[piperpilot]

OK analog electronics gurus. I have a voltage divider question. I have a 35V, 10A power supply that I use to run my steppers and driver. I recently unearthed an old single board computer (Wafer C800-EV) that I had purchased for a CarPC years ago. This is a decent 800mhz, 512MB of ram PC in a ~4x4" package.

I plan on installing this little PC inside the same Pactec enclosure as I have my driver and PS. It requires 12V into its power supply and consumes around 40W.

So my question is...can I use a simple resistor voltage divider to take the 35V down to ~12V? Would 1W resistors be big enough for this? Do I want high resistance (1M ohm) or low resistance (1 ohm)?

Any advise would be appreciated.

Curtis

[ragstian]

Hi.

A voltage divider based on resistors is a bad idea as you would have to dissipate a lot of power in the drop down resistor. The output voltage would also be dependent of the load. For your application a DC/DC converter is a better option.
See here for an example:
SD-50C-12, Mean Well SD-50C-12
UWS Series | Murata Power Solutions
Ragnar

[piperpilot]

Thats kind of what I thought...but wanted to confirm. I have a separate power brick that I can use and just put a barrel connector in my enclosure, or I can order a 12V power supply from a seller on ebay for like $12. I am intrigued by that Murata DC-DC converter and ordered a sample...we'll see if they send me one.

Thanks again for responding!

Curtis