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andrew



Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 3110
Location: Castle Hill, Sydney. N.S.W


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Power Supplies

Hey all, I am going to buy a triton charger and am confused with what power supply to use.

I am chatting with jeffa bout modding a pc power supply and such. Just wondering what canbe used and how much they cost.

I dont really want to spend too much money, but just need help with it. I will be using the triton t charge nicads and sla's between 7-18 volts probably.

Any help would be appreciated.
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Post Sat Jul 31, 2004 11:07 am 
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timmeh
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Joined: 20 Jul 2004
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Location: Victoria


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ok there are a few options yeh modding a pc power supply easly found on hard garbage.Or buying a power supply or making one i dont know how to make one but you can buy power supplys at jaycar heres some options-
$84.50 8.5a at 12v-For smaller packs
$109 12.5a at 12v 10.0a at 15v 6.5a at 24v-For bigger packs
there are lots of other power supplys but there the only ones worth looking at.
Or you can run your charger off a 12v 7 or 12 amp sla battery if you allready have a charger for sla batterys you could charge up a battery and take it to a comp and i think it should be able to charge a drill pack a few times maybe 3 times with a 7 amp battery 6 with a 12 amp battery.
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Post Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:28 pm 
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Knightrous
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If you chasing some big power supplies, you can get some from here:

http://www.pccasegear.com/category15_1.htm

Also if you look under fans, you can see the 92mm Vantec Tornado Fans! 119cfm! Shocked
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Post Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:39 pm 
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andrew



Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Location: Castle Hill, Sydney. N.S.W


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Yeah the first one looks ideal on that page. do they deliver to australia or are they based in australia. Has anybody bought anything from these guy in past etc etc. Also and most importantly do they need any modifications as computer ones do or are they a straight in plug and play type thing with no fiddling round.

Also what are people suggestions about tims idea with pluging a large battery to run it. Say i buy a huge 20 amp/hour battery or something. WIll it work for a event if i use this to power the triton or would a power supply be better.
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Post Sat Jul 31, 2004 5:15 pm 
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andrew



Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Location: Castle Hill, Sydney. N.S.W


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Could somebody please help me out with above question please. I know your out there people.

Seriously guys. I saw the number of tritons at the ahnialator. Brett, George and anybody else could u please tell me what u used and what i should look for as a power supply. That 400 watt one in the link aaron posted looks good. what are people thoughts on that and could a big fat batery run it or something.
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:33 am 
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chris



Joined: 18 Jun 2004
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Location: Brisbane


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andrew the PC case thing is in australia, it has all prices in $AUD and if you look on the info page it will answer all your questions
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 11:17 am 
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timmeh
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Heres another way to mod a pc power supply http://www.webx.dk/oz2cpu/radios/psu-pc1.htm
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:03 pm 
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Nexus
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@ Aaron, heres the jist with the Triton.
Dont understand watts in power supplies so will try to explain as best I know.

The Triton ideally needs a power supply capable of supplying 13 amps.

It will run on less but it will error until you reduce the charge current to compensate.

Triton needs 10 - 15 volts to operate from.

I have 2 powersupplies that i use. One is a pc power supply that supplies 8 amps at 12volts. The other is a car chrger with a regulator which limits it to 13.8 volts at 5 amps.

They both work but am finding the 5 amps better, probably due to that its at 13.8 volts and can probably handle surges better that a pc power supply.

Because I have reduced charing current it takes longer for me to charge a bigger pack than someone with a 20 amp but it will still charge the same size packs, just takes longer, you fiddle a bit until you find the limit before the triton spits it.

When the triton is charging you can see the voltage drop on the display and if it cant reach your specs it will stop and error.

Would like to ideally find a power supply at 14.4 volts at about 15 amps. That should be ideal.

Dont yet understand how they rate power supplies in watts, if you need 13 - 15 amps at 12 to 15 volts then how many watts is that?
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:28 pm 
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Glen
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IIRC

watts = amps x volts

15 x 15 = 225 watts
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:31 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Watts is volts multiplied by amps. so 12 volts @ 10 amps = 120 watts

with a PC supply, you add up the wattage of all of the seperate voltage rails to get the total wattage rating.

5v x 10amps = 50 watts
12v x 8amps = 144 watts
-12v x 1amp = 12 watts
-5v x 1amp = 5 watts
Total Suuply = 211 watts

unfortunately, its only the 12v rail we are making use of when running Tritons and so on, so having a 5v rail that can crank out 50amps (250watts) is of no use at all to the 12v rail. Keep that in mind when looking at power supply specs. its current on the 12v rail you want.
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:34 pm 
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Nexus
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Doh! How simple was that.

So Aaron the cheapest solution I imagine for you is to use the biggest car battery charger you have lying around and put a regulator on it and set it at 13.8 (so you can charge SLAs with it as well) or at 14.4 volts.

Unles you have a Big pc power supply.

Keep in mind that i have managed with less currant but wish I had more.
All comes down to buckeroonies
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:42 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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indeed it does.. something to keep in mind guys.. Power costs money.

a good regulated high current supply is going to cost $$ no matter what you do..

The modified pc-power supply is a semi-exception because they make millions of the things every year and so the production costs have dropped accordingly over time. for any other solution there is pretty much a direct relationship between quality power, current and dollars.
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:52 pm 
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andrew



Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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Location: Castle Hill, Sydney. N.S.W


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I have had a change of heart with nicad charger. i am now leaning towards the 75 dollar gws charger as it should charge all nicad and/or nimph packs in future and is a great price. It also requires a tiny power supplu which makes life easy (and a huge thanks to the guys who have helped me with help in this new area for me). Also saves me a ,lot of money yet still provides a great little charger that will do the job at events and everything. NOt as good as triton and such but since i have 1 jaycar and a beehive charger as well it should be right. ALso 150 bucks cheaper.
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:16 pm 
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Nexus
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Sorry Andrew for calling you Aaron, must be the A.

The GWS lookspretty good too. YOu still have the same issue with the power supply with this charger.

IN short the main differences are you are limited to 12 cells not 24 and can only do nicads/nimh, but looks good if thats all you need.

Noticed Robotmarketplace have a charger for 39 US dollars which seems ideal for the tritom or other chargers like the gws.

It supplies 13 amps at 13.8 volts but probaly runs off 120 volts or something.
anyone know if this is a big probem?
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:50 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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it can be, depending on whether it has a voltage-selector switch..

Most switchmodes have a switch that can simply be flipped from one voltage to the other (like PC power supplies). Some dont care what you feed them and will run off nearly anything (like the IBC's switchmode) within a wide range.

If it is a single-voltage, non switcheable supply, then you will need a step-down transformer (240v - 120v) of equivalent rating to the amount of watts you plan on using, and they arent cheap. can easily run into the 100+ dollar mark.
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Post Sun Aug 01, 2004 7:58 pm 
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