Weird question - How to power electric car seat?

[JoeUser]

Weird question I know, but was just wondering if anyone here knows if and how it would be possible to power a electrical car seat (like one out of a car...lumbar, back/forth, up/down, etc) using an external power source?

I've got a couple power supplies (most cheap 250-300 watt Dells and what not) with plenty of 12v lines, which is what I would think cars would use.

Anyways, weird questions I know, but if you have any ideas I'd like to know, thanks!

 

[Auzner]

I would start by looking up the part numbers and try to find electrical wiring diagrams. They would help indicate which wire is which without having to risk damaging anything. Also it would help to know how exactly the motors are controlled. If it's all integrated within the chair then wiring a power supply should be fairly straight forward. The fuse rating to the car battery would also help determine what kind of current draw to expect. If it's a 5A or 10A fuse then any old cheap PSU would probably work.

 

[kijikadal]

You need more amperage than a crappy PC power supply can deliver. You can use a car battery charger but the sudden spike of the motor starting will put major stress on it so use something like a 2+ Farad car audio capacitor to help reduce the sudden power spikes on the battery charger.

 

[Auzner]

If the chair doesn't have a power system then a capacitor would certainly be necessary to discharge inductive recirculation. This same behavior would happen on the battery in a car, so it depends how raw this system is or if the designed capacitor is missing. It appears power seats can use 25A to 40A fuses (I'm a computer guy not a car guy). If that's the case here then old ATX SMPS will not do. Also to use them outside of a PC, they need a load on the 5V rail to operate more stably.