ATX Bench Power Supply - Convert a Computer Power Supply

A computer ATX power supply can be easily converted into a versatile and powerful power supply for your workbench. In this video, I’ll show you how easy it is to make that conversion.

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A power supply is an essential piece of equipment for any electronics experimenter. While you can get by with USB adapters and “wall warts” having a capable high-current source of 3.3, 5, and 12 volt DC power will take your experimenting to another level.

Commercial power supplies with these sorts of current capabilities can be very expensive, however, there is a much cheaper alternative. With some simple wiring, you can convert an ATX power supply from a desktop computer into a reliable and capable workbench power supply.

Even if you need to purchase a new ATX power supply this method is still a lot cheaper than buying a commercial workbench power supply. And chances are that you won't need to spend any money at all on the ATX power supply, I salvaged mine from an old Windows XP computer and it works just great.

There are two types of ATX power supplies commonly in use, I will show you the differences between them. Either model can be used in this project.

Here is the Table of Contents for the video:

00:00 - Introduction
04:36 - Parts used in Project
10:06 - ATX Supply pinouts
13:46 - ATX Supply Inside
16:17 - Testing ATX Supply
19:14 - Hookup Diagram
22:48 - Building the Power Supply
30:17 - Testing the Power Supply
31:59 - Adding a Power Meter

One note - there are many ways to do this and I outline a few of them in the video. Several methods (including the one I used) involve opening up the ATX power supply. If you do that BE VERY CAREFUL as some of the components in the supply can retain a high-voltage charge for hours or even days after the supply has been unplugged.

If you are unsure about opening up a power supply (or if you have a new one still under warranty) don’t do it, you can still build this project another way. I go over that at the conclusion of the video.

As always there is an article on the DroneBot Workshop website that accompanies this video.

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