Inexpensive DC power for your layout or bench

I ordered 2 of them on 7/28 and they arrived yesterday (8/15). So not too shabby, eh?

I ordered mine a day or two after the 28th, I received an e-mail that it was shipped, but wasn't worried that it hadn't arrived yet.  So maybe based on Chuck's experience, mine should be here soon.  No rush on my part though.

Remember the days when everything was "allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery?  I would scrape up a quarter and so many box tops, then would forget about it before the offer on the cereal box arrived.  

Larry Sr. posted:

I have no idea why I said 21??? right after I counted 24 .......a dumb moment.

I really can count

Sure you can, right up to 20 and then you run out of fingers and toes!   No wonder you stopped at 21.

OK, just having a little fun.

cjack posted:

I ordered 2 of them on 7/28 and they arrived yesterday (8/15). So not too shabby, eh?

So the question is... Are the modified posts compatible with dual banana jacks?

Nope. The bananas fit reasonably well into the jacks if you leave the knurled nut on the jack, but the posts are around a quarter inch too close. 

If you already bought the evenly spaced adapter board and want the dual-banana spacing how about this.  Yes, it's more work and adds some bench clutter but you get a DC combo volt-current meter (as shown earlier) when all's said and done.  Probably want to assemble it in a project-box or whatever.

I changed out the posts to a "beefier" version that I found on the bay.

Chuck, you don't have the version with the different spacing, your posts are evenly spaced all the way across.

Here's the one that Stan posted.

Compare that to the spacing on yours.

I think the one that Stan posted likely will accept the dual banana plugs.

This is the link for the "beefier" banana plug sockets"

VOSO Speaker Amplifier Terminal Banana Plug Socket Connector 4 Red 4 Black

You Tube demo on the Benchtop Power Supply.

https://www.bing.com/videos/se...tail&FORM=VIREHT

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Larry Sr. posted:

I have no idea why I said 21??? right after I counted 24 .......a dumb moment.

I really can count

Sure you can, right up to 20 and then you run out of fingers and toes!   No wonder you stopped at 21.

OK, just having a little fun.

I have to take off my pants to get to 21. 

rtr12 posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Larry Sr. posted:

I have no idea why I said 21??? right after I counted 24 .......a dumb moment.

I really can count

Sure you can, right up to 20 and then you run out of fingers and toes!   No wonder you stopped at 21.

OK, just having a little fun.

I have to take off my pants to get to 21. 

Sure, but that's where Larry stalled.

Maybe he was out in public? I only count to 21 in the privacy of my own home, otherwise it's 20 tops! 

I checked back, and saw I ordered my Benchtop Power adapter on July 28th.  I received it yesterday, August 23rd.  It came from China.  My one daughter buys a lot of art and craft supplies from the Orient, and this was a comparable time for delivery.  Mine will not accept double banana plugs, but I have only used those at work, so it doesn't matter to me.   I plugged the ATX power supply into it, but did not take the time to power it up.  Thank you John for letting us know this was available!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Well, it's a 24 pin connector, not a 21 pin.

That's fine to remove the other wires.  I actually opened it up and clipped them totally inside and made sure they couldn't short to anything as well.

John,

Did you do anything specific to make sure the clipped wires inside couldn't short to anything ?

Yep, I clipped them so close to the board that it would be impossible for the stub to short to anything.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Yep, I clipped them so close to the board that it would be impossible for the stub to short to anything.

That's what I tried to do as well, but some of the wires are almost impossible to reach, even with a small pair of diagonal cutters, because of the large caps and other components in the way. 

If they're 1/2" long and sticking up, they're pretty unlikely to touch anything else.

John,

Once I again I really thank you for your ideas & suggestions.  I ordered the PCBA and installed it on the following power supplies;  (they all work great, just plug it in!)

HIPRO Model HP-200NLXAA, 200w, 20 pin connector

Power Man, Model FSP235-60GT, 235w, 20 pin connector

Dell, Model CX305P, 305w, 24 pin connector

This is probably best bargain I got this year, only $8 each, WOW!  Thanks!!

Glad it helped folks out, I thought it was a pretty neat idea when I saw it.

Gunrunnerjohn, why does someone else's picture come up when you reply to posts on this thread?

You got me, I see my picture...

what should the fuse amperage be?

rsymons posted:

what should the fuse amperage be?

From GRJ's first post in this thread. "The fuses are all 10A, but obviously can be changed for any value you see fit."  I didn't change the values on mine.  You can make that decision based on your application.

Cool idea. I'll have to keep a eye out for one of those.

I have used another source of high power 12V DC  power supplies should anyone need one. They are designed as LED Drivers. 

They are also very reasonable priced. I discovered them when a couple of club members asked if I could build them a frequency converter. Using a pure sine wave inverter to supply 60Hz power from our 50Hz mains supply. Having seen some I made for my own use.

This required a high amp 12V DC supply. And they always tended to be expensive in the past. However I was able to pick up a 400W 12V DC LED driver supply for less than £20 on EBay.

The plastic enclosure for the supply cost more! 

Nick

I use 6 or 7 computer power supplies all around the Choo Choo Barn layout.  I have all of my lighting, etc. going into a terminal strip so all I have to do is replace the supply and hook up the power leads, a 10 minute job.  I have 5 spares with spade connectors already attached to the wires waiting to be used.  They don't last forever but they last a long time.  Mine are on 8 hours a day, seven days a week.

Thanks to gunrunnerjohn for the tutorial.

super late to the party lol I do not have the atx 250 but purchased a flex atx RX-300FL power supply I have tried all black wires to all other colored wires and cannot find anything except a 1.1 v DC a 5.06 v dc and a 5.11 v dc the box shows it should have +3.3v +5.0v +12v so those way smarter than me electrically can someone tell me where to find the 12v and 3v corresponding wires this has a 24 pin plug not the 20 pin plug.

or am I beating my head against a block wall and just need to return this power supply unit.  thanks for any help on this

StPaul posted:

super late to the party lol I do not have the atx 250 but purchased a flex atx RX-300FL power supply I have tried all black wires to all other colored wires and cannot find anything except a 1.1 v DC a 5.06 v dc and a 5.11 v dc the box shows it should have +3.3v +5.0v +12v so those way smarter than me electrically can someone tell me where to find the 12v and 3v corresponding wires this has a 24 pin plug not the 20 pin plug.

or am I beating my head against a block wall and just need to return this power supply unit.  thanks for any help on this

This might help:

H1000 posted:

StPaul posted:

super late to the party lol I do not have the atx 250 but purchased a flex atx RX-300FL power supply I have tried all black wires to all other colored wires and cannot find anything except a 1.1 v DC a 5.06 v dc and a 5.11 v dc the box shows it should have +3.3v +5.0v +12v so those way smarter than me electrically can someone tell me where to find the 12v and 3v corresponding wires this has a 24 pin plug not the 20 pin plug.

or am I beating my head against a block wall and just need to return this power supply unit.  thanks for any help on this

This might help:

huh thanks H1000 I found same one and posted above but as you can see from my reply touching the red/black probes from my meter set to DC nets a all 0000 reading where it should be showing a 3+ and so on or am the amateur I am doing something wrong?

the PS you are using might require a pin jumper to energize the voltage rails.

I forget which pins are the trigger. Google should find fast results

STRAPHANGER not sure what a pin jumper is unless you mean 2 of the 3 volt pins need connected as one at the 24 pin plug? a genius I am not but am trying to figure this out far as I can see you need 2 pins one hot other is common/ground to make a circuit but then I am using 110 volt wiring logic soooooo!

 if power cord is plugged in shouldn't the small fan at rear be running?

It's the green wire That says PS_on#. Connect that to ground.

Look at pin 14 (PS_ON#). I believe that has to be jumpered to ground to turn on the power supply.

Before you start cutting wires, check this board out. It sure would have made it easier for me, but Gunrunnerjohn was late in finding it.

JOHN H  

green wire ps to black probe and red probe to pins 1-2 & 13-14 all result in a 5.06 volt reading according to pinout chart should be reading +3.3 volts DC

JOHN H I am just trying this so I know if correct power is at correct pins had thought of just wiring to a barrier strip for 3-5 &12 volt connections.

I seen the boards GRJ mentioned am assuming the 24 pin will connect to the board but one still needs to know who is what and where or will this board connected to this plug remedy all connections needed to do that for me ?

H1000 posted:

Look at pin 14 (PS_ON#). I believe that has to be jumpered to ground to turn on the power supply.

I don't want to mess this power supply up hooking up wrong so if I understand correctly jumper pin 14 green wire to any one of the black wires marked as common pin? do I understand this correctly?

StPaul posted:

H1000 posted:

Look at pin 14 (PS_ON#). I believe that has to be jumpered to ground to turn on the power supply.

I don't want to mess this power supply up hooking up wrong so if I understand correctly jumper pin 14 green wire to any one of the black wires marked as common pin? do I understand this correctly?

That's correct. Watch this video, it's basic and shows you what you need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRhaI4W8d9s

H1000 posted:

StPaul posted:

H1000 posted:

Look at pin 14 (PS_ON#). I believe that has to be jumpered to ground to turn on the power supply.

I don't want to mess this power supply up hooking up wrong so if I understand correctly jumper pin 14 green wire to any one of the black wires marked as common pin? do I understand this correctly?

That's correct. Watch this video, it's basic and shows you what you need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRhaI4W8d9s

 

H1000 thank you so much that powered it up and all the pins that are supposed to be respective power voltages are working . being a real nurd on these things always makes me apprehensive to try things not knowing for sure and at $50 not a good thing to experiment and have to toss it!

now I looked at board on amazon with correctly spaced banana plugs so if I buy it and plug this 24 pin plug into it the wiring is already setup to each banana plug correct? they say this is a kit to me that means I have to solder it all up or is it already pre soldered together connection wise on the board just a matter of adding the mounting feet and? I know can get from china been there done that and 30 days to get item if wrong is a major hassle. amazon stocks it here local to me and a mere 2-3 days delivery time frame.

again thanks to all who took me by the hand and steered me onto correct path.