12 & 5-volt power supply

[patooyee]

I had a few junk PC's laying around that I was about to take to the dump. I decided to see what could be done with the components before trashing them. Turns out the power supply can be a good DC 12-volt AND 5-volt power supply to test buggy components and sensors with. (3.3 volt, too, don't know what besides computers uses that though.) They can be plugged into 110v a/c or 220 and have built-in circuit protection.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-an-ATX-Power-Supply-Into-a-Regular-DC-Powe/

I never knew that about PC's so figured I would pass it on. I saved 2 of my power supplies, wired one up like this, kept the other around as a spare.

 

[clemsonjeep]

Yeah we use them in the RC car world to power different tools. A lot of guys, including myself, install bullet plug terminals in the case and hook them up to the 12 and 5 volt sources so that we can run a DC LiPo charger to it just like it would if we were using the battery in our car/truck. The 5 volt source is good for running things like comm lathes and even breaking in motors.

Being cheap and/or free made it an easy decision too...