Amps, Volts, Watts

[joker_927]

My speakers use 1600mA which I think is 1.6 Amps. What wattage is needed to sustain the circuit?

I'm buying an AC/DC converter for my car. 160w one is one sale. Is this enough power?

I forgot from physics class how to do all this stuff.

Thanks

[Siliconjunkie]

1.6 amps and what voltage? The 2 are directly tied to one another.

[joker_927]

Since its a wall socket thingy, Im guessing 120V. that is standard right?

[cbuddha42]

well i never heard of anything running at 120v DC

wait u mean dc to ac - dont know if u really want to do that cause most speakers use dc

[Siliconjunkie]

Yes, but are you looking at an AC to DC converter?

The formula is Volts*Amps=Watts

So the inverter will put out 1920 Watts and at 120V 1.6 amps is 120 watts.

I know this isnt the best way in the world, but I use wire size to give me a good indication of how much current something will use. Small wires=small current.

[Siliconjunkie]

I think he is looking at the Converter for the speakers.

[hawkeye177]

1.6A X 120V = 192W <<<Speakers

If i understand you right you would need a DC- AC converter with an output higher than 192W...

[cbuddha42]

im confused but heres what i do know

some pc speakers use ac some use dc but i think most small ones use dc so if they are for your car they probably dc

voltages range but i think they're normally 9-15

look on your current transformer to see what its output is and then buy transformer with 12v input with same output (better is ok in some catagories)

that is if your trying to do what i think you are which is buy transformer to run your pc speakers off car 12v dc

[joker_927]

That is exaclt what I am trying to do, but I am still a bi confused.

So 192W is the final answer. That means I need a 200w converter/transformer whatever it is called.

I just saw that the box I took a picture of (which is on the power cord of the speakers) converted AC into DC. That has to mean that the speakers run off of DC.... If the speakers run off DC, and the car supplies dc, I thought there would be away for me to power the speakers without buying a $70 converter.

[Gomer]

@14 V DC, 1.6A your speakers require 22.4 Watts of power.

the transformer you pictured in you other thread also says it requires 35 VA of AC power (VA is a Volt-Amp)

If you deal with computer uninterruptable power supplies, you know that they are rated in volt-amps instead of watts. What is a volt-amp, you ask? Well, quite simply it is the volts multiplied by the amps. From the above discussion on phasors, you should now realize that this may result in a complex number (for a computer UPS, all they give you is the magnitude in the specs). If you convert this into a real and an imaginary component, the real part is called the watts, and the imaginary part is called the vars (var = volt amp reactive).

Regardless of all this, What you intend to do is use an inverter to convert 14V DC to 120V AC. Then, you are going to plug another converter into that converts 120V AC to the 14V DC your speakers require. Too many steps in that scenario.

See your other thread in community for the solution.