Yes, the power supply with four 12V rails can be used to energize an electrically adjustable car seat.
Yes, the power supply with four 12V rails can be used to energize an electrically adjustable car seat.
i have an old hiper type-m 630w psu with 4 x 12v rails capable of 18a each. i want to connect these rails together to create a single high-amp 12v output without adding a heating element. my goal is to supply about 30a for the car seat, which used to draw that amount. i plan to merge all the 12v outputs into one and combine the ground connections into one point.
This PSU?
http://www.xoxide.com/hyper-type-m-630w-black.html
What are the electrical specifications for the car seat motor(s)?
Do you have an electrical schematic for your plan?
All in favor of DIY and repurposing things, etc..
However, the suggested use requires much more detail and explanation.
yes thats the psu and all i know is that the seat was on a 30a fuse in the car, i cant get to the motors in the seat to see if they have any information on them as theyre all tucked away inside the seat, also for the schematic there isnt really much to it, i just looked up the pinout of an atx psu and i was gonna cut all the wires off of the connectors and bunch up all the 12v wires and the ground wires and have them as a positive and negative as the seat only has a positive and negative to connect to, if you think you could find something for how much power the seat needs its from a 2012 volkswagen passat with the high spec interior
From what I understand, the power supply also provides a 28amp 12v output. This seems quite close to 30 amps. It appears the supply includes an internal fuse or protection system if you attempt to draw more than 28 amps. If this is related to electronics, combining the 18amp outputs could be dangerous, though it might be acceptable for devices that can handle rough power like motors. Since I haven’t looked into this in detail recently, things might have changed. Years ago, when they mentioned rails, it seemed like they placed several 12volt power supplies inside one enclosure. There was never the need to connect two power cables to the motherboard or video card—they usually only had one. Nowadays, it’s typical for the motherboard or video card to have multiple power connectors. It’s best not to use connectors from different power sources, even though some people do use several external supplies, which can still cause problems. Small variations in voltage regulation between different supplies could damage sensitive equipment. What they describe today regarding rails is quite different. There’s essentially just one main circuit for regulation. They operate through various protection circuits, so they might run two 20amp circuits instead of one 40amp one. Connecting connectors from both to a single device would still result in 40 amps being combined, as the system should handle it equally.
I've just completed the wiring and it's working wonderfully, thank you for your assistance. I'll keep you updated if I encounter any problems later. I connected two of the 18-amp rails to the seat, but the PSU only provides a 5v 28amp output, not a 12v 28amp one. It has four 12v 18-amp connections, so I assumed two would suffice and it seems to be working as expected.
Never had the calculations before the update. There seems to be an issue with the ratings. Using 4 18 amp, 12 volt connections would produce 864 watts, which is far beyond the 630 and overlooks other voltages such as 5 volts and -12 volts. But you're probably not close to even reaching 630 with your setup.
I have designed several SMPS and have a lot of experience here.
From what I’ve observed, this PSU seems to be generating just one 12V rail. The output is detected through four different shunt resistors, which create four separate rails, while the original source rail remains at 12V. So yes, they can be connected in parallel.
However, I notice its minor rail rating is only 30 amps. This suggests it’s actually a group regulated power supply, which presents a significant issue.
A group regulated PSU is essentially a GPSU.
These GPSUs struggle to maintain consistent voltage across all rails, especially when operating in unbalanced mode—where one rail carries the load while others don’t. This can lead to high voltage on unloaded rails, triggering safety mechanisms and causing the PSU to shut down.
If your PSU is indeed a GPSU, it’s best to abandon this idea. Instead, consider a modern DC-DC labeled PSU that generates only 12V and independently regulates 5V and 3.3V. This way, regardless of the load on any rail, the output voltage will remain stable, allowing safe operation with any type of load.