Thinkpads Forum

Hello there. I'm building an adapter to connect a larger 3.5" IDE hard drive to the 2.5" laptop-size port. The only thing I have yet to figure out is where to find 12 volts to power 3.5" (laptop drives run off only 5v I believe). I'm hoping some one here knows these boards inside-out, component to component and could tell me where I can find a spot on the board that has 12v that I could solder a wire to.

It's possible that there isn't one. Well, other than the charger port which I can't remember the voltage of, but nonetheless doesn't matter because it'd be useless unless plugged into a wall. I know the laptop's battery is only 11.1v (or somewhere around there), so it could be that there actually is nothing that runs at a higher voltage than 11 on the board and I'd be screwed. BUT there is the possibility of a step-up converter or something on the board. Who knows. So there could be 12v somewhere.

Anyone know?

I suppose I could hook up some sort of external power supply for the 12v I need (like say a battery when mobile, a wall adapter when at home), but that's my last resort.

The laptop receives 16VDC from the AC adapter so it's conceivable that there's a 12V supply somewhere on the board. However, you will also have to consider how much current it can supply. I believe that desktop hard drives require a couple of amps (during startup) so I'm doubtful that you will find a 12V power source on the motherboard that can handle that much current, without causing problems for the normal circuits that are on that 12V supply. You probably would be better off planning for an external supply. However, you'll also have to make sure that the ground of that supply is tied to the ground of the motherboard otherwise there could be an offset.

Didn't know that about the drives needing more current on startup. Hmm. Well, if anyone knows of any 12v spots, I'll definitely check what they output with my multimeter.

first thing i thought when i saw this was, tap the DC power jack and put on a 12 volt regulator - thats probably yer best bet

if the hard drive wants more power than the ac adapter will output, the ThinkPad should switch to battery power temporarily. i don't know if the hard drive would still spin under this condition. an ac adapter from a T-series should be plenty though, if needed.

i can't really think of any other place to get 12 volts on the 600E motherboard - i tried looking a couple years ago when i still had my 600E

wolf wrote:first thing i thought when i saw this was why?

fixed