So I have a 172w pelt (this one: http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=89&cat=30&page=1) that I never actually used for anything other than testing. I was too afriad of condensation (I bought all the water proofing stuff, I just never wanted to install it). The pelt has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 years now and I was thinking its about time I put it to use. specs 172w @24V = ~7.9A. I have a 240w 24V Mean Well PSU that I was going to power the pelt. It can power the pelt 100% (24V @ 8A) Problem is, 172w of heat means it needs water cooling on the hotside for the cool side to retain any resembelnce of coolness. However... I have an old mini PSU that can output 12A on the 5V line. ~40w of cooling power and still within reasonable limits for cooling the hotside with a simple fan. So I was thinking I could craft a device that would be ~3-4 inches off my desk (so the hsf could have room) and have a nice flat plate for the coldside for me to sit my drinks on. Here's a professional draw-up of my idea: anyone else done this? or am I completly off my rocker?
Yep, by our very own Mattt no less. Check it out in the project logs, or alternativly you can click on the link provided. Beer cooler
you need to make a cover on the hot side because it is very warm and i recomend using a 120mm fan and not smaller. have you thought of butting a tt big typhoon or a tuniq tower? those are some of the best heat sinks for comps and they arn't too expensive
Glad to know I'm not the only crazy one. I was planning on using available parts, but I could buy a decent hsf that takes a 120mm fan if necessary. At the moment I'm using a old stock AMD cooler for a socket 939 chip. Anyone know why it draws less current with a lower voltage? At 24V it draws about 8A, at 12V it pulls ~4.5A and at 5V it pulls around 2-3A.
Here's my old case with a peltier-fridge on the bottom http://metku.net/modgallery/detail.php?id=3956 And the differencies in current drawn by the peltier are most likely caused by it being a peltier, not a resistor It's not linear load... You could try to find datasheet for the exact element from which you could calculate/see the right voltage for a set cooling power.
I graphed the V vs. A at 6 different voltages. @ 24.0v I=8.9A @ 22.1V I=8.45A @ 20.0V I=7.8A @ 18.3V I=7.3A @ 11.4V I=4.67A @ 5.05V I=2.05A It's fairly linear, y=.3662x+.3767 I'm having a hard grasping what type of Potentiometer i'd need to make the voltage range from 5V to 24V (with a 24V source). (non constant current makes me unsure). Any ideas?
A variable voltage regulator would do that for you.. But it's not going to handle 9amps... Maybe some kind of LARGE regulator, or lots of them in parallel?
you can just put a big transistor after a voltage regulator. Keep in mind you would lose the short circuit protection features, though.
any sort of linear regulation for 9 amps would put off a ton of head which would be just more he has to get rid of. A buck converter on the 24v power supply would probably be the best way, and with the right driver chip it would have short circuit protection too. You could use pretty much any DC-DC converter chip if you give it its own 12v supply, just have to modify the inductor and feedback resistor values as needed. most likely a pot with the feedback resistor to make it adjustable.
That sounds quite a bit above my head. hehe, I guess I'll just stick with that mini atx power supply I have and power it with 12V.
surprisingly with just a basic understanding it isnt. most the data needed for designing is in the datasheet for the controller. Though since your load is a peltier, and they dont need real nice power, you could use any chip or circuit to generate a pwm signal and it should work. You could use a 555, and a pot to adjust the duty cycle, though I believe the frequency would change with the duty cycle too, but not a big deal for this. If you have a PWM fan controller laying around, you could hack that, and add on a large output mosfet, and most likely use that as your controller too.
Hey legoman666, I've just done exactly the same project with a friend of mine for school. We build a peltier powered beer-cooler of 90 watts. But we couldn't fully power up the block because it would heat it self up at 80% of it's preformance. Perhaps it was caused by the cooler (a stock AMD64 cooler) so I hope your watercooling kit can provide you with more cooling, so you can get the full 100% preformance btw. We used an big old PSU, which could give us 24V and 10A. Quite dangerous shizzle
I hooked mine up to the 12v line from a mini ATX psu. @ 12v it pulls around 58w. Here's pics! It's not 100% done, I just took off the clamps holding on the top. The glue isn't quite dry yet. And the caulk that I waterproofed the aluminium container isn't quite sealed yet. (I'm going to put a little bit of water in so the surface area that's in contact with my drink is greater). It also needs 4 little blocks, 1 per corner, on the bottom so the intake fan isn't sitting on my desk.
Clueless. this might be a thread on here and im just not finding it. i need to power an 80w peltier for a similar application to this one and a fan with a heatsink for said peltier. i have a couple psu's lying around. one is a new 400w that i dont think i want to destroy if i dont have to and the other is some dell 200w from way back when. i know NOTHING about wiring or electricity other than it makes stuff go. help?
