AC to DC needed

Least expensive? Car battery with a charger hooked up to it.

Any reason you can't change the bulbs to AC?

a 1000w tranny is not going to be cheap !
But they are available.
What type of lights are they !
If they are just incandesant, then they
will work quite happily on 12vac.
So you dont need a filter cap.

ddawg16 said:

Least expensive? Car battery with a charger hooked up to it.

Any reason you can't change the bulbs to AC?

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85 amps for 16 hours !
thats 1369 AH'S
Most car batteries deliver 50 to 100 AH's.

NO CHANCE.

The lights are 55watt halogen..2 light bars with a total of 17 lights and rotators. So no..cannot change out the bulbs

plus a Strobe bar with 2 15amp relays. to give Precise info, 2 Code 3 MX7000 light bars and 1 Whelan Edge 9000 strobe bar.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...514036275282881.122468.514035411949634&type=1

1200 watt landscape lighting transformer will deliver 100 amps at 12 volts. Not cheap but you can get one on eBay for $600.

There are plenty of Chinese vendors selling 100A 12V switching power supplies through AliExpress. Quality varies, as does the customer service experience. I've ordered plenty of stuff through them and it usually works out acceptably. If I needed a power supply like that right now, that's how I'd get it. Be aware that delivery usually takes about a month.

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale...ption=&isRtl=yes&CatId=0&manual=y&needQuery=y

Switching power supply, Would be same as a PC Power supply? If i have 3 that carry the needed amerage, could i hook up the 3 PC Power supplies to run the units?

92Ecto said:

Switching power supply, Would be same as a PC Power supply? If i have 3 that carry the needed amerage, could i hook up the 3 PC Power supplies to run the units?

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You should not parrallel power supplies !
But there'es no reason why you cant just have
the load divided up amongst 3 or 4 supplies.
this would be cheaper and easier.

dmxtothemax said:

You should not parrallel power supplies !
But there'es no reason why you cant just have
the load divided up amongst 3 or 4 supplies.
this would be cheaper and easier.

Click to expand...

Thats Exactly what i meant. Use 3 Computer power supplies, to power the 3 light bars. I was hoping this would work, but wasnt certain. Thank you!

DC to AC requires an inverter. You already have DC in the vehicle.

What's your overall goal here? "92Ecto" -- Are you by chance one of the replica Ghostbusters vehicle guys?

brric said:

DC to AC requires an inverter. You already have DC in the vehicle.

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I am aware of this, Tis why i said " I need AC to DC"

McSteve said:

What's your overall goal here? "92Ecto" -- Are you by chance one of the replica Ghostbusters vehicle guys?

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Yes sir, I have already built the whole deal. Howd you guess? My car has been entered into Carl Caspers 50th Anniversary auto show, and 2 conventions have asked me to bring it out.

92Ecto said:

Switching power supply, Would be same as a PC Power supply? If i have 3 that carry the needed amerage, could i hook up the 3 PC Power supplies to run the units?

Click to expand...

You could. However, most PC supplies are intended to produce far more output at 5V than at 12V. Usually they are rated for something like 50A at 5V and 8A at 12V. They also tend to have annoying "foldback" overcurrent protection that will shut the supply down if you have current spikes - like from turning on an incandescent lamp. I think using computer power supplies in this application would be too annoying to deal with. It's worth spending a couple hundred on a dedicated 12V power supply.

I did forget to mention, i am replaing all 17 of the 55w halogen bulbs with LED/SMD lights. so i should go from 3amps per bulbs down to .01. I assume this should be a significant aid in decreasing power draw, without loosing to many lumens.

Well that's a pretty important change. Although I doubt the current will be that low. An LED replacement for a 55W halogen is probably a 6W load or so, or about half an amp at 12V. I'd say to do all your conversions, measure the actual load in the final configuration, and size the supply based on that. If you get it down to 20A or so, a car battery with a charger connected to it will do the job.

each rotator is 5amps each with the current setup. i believe the new bulbs are 210mA