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I have a car stereo head unit that I'd like to repurpose as a radio for my garage. Given that, I'm looking for some kind of power adapter / transformer that I can plug into a wall outlet and splice into the stereo harness. Presumably this would need to convert from 120VAC to 12VDC, but I'm not sure what I'd need as far as amperage goes. If it's relevant, the stereo was on a 10 amp fuse when it was in the car.

I've seen people use computer power supply units, the big 350 W guys, but that seems like major overkill here especially since I'm only looking for the 12v and wouldn't need the other wires from a PSU like the 3.3v and 5v lines.

jscs
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Joseph
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1 Answers1

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Your car Audio should work well in your garage .Mine has been running for 17 years now .The 12 V DC power supply needs to be rated for the job as others have commented .If you use a switchmode power supply which is more common these days you may get noisey radio reception due to the crud that these supplies put out .Placing the Antenna on the roof will minimise this potential problem .If you use an old school linear power supply your ability to get distant stations should be excellent.The old school linear power supplies that are designed for radio telephone equipment would perform well.I used a transformer and bridge rectifier and filter capacitor for one of my installs .I used much more filter capacitance than usual because car equipment is designed to filter alternator whine and does not filter power hum very well .A lot of modern car audio equipment wants to be connected to 12V all the time .You will notice that when you change your car battery the radio forgets its stations.If your 12V is going to be on all the time then your power supply should have a low standby current or you can use two supplies .Small one for the memory and large for the radio .

Autistic
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