apostolakisl Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 I have two of those 4 foot long power strips for server racks mounted to power all of my "stuff". I ran out of plugs!!! I decided to take an old ATX power supply and pull the 12 and 5 volt leads and hook them up to a couple of terminal blocks I picked up on ebay. I then cut off the wall warts and connected all of my 12 and 5 volts stuff to the terminal blocks. It is working like a charm and now my power strips look so lonely! The voltage on the ATX power supply is pegged at 5v and 12v +/- about .05v. I haven't actually tested it, but I bet I am using less electricity. And I know that the voltage is much more accurate and probably a lot cleaner as well.
io_guy Posted November 14, 2011 Posted November 14, 2011 I do something similar, got rid of maybe 30 power supplies. I use power off my existing computer's PSs using these: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ ... ts_id=1986 I make custom molex ends to all my connectors.
apostolakisl Posted November 14, 2011 Author Posted November 14, 2011 I used two of these, one for 5 and one for 12v http://www.ebay.com/itm/180588155864?ss ... 1439.l2649
io_guy Posted February 2, 2012 Posted February 2, 2012 I used two of these, one for 5 and one for 12v http://www.ebay.com/itm/180588155864?ss ... 1439.l2649 I picked up a few of these off ebay. They're handy with the shorted strip but their solder quality is complete crap. Two of mine came with wires disconnected. To "clean" them up I took them apart and soldered new 18awg leads to them as well as running a new 18awg "bus bar" across all terminals. Much more robust now and the current rating is now much higher than 2A.
apostolakisl Posted February 2, 2012 Author Posted February 2, 2012 I used two of these, one for 5 and one for 12v http://www.ebay.com/itm/180588155864?ss ... 1439.l2649 I picked up a few of these off ebay. They're handy with the shorted strip but their solder quality is complete crap. Two of mine came with wires disconnected. To "clean" them up I took them apart and soldered new 18awg leads to them as well as running a new 18awg "bus bar" across all terminals. Much more robust now and the current rating is now much higher than 2A. OH yeah. I didn't bother using the wires they provided. Flimsy little things! I just used the first set of screw downs to connect to the power supply. Doing it that way you could probably run 10's of amps of current.
MstrD Posted February 21, 2012 Posted February 21, 2012 I'm having the same issue - too many wall adapters. If I setup a wiring block (5v and 12v which should cover most of my needs), could I then use the relay in my GC-100 to control power to different units? Here is my issue - I have a Grace Digital Internet Receiver. It generally works ok. Actually, it works really well, until it doesn't work. Apparently, there is something funky in their firmware AND some issue with Pandora. If the unit is connected to Pandora (I have a whole house audio system, so the receiver is usually always on), if Pandora doesn't get some kind of response, in a few hours, it disconnects (no thumbs up/down, or skip, etc). I'm not sure if that is the only problem, but many times it locks up, and you can't reboot. It requires the power to be disconnected. It may also have something to do with DHCP and my router. All I know is, it clears up for a while when the power is cut and it's restarted. Then it locks up after a while, and I have to go to the basement to reset the power on it. My thought was, couldn't I take 12v off a wiring block, and run either + or - line through the relay connection in the GC-100? Essentially, turning the 12vdc on or off as necessary? I could then control it with a Network Resource command. From the specs, it looks like the relay is rated at 24v @ 500ma. I'm not an electronic wiz, but if the Grace Digital isn't drawing more than 500ma, (or even 1a at 12v), shouldn't I be ok? I know I could use an Insteon Appliance Relay, but that won't eliminate a wall-wort. In fact it would make one bigger. I guess the only thinkg I could do with Insteon is have one power strip off of a 15amp appliancelinc relay and then switch on our off all of those devices. I thought the GC-100 relay might be cleaner - assuming I wasn't drawing too much through them.
io_guy Posted February 21, 2012 Posted February 21, 2012 Yep, what you're doing makes sense, I have several similar setups in my house. I would however be a little cautious of the amperage rating. Although the wattage (V*I) works out to the same number, amps through wires are amps through wires. I would verify the unit's current draw (it'll be on the nameplate) and not go over, regardless of voltage - be conservative. Exaggerated Example: 120V @ 15A w/ 14AWG wire = 1800W. No one in their right mind would run 12V @ 150A through that same wire. Stick to the specific relay ratings.
iostream212 Posted February 21, 2012 Posted February 21, 2012 To clarify are you just running 1 set of wires from the power supply to the terminal block? And then that 1 set of wires is enough power to run all those wallwart's devices? Thanks. I hope to do this myself also very soon. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
MstrD Posted February 21, 2012 Posted February 21, 2012 io_guy thanks. I'll check the amp rating when I get home. If it's under the 500ma, then I think I would be fine. Above that, I'd probably go a different route just to be safe. I don't know my A/V closet burning the house down. iostream - I was trying to follow the above example, where one set of wires goes to the terminal block, from the power supply. Then each wall wart is replaced with one set of wires from the terminal block to each device.
io_guy Posted February 21, 2012 Posted February 21, 2012 To clarify are you just running 1 set of wires from the power supply to the terminal block? And then that 1 set of wires is enough power to run all those wallwart's devices? Thanks. I hope to do this myself also very soon. It's all about ratings. My terminal strip (mentioned above on eBay) was "rated" to 2A. In reality I wouldn't put more than 1A through it after inspecting its build quality. My PS is capable of putting out 2.5A, so I replaced the leads with 18AWG and also took the terminal apart and ran a new 18AWG bus bar. 18AWG can easily support 2.5A. My other setup involved pulling power from my computer's PS using external molex connectors. In this case loading was no issue.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.