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The World's Tiniest Power Supply Unit
An anonymous reader writes "This year at CES members of the press got to grab a glimpse of the world's tiniest power supply. Well actually it is the world's tiniest 12V snap-in ATX DC-to-DC power supply, but you get the idea. This unit produces 120W of power and is about the size of two AA batteries. It is specifically designed for use with Mini-ITX motherboards, but can be used in many other applications."
For years I worked on a viable PC-for-the-car. This is before Microsoft had their operating system (failure) for car stereos, and before the CarPC was even a thought by the designer. My biggest problem was finding a cheap, small and capable 12DC-DC power supply. Even a few years ago they were basically impossible to find.
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I'm glad to see there is now a market for these power supplies (although I'm sure this isn't for car applications). I wonder how efficient it is -- and how much heat it gives off. The article was a bit...sparse.
I miss my old car PC -- 8 years ago it could do so much more than anything else I've seen. Considering how much time I wasted, I wish I kept all the software and code.
A couple more links to the picoPSU:
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/it.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/01/07/pico_psu/
http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=News&f
http://www.realtechnews.com/page/2/
And, of course: http://www.digg.com/hardware/World_s_smallest_pow
They sell them here for $50 if you're interested in putting one in your mod or computer.
You may also be interested in the pdf guide for the picoPSU-120.
My work here is dung.
http://www.xyzcomputing.com.nyud.net:8090/index.ph p?option=content&task=view&id=516
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> I'm glad to see there is now a market for these power
> supplies (although I'm sure this isn't for car applications).
> I wonder how efficient it is -- and how much heat it gives
> off. The article was a bit...sparse.
From the article:
"The pico-PSU boasts an over 96% efficiency rating"
and:
"No enclosure or cooling is needed."
Craig
To the editors: Don't let the words "produce" and "power" be together. You cannot produce power. You can deliver, provide, etc. But definitely you don't produce power in a power supply.
Technically that makes it a power supply. The word power supply actually encompasses a few things and is mostly meant to be used to avoid having to explain to those who are not tech literate was an inverter, converter, or a rectifier...well I think most EE's I know even call rectifiers (AC-DC conversion), AC to DC converters, but then again most of us hated power courses.
Yes, this device boils down to be nothing more then a DC-DC voltage converter, but it is a power supply since its job is to take the input voltage and properly convert it to supply the right voltage to the rights lines. Well that is enough talk about power for one day...
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
The function of the DC-DC converter is to take the 12V (+/- some tolerance) input, and turn it into regulated 1.8V, 3.3V, 5V, and -12 Volts (or whatever) at much higher current levels. Since it's 96% efficient at doing that, you'll only generate about 5 watts of heat even when you're pumping 115 watts into the CPU, hard drive, and motherboard. Finding or building a 115VAC to 12VDC power brick is pretty easy by comparison, and it's also subject to a lot of regulatory requirements that the DC to DC converter itself isn't. There is a lot of merit to separating out the two parts of the problem, especially since cars and RV's (for example) don't need the 115VAC to 12V step in the first place.
My only question would be, as others have already asked... is the 12V input tolerant of the automotive environment? SAE has a standard (J1211? Can't remember...) that specifies the typical extremes for voltage spikes due to boosting screwups, alternator load dump, and various motor load transients. If this module was designed to survive that stuff, then that would be great.
Less is more.
Unfortunately, the answer is that the brick is exactly big and noisy as your existing 480W power supply
I have a laptop sitting next to me that disagrees with you.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
That wouldn't even power my video card.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Probably not. The data sheet says it's only intended for use with the manufacturer's matching 12V supply. Automotive power is very noisy, drops to around 6V during starting and can show big inductive spikes well above 12V. There are automotive power supplies which handle that just fine, but this isn't one of them.
You have a laptop that draws 480 watts? Are your legs charred black or has it melted to the table yet?
The big difference with laptop power supplies is that they only have to supply 10-60 watts (depending on the laptop in question) and can get by with just passive cooling (although some laptops heat their bricks up a lot). There are also super-quiet power supplies for desktops, but none of them can supply 480 watts. At current efficencies that is just too much power for a reasonably sized passive device to dissipate.
I read the internet for the articles.
This is a DC-to-DC Converter, not a Power Supply. Nonetheless, the power density is impressive. Point of load regulation is better anyway. You can get by with a single output power supply and simpify the wiring. Just use converters where you need the lower voltage.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
I believe current auto computers have a hefty filtering package to work under these varying conditions. The Pico-PSU doesn't seem to have enough filtering to be directly plugged in. However, a smaller external voltage regulator to handle the spikes/drops would probably do wonders for it.
It's nice to see these start getting some more attention. I've been a long fan of the works of the people over at http://www.mp3car.com/ and they use these quite extensively. Any tech savy person will love the things these people are doing. It's quite amazing. Needless to say when Im out of college this will be one of my first projects.
I will forever be a student.