Custom PC with Built-in Battery, is it possible?

[Cadenthor]

When the power goes out my UPS turns it's 12v DC into 110v AC just so my PSU can convert it to DC again, which seems very inefficient to me. So I'm curious if I can attach a battery straight to the PSU, like connect a car battery to the 12v Rail, or a ton of rechargeable AA batteries... Or something alot more complex like something with it's own charger, switches, hardware.

[MasterChromatica]

It may be possible but Im not sure, I have not heard of a thing like this.

[SansVarnic]

Doesn't exist that I am aware of.

 

*edit

Did some quick research for you. 

https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/1897

This may help some for your situation.

Hope that helps.

Edited May 3, 2017 by SansVarnic

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, Cadenthor said:

When the power goes out my UPS turns it's 12v DC into 110v AC just so my PSU can convert it to DC again; which seems very inefficient to me. So I'm curious if I can attach a battery straight to the PSU, like connect a car battery to the 12v Rail, or a ton of rechargeable AA batteries.

Yes there are redundant PSU's for servers that use a DC to DC systems, however those are fairly specialize and cost quite a bit. You can't directly connect the 12V to your PSU it doesn't have the capability to take that input and provide the necessary voltages for the system to run. 

[Fessas]

My mate recently built a custom laptop, ill ask him of the website.

even chose the screen resolution

 

[Shiv78]

4 minutes ago, Fessas said:

My mate recently built a custom laptop, ill ask him of the website.

even chose the screen resolution

 

That's pretty normal... even Dell offers specific resolution choices...

 

Custom laptops like Sager and XoticPC rebrands are also pretty standard.

[Cadenthor]

I'm talking about like a PSU that has inputs for DC, something I can run all the cables through and it'll switch the power source in an instance, or getting batteries with specific voltages and soldering'em straight into the wiring.

[SCHISCHKA]

it sure is possible. You will need to get familiar with PSU design. A PSU has multiple 5V to 12V lines that cannot be mixed up. The way I would do it is get a couple of deep cycle batteries and build a custom charger, then build a custom switching transformer to provide the same lines as a PSU. You know one for GPU, motherboard and disk drives..

[Lord Nicoll]

10 minutes ago, Cadenthor said:

When the power goes out my UPS turns it's 12v DC into 110v AC just so my PSU can convert it to DC again, which seems very inefficient to me. So I'm curious if I can attach a battery straight to the PSU, like connect a car battery to the 12v Rail, or a ton of rechargeable AA batteries... Or something alot more complex like something with it's own charger, switches, hardware.

as someone mentioned, you can get an AC-DC and DC-DC server PSU, I have a server with two 24v imput and a two 240v units, they are SUPER rare and I got them with the server, they aren't even HP branded, i think they where custom made and I don't use them, but it is possible but insanely custom. I've been thinking about doing something like that but it'd take me a month of design before I even laid a board out. 

[Cadenthor]

1 minute ago, Lord Nicoll said:

as someone mentioned, you can get an AC-DC and DC-DC server PSU, I have a server with two 24v imput and a two 240v units, they are SUPER rare and I got them with the server, they aren't even HP branded, i think they where custom made and I don't use them, but it is possible but insanely custom. I've been thinking about doing something like that but it'd take me a month of design before I even laid a board out. 

I'm probably thinking of something more common and cheaper.

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, Cadenthor said:

I'm probably thinking of something more common and cheaper.

there is currently no dual AC/DC input PSU's in the ATX form factor mass produced unit that I am aware of, however google that term "dual AC/DC input PSU" and see what comes up

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Cadenthor said:

I'm probably thinking of something more common and cheaper.

There isn't really something like that for the consumer market as UPS's dominate the market and are usable with anything that really plugs into them. This kind of system is very specific as it need to operate at a certain input voltage and have the capability to both detect a power failure and to switch over to battery backup without going down and run off the battery bank while ensuring it doesn't run the batteries down so low they get damaged. 

[Cadenthor]

My UPS has a USB Port on the back of it. I'd think I could just rip out the inverter and hardwire the battery to my computer.

[AnonymousGuy]

Your desktop also requires 5V and 3.3V as well.

 

Also the efficiencies are high enough and the use case so rare that it wouldn't be worth the effort.

[Cadenthor]

Just now, AnonymousGuy said:

Your desktop also requires 5V and 3.3V as well.

I'm sure there's something that can slow down the voltage.

[W-L]

Just now, Cadenthor said:

My UPS has a USB Port on the back of it. I'd think I could just rip out the inverter and connect to my computer.

The USB port is for manufacturing diagnose and usually a signal from the UPS to send a safe shutdown signal to your PC when it's running down on battery during and extended outage. Only thing is where would you connect the 12V power to it can't directly go to the PSU or into the board as it's unregulated. 

[Cadenthor]

I'm just assuming but it seems like there'd be a place in the PSU where it's before it's regulated, so just stick a big wire right there or just not regulated it if that's an option.

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Cadenthor said:

I'm just assuming but it seems like there'd be a place in the psu where it's before it's regulated, so just stick a big wire right there or just not regulate it if that's an option.

It would need to be more than just a tacking a 12V battery to the unit since it would be feeding 12V then into the battery. It needs to be able to dynamically monitor the AC input and switch over to battery mode, while also topping it off when in idle and waiting for a power failure for it to kick in. 

 

There are full DC to DC type units which you can do something like this where you have one section connected to mains voltage through an AC to DC converter and the second to a large battery array with it's own monitoring and charging so it will never lose power. This however is quite expensive to implement.

http://www.3y-redundant-power-supply.com/en/dc-dc-redundant-power-supplies-for-ipc/21-dc-to-dc-redundant-power-supply-820watt.html

[waterjug]

someone should make a case/custom power supply with a built- in battery. I mean if laptops can have one, a and also be a lot smaller, there definitely should be space for a bigger battery to fit in a standard atx case. 

[mad dudy]

6 minutes ago, wii8cookies said:

someone should make a case/custom power supply with a built- in battery. I mean if laptops can have one, a and also be a lot smaller, there definitely should be space for a bigger battery to fit in a standard atx case. 

glue a UPS to the inside of the pc case and you have a "build in battery".