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Caution: Opening
a Power Supply can hurt or kill you. Know what your
doing.
If you have
an extra power supply (PSU) laying around and it is
too old to actually use, this trick will show you how
to make use of it. This is really nice for testing those
cold cathode lights, LED's and fans. Or just plug in
an old CD-ROM, hook some speakers to it and you have
yourself a CD player for your workshop.
All parts we
will need:
-A power
supply (old, or low watt.)
-Wire stripers
-Solder iron (optional)
-Electrical tape
-Heat-shrink tubing (optional)
Here are the parts lined up:
That switch
you see over on the right is from a different power
supply, due to the fact that this working PSU did not
have a switch on it. I will show you how to add a switch
to this first.
The standard
motherboard connection will not be used on my tester.
So we will cut it to add a switch first. Take the green
wire and cut it off the "molex" connection,
as well as any black wire (all black
are ground).
This will be
used for the switch. If your tester PSU does not have
a switch on back, and you do not have an extra switch
around, you can go to radio shack and pick up a 12v
switch. If it DOES already have a switch, your sill
going to have to connect this green and black wire together.
Strip the two ends with the wire strippers. Then attach
them together (if you have a switch on the back) or
to a switch (like mine) - either with solder or electrical
tape. Does not matter which wire goes to which connector
on the switch, you'll know you have it right when you
flip the switch. Just reverse the wires if it's not
right, or if you care.
Now the power
supply will turn on without a computer involved.
I took three
other wires from the motherboard connection. A
red, black
and yellow.
Since I may want to test fans (or any devices) at different
voltages, these wires will come in handy. Yellow
wire is always 12V. Red
wire is always 5V. Black wire is always
ground. These voltages are standard from the power supply,
NOT all computer components. If you look at some fans,
"red" wire is just power.. it could be 5v
or 12v.. Look closely on the devices themselves.
I now have all
the molex connecters to test equipment and three wires
for different voltages.
Be sure
to mask the three wires off so they don't touch anything
when not being used.
Here I just
soldered (and taped) on some alligator clips relevant
to the colors of the PSU cable. Just clip these on nonconductive
material when not in use. This helps so your wires don't
start breaking after twisting/untwisting many times.
Like I said,
when your in your workshop just hook up a CD-ROM and
speakers.. (CD-ROM must have toggle buttons and a headphone
jack)
BE CAREFULL
AND UNPLUG IT WHILE NOT IN USE!!
Related
Links:
Fan
Voltages
Burke~
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