Powering a Flat-screen monitor

[drmbogo]

Recently, my father-in-law gave me a fairly new HP Pavillion a630n desktop that he wasn't using.
It was nearly complete: nice flatscreen, speakers, mouse, keyboard, even a power strip!
BUT, he forgot one thing! The monitor power supply!!
'No Problem', I thought, 'I'll just run to RadioShack and pick one up.'
No dice. RS didn't have anything even close. The tag on the back said something to the effect of "Input: 12v 3a".
Now I know I 'could have' ordered one online (fairly cheap, too), and waited for it to come, but I have this 'Instant Gratification' issue! :D
So....
I thought about it....
Hey, computer power supplies have a 12v rail don't they? And how much current could everything REALLY draw, assuming I could run everything, full-bore, allatonce?
Thus, an Idea was born.
Rummaged through my bin of junk computer parts, that I just can't bear to part with, and found an old HD power extension, snipped off the unneeded end, soldered on a 5.5/2.1mm power connector and....shazam! :guitar:

So, should I patent this idea?
I'm surprised to find that comp manufacturers haven't begun to do something like this, with flatscreens getting cheaper everyday, and power supplies getting cheaper and more robust/powerful. I have three flatscreens, all different makes, all 12v, and roughly 2.5 to 3.5a.

So far, there are two benefits:
When the comp is off, the monitor is REALLY off, i.e. not drawing power in standby mode.
It frees up an outlet in an already way to crowded environment.

Comments?

[matthinckley]

well at 12v 3a your pulling about 36 watts from the power supply.. so depending on how large your power supply is in your PC.. but who knows how much noise (electrical) that monitor generates and you are introducing that noise to the inside circuitry of your computer.. so I don't know if I would want to do it, but awesome that you thought of it and made it work!

[kevinf311]

I give this idea the Kevin Flowers Stamp of Approval.

Well done!

[igknighted]

Thats clever, I like it

[RandomJoe]

It has been done in the past, just at the time I thought it was more than a little crazy. My first job out of college was with AT&T, and they used some PCs with their phone switches that powered the monitor through the signal cable. This would have been a regular CRT! Inside the computer case, there were two FAT power cables that ran to big lugs on the video card.

Nothing like proprietary hardware... :rolleyes:

I have one FP I could do this with, but all the rest have the 110 plug go straight into the back so they'd require some surgery. :)

Don't (or didn't, during the PPC era) some higher-end Apples do this? Seems like I remember someone talking about only having a single cable running to the monitor.

[prizrak]

They actually have USB LCDs now for computers. Eliminates the video card and draws power from the USB interface. Back in the day of the 286/386 PC power supplies had a power outlet to connect the monitor to via a special cable. It's just that lately power demands from PSU's are such that they cannot run even LCD's reliably. Hell my video card needs it's own power line so does the CPU. There is also an issue of displays having different power sockets so it's impossible to offer a one size fits all solution. With LCD's switching to LED backlighting there might be more ways of powering the screen from the PC. I have also heard rumors of a developing a way of powering the screen straight from the video card. In fact DVI was supposed to be able to do it but something got screwed up.