Good day folks. A friend of mine recently asked me, thereby giving me a "mental challenge", to come up with a solution for converting a 24v supply from a crappy old transformer to a 12v supply which he'd use to power a car headunit he intends to install in his basement. To clarify, where I live, many apartment blocks don't have a mains supply running into their basement due to safety regulations regarding electric hazards caused by floods from leaky pipes or water used for putting out potential fires, so instead there's a beefy 24v transformer somewhere at the top levels feeding some crappy bulbs down there for light only and that's it, so if there ever IS water down there, the supply is isolated and harmless to those who might be standing in it.
The idea is to tap into the 24v bus, put a rectifier on it and regulate it to run a headunit...from what I understand, the headunit in question is a junker he got from a friend, so we're not talking amps and 1000w subs here
Come to think of it, many headunits run perfectly fine on 24v as well, since they're designed for use on trucks or vehicles which operate on 24v, so technically no conversion should be done at all, but without first seeing the thing I can't know for sure. Even then, I'm thinking of all the spikes going on on the mains side which would translate to possible overvoltage on the secondary as well, so I need at least some minimal regulation.
Obviously a switching regulator would be best suited for maximum efficiency, but that's a bit overkill and hard to design, especially since it would probably cost more than the headunit itself and would have to be fairly beefy, since automotive equipment tends to draw quite some amps (again, this is a number I haven't got at the moment, since I haven't seen the thing he's trying to power, but I WILL tomorrow hopefully....some rusty hunk of junk he found at the wreckers from what I understand )
I HAVE simulated a linear regulator one using an op-amp and basic feedback and it works (in theory at least), though it's going to be highly inefficient, because it would have to shed 12v (24v-12v) and even at 1-2 amps, we're still talking 12-24w for the pass element. Cooling and pricing becomes an issue at this point - again, would probably outweigh the radio itself. What would you use ? Thoughts ? Ideas ? A battery radio or a phone, I know what you'll say, but that's not the point of the discussion
The idea is to tap into the 24v bus, put a rectifier on it and regulate it to run a headunit...from what I understand, the headunit in question is a junker he got from a friend, so we're not talking amps and 1000w subs here
Come to think of it, many headunits run perfectly fine on 24v as well, since they're designed for use on trucks or vehicles which operate on 24v, so technically no conversion should be done at all, but without first seeing the thing I can't know for sure. Even then, I'm thinking of all the spikes going on on the mains side which would translate to possible overvoltage on the secondary as well, so I need at least some minimal regulation.
Obviously a switching regulator would be best suited for maximum efficiency, but that's a bit overkill and hard to design, especially since it would probably cost more than the headunit itself and would have to be fairly beefy, since automotive equipment tends to draw quite some amps (again, this is a number I haven't got at the moment, since I haven't seen the thing he's trying to power, but I WILL tomorrow hopefully....some rusty hunk of junk he found at the wreckers from what I understand )
I HAVE simulated a linear regulator one using an op-amp and basic feedback and it works (in theory at least), though it's going to be highly inefficient, because it would have to shed 12v (24v-12v) and even at 1-2 amps, we're still talking 12-24w for the pass element. Cooling and pricing becomes an issue at this point - again, would probably outweigh the radio itself. What would you use ? Thoughts ? Ideas ? A battery radio or a phone, I know what you'll say, but that's not the point of the discussion
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