Halloween-L

I'm trying to figure out what power supply to get to drive my wiper motor (12 VDC, 4 A).

Allelectronics.com has PC power supplies for dirt cheap.

Is there any reason not to go that route?
With one of those, you have access to different voltages (+5, -5, +12, etc.) so you could drive several different props with one supply.

Is this a good way to go?

For the wiper motors we use the Car Battery Charger at walmart for like $18 ish. I has 6 or 12 volt selectable with the correct amps that a AT or ATX power supply would not have.

So are you saying that if I tried to use something like this:
http://tinyurl.com/46pl4

even though it says 12VDC @ 6A, I wouldn't really get that amperage under load?

I tried one of our many pc power supplies in the past and it just did not have the amp's under the load of a saturn wiper motor.

Thanks...you saved me some money.
I ordered an 8 vdc, 6.5 A supply for $10.

I don't need high speed, so that should be fine.

mitchb2 Wrote:Thanks...you saved me some money.
I ordered an 8 vdc, 6.5 A supply for $10.

I don't need high speed, so that should be fine.

Mitchb2, can I ask where you ended up getting this?

Thanks,
~ghostie

I bought it at http://www.allelectronics.com

They have a pretty wide selection.

The power supply drove my wiper motor perfectly.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply! (considering your post was first listed in 2004! ha ha I'm impressed!) We'll have to get some...

I used an old AT style PC power supply for my new FCG. It works okay, but it a little fast for my taste (using the 5 volt wire of the power supply). I used a 4.5 volt wall wart that I bought at a thrift store for my peekaboo ghosts and it works great. When I bought the wall wart, I made sure the wires were two separate wires that I could easily separate and then strip and solder connectors onto. A single coax wire can be done, but it's a pain.

Yeah, I tried using a PC power supply once. Was clunky and left a lot of circuitry exposed.

I'd recommend doing a search for a wall wart that has what you need. Just remember, amperage is the key. Plenty of wall warts out there, but a lot of them have amps in the milli-amps range, which isn't sufficient for a lot of haunt projects.