car's 12v supply vs pc's 12v

[blk03MitsuES]

the other day i had laying around a blue neon from my car. figured since it's bigger than the cathodes, it's provably gonna brighten up the pc better. so i hooked it up to a molex 12v cables....only half of the stick lighted up. btw it's a 12" neon i think.
so i figured maybe the neon wasn't getting enough juice out of the stock HP PSU. so then i tried some LED sticks(also from my car) figured since they were led's they provably didnt need as much power compared to the neons. and nope, only the main controller got power but the actual led bars didn't light up.

i thought both car and pc's were 12v dc..... is the PSU the problem or i shouldnt hook up car lights to the PSU?:think:

[Luke122]

Car 12v system uses much higher amperage than PC's. Check out the voltage requirements on the LED and neon, and you might see something like 12v 1A (or higher) or something, whereas the PC psu might only put out 12v .5A.

Did you test them back in a car to confirm that they were working properly?

[blk03MitsuES]

ooh yeah they work, i thought maybe the fuse on the led bars was burnt but i hooked them up to my ac to dc inverter and they work.

can i use something like this

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/12-887-001-02.jpg

well not something like that but grabbing the power from two moles to use in a single item(as in my led bars), or that 12v still going to push the same amps as a single molex would have?

[Trace]

The same amps, I would think

[Spawn-Inc]

will be the same is my thinking. just to be clear you did hook up the 12v wire and a ground correct?

[Luke122]

On the side of your PSU (on a sticker usually) it will display the Amp rating for each rail.

Car batteries can put out up to 1000A, though most 12v accessories in cars use a 15A fuse or smaller.

[blk03MitsuES]

yeah i did, connect both 12v and -, neon turned on but it was only half of the bar lit, and the controll unit of the led bars turned on but not the actual bars...

[John5247]

Hi - the PC PSU is a VERY precise 12 volts. A fully charged car battery is 13.8 volts - engine off, rising to 14.5 volts engine running - this is why the mini ITX "in car PC" guys need a clever box to get from variable car volts down to an exact 12V.
You have the opposite problem - your lights probably run off 12 volts, but their regulator expects to see more than 12 volts (so it can regulate it down to 12!)
If your happy to break into your lights power connector you could give it a "clean" 12 volts - otherwise just buy lights for a PC !

much cheer
John