Power Supplies
 

Can someone please tell me about power-supplys, b/c i want to use one at the track to power my charger, instead of using the car battery. I have no idea about power supplies, but I saw one at one of the tents at the track, and it had an outlet, so i thoght it will probably be easier than using a car battery, and so i can have "clean" power for my charger.


THX, Marines

Marines,

Most hobby or electronics shops will be able to supply you with a 12 volt power supply.
What you'll need for RC use would be at least a 7 amp output, 10-12 is nice if you want to run additional 12 volt accessories such as motor cooling fans.

As the name implies these will transform your 110V AC mains supply down to a 12V DC supply. Most important thing to consider is the amperage. The higher the Amperage the higher the cost goes up.


Yorkie

aright, thats exactly what i wanted to know, also, can you please give me some websites where companies sell these power supplies.

www.stormerhobbies.com
www.rivergatedist.com

so, a 12 volt 8 amp power supply would be able to run most of todays chargers? we have one at home wich was used for those old jurassic cellular phones. i am planning on getting a novak millenium pro for a charger.

I would go ahead and get a good 14-Amp power supply...AT LEAST. MOST high end chargers require at least 7-10 amps to run, especially ones with cooling fans and other extra features. If you get a 14, you can run two chargers off of it if needed, and it only cost like 20 bucks more. Integy sells a bunch of them on their web site integy.com.

I would go for a 14-16v power supply over a 12v, reason being most chargers cannot peak batteries higher than their supply voltage so if you have batteries which peak at high voltages with a 12v battery it doesn't leave much room for contingency.

amp wise 15A, 7.5A to charge your battery and this allows you to run some other gear as well.

sanj

How long will these power supplies last, will they last atleast 4 hours?? I found this power supply at Integy, but I want something cheaper, b/c all i want it for, is to power my Intellipeak Deluxe at the race track instead of using a car battery. Also, do these power supplies come with an outlet for AC use, or do i need to use alligator clips for DC use??

THX, Marines ;)

Marines,

I think you need to read the Integy site a little more carefully. "...This is our most versatile 110VAC-to-12VDC power supply..." It works like this...

You plug the power supply into a wall outlet at 110VAC then you connect your charger to the output of the power supply using the charger's alligator clips. The power supply is a direct replacement for your car battery, but you must have an ac power source to power it i.e A WALL SOCKET. Good luck!


A little diagram...
WALL<===>INTEGY POWER SUPPLY<===>CHARGER<===>7.2V BATTERY PACK

I have a rivergate 30 powering my Reedy quasar pro and found that running off the power supply gives me better charges than running AC. It also has tons of power, I have run two chargers, a trinity battery cooling fan and my hudy tire truer all at the same time and the power supply never hiccuped. Only once have a seen the cooling fan come on and that's about 50 rpm ;) My rivergate should last forever. The downside is that it's relatively large and that the AC power cord comes from the front where you plug in your bananna plugs....I wished it was in the rear. Heavy guage wire though coming off it!

i'm also looking for cheap power supply and found this website that sells only for $40 but i'm not sure if this will work.
website is: http://www.bsless.com/ps14kx.html

But isnt the Rivergate just a power switcher from DC to AC?? What I want, is to have something other than using a car battery at the track for power. Something that has "clean" power. Something that can filter out electric noise, so it will work better than a car battery. Not a switching device!
Dalde, yours looks good, is that power supply good??

Read the Pyramid power supply information closer:

"Input: 115V AC......Output: 13.8V"

Sounds like a "switching device" to me

may i ask what "switching device" means? does that mean it won't work with my dc only charger?

I am also in the market for a power supply. Here's what I have learned: for a DC only charger, you need to have DC power to operate it. So, what a power supply does is take some sort of power (AC power in this case), converts it to DC power, and then provides that power to the charger, allowing it to function.

I am pretty sure that this is correct, but any corrections would be appreciated :)