[sdiy] RE: A little chaos

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Tim and other mutants.

At 05:54 PM 9/10/04 -0700, Tim Parkhurst wrote:

>I'm so glad Batz is back. :) A little chaos is good for the imagination.

Actually, I never left. I've just been lurking for a long while. Longer 
than usual anyway. It's been one of those years.

Actually I've been moving away from synth and audio stuff for some time. 
Not that I'm in any way abandoning it but there are a few things I've 
always wanted to mess with and "Bob" damnit I will.

Currently I'm in the "Don't try this at home" department. Or at least as 
far as many of the hallowed greats who write for electronic magazines and 
web sites would seem to suggest. That is. PWM and switch mode PSUs. This 
stuff may not seem like the sexy end of any pursuit but I'm finding this 
stuff fascinating at the very least.

Having successfully built my drill speed controller (published on the web 
site if anyone needs such a thing.) I've moved on to the big bitey stuff. I 
WAS going to design an SMPS from scratch using bits from old PC PSUs but 
I'm not one for re-inventing the wheel and have chosen to modify them instead.

Every time I read somewhere about an article for using an old PC PSU as a 
bench supply, it turned out to be lame-as. IMHO. Nothing more than the old 
trick of shoving a load resistor on the 5 volt rail so it would stabilize 
the 12 volt rail and you use that. Woo Woo. Big deal.

Whenever I've needed to do that BTW, I shove lamps and other shit across it 
so at least it does something other than make heat.

Anyway, To cut a long story short, when I started researching all this more 
and more possibilities came to light. The magnetics are less mysterious to 
me now and the first cab off the rank should be kick ass. How does +/- 30 
volts at 20 amps grab you?

And still in the original PC PSU box. But highly modified to look good on 
the work bench. It's a long story and I'll hopefully find a way of 
publishing the details as soon as I can finish it. It's difficult because 
no two PC supplies are alike. Only similar. But there are some common 
things and I'll try and put something together that makes it a little 
easier to do this.

But a warning for novices and beginners. This stuff IS dangerous and CAN 
kill you if you don't know what you're doing. So don't try this at home 
kiddies.

So that's why I've been lurking. That and the fact that I've been 
hibernating most of the winter as usual. I'll get back to audio stuff 
eventually, but for now, this stuff has my attention. And in the long run 
should give me a cheap source of power for all kinds of crap.

And before I scurry back into the darkness like a cockroach; If anyone has 
any PC SMPS circuits on file or that they could scan, other than the 5 I 
could find on the net, I'd be most grateful. The more reference the better.

Thanks in advance.
Be absolutely Icebox.

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