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Powering a PC from a Car Without an Inverter?
(H)elix1 asks: "Without using an inverter, what is the good cheap way to power an ATX motherboard from a DC source? I have a mini-itx based computer I'm looking to use in the car and house. I'm looking for something like a laptop uses, with an AC-to-DC brick that feeds a DC-DC internal connector. Linitx.com has one, but it is a bit pricey after shipping to this side of the pond, googling turned up even more expensive industrial PSU's. Am I missing a simple hack? I have a soldering iron and am not afraid to use it..."
It depends what you want to do - If you don't need the -5v and -12v lines (mainly for serial??) it's fairly straightforward. A friend of mine built a switch mode supply to run an MP3 player from in his van.
It works fine, he gets a steady +12v and +5v out of it running or parked up , and this is enough to power a P90 motherboard on a plastic tray under the passenger seat, with a sound card standing in the ISA slot, the HD suspended by elastic bands in a box and a 4 line 40 char dot matrix display up where the rear view mirror should be, diplaying all the usual MP3 data. Control is by a custom keypad he also built.
The worst bit is it's all done in PASCAL on top of DOS6.2. yuk.