Car Stereo 12 volt to 110 volt?

[ACE]

So I was checking out a model home around our neighborhood and saw that some guy had installed a car stereo in his garage wall as well as car speakers. It was sweet and actually sounded really good. Now I want to do it, just don't know how. Is there an easy way to wire to the home? I found this product while searching and think it would work just fine if I put a 12 volt plug on the end of the + and - of the car stereo and just plug it in. Wouldn't be as clean as what I saw but would seem to work. Any input is very much appreciated.
Thanks,

 

[Eagle]

All you need is a voltage converter. The really small ones that come with cordless phone chargers may be too small even if they are 12 volt, but a moderately priced battery charger from Wal-Mart would do the job.

 

[GSequoia]

Amperage is yoru friend man. Find hwo much current the stereo you wnt to use draws, and get something that pushes that much (or more) out. That little unit you show there is probably a lowball thing (measured in watts even!), standard stereo circuits are about 10 - 15 amps (mind you, they run more than just the stereo). If you wanna be real cool get a stereo and amp and run some nice 10" speakers

Also, if you really want to go all out you can just get a box for the XJ, and have it removable, sorta like I have, an you can remove it when you want tunes in the garage, just have some simple speakers, say 6x9 (they cheap) and then the amp for the bass...excuse my mindless babble here...had a few glasses of wine

Picture of my box (in the XJ):

It's held down with turnbuckles to some great a-rings I found (in Chevy Blazers), then a simple cannon type plug to make it truly quick release.

 

[SV1CEC]

Or go to your local Radio Shack and buy a 12 V power supply, there are some which can withstand 40 Amps of current (typically used by radio amateurs to power their radios).

Rgds

 

[Matthew Currie]

All you need is a voltage converter. The really small ones that come with cordless phone chargers may be too small even if they are 12 volt, but a moderately priced battery charger from Wal-Mart would do the job.

A battery charger alone isn't a good bet, because it is unregulated and unfiltered, and will produce a very noisy chopped DC, which will vary greatly in voltage depending on load. You can use a charger, but you must have a car battery too to stabilize the current. As SV1CEC notes, there are power supplies made for this purpose, which will work if you're not pumping a lot of watts out.

On the other hand, if you do want to crank out the watts, a battery charger and a good storage battery might well be the way to go., and cheaper than a high-amp power supply, especially if you already have a battery hanging around.

Many (oh so many!) years ago when I was a kid, I ran an old tube car radio as a table radio. It was a big old thing out of a Pontiac, with speaker built right in. It was great, with AM reception that beat any indoor radio. It was much easier then, though, because those radios used a mechanical vibrator to produce their own 400-hertz AC, and you could run them on 60hz AC with just a transformer. I found that the Harley show (classic jazz on WBAL) was much more fun than homework!

 

[ACE]

Thanks everyone. So if I went with a battery and charger, would I have to turn on the charger each time I turned on the radio or just turn on the charger when the battery appears to be going dead? I really want to avoid this though.
I did a search and found this power supply as SV1CEC advised.
If I could get a used one like this for cheap, would it work alright?

Power Supply on Ebay

 

[seanR]

That one will work, you could prolly get by with a smaller one. Go to Radio Shack they have them there for new for around $20.00 - $30.00.

 

[Matthew Currie]

Thanks everyone. So if I went with a battery and charger, would I have to turn on the charger each time I turned on the radio or just turn on the charger when the battery appears to be going dead? I really want to avoid this though.
I did a search and found this power supply as SV1CEC advised.
If I could get a used one like this for cheap, would it work alright?

Power Supply on Ebay

If you had a good robust battery, you could probably run from battery alone, and just run a trickle charger at night to top it up. That would bypass any noise issues from the choppy charger voltage, though it would probably work satisfactorily either way.

Of course it's easier to get a power supply if you can find one adequate for the power you need. For a shop system, even a pretty modest car stereo will do pretty well.

 

[SV1CEC]

Power supplies for amateur radio use, are normally regulated and have good noise suppress features. Otherwise, we wouldn't use them with radios, right?

I am not familiar with what you want to power from this thing, but a 40 Amp one can supply power to a lot of 12 V devices.

Rgds

 

[ACE]

Yeah, all I want to run is an older in-dash cd player I had laying around just to listen to when I'm working in the garage. Not really a big deal, just wanted something different.
I appreciate the help. I think I'll go the power supply route if in fact I can get one for about 20.00 or so bucks as seanR says.
Thanks Matthew, SV1CEC and all.
I'll post a picture of it mounted when I'm done.

Regards,

 

[SV1CEC]

Ace,

For that, even a small power supply of maybe 5 watts will do. These are pretty cheap. The plus of the battery mode, is that you can still use your cd-player even if power goes down, while with a power supply you can't but I do not think this will be of concern to you.

Rgds

 

[ChEwBaCcA]

You need a DC Power Supply , end of story! ;-)

You take the total watts RMS % by 12VDC and come up with your AMP load.

Now you buy a DC power supply that can handle that amp load, and 20% beyond that.

Yes it really is that simple.

If your looking for a GOOD power supply , go with one from aesham.com
I just bought a 20 amp a few months ago.....they are worth the money and the same if not a lil cheaper than anything you can buy at RatShack.

Regards
Chewy

PS: you should nt need a big supply for an older radio
If ya need more help just hollar

 

[imma honky]

Give it, i haven't actually looked at the units discussed, im wondering how you would go about hooking the power/neg for the amp to power the subs. Getting power to the head unit is solved......what about the subs/speakers?.....
Ive read through the post twice......am i missing it?

 

[Majo]

Just use a 300watt or 350 watt computer power supply. Generalyl the put out 30 amps or so....not sure and haven't check in a while.., they are cheap if you got an old computer laying around. 250watt will work too. The yellow cables are 12v and the black ground....cut off a plug crip and ur set.....

 

[imma honky]

CUxj88, that sounds like a daum good idea. i will try to find out the amperage of a 350 watt supply (unless someone knows for sure)
20-30 amps is enough to power a head unit 2 speakers, an amp and 2 10's?

 

[CheapXJ]

if you've got an old computer collectin' dust in the basement/attic, rip out the power supply and use that.

many of the old PCs (although rated fairly low) had EXTREMELY WELL BUILT power supplies that can push some serious amperage. I've jump-started my Jeep with an old XT power supply a few times and when I wrecked my old Jeep, I ran the stereo out of it (kenwood excelon CD head + alpine 3525 amp and 2 12's) off of this same power supply

the nice thing about PC power supplies is the tight regulation and CLEAN power output.

just use a pair of yellow and black wires, any pair (doesn't matter)

red + black makes a good 5v supply for playin around with logic ICs and microprocessors/microcontrollers too

 

[imma honky]

Hey cheapXJ, when you hooked up the amp, did you just solder the huge amp wire (10G?) straight to the puny ole 18/16G from the power box? Thats my biggest worry, is insuffient power for the amp to power the subs.

 

[CheapXJ]

yeah.

wire gauge is determined by current draw and distance.

usin 12/14 gauge wire for only a few inches ain't gonna mean jack squat

if it doesn't get enough juice, it'll let ya know (the PS will just shut off) turn it off, then turn it back on and you're good to go.

depending on the amp, you may need to split up the amp and head unit on separate supplies (you can combine supplies and wire them in parallel to get more current capacity)

if it cuts out on drumbeats and the like, add a decent size stiffening cap (it helps in the vehicle too ) you can rob them from old dummy terminals, air conditioners and other things (or again, wire a bunch in series, from burnt stereo amps or something like that)

I for one always have broken old electronics layin around, and I'll be damned if I'm not gonna find SOME use for the crap inside them