My Converted ATX Power Supply

[260830107]

most ATX psu has short circuit protection enabled, so when you try to make some sparks by shorting the power rails, it just turns it self off.

[LauxHawk]

I approve of the intro music.

[Iseekoutthetruth]

what is negative -12v ?

[LetsFri]

Can you remove Floride from water with your machine???

[benjwgarner]

@LetsFri You could power a device that would do that, but it wouldn't alone. Unless you really wanted to electrolyze the water into HHO, leaving the fluoride salts behind and burn the gas to get water again. But seriously, fluoride is not dangerous in the ammounts in treated city water. Well water may have higher quantaties from particular minerals in the ground, though.

[1987dman]

why do you talk like that?

[ahacksor]

yea its kinda hard to listen to.

[Logman91]

also, how many watts will it pull from the AC input current?

[Logman91]

is there a way i could get between 13 and 14 volts out of one of these? if so around what would the amperage be?

Thanks man

[ahacksor]

lol, ok you can get any voltage from a dc source, you just have to make a voltage divider circuit for the output you want, as far as the current it depends on the item your testing, but if you have a short you will get a max of 30A, enough to kill you by far but your psu will cook as well. As for the ac input current, it depends on the total wattage of the psu.

[Logman91]

@ahacksor and how would i go about making this "voltage divider circuit"?

[ahacksor]

@Logman91 its a simple series circuit with outputs after each resistor. Lets say you have 24V into a circuit and you want 13-14V output you must have enough resistors in place before your output to "consume" 10-11V before your output. If you only want one voltage output then this is the best way but, if you want lets say 24V,20V,18V,14V,10V,and 5V outputs you will use the voltage divider to make the one circuit. If you dont know a lot on this topic lookup Ohms law and kirchhoff current law.

[benjwgarner]

@Logman91 Search for "Voltage Divider" on wikipedia, it'll give you a general schematic.

[xxgg]

Oh one more question I forgot to ask...

How can you get 17 & 24v ???

[Bobensen]

For 24 volts use -12 and +12 for 17 you use +12 and -5

[xxgg]

Is it even safe to load up the PSU upto 24volts ??

[Bobensen]

Umm, It is able to supply 24 but you cant use too much current. @ 24volts most power supplys can give 800mA, If you draw too much you will burn it out (entire psu) I accidentally overloaded my power supply using 24 volts and It ran for a while and then stopped and started smoking ( lucky I had like 5 more so I made another one but improved)

[meade9166]

@xxgg it's risky,mine started smoking when I connected 24v to ni-cr wire

[benjwgarner]

@Bobensen Is the -12v connection twelve volts below earth ground, or is it just relative to the ground of the power supply?

[xxgg]

What is the advantage of grouping all the same colored wires together vs. simply just using one single wire?

Less heat on wire during full load?

Would appreciate a detailed info.

Thanks.!

[Bobensen]

Well the grouping is for the ammount of current you want to get out of it without burning any wires. The more wires you have clustered together = more more current without melting anything. I just grouped ALL the wires because I planned on using it in some high current situations. You can easially just use 1 wire for each voltage but you wont be able to get much as much current safely out of it.

[xxgg]

What about most of the PSU these days with multiple 12v rails with each rail having around 15~20A or so ?

When you bunch up all the 12v wires, how will that affect the Amperage? Will it still be upto what a single rail can provide? (15~20A, depending on manufacturer?)

I mean, I could just buy one of those quality PSU with single 12v rail but... I would still like to know.

Thanks.

[angrygunsmith]

hey bob, whats with the negative voltage and positive voltage you mentioned.

[VicentiuB]

if only 800mA output at 24V , is not a good idea for use with HHO project , the HHO production take 15A - 20A

[Bobensen]

Yes I know, I was just experementing.... I usually use 12volts which is a bit slow, but it works.

[VicentiuB]

what combination of wire from ATX to give 24 volts output ??? thank's

[Bobensen]

Ummm I believe (for most psus) If you use the Blue Wire (-12v) and the Yellow wire (+12v) you will get a combined 24 volts. Just be careful with the current you draw from it because I overdrew from my 24 volt connection (psu in the video) and it caught on fire..... Its ususally about 800mA I think....

[whatUsaybob]

lol off topic, but the harddrive sounds MEAN :)

[echoman123456789]

thanks dude. this works very well! no need to spend 200 bucks for a lab power supply.

[enterrupt]

I have been running a small thermo-electric fridge using a converted atx supply for over a year continuously. I thought I'd mention that for this, and all switching power supplies, power supply damage can occur if you run it without a load.  My supply has a 10W 100ohm wirewound resistor between the 5v rail and ground that I installed. Perhaps your supply has an internal load built in. Most switching style supplies will operate erratically at best under conditions of no load. Great videos!

[seasonedtoker]

correct. put some resistors on it, reposition the fan so it's sucking air in not out any more, place resistors above then fan it'll be good. the 12V is more stable when 5.5V is loaded. I'm getting 11.89 without and 12.10 with the load. 3x 6.8ohm 5W resistors.

[cricketol]

u can get 7v out of it right and if so what wires do u cross to do it

[TehMG]

Connect negative end of your device to any +5V wire (red) and the positive end to +12V (yellow). The voltage your device sees is the difference between the two: 12V-5V=7V.

[check1rockit]

Why would you want hydrogen for?

[Bobensen]

its acutally HHO (2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen) not just hydrogen (i said it wrong in the vid). It is very useful but mostly for fun to light off in the neighbourhood. It sounds like a very loud firecracker (very fun).

[brianlefler]

Would it work if I had an old power supply that had no switch? the switch plugs directly into the motherboard... No independant switch on the power supply... Would that just mean it was on full time until I unplug it?

[Bobensen]

It would still work as long as you have the grey wire touching the ground. The second you take it off, it shuts off. I just like the switch on the back because i dont have to worry about un-plugging it so I dont burn the house down (just in case)

[CourtneyChaos14]

Well there is a grey wire so i'll give it a try and get back to you. thanks

[CourtneyChaos14]

i have a dell.... no green wire. how do i by-pass the no turn on bullshit?

[Bobensen]

For a dell (or at least mine) it was a gray wire. Just connect it to the Black ground and it shouuuld work. If that doesnt work try touching every wire to the black til it turns on...

[dmix09]

very dramatic intro...

[SprocketRC51]

What would happen to voltage if you connected all the +12, +5,+3.3v power wires? Would that increase V to 18.3v? I'm assuming amps would increase. Ex. +12v and -12v how does that affect V output? Will connecting all these power wires to run a car stereo and amp have negative consequences? TIA for your advice!

[Bobensen]

If you connected them all together, you would just get the +12 because it is the highest. connecting the -12 and +12 (-12 instead of ground) would make the voltage go up to 24volts. You dont get a lot of amps though. And I have heard about people connecting a car stereo to it so I THINK it will be ok.

[bajan13k]

5/5.

Useful creativity!

[TitoDre]

What your voice happend??

[Bobensen]

I was getting over a cold...

[mirageH1992]

You sound nervous.....

[Bobensen]

Nope, I wasnt

[mirageH1992]

I didn't said you were but I just say you SOUND nervous :P

[spinctah]

Are you sure? You sound like one brick sh#ting nervous dude...

[Bobensen]

I wanst nervous. i guess thats how i sounded like at that moment. DEAL WITH IT!

[hvhaxor]

you can replace the diode on the -12v rail with a larger diode to get more ampers out also if you put a nc button from the input voltage of the pwm to the safety resistor you can press that to reset the OCP

i did alot of experimentation on push i was able to pus 50v out of one by modifying resistors

[linc1122]

it works ok. there is heaps of noise on the outputs tho so its no good for running anything to do with audio. and instead of hooking all them wires together you can just cut then off and use one of each colour.

[Bobensen]

Yes that would work if you did do that but the only thing is that you could not use it for high current uses with only 1 wire.

[oishi222]

i use MRE heaters to produce hidrogen

fill up a 2 liter bottle 1 third full, let the rest fill with air, and insert fuse through a whole you punched with a needle or something

[raininginhell]

How do you know what the rails are? I have an old ATX i would like to do this to. But I'm not sure how to figure out which is the +12,5 and -12,5

[Bobensen]

The +12 is always Yellow The +5 is the Red.

-12 is blue and -5 is white. This applies to all PSU except dell......

[raininginhell]

what is the orange?

[Bobensen]

+3.3volts

[psyfertech]

nice, i did it to mine but it dont work no more, i guess i pulled on a wire too hard or scratched something up on the board somehow it just squeels every time i turn it on

[mongess]

Where did you learn all this stuff?

[Bobensen]

Mostly Just me messing around with electronics. I do occasionally research things if I want to find out more about what i'm doing.

(It's A Hobby)

[Maticus2009]

Once again, sweet =P