portcity_gt Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 I got this thing out of a motor home years ago when I worked at a salvage yard....I think it should handle two or three cmb24's lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 You may want to be a bit careful if you were serious about actually using it. You need 12vdc regulated I think. I would bet this puts out over 14.4vdc and regulation is questionable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted August 29, 2014 Author Share Posted August 29, 2014 Its supposed to be stable,but I know the cmb24's can handle higher voltage. ...and all my lights have resisters. Worst case I fry a few $15 lights, so im gunna give it a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 I did a test run with it tonight, worked like a champ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) I will back up what Plasma said. And to be truthful I did not see anything in your picture to give me any idea as to the current capability of the power supply. Nor have you given any information as to what you are going to hang on your CMD24 boards. So, again it makes it real hard to answer a complex question. I see you did a test with one string of lights (?) or device. Edited August 30, 2014 by Max-Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) Its 75 amps (900 watts), the cmb24's will have one item per channel set rgb floods and modules. The test run was with 8 rgb floods (10w) Edited August 30, 2014 by portcity_gt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 If it turns out to be a real power supply and not a battery charger you might be just fine. Just be a bit cautious would be my mantra. A few tests with a meter while running loaded and unloaded would tell you a lot. If you determine it is a power supply instead of a battery charger, you should be fine. It is not the controller I would be so worried about, it is the lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godney Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Hey Portcity that power supply is very stable and can supply up 75 amps and just a little over that but not continuous. the reason i know being that my job is a Comm. Tech. for a Sheriff's Office here we use these particular supplies on several of our Command Centers and believe me they are running alot more than LED lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 Yea ive seen a lot of ham radio guys using them.I started the thread in jest because its such a large power supply for a small application. 99% sure it would work great, but im not going to doubt any of the guys on here that have been doing light displays way longer than I have, without at least hearing them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted August 31, 2014 Share Posted August 31, 2014 So the writing on the supply about being a battery charger would be where the problem lies. 12vdc power supplies are terrible battery chargers and can ruin a 12v battery... the fact that you got this out of a motor home and it says "Battery Charger" on t is what raised the red flag for me. That is why I said test it and meter it. Sounds like others have used them and they are indeed a power supply and not a battery charger.. Like I said, if it is a stable 12v supply it should be fine.. If it is a true battery charger, not so much.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 AS a HAM radio operator. I have never seen this power supply or heard of anyone using one. Astron is the brand that I am famliar that most of my friends using. I sure as hell would not use anything that is billed as a battery charger. Besides stability for voltage. I want something that is well filtered for ripple and dipping when I go from 1 amp draw for receiving to say 15 or 20 amps draw for transmitting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 You have to keep in mind this thing is almost 20 years old.Im not sure if yall are familiar with the workings of motor homes....but they are 90% 12v (at least back then they were) these power supplies were used to run everything when the motor home was plugged in at a campground and more to "maintain" the batteries than "charge" to an extent. The power supply is selectable 12-15v.But again im just a stupid newb that nows nothing about Christmas lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Theres not a ton of info on the net about them, but here's a couple reviews with using it on a radio.http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/2028 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 You have to keep in mind this thing is almost 20 years old.Im not sure if yall are familiar with the workings of motor homes....but they are 90% 12v (at least back then they were) these power supplies were used to run everything when the motor home was plugged in at a campground and more to "maintain" the batteries than "charge" to an extent. The power supply is selectable 12-15v.But again im just a stupid newb that nows nothing about Christmas lights.Actually that makes sense. at 15v it could charge a 12v battery.. at 12v it could run stuff that was made to run off a battery.. It makes sense now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 There is on thing you must keep in mind. I have been a HAM way back in 84 so that is about 30 years. First call sign I got while still down in TX at Kelly AFB. And as a novice I held the call sign of N5HHV. I worked on Radios for the AF and been doing electronics as a teen. Went to a tech school in 11 and 12th grade, grad in 78. Just saying I have never seen a Ham use that as a power supply. Esp if the box says battery charger. Those usually dont care if there is a bit of ripple on the D.C. line. Will TX and RX with a hum on the audio line. But I will also say that every once in a while something will be made above and beyond normal specs. What you might have there according to your last post, sounds more like a battery eliminator. Ifn that is the fact, then the Power Supply is inaccurately labeled. I am Plasma drew our conclusions based on information presented to us. Garbage in, Garbage out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 "Garbage in garbage out" lol my mother in law says that.Ill be the first to admit I know nothing about ham radio, I brought it up strictly on what I found by googling the unit to get more info on it sadly there isnt much...but it does seem to be a good stable power source to run the few rgbs im trying to learn on and it was free.I havnt been around as long as you "old farts" lol, but I have been an automotive tech for the past 20 years, so im not completely ignorant to 12v dc systems. This whole light display thing is just something I want to play with for some reason. ..hell I dont even live on a good street where people can watch the show. This will be my first year doing a display although I started gathering parts and knowledge about this time last year. I have enough to do a 16 rgb channel/16 ac channel halloween show and a 80 channel ac Christmas show with about 30,000 lights on hand, I know thats a big leap for a first year....but id like to see if I can handle it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Well, if that power supply is well regulated, you may find that since you have so much power available from one supply, you may need to do some power injection to get the best use out of it. Also, fuses are your friend! You already have over a hundred posts and that is a lot for a newbie! BTW, Portcity, perhaps us "old Farts" can help you with other stuff along the way.. Just ask and if we can.. we certainly will... Welcome to the addition! Now you must open your wallet and bow to the LED gods! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 The wallet has already been date rapped lol, I think I have about 5-6 grand in hardware and havnt done a single show yet. And now im trying to figure out this rgb stuff for halloween and frankly getting very discouraged with trying to convert the standard sequences I have to rgb easily, I think its easier to start from scratch then to convert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 Just my opinion. But I think programing RGB with the current version of S3 is not very user friendly. But I hear that the brain trust at LOR is suppose to be working on a newer version that will be more user friendly to programming the RGB channels. I would like to see a cursor that is like a paint brush that once a color is selected. You can click on different RGB channels and it will go to that color.And I assure you most of the electronics in a car are well filtered and almost expect that the inputs will have noisy dirty D.C. signals. While most consumer electronics, require and expect a clean D.C. supply. Hence the reason I too agreed that a battery charger is anything but clean. I see where it also says that it is a power supply. This is highly unusual. But I would imagine that with the advent of more electronics in cars that the charging system is needing to be cleaner and cleaner as the years go by. Wish I still had an O'scope and several different make cars to take a look at the D.C. voltage. Being an old fart makes me remember car systems based on points and the noise those would create on the D.C. bus. I had to add chokes and filter caps to my C.B. and 8 track player to control the hum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
portcity_gt Posted September 2, 2014 Author Share Posted September 2, 2014 Well at least its comforting to know, more seasoned users have trouble with rgb in s3.I wonder if id be better off trying to use superstar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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