Home-grown Bench Power Supply

On another thread, Ian mentioned his intention to repurpose a PS3 power supply into a bench PSU. Anyone have experience with repurposing laptop or PC power supplies into a bench PSU? Worth the time and effort? Any favorite online tutorials?

I’ve got a wall wart right now that I use with my Spider via the USB Client DP module, and also with my breadboards via a Sparkfun 3v3/5v breadboard power module, but the wall wart maxes out at 1A.

By PSU, do you mean something where voltage and current are adjustable (and displayed), or just something with more current than your wall wart?

For the latter, there are a ton of online tutorials for modding ATX style PC power supplies. I usually start with searching instructables. Example: http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-an-ATX-Power-Supply-Into-a-Regular-DC-Powe/

SparkFun even has a breakout for doing this. http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9558

I scavenged parts off a busted HoMed back massager that had a AC-DC transformer and a step down circuit. I added some parts to clean the signal, and stuck it in a Radio Shack project box. Regulated 12V 3A for about $5 8)

Definitely worth the effort, and you can feel good about saving one more piece of electronic “junk” from the landfill.

Here’s a very simple one that will satisfy a lot of needs that I had bookmarked a while back if you really want to start from scratch.

Here’s a nice one made from an ATX PSU.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=converting+a+ps3+power+supply+to+a+bench+supply&view=detail&mid=E332B7911FD9E4D16D89E332B7911FD9E4D16D89&first=0&FORM=LKVR8