DC Power distribution - Nix the Transformers?

MailtoDelete asks: "I have most of my electronic gear plugged into a couple power strips hanging off a UPS. Most of these devices have big block-type transformers which, besides being bulky, are a bit of an eyesore. I have been trying to find a product out there somewhere that would allow me to have one central transformer that would distribute DC power at variable voltages, depending on what devices I wish to plug into it (think one AC input and 9 or so DC outputs individually adjustable). I found this device that resembles what I have in mind, but it does not have sufficient output for my router, switches, and various other devices. Is there a product on the market already that would do this? Can I build one with my marginally above average soldering and electrical schematic skills? Have any of you found a better way to eliminate these blocky plug-hogs?"

Comments

Re:Hardware Wars

[snorklewacker]

Wasn't it Thomas Edison who tried to prove that Tesla's 3 phase AC power distribution was dangerous by electrocuting frogs with it and showing how they thrash about vioilently before they died?

Not Tesla, Westinghouse. The whole frog twitching thing was a sideshow trick when electricity was first discovered, and could be done with DC. Edison went all the way up to electrocuting horses, and advertised it could be done on people with "Westinghouse's Electric Chair". He thought people would be horrified. In the last bit of irony, several states loved it and actually ordered these things, using them for capital punishment for many decades afterward.

Edison may have been quite an inventor, but he was rather a ruthless man not above gross distortions and character assassination.

Re:No.

[harrkev]

What the parent poster said! I design boards for a living (along with doing some VHDL stuff in FPGAs). My expertise is digital, but I do have an Electrical Engineering degree -- and I could not properly design a switching power supply -- at least that what what I was told by my power supply guy after I tried laying out his circuit on the board.

I have also tried my own experiments in this area. I had an old Celeron 466 system, and my scanner, speakers, and force-feedback joystick all ran off of 12V. So I hooked up my computer's 12V rail to some connectors on the back (with caps attached to help reduce noise). Here were the results:

1) Scanner - worked like a charm. But you had to plug in the power while the computer was off. Otherwise, the whole computer would reset iself. This was my one success.

2) Speakers - Worked, but you could hear the hard drive heads moving. The amount of noise was too much, so I had to go back to a separate wall-wart.

3) Force Feedback Joystick - This was a Microsoft model, which connected to the Game port (not a USB model). Apparently, this stick did not like sharing its power ground with its signal ground. The computer shut off instantly, and the joystick was fried. This goes to show that you need to have FLOATING power supplies in any scheme like this.

In the end, my grand experiment was not really worth it, as I spend a couple of hours soldering and drilling, and all I did was to remove one power supply.

But if somebody DID make a power supply box that had the following: 3x12V, 2x9V, 2x6V, 3x5V, all at 2A each, and they could do it for under $100, then I would be very tempted to buy one. Unfortunately, I suspect that this type of supply would go for a lot mroe than $100.