Powering Rainbow Floods with a PC power supply

[DanHouston]

I see lots of people saying they are going to use a PC power supply to power rainbow floods, but not how they are doing it. Is it just a matter of getting the positive and negative 12v wires from the supply and running that to them?

Anyone done it and have a few quick steps?

[bcstuff]

Dan,
I powered them from a PC power supply.
The yellow wire on a standard IDE power connector is the + 12v line and the 2 blacks are the grounds.

I used a male IDE power adapter off of a fan to make the connection easy, but all you need is just the wires.

See the pic below

[DanHouston]

Thanks!

Can you pull the full amperage rating off of one of those plugs? I was thinking you had to figure out the power out of the plug that would normally go to a motherboard?

[bcstuff]

Depends on the wire size of the power supply.
Rainbow floods at 100% intensity (all 3 colors) pull 2.16 amps each.

According to this chart
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18g can handle 10a at 12v
20g can handle 8a at 12v

I ran 5 off one 20 g wire, but it was never on 100% intensity for more than 3 seconds.

[keitha43]

I have one going to the Rainbow Brain controlling them. Some use DC controllers by LOR or RJ. I also have one ran by a 2a wall wart but it is not recommended.

[rm357]

You need to look at the current rating of the connector as well.

The 4pin mating connector used on the pixel net hub is only rated for 10A.

RM

[bcstuff]

RM has a good point too.