recycling chargers

[John Watlington]

That is probably a wrong analysis of the problem.
Many higher power supplies like AT/ATX power supplies don't
work properly when unloaded.   I bet if you draw a couple of
amps from the +5V supply, you would find that the +12V supply
starts working fine.

I used to use car headlights to provide enough load when
debugging systems which weren't loaded enough to maintain
regulation.

Cheers,
wad

On May 13, 2010, at 5:43 AM, Sascha Silbe wrote:

> On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 06:44:34PM +1000, James Cameron wrote:
> 
>> An ATX or AT switch-mode power supply attached to a set of nine laptop
>> charging cables.  The power supply is being used as a 12V DC regulated
>> source.  The original PC power harness cables have been removed.
> FWIW, I've also used a ATX power supply to power an XO-1, but stopped doing so once I discovered why the XO-1.5 would run from it: Being a cheap model, it regulated only the 5V rail, so the 12V rail dropped down to 9V with a switched-on XO-1 connected to it. The XO-1 barely coped (the power light started flickering some time ago, probably due to the power supply aging and delivering an even lower voltage than before) and the XO-1.5 (without MPPT ECO) didn't like it at all (whining noise, LED off).
> 
> Summary: If you're trying to replicate this setup, make sure your PC power supply regulates the 12V rail (just hook up some load and check the voltage).
> 
> CU Sascha
> 
> -- 
> http://sascha.silbe.org/
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