hi all, I have 2 under car neons which are just sitting at home with no use. I want to hook them up to a power point sum how and dont no if it can be done? ive heard people using 12v adapters and stuff but have ended up catching on fire. can it be done with out burning down the house?

You will beed a DC 12v power supply that can product around 1amp.

This should be enough to run them. I would only use them for short periods of time as cheaper power packs tend to overheat.

A CB power supply would be perfect - rated at 4 to 6 amps they will run the lights on a permanent basis if needed and definitely be safe. You could also use a battery charger if you only wanted to hook them up once in a while.

go in to your local dicksmith or jaycar etc they should a P/S that would suit. If you have and documentation and can look up specs on the net, or even find the current draw writen on the neons you will be in business

P.s if they are already pre wired there should be no problem but if they are seperate remember:

2 x 2amp neons connected in series wil draw 2 amps

2 x 2amp neons connected in parallel will draw 4 amps

you need to to buy your power supply taking this into consideration

Or use the 12V PSU you already have... in your PC or find an old computer and rip the PSU out!!

If you use a PC power supply you'll need to get an OLD old one like a 486 or earlier as a ATX power supply used in all modern PC's it triggered by the mother board, old pre ATX or AT power supplies use 240v cable to the power switch on the front of the pc which is why they were changed as too many pc techs were getting zapped touching the back of the switch. ALso if you use one I think the back and yellow wires will give you 12v from memory the black and red wires will only give you 5v.

Also I don't know how long this would last but if you wanted to run then neons away from a 240v power source you could try using a UPS (PC uninteruptible power supply or battery backup) they typically run a pc and monitor etc for bout 20min in event of blackout, a mate uses one to keep his portable fridge running for bout 4 hours, but 2amps for neons? seams to be a big power draw dunno how long it'd last also you'd need to buy one that you can turn off the alarm as they beep in the event of power failure. Of course you'll still nalso need the power supply as UPS is 240v

Edited July 9, 200719 yr by Paranormal

with the atx psu you short out the green to a black in the motherboard connector with a paper clip and it will trigger the psu, besides your 12v rail in a atx psu should have a better current rating than the at formfactor psu's

Just head down to a dick smith or jaycar store they should have some sort of 12V DC power supply which should run them easily would roughy set you back around 80 to 100 bucks for a cheap one

just went down to jaycar and picked up a 12v adapter, set me back 40 bucks and works fine, thnx for your help guys.