Cunning use of a PC power supply?

[slc]

Hey... first post of many I expect!  :)

I'm undertaking a project that integrates a 17.1" Touchscreen LCD, Midibox64 implementation, PC and Traktor DJ Studio all into one neat and tidy portable flightcase.  ;D

I have a question:

I'm going to be using a PC power supply (http://eu.shuttle.com/fr/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-123/241_read-1225/) to power the other components, but was wondering if I could tap the 5V line to power the Midibox Core et. al.

Theory is that the HDD places the load on the power supply, so providing I used one of the molex connectors that is on the "chain" with the HDD I should be OK to get the power I need?

Space inside the case is at a premium, so I'd like to avoid putting another transformer in there...

What dya guys think?

Thanks,

Stu

[airmailed]

i think some people have tried using switched psu's to power midibox lc and it didn't work too well....

but the other day in a shop i saw a usb port and power connector together in a 3.5" drive bay....

i don't know if that's really significant and i'm not much of an expert ;-)

i guess the thing might be to check that you're getting a stable 5v from the power line and try powering the core for a while to see if it works (or if it melts and catches fire ;-)

[Screaming_Rabbit]

Yes there have been trouble with switching PSUs but also examples where they ran perfectly (example: TK's LC is running on a switching PSU). (... I couldn't find the thread)

The sometimes occuring problems are in the 5V supply for the core... not the supply for the MF-Board.

About the power you need depends on how much you draw  ;) ... how many LEDs, LCD backlights etc.

Greets, Roger

[stryd_one]

Sounds very interesting :) is the touchscreen for the midibox or the pc? (say the midibox :) )

[slc]

I'd like to say midibox, but alas it's for the PC.  ;)

The original plan was to run the whole of Traktor DJ Studio through the touchscreen, but I ran into difficulty trying to control two parameters at once using the touchscreen!

I toyed with re-wiring two phatboy midi controllers with a midi merger and it worked really well - so the plan was hatched to build a "proper" midi interface using TK's MIOS.

Should be awesome *when* its complete.  ;D