New homemade dual power supply mod with wattage meter. [660W]

Hello all,
I know it's been a while since the last time I opened a thread around here, but to be honest the new style pull my sharing spirit a bit off. But I'm back just to give you an update about this new mod (someone around this forums knew about it was being developed) .
It's currently finished and it's under testing. I am not yet using it paired with the laptop because I need to run a few test before doing so to be pretty sure it will work without any problems.

As soon as I think the mod is 100% stable I will write a PDF to let you know how we did it (my father and I, I do not want to take his credit, he was the on who designed the circuit). But I want to share some pics with you. Hope you like it:

Final stage:




Other pics:












I will update this with more info asap.

 

Clevo manage it with a simple IC arrangement:



Maybe for revision 2?

 

Sure why not! thanks for the info the idea was follow the current mod that was published here or at techinferno. We wanted to improve the current mod but like you just show me there is still room for improving even more

 

Finally I can say:
It works like a charm!

Two days of intense testing and there is no problems at all.

My father is writing the PDF with all the technical info. At the time he finish the document I will upload it with more media and more organized data for making it more easy to follow for those who feel any interest about making this.

PS: With my rig (see my signature) I saw peaks of almost 400W. Running CPU & GPU together at maximum speed, there is no more need to change profiles during benchmarks. Also is interesting to see the idle power consumption of this laptop, right now is around 44W

 

Welcome to the dual AC adapter club! It such a terrible shame that it doesn't work on the Alienware 18, too. It's so nice being able to just overclock the crap out of everything without having to worry about the system shutting off due to lack of power, and no need for toggling ThrottleStop profiles to keep the machine running. Looking forward to seeing more detailed info.

Since we don't have a "Rep" button any more with this nasty Xenforo software, all I can offer is a Facebook-ish girly-man sissy-boy "like" for your technical machismo.

Good job to you and your daddy, Brother [Nikos]!

 

The rep button is on the bottom left corner below your signature, beside the "Report" button.

I'd be interested to see some details on this for sure, seems cool.

 

It only there when it's there, LOL. It disappears on me all the time for some reason. It's not there right now, but might be later or tomorrow. Seems like when I want it, it's gone. Strange stuff like that happens with the software at Dell Community Forum all the time, too. Doesn't matter what browser I use, or what style I choose.

Kind of like the broken images that come and go all of the time. I think it's probably just unstable forum software and the code for the "Reputation" link gets messed up. We never had issues like that with vBulletin.

 

Hmm, you know, the X51 has the same AC (or DC, whichever it is) port the laptops have.
@Mr. Fox, in your opinion, you think this would make for a good addition for the SFF desktop for stuffing a GPU like the TITAN X and such? If it can benefit the AW 18/m18xR1/2, then the X51 could benefit without having to do much hassling.

 

I think there may already be a few people using my dual AC adapter mod with the X51. The X51 does not use the stupid ID chip like the laptops. The only wires running from the power jack to the motherboard on the X51 are only negative and positive, no signal wire, so there is no reason why it cannot work perfectly.

This only works for the M18xR2 and older models. @King of Interns is using the same mod with dual 240W AC adapters with his M15x as well. Unfortunately, it provides zero benefit for the Alienware 18. The power handling limit is on the motherboard. It shuts off at exactly the same load point whether using a dual AC adapter or a single AC adapter. That's one of the crippled features we have been complaining about with the 18 that has never been fixed.

At least the Alienware 17 can use a single 330W AC adapter with no modding. Even the Alienware 13, 14, 15 and 17R2 can use a 330W AC adapter... just plug and go. Only the Alienware 18 has been crippled with a power handling limit.

Edit: LOL - "Reputation" link has magically reappeared, so Nikos got his rep.

 

Was that 400W including losses in the bridge linking the two together (measured from the wall) or measured from the output from the bridge?

 

The 400W are (minus 1% consumed by the measuring circuit) delivered entirely to the computer. Has neither the fall in the rectifiers or consumed by the original PSU.
Thanks for all your comments and "likes"

 

I will upload the first version of the PDF in Spanish, I will start the translation asap. Sorry for the inconvenience but it's a lot to translate.

 

Hey did you ever post the PDF or am i just looking in the wrong places?

 

Hello buddy, I did not post the PDF yet since I am upgrading on my freetime the mod and till it is done I will not post the PDF since I do not want you to have any issues with it. When I think it is working properly I will translate all the PDF from Spanish to English.
I know that if I share this is not my problem if anyone decide to try it and something goes south but even knowing that I do not want it to happen so I am testing and modifying it as many times as I think its needed.
Hope to have it soon but I do not have so much time for that to work along with my father on it.
Sorry for the inconveniences.

 

oh anytime dont worry

 

[UPDATE]

 

[Nikos] woudn't be a good ideia try to adapt a desktop psu like a 800W model to work on a M18X-R2 insteady of use 3 simultaneous Alienware psus? I think its possible to attach the ID Alienware chip inside a desktop psu and adjust the correct voltage and pinout to connect the adapter cable outside the unit. What do you think? Or It may just be a daydream of me

 

Whats the update so far ? Still alive and kicking ?

 

Well remembered I'm waiting for news about this dual mode adapter too.

 

I just finished building one myself , using @Mr. Fox schematic. It was easy. I'm waiting on my dual power cord to arrive and test it with kill-a-watt , to make sure I did it correctly. I am so anxious lol. I'll let you know once I get my stuff together @Tulius .

 

Last thing I can tell is that the pieces I ordered did not make it to arrive home and that I have been under lot of stress in my work and finishing my master degree all at a time. So, I am not able to keep working on this anymore. I am going to post the manual in Spanish and Iwill offer him help to translate it.

So there you go this is not the final version I am using but this was the previous one (Dual vs Triple).

I will try to finish translating overtime:

DUAL MOD SPANISH

Let me know if there is something I can do to help you with.

 

Still got the pdf but in english?

 

Sorry still no time to translate it.
If anyone can help it will be my pleasure

 

what is the point of using rectifier? i mean if i got same 2 DC output adapter do i need to use rectifier for doubling up? OR is it just enough soldering all the wires directly without rectifier?

 

If you want add two signals (power supply) you need a adder. Here we use the diodes as analog current adder, but only with the power signals. The control signals ca be paired together without problems as you see in the schema.
Summary, you need ghe diodes if you want add the current of two power supply at the same voltage.

Regards

 

Thanks for ur replay Nikos!