I had a TPS3116 Amp on order for an arcade cabinet I'm building, and had a 19v power supply from an old laptop to use for it.
Been almost 2 months... I don't think that amp is coming.
I was thinking however, maybe an old car stereo deck would work if it has rear AUX-IN inputs. Few EQ options, volume, bass, treble, etc... I'm on another forum that is all arcade building and seeing if anyone has any experience with those.
Anyways... being a car deck, I assume it runs off 12V DC, maybe built to peak at around 14V while the car is running. The power supply is 19V... how's the best way to drop that down to 12V?
Resistor?
Would I also need one of those capacitors you see for car stereos? 2 farads or something like that?
Budget's pretty much done for this cabinet so, would rather use something I already have than buying something else. Like using the 19V laptop power supply, or maybe running off the 550W PSU from the computer?
Been almost 2 months... I don't think that amp is coming.
I was thinking however, maybe an old car stereo deck would work if it has rear AUX-IN inputs. Few EQ options, volume, bass, treble, etc... I'm on another forum that is all arcade building and seeing if anyone has any experience with those.
Anyways... being a car deck, I assume it runs off 12V DC, maybe built to peak at around 14V while the car is running. The power supply is 19V... how's the best way to drop that down to 12V?
Resistor?
Would I also need one of those capacitors you see for car stereos? 2 farads or something like that?
Budget's pretty much done for this cabinet so, would rather use something I already have than buying something else. Like using the 19V laptop power supply, or maybe running off the 550W PSU from the computer?
One way to go is to build yourself an "adjustable Zener" circuit out of 2 resistors, 1 potentiometer (to dial the output voltage), 1 general purpose NPN, 1 bigoldass power NPN, and a big heatsink. 19V in, 12V out, 4 amps continuous --> 28 watts of heat to dissipate. Get something in the TO3P package like the FJA4310 for $1.91, qty=1 and mount it on an enormous heatsink.
Another way to go is to buy a step down ("buck") DC-to-DC converter from fleabay and cross your fingers. I suggest buying something "rated" (ha) for 150 watts even though you only need 50 watts. The rest is margin-of-safety in case their marketing group are optimistic fibtellers. example
Another way to go is to buy a step down ("buck") DC-to-DC converter from fleabay and cross your fingers. I suggest buying something "rated" (ha) for 150 watts even though you only need 50 watts. The rest is margin-of-safety in case their marketing group are optimistic fibtellers. example
Thanks... I would have replied quicker but I had to Google what half of that meant. 
Found a post about what I think you are talking about
Just a moment...
For the heat sink, I have a couple of old cpu fans, could probably drill a hole and thread it to mount one of those TO3P's to the bottom, that would keep it pretty cool.
Found a post about what I think you are talking about
Just a moment...
For the heat sink, I have a couple of old cpu fans, could probably drill a hole and thread it to mount one of those TO3P's to the bottom, that would keep it pretty cool.
Ugh, the heat you're going to deal with will be real pain in the butt. If the car deck drew anything close to constant current, you could use a resistor to drop the voltage down, but most all of them are built with little class B amplifier chips.
A 12V 4A wall supply is pretty cheap and won't heat your house.
A 12V 4A wall supply is pretty cheap and won't heat your house.
Ya... by the time I buy parts and such be cheaper to just buy something, like those switching power supplies off eBay.
Power wise though, from what I am reading online... 15-20A seems to be mentioned often for a card deck.
I know if too low amperage the speakers be under-powered, how about too high? Say, the stereo is 15A and I grab a 20A power supply, would that damage the deck? speakers I never plan to crank anyways... again, it's for an arcade machine, speakers are in front of my face. But if I grab a 12V20A DC power supply, I can power both the white LED's in the marquee and the speakers at the same time.
Or would that power the deck and blow up the LEDs.
From my limited understanding,
Volts are like a pipe... too big a pipe, water flows through too fast and will destroy things.
Amps are like the water in the pipes, too little and it just trickles through the pipe, if you have other pipes connected, the flow decreases with each pipe and water pressure drops. More amps the better.
Power wise though, from what I am reading online... 15-20A seems to be mentioned often for a card deck.
I know if too low amperage the speakers be under-powered, how about too high? Say, the stereo is 15A and I grab a 20A power supply, would that damage the deck? speakers I never plan to crank anyways... again, it's for an arcade machine, speakers are in front of my face. But if I grab a 12V20A DC power supply, I can power both the white LED's in the marquee and the speakers at the same time.
Or would that power the deck and blow up the LEDs.
From my limited understanding,
Volts are like a pipe... too big a pipe, water flows through too fast and will destroy things.
Amps are like the water in the pipes, too little and it just trickles through the pipe, if you have other pipes connected, the flow decreases with each pipe and water pressure drops. More amps the better.
Lower nothing, use as is.
This single supply amplifier will be happy with regulated +19V, what you have.
TDA2030 14W Audio Amplifier - Electronic Circuits and Projects - EduTek Ltd
If you don´t want to build, there must be many offering it ready made, it´s as common as can be.
This single supply amplifier will be happy with regulated +19V, what you have.
TDA2030 14W Audio Amplifier - Electronic Circuits and Projects - EduTek Ltd
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
If you don´t want to build, there must be many offering it ready made, it´s as common as can be.
I think you mis-read the OP... I'm not sure how building an amplifier will help power a Car CD player.
I guess the next question, because seen a few posts where people have done it... how about using the computer's power supply?
Posts I have seen, all have a car stereo hooked up to a computer PSU, but with nothing else attached.
My plan was to take my 550w PSU, power my board/hard drive/videocard with it, I also wanted to take one of the extra cables to run a pair of 120mm fans and the white strip of LED lights... basically grab a molex connector and split it up. I doubt the fans take much power, and the white LEDs would be overall about 3M long.
Computer with 2 fans, from what online calculators say, would be around 216-266w.
Probably enough left over to power a stereo, 2x30w speakers and an LED strip?
Posts I have seen, all have a car stereo hooked up to a computer PSU, but with nothing else attached.
My plan was to take my 550w PSU, power my board/hard drive/videocard with it, I also wanted to take one of the extra cables to run a pair of 120mm fans and the white strip of LED lights... basically grab a molex connector and split it up. I doubt the fans take much power, and the white LEDs would be overall about 3M long.
Computer with 2 fans, from what online calculators say, would be around 216-266w.
Probably enough left over to power a stereo, 2x30w speakers and an LED strip?
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