Using a PC PSU for power

DryRoasted · April 05, 2006, 05:10:49 PM

I got a "one-stupid-question-free-on-www.diystompboxes.com" coupon with a box of cornflakes so I'll cash it in here. Being a bit of a computer geek, I got lots of PC bits kicking around, and while willing a pile of caps and resistors into becoming a Ruby amp I spied an old PSU from a PC. Now I know that this sucker cranks out 12V amoungst other handy voltages, so is there any reason why I can't carefully butcher it into becoming a nice convienient powersupply for, well, all my test bench needs? As far as I understand they churn out DC so everythings rosy right?

PenPen · April 05, 2006, 05:23:57 PM

Last I checked those suckers put out a hell of a lot of amps, and being a switching supply I would assume the voltage would be higher if you weren't putting enough load on it. I could be way wrong on this, but that is my guess.

DryRoasted · April 05, 2006, 05:39:52 PM

thats a no then?

My idea is to basically make a cool little head using a Ruby as the base with a main powersupply from the PSU rather than a 9V battery

JimRayden · April 05, 2006, 05:46:24 PM

It will work as long as you check your caps and transistors and other dinghys to be rated for at least the voltage it puts out.

Or, build an additional board into the supply and regulate it to 9V. Check out GGG's power supply section.

It'll provide enough power for propably a few hundred pedals, perhaps more.

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Jimbo

bancika · April 05, 2006, 05:50:28 PM

Making tiny "head" sounds nice, I built similar one with Little Gem MK2 instead. But, putting PSU that's more complicated than amp doesn't have much sense to me. Maybe it's better to build stand alone PSU unit with many outputs (9 and 12V) and make DC jack on your amp. That way you can power more pedals with it and it will keep your amp even smaller. Mine turned out 8x4x2cm, and it could go smaller but there wasn't smaller box

Also, you should put regulators in PSU to make it better. I built similar thing with 12v transformer salvaged from old speaker set, now it has many 9 and 12V regulated outputs and it's really cool!

DryRoasted · April 05, 2006, 05:51:32 PM

thats fine, I'm only planing on using the 12V rail

I know sticking a PC PSU in a head with an amp with like 8 components is a bit nuts but I dont really have much need for a power brick with lots of outputs. Ill take a look at GGG though

bancika · April 05, 2006, 07:41:12 PM

Whatever makes you happy then

To make it even smaller and simpler maybe you can build some different PSU (other than PC), you could find very small toroid 12V transformer and you'll need only two electros and regulator to make very nice PS for your amp.

DryRoasted · April 07, 2006, 05:16:12 PM

That sounds appealing, do you have any links for that idea?

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Using a PC PSU for power