Well, I remember reading a question about this earlier, then I remembered what could be used for a power supply. You'd need something to convert your AC power to 12 DC current.

Well, what do we have EVERYWHERE for cheap? But Computer ATX power supplies! I'd have to look at what the 12v DC rail supplies in terms of amperage but I suspect you could find a ATX power supply that would work to power a starter box 12v dc motor.

Just a thought, one that could be mighty useful for those long practice days at LHR.

Or you could find a AC motor that fits in the starter box and can be attached to a flywheel and then just run it straight of AC power.

I think im going to try and build one using an old CPU supply. Lol

Here's the help you need....

Make a 12v DC power supply from Computer power supply

Ive seen peolple do this to power a charger. Don't you need at least 10 amps to do that though? It looks like most power supplies have 4 to 7 amps for pc's I have a sweet 500watt modular power supply that I got for free. Very expensive when new. It's one that you only plug in the leads you need so you don't have a mass of wires in your case. Model was Matrix I believe. Can't remember who made it. Never even opened the box. But have used them before and they are very good.

Found it! It's the Antec Neo. Specs say 18.0A on the 12v rail and 20a on the 5v rail. Think this would do?

i think the motor would require alot of amps to be run i can see if i can get my hands on a ac motor since my mom works for a company that makes ac motors

I don't know amps much but I run my box on 2 3600 mah batteries. Wouldn't that be only like 7.2 amps?

There's gotta be something out there that can put out like 20 AMPS DC, or perhaps a transformer or something to bring it up to like 20 amps or something...There's gotta be a way...Im sick of batterys, I wanna plug in lol

It looks like there are power-supplys that will put out up to 25A @ 13.8vDC but its like kinda bulky...doesnt seem lucrative.

Maybe I'll pull a bobbo and just use a car battery.

yeah no problems with a car battery, that's about 600,000mah minimum @ 12v.

No, that's 7.2 volts per pack, or 14.4 volts total. Most assembled stick packs don't rate amps.

Ponch, The Mah on a Battery pack is the Miliamps. 1000 Mah is equal to 1 amp per hour. If a 3600 Mah battery lasts for 1 hour continuous, the relative draw is 3.6 amps. If you have 2- 3600 Mah stick packs, in series, the voltage increases to 14.4 volts, but the Mah stays 3600 Mah. If wired parallel, you would only have 7.2 volts, but 7200 Mah.


For the short amount of "Spin time" that a Starter box needs, you shouldn't need too many amps. If a starter box needed 18 amps, it would drain 3000 Mah stick packs almost instantly. The computer power supplies should be very capable of running a starter box for the short momentary bursts required to start an engine.

I know they sell power supplies for mini pc's. I used to be into that stuff big time. Building custom gaming rigs and all that. They would definitely have one small enough for a starter box. The more I think about it, it really shouldn't be too hard. PS's have a 12v rail and a 5v rail for fans and such. Gonna have to study a bit. Don't really need a plug in box but I love a challenge. Who's gonna do it first! If you think about it, it's really not practical but hey you never know!

Newegg.com - APEX AL-B200SFX ATX12V MICRO ATX 200W Power Supply Select 90-132VAC or 180-264VAC UL, CSA, TUV, NEMKO, DEMKO, SEMKO, FI, CE - OEM

Here's the ticket! Now to figure out how to mod it. I have like 20 electrical engineers at work I'm gonna hit up for info.

How to Convert a Computer ATX Power Supply to a Lab Power Supply - wikiHow

Nice how too. You can set it up to put any voltage you want! 5,7,12,17,20.

Wonder if a box could handle 17? I would think so since people run to 8.4 packs in them some times.

This is the ticket right here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26oqItOY3lE

Nuff said. I'm doing this!

Amperage Draw would depend on the load placed on the Box...if you're breaking in a new engine it'd probably draw higher than a broke in one. Im honestly going to look into this. I'd say 10 AMPS is enough power...maybe try to hit it with like 14 volts for extra power.