Switching Power supply as charger

[(unknown)]

Hey there folks,

I just got a Dell P4 power supply for free, and the label on it says 14amps at 12v, which is a nice amount of power. I connected it to a 60w bulb and it lit it up no problem. Anyway, I was wondering if I could use this as a battery charger, and adjust the voltage to 13.7v instead of the 11.6v its putting out now.

I have a feeling it will not work as a charger, because I think (not sure) that the way these power supplies work is that they try to reach the set voltage, and if they cannot, they simply shut down.

But, even if I can't use it as a charger, I was wondering if I could use it to power 12v appliances (bulbs, car amps etc) while charging the battery with a regular charger. Basically, if I can change the output voltage to 13.7v, and use diodes so that the items only run off the battery if the battery voltage is greater than the power supply voltage. So power can come from the battery to the power supply and appliances but not the other way round.

So, I guess my question is, can the voltage be changed?

Thanks for your help,

Stephen.

[kita]

hi stephen- these links could be helpful for the car amp or hifi side of things:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=d7291761d7442d24e67b51ff5b984ba0&threadid=49374&
amp;perpage=10&highlight=&pagenumber=2

http://www.webx.dk/oz2cpu/radios/psu-pc1.htm

http://www.qsl.net/aa3sj/Pages/PC-Supply.html

sorry I can't help on the specific issue of changing the supply voltage

good luck

kita