Turning An ATX PSU Into A Variable Bench Supply

Black rectangular box with a red power rocker switch in the middle. To the bottom right of it are a number of black twist on covers with the word fuse on them. Below them are red sockets. Top left is a colour display showing 0.00V, 0.00A and 0.00W. It has a round silver twist knob for adjusting. Top right is a USB socket connector showing QC 3.0 and QC 3.0 for the two USB-A sockets. Bottom left is again one fuse cap, and two red and black sockets for accepting banana clip power cables. With them are also two additional red and black connectors for plugging in wires.

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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