Powering Mobo from a 12 volt DC source

[loic2003]

So what's the best way of porwering a normal motherboard from a 12 volt souce such as a car battery? what can be used instead of the normal PSU? There must be a method better than using an inverter to bring the voltage UP from 12V DC to 240V AC, then plug in the PSU which would convert it back down to 12 DC and 5...or whatever computers run off....


thanks for the help!!

 

[Peter]

You want a DC/DC converter. To keep that simple, you're going to need a mainboard that doesn't need as many different voltages as a standard one. And of course you want something low on power consumption. VIA might have stuff that suits you.

 

[loic2003]

do you know of any particular models that will be any use? what about the current? Car batteries can supply a hell of a lot, couldn't this screw up the mobo?

thanks.

 

[Peter]

erm ... current flow is a function of the power sink, not the source. Please do yourself a favor and dust off your basic electro-skillz before you go ahead

VIA's newly presented NanoITX boards, IIRC, run off a single DC voltage.

 

[loic2003]

Ok, where can I find online documentation in which to learn all this stuff? Know of any projects where people have done this before?

thanks.