This question isn't about a computer so I will not include any specs. My friends and I are doing a project with an iPod. We are replacing the hard drive with a standard ATA computer hard drive. We have it all connected and everything but now one problem remains. We want to hook this iPod permanatly in my friend's car. Now the hard drive the iPod is now connected to needs some power. How can we hook it up to his car's battery. Best Buy has an adapter to switch DC (from the car) to AC (which the HD needs). The thing we are not sure about is how much power this hard drive needs. We are afraid if we give it all the 12V of the car battery we might fry it. Any suggestions?
SATA hard drives run off the 12VDC line provided by a power supply. I'm not sure if PATA drives do or not, but I believe they use the 5V line. I'm not aware of the iPod's hard drive deviating from any particular standard.
It's probably easiest to wire it in with a SATA power adapter that hooks to a 4-pin molex connector. Yellow is 12V, the black wires are ground, and the 5V is red. Hard drives use DC voltage, not AC. All computer parts are using DC voltage, which is one of the things a power supply does: convert AC to DC.
You need to have a card on your mother board to use a SATA drive don't you? If you do I couldn't use that to hook up to the iPod. I'll probably have to use a standard ATA drive. Do you know how many volts that would use? I really don't want to have to put the power supply in the car along with everything else.
You only need a SATA controller card if the motherboard lacks SATA ports. I checked around, and PATA drives do use the 5VDC line.
Because the iPod doesn't have USB ports. I think we will just use a PATA drive and a normal power supply. Then all we have to do is convert the car's DC to AC for the power supply then everything just hooks in.
It doesnt seems to be an easy task to me...... But while watching that website something comes into my mind for you power voltage. All the specifications about volatge, type of current etc... You can find on the HDD.
I saw the trackback and thought I'd join this community You can externally power the iPod's original HD or a hacked-up 3.5" HD like mine. When I attached a 3.5" drive to my dead iPod, I used the power supply circuitry from a FireWire drive case to spin the drive, but the iPod talked via the ATA/IDE interface to it. In hindsight, it may have been a good idea to join the grounds from each circuit so everybody's on the same page so to speak, but I didn't have a problem with it not connected. I'm not an electrical engineer by any standards. I just know enough to be dangerous
