... do they have POS and NEG terminals? If so would I have a problem with shorting out the PSU with them like 3.5mm stereo jacks would?
Not expressly. The only connection points are the internal pin which normally acts as the signal connection (which will be safest for the positive line) and the external grounding contact. For a plug-bus it will be safest to use the female plugs as the power supply side of the connection, and then use the male connectors as the power connector tail for the devices you need to plug in. There is no shorting involved when an RCA cable is plugged in.
I want to do what this guy did here,... http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=550&page=4 You have to scroll down a bit. I would solder the pos to the middle terminal and the neg to the piece of metal that wraps around the wire to hold it to the connector? Well,... thats what he did. That would work fine right? No shorting?
No shorting worries at all. The thing with using 3/8" plugs and jacks is that while the plug is being inserted, there's a brief moment when two of the contacts in the jack will be connected to the same part of the plug, causing a short. In RCA jacks, the outer shell and the inner plug never come in contact with each other, unless you do something stupid like pull the tab inside of the plug that connects to the outer shell onto the tab connected to the inner plug.
Just for info, you can get these plugs & sockets colour-coded like these, so could use yellow for 12V, red for 5V. Gold too...
So you could run 12v volts through RCA plugs and jacks without any problems? I want to modulate my PSU and I am actually looking for these other plugs I saw this opne guy using. They are round and have like 5 or so round pins or plugs inside the plug itself. the interanl pins are kinda thick. I can't find these plugs nor do I know what they are called. I cant find this guyz PSU either. It's at one of these modding sites. But if I cant find them RCA plugs and jacks would be fine to modulate a PSU?
theres a few ways to do it. Im not sure if RCA i rated for high enough current. IIRC highpower speakers are low current and voltage is increased at higher powers? so they mightnot be much good.. The round ones you speak of are expensive, sold here Another alternative is to use normal 4pin molex to make it modular. I used the ones kustompc sell - the ones that splice the cable. Instead of cable I used some 0.75mm thick strips of copper sheet which fits the pins perfectly, which are also soldered. then I made aaluminuim box to house it and screwed it to my PSUs case.
To light a few leds or run a fan, no problem. As a molex substitute to run drives, I wouldn't even think about it. They're not designed for attaching thick wires. Look for the Neutrik XLR range, their 4-way plugs are 10A rated which might do, and there's a screw-lock version IIRC.
Do you mean DIN connectors or XLR connectors? Zapwizard used a variety of those connectors in his LAN PC.
These connectors can handle 12v, hell they can handle 12,000v if for some reason you have a need for that. HOWEVER... the current is what you need to watch for. LEDs draw 3-5 ma so no problem. HDDS probally draw significantly more at 662 ma (diamond max 9 hdds on seek.) The rca connector can probally handle this, as it isnt to much current still, the limiting fator will probally be the wires that you connect to the jack/plug. Also, use of rca plugs for a HDD is less practical then an led, as HDDs are less comon to be removed, 2 plugs are required (12v/gnd + 5v/gnd) and a way to distinguish the different connectors (colors or placement) For a HDD you would probally want one connector instead of two. The two grounds can be combined so a 3 pin connector would suffice. a Microphone plug would probaly work, as the pins are fairly big, and can probaly carry the current.
I wouldn't run more than 1000V in a RCA plug, it doesn't have THAT great an insulation gap... Actually, i think i will advice against running anything over 50V since the female connector doesn't have the center connector far enough sunk down in the insulating plastic. (50V is the official "non lethal" voltage for swedish electrical equipment) Up to one amp should not be a problem for current, these contacts are frequently used to connect wall adapters for different things, and i have seen up to about one amp on those. Allso, LED's typically draw 20mA, not 3-5.
DOH i was thinking of voltage for LEDs when i typed that. Good call, but there still is a large difference (just a bit less of one) And voltage isnt lethal. In any way shape or form (not sure how many shapes electricity comes in...) when you comb your hair, the static shock is in 100,000's of volts. but its less that a 1/10 of an amp, so it just stings a bit. The only problem with voltage is that the higher the voltage, the more of a tendacy to jump to grounded objecrs (i think...( think of jacobs ladders, they have insanly high voltage right?))
Yeah, but 50V is what's concidered guaranteed non lethal over here, no matter how many amps the line can handle. Jacobs ladder frequently uses lethal currents thou, do you mean the use of a static electricity generator (Van de Graaff generator)?
hehe Van de Graff generators are fun. We had one out in physics class, and we formed a chain of humans across the room and i shocked a sleeping guy in the face... Much fun.
