What should I use to power my MR16's

[Sloanhaus]

OK, I am not the most inclined when it comes to wiring. What do you mean by connect a switch up... Also, do I just use all the yellow wires and all the black wires coming out of this unit to connect to the MR16?

Thanks

Brad

[Aussiephil]

Brad

Disclaimer: All voltages should be measured to ensure that the color wires i suggest are correct as some power supplies can be different.

Now that we have the disclaimer out of the way.

Yellow normally = 12v (11.8v usually)

Black = Ground

Gather all the yellow wires and cut the connectors off, count wires and gather the same number of black wires.

This gives you Gnd and 12v

The switch i referred to needs to connected to turn the PSU on and off.
Connect Pin16 of the 20/24 ATX connector to a black wire via a SPST switch.
If you dont want the luxury of on/off then just connect Pin16 to Gnd.

Pin16 usually = Green Wire but not always.

Cheers
Phil

[Sloanhaus]

Cant I just turn the unit on off from the back, or just unplug it from the wall. Thanks for explaining the wiring, just want to make sure I get this switch thing right.

[REM]

Yep, with pin 16 grounded just unplug it to turn it off.

[Sloanhaus]

OK, just so I get this right...

Take all the yellow wires and twist them up and connect them to the positive on the MR16. Than take all the black wires and the pin 16 wire and connect it to the negative on the MR16. Than just plug in the power source and I am ready to go?

Thanks for all your help... I only had one yellow and one black connected thinking that 24 volts was coming out of each yellow.

[deplanche]

I think just 1 blank and 1 yellow would be sufficient.  At least, that is all I did.  Could be wrong, but it seemed to work.

[Sloanhaus]

OK, so one yellow and one black,,, and than where do you recommend I ground the green wire,,, or do I even do that?

[Aussiephil]

This is exactly the reason I created the ATX Adapter board, you just plug it in and turn on.

Yes you absolutely need to ground PIN 16 (green wire) for the PSU to work.

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Gives good information for all those wires

I would always use more than one wire just to lower the resistance even over the foot of wire from the PSU.

One will work - four or more 12v wires and ground wires would be better and safer.

Why Safer?
Wire size should be 18guage but seems to be trending on newer supplies to 20 guage, now an 18 gauge wire is rated somewhere up to 15A for chassis wiring and lower for any length and modern 400w/500w supplies will output 25A plus on the 12v, more than enough to overheat wiring and be a fire risk if only one wire is used and it gets shorted out.
yeah i know that the PSU should shutdown but....

Low voltage - high current is stuff that us aussies are used to.

[Sloanhaus]

Thanks for the advice Aussie Phil, I am going to use all the wires... still wondering what would be the best place to ground the green wire?

[Aussiephil]

Sorry dude

Green connect to one of the Black wires

Cheers

[wbuehler]

Thanks for the advice Aussie Phil, I am going to use all the wires... still wondering what would be the best place to ground the green wire?

Ground the green wire to the power supply chase.  This should allow the Power Supply to turn on.

Bill

[Aussiephil]

Bill,

Personally i would not use the Case but would use one of the black wires.

The Case can become "live" at mains voltage if the Earth wiring is lifted, it will still work and turn on but not ideal.

Lessons learnt building the 48v supply

Cheers
Phil