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linear regulated power supply

e14 Contributor

Hey everyone so i recently seen on youtube you can convert an atx power supply from an older computer to a linear regulated power supply but they solder all of the 5v wires to the post as for all other voltages 3.3 12 -5 -12 but my question is could i make a solder bridge for the specific voltage and only use one wire per voltage

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    All the 5V wires are connected to the same output of the power supply, the reason you use all (Or Most) of the wires is so you dont lose volts under high load. So to specifically answer your question, yes you could replace these wires with a single wire, just make sure it has the size to suite the current your going to draw from it. The same goes for all the other output voltages.

     

    Now to clarify something

     

    Your not converting the Computer Power Supply into a linear regulator. It is still a Switching Power Supply and still has several fixed output voltages. What you doing is converting it to use as a bench / Lab power supply.

     

    What you must be aware of is that most convert the MAINS to DC first then pulse power through the transformer to get your desired output voltages (I am drastically over simplifying this). so causion MUST be taken when modifying the internals of the power supply (LIke re-wiring it). Secondally, the 5V rails of these types of power supplies and other rails are able to output massive amounts of power (5V at 30A for example, 150Watts), if you accidentally short this to a lowly output pin of an Arduino, Raspberry PI etc you run the risk of blowing the @#$%@ out of it

     

    I would strongly recomend putting some kind of fuse or other current limit on the outputs in order to protect your connected devices

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    All the 5V wires are connected to the same output of the power supply, the reason you use all (Or Most) of the wires is so you dont lose volts under high load. So to specifically answer your question, yes you could replace these wires with a single wire, just make sure it has the size to suite the current your going to draw from it. The same goes for all the other output voltages.

     

    Now to clarify something

     

    Your not converting the Computer Power Supply into a linear regulator. It is still a Switching Power Supply and still has several fixed output voltages. What you doing is converting it to use as a bench / Lab power supply.

     

    What you must be aware of is that most convert the MAINS to DC first then pulse power through the transformer to get your desired output voltages (I am drastically over simplifying this). so causion MUST be taken when modifying the internals of the power supply (LIke re-wiring it). Secondally, the 5V rails of these types of power supplies and other rails are able to output massive amounts of power (5V at 30A for example, 150Watts), if you accidentally short this to a lowly output pin of an Arduino, Raspberry PI etc you run the risk of blowing the @#$%@ out of it

     

    I would strongly recomend putting some kind of fuse or other current limit on the outputs in order to protect your connected devices

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