ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

By;

Farhan Foondun.
Dip. Building Services Engineering
Submitted on 01/08/2013

ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

Converting ATX power supply into a lab power supply

A PC power supply (ATX) is a self-contained unit attached to a number of wire Looms and
connectors. These power the various electronic circuits, fans and disk drives within your PC.
The wires are colour coded to indicate the supply voltage that they are carrying. Most power
supplies will have a label on the side showing the voltages and current rating of each
coloured wire. You may find one or two additional wires, which are used to switch the PSU
on and off.
Modern processors and computer systems are more power-hungry than some of the older
models, so these will often have a more powerful power supply unit.
In this project Im going to show you how the conversion of an ATX power supply into
a lab power supply is done.
Lets start by the color coding:

The color coding is universal amongst all of the power supplies:

Black: Ground
Red: +5V
Yellow: 12V
Orange: +3.3V
White: -5V (not present on some new supplies)
Blue: -12V
Gray: power on indicator
Purple: standby power output
Green: power on input.

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

The diagram below shows the wiring of an ATX power supply:

In order to convert an ATX power supply into a lab power supply, we need to insert a
dummy load resistor shown below:

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

Steps:

Unplug the power cord from the back of the computer. "Harvest" a power supply from a
computer by opening up the case of the computer, locating the gray box that is the power
supply unit, tracing the wires from the power supply to the boards and devices and
disconnecting all the cables by unplugging them.

Remove the screws (typically 4) that attach the power supply to the computer case and
remove the power supply.

Cut off the connectors.

Discharge the power supply by stripping the insulation of the ends of a black and a red wire
and connecting them together.

Get all the parts that you need together, such as the following: binding posts (terminals), a
LED with a current limiting resistor, a switch, a power resistor (10 ohm, 10W or greater
wattage), and heat shrink tubing.

Open up the power supply unit by removing the screws connecting the top and the bottom of
the PSU case.

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

Bundle wires of the same colors together. IMPORTANT: Make sure that the lone brown
sense wire is bundled with the orange wire. If the brown wire is tied to 3.3V, the power
supply will produce an output.

The color code for the wires is: Red = +5V, Black = 0V, Yellow = +12V, Blue = -12V, Brown
= Sense (tie to 3.3V), Orange = +3.3V, Purple = +5V Standby (not used), Gray = power is
on, and Green = Turn DC on.

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

Drill holes in a free area of the power supply case by marking the center of the holes with a
nail and a tap from the hammer. Use a dremel to drill the starting holes followed by a hand
reamer to enlarge the holes till they are the right size by test fitting the binding posts. Also
drill holes for the power ON LED and a Power switch.

Screw the binding posts into their corresponding holes and attach the nut on the back,
connect all the pieces together.

Connect one of the red wires to the power resistor, all the remaining red wires to the red
binding posts;

connect one of the black wires to the other end of the power resistor, one black wire to a
resistor (330 ohm) attached anode of the LED, one black wire to the DC-On switch, all the
remaining black wires to the black binding post;

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

connect the white to the -5V binding post, yellow to the +12V binding post, the blue to the 12V binding post, the gray to the cathode of the LED

Connect the green wire to the other terminal on the switch; and hook up the orange wires
with the brown.

Make sure that the soldered ends are insulated in heat shrink tubing.

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

Organize the wires with a lot of electrical tape.

Make sure that all the connections look good. Put a drop of superglue to stick the LED to its
hole. Put the cover on.

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

Plug in the IEC power cord into the back and into an AC socket. Switch on the main switch
on the PSU. Check to see if the LED light comes on. If it has not, then power up by flipping
the switch that you had placed on the front. Plug in a 12V bulb into the different sockets to
see if the PSU worked, also check with a digital voltmeter. It should work.

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

To prevent the inevitable trip over loose wires, it's a good idea to make your wiring more
permanent once you have confirmed the power supply (PSU) to work.

Design features.

Duct tape to avoid any potential hooking of wires, and to secure the switch. Don't tape
the air intakes shut, as air flow is needed.

A big kill switch for easy access.

The fan on this 250w PSU is very quiet, so a LED was added to show power on.

Unused wires are spared and kept in a box on the side, if they are to be used later. If
you know you don't want them, you can cut them off to make it even neater, just
remember to insulate the ends to avoid short circuits.

Your conversion must now work perfectly;

Thank you.

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ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLE ASSIGNMENT- 1ST YEAR COHORT 2013

Reference links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2oSFpKh_Uw
http://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/power_supply/power_supply_vegyes/2343245
5/pc_atx-at/atx_200_pc_power_supply_sch.pdf_1.png

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