Unless your solar panel is the size of a football field it will not
output enough current to run the PC's electronics let alone the
disk drive motors, fans, etc.

There are devices that can take 12VDC and convert it to 110VAC
but that would be a pointless exercise for you to do since
the system power supply will revert the power back down to
low level DC voltages.

I suggest you find someone willing to design and build two
power supplies for you.  One using a car battery as input
and developing +5 volts and +12 volts output.  The second
power supply would use a reverse wired car battery and
generate the -5 and -12 volt outputs.

One more problem you will need to overcome, automotive
electrical systems are *incredibly* "noisy" and would
wreak havoc on the logic circuits.  You would need to
charge the batteries "off-line" or develop a very
good filter system.

Jim Meagher
=====
Micro Solutions Consulting     Member of The HTML Writers Guild
http://www.ezy.net/~microsol   International Webmasters Association
=====

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Michael Beechey
> Sent: Friday, June 12, 1998 5:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [PCBUILD] 12Volt?
>
>
> Here's a unique request for the members of this list who have
> experience as
> electricians.
>
> I would like to donate a computer to an experimental school (with lots of
> initiative and no money) in the country, here in Bolivia. They
> have no electricity
> in this village (or the majority). I need to think about how to
> interface an older
> IBM 286, which has a 200W power supply and a VGA monitor with the 12 V
> source that would be available from a car battery or possibly a
> solar panel. I
> understand that laptop parts are more expensive, and there is no
> AC source to
> charge those batteries. I would like to adapt existing parts on
> the IBM, if
> possible.
>
> Ideas?
>
>
> Michael Beechey, a Canuck in Sucre, Bolivia
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> "The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens"
>                                        Baha'u'llah
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>