Power cord conversion to 12V

Scott T-Bird

Scott T-Bird

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Oct 26, 2008
6,302
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
I bought a blu ray player with an AC power cord to put on the boat. I figured I could use it when plugged into shore power. So it seems that the power cord is converted to 12 V DC to run the player. Is it feasible to simply cut the cord and connect + and - into the DC panel?
 
Scott B

Scott B

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Sep 20, 2006
2,952
Hunter 33 Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada
I've done that with 2 TV's I bought. Had the brick from 120v to 12v. Cut the wire and wired direct.
 
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Don S/V ILLusion

Don S/V ILLusion

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Sep 25, 2008
7,472
Alden 50 Sarasota, Florida
Only problem I know of doing that is the unlikely potential of a voltage spike frying the power board. The 12v brick is only there to step down the 120VAC to 12V. I’ve eliminated it on two TVs with no adverse consequence (yet).
 
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D

dlochner

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Jan 11, 2014
13,050
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Don S/V ILLusion said:
Only problem I know of doing that is the unlikely potential of a voltage spike frying the power board. The 12v brick is only there to step down the 120VAC to 12V. I’ve eliminated it on two TVs with no adverse consequence (yet).
Click to expand
Are you saying the power board on the TV inputs 12 VAC?

The adapter on most of the bricks I"ve looked at output 12vdc.

The only caveat I have for Scott is to make sure you get the polarity right!
 
JoeWhite

JoeWhite

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Mar 6, 2008
1,363
Catalina 1999 C36 MKII #1787 Coyote Point Marina, CA.
The input of most electronic devices that uses external power supplies has a diode across the DC input and is reverse biased. This means that if you exchange the + and -- that you will be short circuiting your 12vdc supply. This is to protect the device. Or it may be equipped with a diode bridge which will accept polarity reversal with no damage to the device. If there are any "spikes" I would think that it will be no more than 14.4 vdc and the device will tolerate that.
So it is safe to connect to house batteries with a series fuse of appropriate size.

Edited version, thanks to dlochner catching the error
 
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Scott T-Bird

Scott T-Bird

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Oct 26, 2008
6,302
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
Not sure I understand how a fuse will do anything. Fuse breaks based on higher amps, right? How would a voltage spike affect a fuse? I get the concern about the voltage deviation. I think I'll use the Blue ray with the converter only when on shore power (at least for now). The TV and the stereo receiver were made for 12 volt so obviously they are already wired into the DC panel.

I got tired of being limited to just the DVD's that I can play on the Jensen stereo receiver so I bought the Sony Blu Ray. It's not expensive, but I had to add components. The TV only has one HDMI in and the receiver has only one HDMI out. I had no way to patch in the Blu Ray until I got a HDMI switch with 1 output (to TV) and 3 inputs (stereo/DVD, Blu Ray, and room for a Fire Stick) Now, I also needed a way to patch in audio from the Blu Ray to the stereo receiver so I could have the external speakers play with Blu Ray. There is a coaxial digital audio output on the Blu Ray and audio RCA inputs on the receiver. I had to get an adaptor for that connection, but I think it will work! I'll find out Friday night. :cool:
 
Scott T-Bird

Scott T-Bird

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Oct 26, 2008
6,302
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
Just looking at that DC to DC converter now ... looks like a good option. It's almost as expensive as the Blu Ray, though.
 
Scott B

Scott B

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Sep 20, 2006
2,952
Hunter 33 Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada
And I think we sometimes spend too much time analyzing and over analyzing things that are not worth the time. I just spent way too many hours deciding if I could save $100 or so on racor fuel filter system when in the long run would not save very much not to mention the time spent on the decision.

A $80 player is expendable vs. the time spent analyzing what to do with it. Cut the wires, enjoy the movies
 
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