More Power to the Engines Scotty!

Well, I finally figured out have to daisy chain ATX power supplies to create my charger. The problem is that I need 7 ATX power supplies with at least 8 Amps on the 12 volt line, and I only have three. So I will have to do some more dump picking to get the 4 more, but my cousin says he might to get some for me. We will see.

So this is the basics on what one does to daisy chain ATX supplies. And I will update this when I actually do it for real. DISCLAIMER: Neither I or Blogspot or Google, or anyone else affliated with this site are respsonsible for any bad things that happen, damages and what not. Do this at your own risk, because it is extremely dangerous. (But in the unlikely chance that you create a wormhole, discover artificial gravity, or faster-than-light travel, I will gladly take credit for that!)

1. Choose an ATX power supply to be your primary source, and set it aside as it will not need any modification.
2. On the second ATX, and the ones after it, you must completely disconnect the ground from the casing. If you do not, daisy chaining will not work at all, and the power supply will most likely shut down, or get blown up.
3. Then link up the ATX supplies to each other like you would when creating the series of batteries.
4. Since ATX power supplies are switching, there must be a constant load on the 5 volt line. For now one can use a hard drive to do that, but a proper resistor would be better, to keep the voltage regulated at a more constant value.
5. Plug them in and see what happens.


The next thing on my list of things to do was to research more parts, prices and such. Well, in that search I discovered that I can build my own Potbox, which is the throttle control for the car. Potboxes are expensive, most of the time $70 and on up, but all it really is a 5K Ohm Potentiometer in a sturdy box. So, this weekend I am going down to Radio Shack, and picking up 5K Ohm Pot for $3, and I will get to work making a strong casing out of a steel computer case, and then hook up some wires with connections on them.