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For the project I used a power supply unit from eBay 12v/5A that costed around 6€, a sketchy buck-boost converter 0.8 – 28V 12A 300W (no way) that costed 3, 59€(Spoiler alert: The actual range I got was 0.5v to 12.5v), I would suggest using the LTC 3780 (read the tips at the end) we will also need 2x 10K Potentiometers (with knobs) to replace the ones on the converster in order to place them on the front panel of the power supply, for those I paid 4€ since I bought them localy, make sure to check the value of the potentiometers on your board in case they are not the same. We will also need a Voltage/Current Display, there are several options out there, but I opted for a nice and cheap LED display that set me back 2, 45€.
I also used a Power connector with fuse and power switch, you could skip that but it is not advised.
Tools- Soldering Iron
- Hot glue gun
- Painters tape
- Pliers
- Dremmel or Power drill
The connections are pretty straight forward,
the display has 5 wires, the yellow one is for the voltage measurement, so it needs to be connected to the buck/boost converter output.
The black and red cables need to be connected to the power supply output, it needs ~12v to operate.
There is also another set of black and red that are a bit thicker than the other, those need to be connected between the buck/boost converter and the negative output of your finished power supply.
The connections are shown on the following image that I made with my superior copy paste photoshop skills..
Step one was to order the parts, I selected the cheapest options from various sources(China, Thailand and some parts from Malaysia) after that I waited for about 30 days and as soon as I forgot about them, they arrived.
A visual inspection of the parts, I checked if everything looks ok and that there are no obvious issues, once that was done I placed all the parts in my project box to make sure that they fit.
Step three was to connect everything and make sure that they work properly, after that I removed the 2 potentiometers from the board and connected the new ones, and tested again to make sure that everyhing still works.
Lastly I had to make the needed holes and cuts on the project box, I covered the front face with painters tape and sketched on it the places that I will have to cut and drill.
Links for theparts
eBay – Around 20€- 01x 220v to 12v 5A Power Supply – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- 01x Buck boost converter 1 – 30v 30A – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- 02x 10K Potentiometer – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- 01x Voltage/Current Display – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- 01x Power connector with fuse and power switch – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- 02x banana plugs / binding posts – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- 01x Project box
- 07x Connectors – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- 01x Power Cable – eBay.de / eBay.com / eBay.co.uk
- Several cables.
- 01x 220v to 12v 5A Power Supply –Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- 01x Buck boost converter 1 – 30v 10A – Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- 02x 10K Potentiometer – Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- 01x Voltage/Current Display – Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- 01x Power connector with fuse and power switch – Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- 02x banana plugs / binding posts –Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- 01x Project box
- 07x Connectors – Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- 01x Power Cable – Amazon.de / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
- Several cables.
Make sure you insulate all your wires, check the reading on the fuse on the power connector and make sure it is not higher than your power supply specs.
If you use a metallic project box make sure you ground it.
Also, here is another great power supply guide from Geat Scott
https://www.instructables.com/id/Build-your-own-Variable-Lab-Bench-Power-Supply/
I believe it is more professional and he even has a nice video about it.
He also uses LTC 3780 which is more reliable and it is worth the few extra euros in my opinion. (an upgrade that I will implement at some point)
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