Beginners/ Basic advice for test station?

[Dfellows1480]

Hi guys, first of all this is going to be quite long so before I get railed for asking idiotic questions or anything here's the backstory/ situation. I'm just you're average 24yr old college guy. In high school I was the guy who knew how about simple car audio and basic customization. I took some automotive classes, passed with flying colors but we were never introduced into electrical. I love working on car audio/ video and customization and am already fairly knowledgeable in the area but by no means a pro so I am currently studying to get my MECP BASICS and then go up the ladder there so I can persue what I love as a career. So theres my backstory

Now on to business. I'm trying to build some sort of test station in my garage for when I put something in my own, friends or acquaintances car. What I'm hoping to accomplish is to be able to power decks, amps, speakers, subs and anything else without actually having to hook it up to a car so I can test them and make sure everything is working and whatnot. At the moment powering a deck isnt really priority but I would at least like some way of power speaker and sub amps. After doing a few weeks of late night research all I've come up with is to do such a thing I either need to modify a PC PSU, run a car battery charger to a battery to an amp, or the even more sketchy way of that a battery charger to the amp. I have also read about using some sort of ac to DC power supply, which would seem alot more reasonable than all the other ways but the only thing I can find in that area are power supply's with low amps. Obviously I'm not loaded with money so I can't spend thousands of dollars to do this but Im also not completely broke poor so I can spend a reasonable amount. I'm hoping to find some answers here so any advice would be greatly appreciated

[SIDE SHOW]

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[SIDE SHOW]

i use something like this, can wire up amps decks and such..... prob not very good for powering big sub amps or any amp that draws a decent amount

[firebirdude]

As you said, you need a power supply. You can use a PC PSU if you'd like. I used a 700W Thermaltake to power a deck and Kicker CX300.1 without a problem. You could also use a straight up DC power supply (pretty much what a PC PSU is anyway), but to get a large decent one isn't always cheap. (quickly over $100)

As for design, I'd probably recommend actually having an entire audio system connected. Then wire in a few inputs, outputs and switches which will allow you to quickly swap/test any piece of an audio system. Example: my test bench has a deck with speaker connections mounted next to it. So I can plug in a suspect speaker, flip and switch, and now my deck is powering the suspect speaker instead of the test bench speakers. Likewise, I can plug in a suspect deck's speaker wires, flip a switch, and power the test bench's speakers with the suspect deck. The amp and sub is pretty self explanatory. I also have a simple +12V/ground connection for various things and a female cig socket.

EDIT: the power supply listed above does 40A continuous. That's more than enough. You're not trying to dyno amplifiers here. You're just making sure something is working properly.

[rockFord_Expedition]

If it's just a test station to verify that things work, you wont be pulling crazy amperage.

[islandpride684]

http://www.parts-express.com/cat/power-supplies/1474?N=21451+4294967118&Ne=10166&No=0&Nrpp=16&Nrs=collection%28%29%2Frecord%5Bendeca%3Amatches%28.%2C%22P_PortalID%22%2C%221%22%29+and+endeca%3Amatches%28.%2C%22P_Searchable%22%2C%221%22%29%5D&PortalID=1

[Dfellows1480]

Thanks for all the input so far guys!

Firebird: how would I go about wiring an amp or deck to the thermaltake? Pretty much I've narrowed it down to Sideshows Powertech, a Pyramid 40amp ac-dc power supply that I found via the link from Island or your suggestion.

Maybe someone can correct me but the only reason I'm going for a higher amperage is so I can test whatever is on it to some degree. By no means do I want to crank a speaker or sub amp all the way so the entire neighborhood can hear me in the process but I want to be able to have the volume up at a decent level. I figure something with low (below 10) amps wouldn't work??

[Dfellows1480]

As you said, you need a power supply. You can use a PC PSU if you'd like. I used a 700W Thermaltake to power a deck and Kicker CX300.1 without a problem. You could also use a straight up DC power supply (pretty much what a PC PSU is anyway), but to get a large decent one isn't always cheap. (quickly over $100)

As for design, I'd probably recommend actually having an entire audio system connected. Then wire in a few inputs, outputs and switches which will allow you to quickly swap/test any piece of an audio system. Example: my test bench has a deck with speaker connections mounted next to it. So I can plug in a suspect speaker, flip and switch, and now my deck is powering the suspect speaker instead of the test bench speakers. Likewise, I can plug in a suspect deck's speaker wires, flip a switch, and power the test bench's speakers with the suspect deck. The amp and sub is pretty self explanatory. I also have a simple +12V/ground connection for various things and a female cig socket.

EDIT: the power supply listed above does 40A continuous. That's more than enough. You're not trying to dyno amplifiers here. You're just making sure something is working properly.

Firebird: how would I go about wiring an amp or deck to the thermaltake? Pretty much I've narrowed it down to Sideshows Powertech, a Pyramid 40amp ac-dc power supply that I found via the link from Island or your suggestion.

Maybe you can correct me but the only reason I'm going for a higher amperage is so I can test whatever is on it to some degree. By no means do I want to crank a speaker or sub amp all the way so the entire neighborhood can hear me in the process but I want to be able to have the volume up at a decent level. I figure something with low (below 10) amps wouldn't work??

[SIDE SHOW]

bigger the better imo, also try get one with a fuse so if you do try and draw too much from it, the fuse will pop and only cost you a doller or two to fix it instead of having to replace the whole unit.