Handy Bench Power Supply
Handy Bench Power Supply
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It seems like you can never have enough power supplies, and a full-featured bench power supply with adjustable voltage and current limits is useful. Thanks to Chinese power supply modules, you can have a good quality power supply for not a lot of money. This supply is particularly handy because to can screw to a shelf over your bench, taking up no room.
The brain of this project is a buck-boost module similar to the one shown. A variety of modules are available in this form factor, but this is one of my favorites - WZ3605E. Easy to use, with some great features, like logging wattage and total energy,, along with a graphics display plotting voltage and current draw.
You supply this module with between 6v - 36v DC power, and you have an adjustable output from 0.6v - 36v. The module can supply up to up 5 amps, but note the maximum power is limited to 80 watts; this is the limitation at higher voltage levels.
These modules are available from many sources with a wide variation in price. Rather than providing a link which could expire at any time, please search on the model number to find the best deal.
The Heart of the Power Supply
The Heart of the Power Supply
The module above controls the voltage and current but we need a power source. Old laptop power supplies providing ~20 volts at 4+ amps are an ok choice for power but the ultimate supply is the original X-Box power supply that can often be found at thrift stores for a few bucks and this design depends on this type of power supply.
These supplies put out 12 volts at 12+ amps, controlled by a logic level input. There's a 5 volt output (1 amp max) that's always active. Connecting a control line to 5 volts turns on the 12 volt output. We can exploit these features to build a power supply that provides 5 volts plus a switched-controlled high current 12 volt supply and a variable 0.6 - 36 volt output with monitoring features.
The panel is shown below....complete with a view of my thumb in the reflective power supply module.😉
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