Bench power supplies can sometimes be frustratingly expensive and also kind of limited. If you’re enterprising and creative, though, you can create your own bench supply with tons of features, and it doesn’t have to break the bank either.
ATX power supplies work as a great basis for a bench power supply. They have 12 volt, 3.3 volt, and 5 volt rails, and they can supply a ton of current for whatever you might need.
It is usually true that many devices get more fully unlocked regarding features, when open source firmware is applied to them, for example, true for most network routers. This project likewise does unlock some additional functions for an ATX power supply unit.
One caveat here, of course, is you’d be working with voltages so you’d want to be very careful and ensure too that fuses are correctly applied. There is also quite a debate in the comments about whether this is a good idea or not, but that said, I had actually bought an ATX adaptor plug a while ago for a computer power supply to supply 12V for my radios.
See https://hackaday.com/2024/05/23/turning-an-atx-psu-into-a-variable-bench-supply/
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