Build a dedicated Audio PC

[tony]

Whats da story here?? I just buy a couple of maplin and ebay linear supplies and now we are on a truckload of car batteries? Are they exide?
Would it be better to use a bank of boat or tractor batteries? Where is this going to end?

[nige2000]

I suppose it's just another option
I'm not sure if the batteries are a workable day to day with needing to have them charged now and again.
And as separate linears made a positive reaction it would be quite possible that could follow through with the batteries so that would be 3 per PC put I suppose you'll use something smaller for the ssd/usb3

[jkeny]

I wasn't intending to use car batteries but my LiFePO4 ones. I'll be testing the options:
- a pack to provide the 16V to 20V supply to the NUC (it will work down at 16V supply, possibly lower?)
- 3.3V supplies where used (a lot of the 5V supplies are regulated down to 3.3V) - possibly USB, possibly RAM, possibly CPU

The problem of keeping batteries charged is solvable by trickle charging the batteries (even when running the NUC). This may seem a contradiction but the batteries operate as a huge capacitor & smooth the ripple of whatever PS is being used to power the trickle charger. You wouldn't need a big PS either as it is not supplying the main current for the NUC, the batteries are. Once the NUC is turned off & trickle charging of the batteries continued it should re-charge the batteries.

All this is just my thinking & it may prove to be incorrect or unworkable or not worth the effort - only experimenting will sort it out!

[tony]

There are people doing something like this already(Red Wine Audio) but as we all know the prices are in the paul hynes territory. Nigels car battery with a trickle charger maybe on a timer is the cheapo tirnahifi maplin like solution. Like everything else Nigel has tested it will probably come up trumps.
It seems a mad step but if this delivers even better than the Linear supplies I suppose it could be possible to wire the batteries from a remote location and trickle charge them as per Johns suggestion on the nuc. If you look at the jplay forum a fair number seem to be using batteries of some sort.
It is figuring out what the expensive ones have in them and if it is just a nice aluminium box with batteries in it.

[tony]

Excellent Fran and John on two bicycles that would be stereo. It would all just then be down to timing.

LOL! That is classic guys! I am waiting for the HD-plex 19V for my NUC. It is in production and arrives in October according to HD-PLEX. I am waiting then for Mr. Kenny to produce something to power the rest ;)

I hope Larry comes up trumps in October as the timelines for the Plex case kept getting pushed out I gave up. To be fair I think small green computers are using his case now not the streacom so bet they took all his stock. Anyway you will have a plethora of battery options from JK, Eist Audio and NigeAudio by october

[Sligolad]

I got a response from Larry that he will have a 19v linear supply ready for me within a month so I agreed to hold off and go with his unit if in fact it is within a month.
Hope he is reliable and not another Paul Hynes in terms of business operations.
I had the top off the Cirrus7 last week and forgot to look at the power connections so I will open it up again today and take some pictures before I start in to setting Server Core on it later.

[nige2000]

I got a response from Larry that he will have a 19v linear supply ready for me within a month so I agreed to hold off and go with his unit if in fact it is within a month.
Hope he is reliable and not another Paul Hynes in terms of business operations.
I had the top off the Cirrus7 last week and forgot to look at the power connections so I will open it up again today and take some pictures before I start in to setting Server Core on it later.

take loads of photos of the cirrus nimbus as it looks like a beauty online

does the cirrus come with its own power brick supply and have some sort of motherboard psu inside the case?
funny all this 19v stuff as i dont thick theres anywhere on a motherboard that uses 19v its all 12v and lower as far as i know

i think these modern cpus take a range of voltages maybe four or so never mind the rest of the motherboard, it will get very complicated very quickly
if we could deliver really clean supplies into the main areas
keeping onboard the pico for the mean time
12v to the pico psu
12v for cpu
5v for usb3/ssd

maybe then it will be time to worry about other things starting with the ram

nige

[Adrian]

Whats da story here?? I just buy a couple of maplin and ebay linear supplies and now we are on a truckload of car batteries? Are they exide?
Would it be better to use a bank of boat or tractor batteries? Where is this going to end?

Ah Tony old boy............... sure did'nt ya know................. "Atomic Batteries" are the way to go...... just like in the Batmobile!!!



Seriously though, running trickle charges across batteries is used in many instances... WRT Lead Acid batteries they are complied as cells of about 2 V each...

So to build up to 18 V you require to run across several cells in series, perhaps one 12V battery and one 6V battery. But the power supply is only as good as the strength of the weakest link, which means if a any cell builds up resistance, your voltage can drop at the output.

Effectively you are introducing more points of potential failure. It does work, but as usual there is a trade off. Even if you don't use Lead acid.. other battery cells still have to be ganged together to get up to 12 V or more.

For those with Green Concerns.................. you can rig up "Baghdad Batteries"

[nige2000]

right i got 2 pc streaming going
batteries straight into pico psu's
removed all linear supplies (all being powered via pico)

resulted in tighter base, higher resolution (hear things never heard before, backing singers getting their 10 cent in, hand running along the neck of a guitar, notice a singers accent more, singer taking a silent breath before the next verse) just seems more realistic

on the other hand it seemed to loose a bid of body or presence which the linears have and i miss that,
whether this can be regained by separating out the supplies im not quite sure but it will need to be tested.

lead batteries arent even supposed to be the pick of them for audio,
maybe some of johns LiFePO4 batteries will work better but they look pricey in suitable sizes as each 12v supply would need to be able to cope with a 3 amp load for a realistic usage time (will be under 1.5 most of the time)

Shunts i got a pain in my head reading about (interesting stuff though)

[Fran]

Now I'm conflicted!

One bit of me thinks that a box with 3 transformers (and maybe 4 to allow for powering ram separately) with a linear supply after each would be a neat solution. But then John's battery shunt would be a much neater solution, produce less heat, less power consumption. The big question is, as usual, what sounds best.


Fran