Distributing battery power to multiple components

Hi Stephen  It is important to get the voltages right. If the voltages are right the current will follow. When you have a power source marked 12V 6 A they are telling you that the supply has 12 volts of potential. This voltage will cause different amounts of current to flow in a circuit depending on the resistance of the circuit. The 6A tells us that eveything will work fine as long as the circuit has more than 2 ohms of resistance. 12 volts accross 2 ohms of resistance will cause 6 amps to flow. If the resistance in the circuit is less than 2 ohms the power supply will try to supply more than 6 amps which may exceed its ability and something will overheat or a fuse will blow. You can get a rough idea if your power supply has enough power for all you applications by calculating its wattage. Multiply the Volts by the Amps. In my example above we get 12V X 6A which gives us 72 watts. If you know the voltage and current demands of the things you want to hook up to the power supply you can multiply their voltages and currents to also obtain their watts. If you add up all the watts used by the things you want to hook up to the power supply they have to add to less than the wattage of the power supply. If you have to convert to different voltages to run your periferal equipment then you will also use up some of the powersupply's power (watts) to make the conversion. From your physics it is a consequence of the 2nd law of thermodynamics.  I wasn't clear on your question regarding the jacks on the side of the panel whether are they power supply outputs or are they where you supply power to the unit. If they are power supply outputs then you have 25 Watts on the 5V  5A, 60Watts on the 12V, 5A, and 120 Watts on the 24V 5 A jack. This should give you adequate power to run the voltage regulators or converters necessary to power your periferals.

@ John, It could easily not be enough power - the two computers need 120W (but at 12V not 24V) , the cameras and lights need unknown amounts of power, possibly at odd voltages so there may be conversion losses.

@ Stephen, could you post the details of the computers, cameras and lights so we can work out exactly what volts and amps they need. (Sometimes things like cameras work with a 7.2V battery or equally happily with 12V, sometimes not - you have to check the spec.)

MK

@ John, It could easily not be enough power - the two computers need 120W (but at 12V not 24V) , the cameras and lights need unknown amounts of power, possibly at odd voltages so there may be conversion losses.

@ Stephen, could you post the details of the computers, cameras and lights so we can work out exactly what volts and amps they need. (Sometimes things like cameras work with a 7.2V battery or equally happily with 12V, sometimes not - you have to check the spec.)

MK

Michael you are correct. After I shut down last night I began to rethink what I had said. In addition even if  Stephen can get the power he needs the source is a 24 volt 20Ah battery which will be quickly drained. Granted the 12V 5A for the computers is probably the rating on the power supplies and not the actual current draw of the computers. If these are laptop computers they should have their own batteries that could also contribute to the power resources. You are right though, to go any further analyzing this question we will need more information. It does look like the stepper can be grouped with the computers on a 12 volt supply and the others will work off a common 8 volt supply so there shouldn't be to much complexity.

Stephen, what are your plans for using the device? How long do you need it to run before recharging the battery? Does it need to be portable or can you use a power supply connected to your power grid? Are the computers laptops with their own internal batteries?

John