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http://cgi.ebay.com/12-Volt-DC-30-Amp-Power-Supply-3-Diff-models-BlackSteel_W0QQitemZ200264686044QQcmdZViewItemQQptZRadio_Control_Vehicles?hash=item200264686044&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

Anyone tried it? It's a converted computer power supply but it seems good... I need to buy one and I thought this is interesting....

What other options are good for price?

it looks like he's sold pretty many. seems like most of the buyers are happy with them.

i had this same dilema a couple months ago. trying to find a decent p.s. for a good price. in the early 90's, i bought a rivergate power souce 30, but sold it a few years ago. it never gave me one bit of trouble, and i can't say i've ever heard a bad thing about them. so, when i needed to find a p.s., i was looking around at ones like in your link, but i was hesitant on commiting to buy one. luckily, i was able to score a used power source 30 like i had from an ebay auction for $50. i was a little worried about buying one used, but going from personal experience with my old one, i felt save buying it. so, far it's worked flawlessly. i did a quick search on ebay and found another one.......

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rivergate-30-Amp-Power-Supply-Power-Source-Charger_W0QQitemZ130276700362QQihZ003QQcategoryZ44028QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

scr8p wrote:it looks like he's sold pretty many. seems like most of the buyers are happy with them.

i had this same dilema a couple months ago. trying to find a decent p.s. for a good price. in the early 90's, i bought a rivergate power souce 30, but sold it a few years ago. it never gave me one bit of trouble, and i can't say i've ever heard a bad thing about them. so, when i needed to find a p.s., i was looking around at ones like in your link, but i was hesitant on commiting to buy one. luckily, i was able to score a used power source 30 like i had from an ebay auction for $50. i was a little worried about buying one used, but going from personal experience with my old one, i felt save buying it. so, far it's worked flawlessly. i did a quick search on ebay and found another one.......

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rivergate-30-Amp-Power-Supply-Power-Source-Charger_W0QQitemZ130276700362QQihZ003QQcategoryZ44028QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for the info. Does it have banana plugs or screws for connecting?

If you can do some soldering then i wouldnt get that. all it is a a modded computer psu.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371019

Modded pc supplies can be great. I have a rackmount server power supply that I got from a surplus electronics place for under $50 shipped. It has dual (hot-swappable) 560w supplies, for a total of 60 amps on the 12V. I managed to get it up to 40 amps or so by putting my old discharge bulb set on it as well as several chargers, and it provided a nice steady voltage at that load. the only problem is the weight, it is huge.
The other benefit to pc power supplies is that you can tap the 5 and 3.3V outputs as well, great for running in motors and testing electronics without batteries.

aconsola wrote:Modded pc supplies can be great. I have a rackmount server power supply that I got from a surplus electronics place for under $50 shipped. It has dual (hot-swappable) 560w supplies, for a total of 60 amps on the 12V. I managed to get it up to 40 amps or so by putting my old discharge bulb set on it as well as several chargers, and it provided a nice steady voltage at that load. the only problem is the weight, it is huge.
The other benefit to pc power supplies is that you can tap the 5 and 3.3V outputs as well, great for running in motors and testing electronics without batteries.

iam running this in my server/main pc
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3655208&CatId=106

I picked up the 15 amp Radio Shack unit, much lower than they show online, if I remember right, it was 45.99. The unit is small and light, and powers my 2 chargers with no issues.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103960

FYI....the Radio Shack 25 amp power supply is also re-badged and sold by Competition Electronics.

I have a question along these lines. Back in the day we used full scale car battery chargers as power supplies for our peak chargers. I recently bought a newer R/C DC charger, but it will not work when hooked up to a car battery charger. I only tried one, but I assume none others will work either. It's like it didn't even recognize it. Anyone know why it didn't work?

THEYTOOKMYTHUMB wrote:I have a question along these lines. Back in the day we used full scale car battery chargers as power supplies for our peak chargers. I recently bought a newer R/C DC charger, but it will not work when hooked up to a car battery charger. I only tried one, but I assume none others will work either. It's like it didn't even recognize it. Anyone know why it didn't work?

The newer switch mode chargers monitor input voltage and only work within a range, typically 11-15 volts or so. Old school automotive chargers are essentially very poorly regulated linear power supplies, the voltage varies a lot depending on load. No load they are typically well over 15 volts, so the charger won’t start. Older chargers, say a Tekin BC100L for example, would still start, but just run hotter typically (depending on the auto charger voltage under load, but always higher than the battery itself).

A couple of things to watch for on the converted PC power supplies: They typically don’t like surges and reactive loads much. The big amp 3.3 & 5v taps seem attractive, but the jolt of a highly inductive motor tends to burn at least some of them up. And they tend to be lower voltage (real 12 instead of ~13.6), sometimes a couple of chargers won’t work well even when well within current limitations. But some have had great success, and its pretty cheap and easy to convert a surplus unit.

Thanks Bongo. Mystery solved.