Please HELP . ATX PSU anomoly . atleast to me

[freemanenergies]

Hello All

i am new to this forum although i have been dabbling with hho for a few years now on and off . i recently dug out my 6" 6 cell stan myers mini tube i built a few years back and wanted to try to make a small AC powered torch out of it . i first picked up a 40 amp 600v full wave bridge rectifier and put that direct in line with the cell (IT CRANKED FOR ABOUT 5 SEC TILL THE BREAKER BLEW) . obviously i am drawing too many amps . SOOOOO i poked around to find out how i could power my cell in the house above the 10amps i can get out of my battery charger and stumbled across a old 300w 30a ATX power supply . got online and found out i needed to cut all the black wires and hook them together for my ground ( with the exception of 1 that i would join to the green wire for the psu power on) and cut all the yellow wires putting them all together for my positive lead . SO I DID and soldered everything in a nice bunch . when i hooked it up to my cell it did nothing . ATX/PSU did not power on at all . i checked everything with the volt meter and nothing . BUT when i had the volt meter in line with the current the ATX/PSU JOLTED on and of for a sec . i then realized if i taped the lead on and off the terminal the ATX/PSU would stay on (the cooling fan spins constant once you get a rythm going) and i got a jumping amp reading up to about 19 amps and GREAT HHO production for the input amperage . SOOOOO i can simulate this action by taking the green and black on / off wires for the PSU and touching them together then taking them apart over and over . WHAT IS THE DEAL ??? is there a diode or relay i can put in place of the on off switch that will make it do the same action as me connecting and disconnecting rapidly . or is my PSU hooked up wrong ?

thank you in advance

n8

[freemanenergies]

after about 15 hrs of tinkering and 5 different instructions on how this is done i am getting 6 amps into my cell from the 5v 30a red leads . apparently my psu had voltage checking wires (pink,brown) i did not know they were paired with the power wires and necessary for the power to turn on (because i hastily cut the male ends and threw them away). am only getting 2amps from the 3.3 v line and .1 amp from the 12v . dont understand that but im sure it is a load issue .

???????????????

i stll have a blue and purple wire that do nothing

[freemanenergies]

i guess i am talking to myself here but i figure someone may read this who needs the help as i have found in forums so many times . this is the link to all the help you may need .

http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Computer-ATX-Power-Supply-to-a-Lab-Power-Supply

i have a 300w psu that i am now pulling 23 amps from unfortunately only producing about 2 liters every 6 minutes . now i have a dc source tho !!

nice thing about stan myers tubes is that i can get up to 20 amps with only 4Tbs of koh so its not much of a waste

and cheap !!!

[viper_1986_1986]

I am new to this too but i know computers.... and i use a PSU as well.

From what i understand AMPs is what gets you more bubbles, and to get AMPs you need volts.
Depending on your number of cells you will need to use the 12v rail, even though it gives less AMPs.

I done tests with a 5 cells - + - + - and using 12v rail at max 10amps is ALOT better than 5.5v rail at 20amps.
I think this is due to the fact that the cells each drain volts so the amps is overall LOWER than just using the 12v rail.

My suggestion? Go get a 850watt PSU that gives 40A on the 12v rail :)

[rcflyn]

I read awhile back, that the ATX Power supplies cause some sort of switching problems...
get a decent Automotive battery charger. You don't need much, unless you're going to "REQUIRE" hugh amounts of amps, then you'll want a "GOOD" Battery charger....

[316204]

need to go pctech site, and search for connections on power connector. there is two black wires, i think, that you can jump at connector, and psu stays on. these are wires that are used to detect that psu has good power. i think they are in middle on one side of connector. i think other side does not have two black wires on that side.
good luck.




Hello All

i am new to this forum although i have been dabbling with hho for a few years now on and off . i recently dug out my 6" 6 cell stan myers mini tube i built a few years back and wanted to try to make a small AC powered torch out of it . i first picked up a 40 amp 600v full wave bridge rectifier and put that direct in line with the cell (IT CRANKED FOR ABOUT 5 SEC TILL THE BREAKER BLEW) . obviously i am drawing too many amps . SOOOOO i poked around to find out how i could power my cell in the house above the 10amps i can get out of my battery charger and stumbled across a old 300w 30a ATX power supply . got online and found out i needed to cut all the black wires and hook them together for my ground ( with the exception of 1 that i would join to the green wire for the psu power on) and cut all the yellow wires putting them all together for my positive lead . SO I DID and soldered everything in a nice bunch . when i hooked it up to my cell it did nothing . ATX/PSU did not power on at all . i checked everything with the volt meter and nothing . BUT when i had the volt meter in line with the current the ATX/PSU JOLTED on and of for a sec . i then realized if i taped the lead on and off the terminal the ATX/PSU would stay on (the cooling fan spins constant once you get a rythm going) and i got a jumping amp reading up to about 19 amps and GREAT HHO production for the input amperage . SOOOOO i can simulate this action by taking the green and black on / off wires for the PSU and touching them together then taking them apart over and over . WHAT IS THE DEAL ??? is there a diode or relay i can put in place of the on off switch that will make it do the same action as me connecting and disconnecting rapidly . or is my PSU hooked up wrong ?

thank you in advance

n8

[BeaverRat]

------Here is how to do it properly-------
I have a 650 watt ATX PSU that outputs 52 amps on the 12 volt rail, and I got it for 66 dollars. It works perfect...

1. Cut off all connectors on leads
2. Open up the PSU by the screws on the chassis
3. Cut off all the zip ties and stuff and sort the wires by color and bunch them together
4. Cut off about half of the green wire and about half of ONE black wire, solder them together. Then house this connection inside the PSU.
5. Do the same as step 4 but this time solder together ONE orange wire and the brown wire. Also tuck this away inside the PSU (Make sure it is covered so it can't short anything)
6. Buy a 10 watt 10 ohm power resistor (radioshack) and solder ONE black wire to one end of it and ONE red wire to the other end. (Make sure it doesn't short anything in the case).
7. Find your 12 volt color bunch and the black bunch of wires and put terminals on them
8. Put it all back together.

[viper_1986_1986]

I would also like to add now that even with a ATX 1000watt PSU giving off 75amps on the 12v rail, its not the same as a car battery.

After testing BOTH i have decided that since my goal is to build something for my car i better be doing tests with a car battery.
The ATX is fun to just play around with and cheaper, but its 12v compared to a 12-14v from a car battery.

[BeaverRat]

Correct: with an ATX PSU at 12 volts you have to use 4 N to get about 2.25volts per gap. With a car battery at 14 volts you have to use 5 N to achieve the same. So, if you plan to allways keep the cell indoors, a ATX PSU will work perfectly as long as you build the cell with the lower voltage in mind. If it's going to go in your car, buy a car battery or use a lab PSU that outputs 13.8 volts.