car audio specifically. Please move if you think it would be better in the other section :)
 
Hi

Winding toroids is not that hard, you only have to spread all and each winding around core, not just say one primary on 1/2 of core and other on other 1/2, both must be on all... same for all others

+ if you would go under Car Audio -> Favorite Threads and Posts in "Car Audio", where this thread should be, you would find one allready made design. I made few of them last one yesterday and I got 280w like nobody's business... now I will add snubbers just to get rid of that small 2.8Mhz ringing that is present
 
Thanks for the encouragement, chaps :)

The only major issue I see is that I'd be looking for around 800W to 1kW available to the amps, and I admit that's quite a lot to have for a home-built design. Of course, I could build multiple power supplies to spread the load, but then I'm probably going to have the space limitations hit me once more.

Unless there's an easy design that can provide similar power to the CPS80 from coldamp, I might as well go with Coldamp's design. Sure, it's expensive, but it's a tried and tested solution :)
 
tfboy said:
The only major issue I see is that I'd be looking for around 800W to 1kW available to the amps, and I admit that's quite a lot to have for a home-built design.

Even though all those UCDs are totaling a max output power of 760W RMS, which after the 90% efficiency is factored in is ~844W power drawn, you will most likely never actually be pumping out that much power. Unless you're planning on going crazy with pumping pure sines through your speakers at full volume, you're not going to need that much power.

Plus, you'd have to be running the modules at their full +/- 65V for the UCD400 and +/- 45V for the UCD180, which are the voltages Hypex used to obtain their output power ratings. Which brings me to another point, you'll want to have two power supplies if you wish to get the most out of the modules, for the reason stated above (diff voltages).
 
TheMG said:
Plus, you'd have to be running the modules at their full +/- 65V for the UCD400 and +/- 45V for the UCD180, which are the voltages Hypex used to obtain their output power ratings. Which brings me to another point, you'll want to have two power supplies if you wish to get the most out of the modules, for the reason stated above (diff voltages).
Fair point. I forgot the UCD400 had different power requirements.

jackinnj said:
Why not just get the appropriate chip from Texas Instruments? they have the H-Bridge "in situ" so you don't have to waste time building a switch mode power supply.
link? chip code? I'd need something simple. I don't have the facility to trace PCBs so either buy something like the CPS or buy something that I can assemble, but with the PCB and all the parts already available.
 
kck87 said:
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pcb 1000W

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1000W pcb proteus files

http://rapidshare.com/files/90637460/1000W.LYT.html


the modded version... core is from PC PS, right? :D It can STILL be modified, add a "feedback" circuit to limit output voltage(not efficient way??) -OR- use the "12v windings" on the core...

EDIT: OOpppsss!! I see it has Output adjust.. :D


on a sidenote, got me wondering, w/c is MORE efficient way, USE the "5v windings/thicker AWG/more current" but will need feedback to control output ---OR--- just use the "12v windings"/lesser thickness compared to 5v winding and do away with the feddback.... output should be in the +/-45V...
 
Nice to see that ESP Project 89 design has still some attention. It was published by me almos 10 years ago, and Coldamp CPS80 is a greatly improved and more powerful version of that basic design.
CPS80 is able to around 1KW with no problem provided that your wiring and DC source can withstand the power. If you need special voltages (although the CPS80 is regulated and adjustable from +/-39 to +/-62V approx), please ask.
 
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