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Continuing on from our previous article about converting an ATX PSU to a bench power supply, the question has been asked if it is possible to use this ATX PSU to produce different voltage outputs other than the fixed voltage power supply of +5 or +12 volts. Yes we can do that either as a fixed DC output voltage of say +6V or +9V or as a variable output voltage from zero to some maximum value.
With the aid of a small bit of additional circuitry added to the output of the PSU we can have a bench power supply capable of a range of fixed or variable voltages either positive or negative in nature. In fact this is more simple than you may think as the transformer, rectification and smoothing has already been done by the PSU beforehand all we need to do is connect our additional circuit to the +12 volt yellow wire output. But firstly, lets consider a fixed voltage output.
Fixed 9v Power Supply
There are a wide variety of 3-terminal voltage regulators available in a standard TO-220 package with the most popular fixed voltage regulator being the 78.. series positive regulators which range from the very common 7805, +5V regulator to the 7824, +24V regulator. There is also a 79.. series of negative regulators which produce a complementary negative voltage from -5 to -24 volts but in this tutorial we will only use the positive 78.. types.
The fixed 3-terminal regulator is useful in applications were an adjustable output is not required making the output power supply simple, but very flexible as the voltage it outputs is dependant only upon the chosen regulator. They are called 3-terminal voltage regulators because they only have three terminals to connect to and these are the input, common andoutput respectively. The input voltage which will be the +12v yellow wire from the PSU is connected between the input and common terminals, with the stabilised voltage taken across the output and common as shown.
Voltage Regulator Circuit
So suppose we want an output voltage of +9 volts from our PSU bench power supply, then all we have to do is connect a +9v voltage regulator to the +12V yellow wire. As the PSU has already done the rectification and smoothing to the +12v output, the only additional components required are a capacitor across the input and another across the output. These capacitors aid in the stability of the regulator and can be anywhere between 100nF and 330nF. The additional 100uF output capacitor helps smooth out the supply giving it a good transient response.
These 78.. series regulators give a maximum output current of about 1.5 amps at fixed voltages of 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 24V respectively. But what if we wanted an output voltage of +9V but only had a 7805, +5V regulator?. The +5V output of the 7805 is referenced to the “ground, Gnd” or “0v” terminal. If we increased this pin-2 terminal voltage from 0V to 4V then the output would also rise by an additional 4 volts providing there was sufficient input voltage. Then by placing a small 4 volt (nearest preferred value of 4.3V) Zener diode between pin-2 of the regulator and ground, we can make a 7805 5V regulator produce a +9 volts output voltage as shown.
Increased Output Voltage
So how does it work, the 4.3V Zener diode requires a reverse bias current of around 5mA to maintain an output with the regulator taking about 0.5mA. This total current of 5.5mA is supplied via resistor “R1″ from the output pin-3. So the value of the resistor required for a 7805 regulator will be R = 5V/5.5mA = 910 Ohm. The feedback diode, D1 connected across the input to output terminals is for protection and prevents the regulator from being reverse biased when the input supply voltage is switched OFF while the output supply remains ON or active for a short period of time due to a large inductive load such as a solenoid or motor.
Then we can use 3-terminal voltage regulators and a suitable Zener diode to produce a variety of fixed output voltages from our previous bench power supply ranging from +5V up to +12V. But we can improve on this design by replacing the fixed voltage regulator with a variable voltage regulator such as the LM317T.
Variable Voltage Power Supply
The LM317T is an adjustable 3-terminal positive voltage regulator capable of supplying 1.5 amps with an output voltage range of 1.25 to 30 volts just by using the ratio of two resistances, one of a fixed value and the other variable used to set the output voltage to the desired level with an input voltage of between 3 and 40 volts. The LM317 device also has built in current limiting and thermal shutdown which makes it short-circuit proof, ideal for our homemade bench power supply.
The output voltage of the LM317T is determined by ratio of the two feedback resistors R1 andR2 which form a potential divider network across the output terminal as shown below.
Adjustable Regulator
The voltage across the feedback resistor R1 is a constant 1.25V reference voltage, Vrefproduced between the Output and Adjustment terminal. The adjustment terminal current is a constant current of 100uA. Since the reference voltage across resistor R1 is constant, a constant current i will flow through the other resistor R2, resulting in an output voltage of:
Then whatever current flows through resistor R1 also flows through resistor R2 (ignoring the very small adjustment terminal current), with the sum of the voltage drops across R1 and R2being equal to the output voltage, Vout. The input voltage, Vin must be at least 2.5V greater than the required output voltage. Also, the LM317T has very good load regulation providing that the minimum load current is greater than 10mA. So to maintain a constant reference voltage of 1.25V, the minimum value of feedback resistor R1 needs to be 1.25V/10mA = 120 Ohm and this value can range anywhere from 120 ohms to 1,000 ohms with typical values ofR1 being 220 or 240 ohms for good stability.
If we know the value of the required output voltage, Vout and the feedback resistor R1 is say 240 ohms, then we can calculate the value of resistor R2 from the above equation. For example, our original output voltage of 9V would give a resistive value for R2 of: R1.((Vout/1.25)-1) = 240.((9/1.25)-1) = 1,488 Ohms or 1,500 ohms to the nearest preferred value, or 1k5.
Of course in practice, resistors R1 and R2 would normally be replaced by a potentiometer so as to produce a variable voltage power supply, or by several switched preset resistances if several fixed output voltages are required. But in order to reduce the math’s required in calculating the value of resistor R2 everytime we want a particular voltage we can use resistance tables as shown below which give the regulators output voltage for different ratios of R1 and R2 using E24 resistance values.
Ratio of Resistances R1 to R2
| R2 Value | Resistor R1 Value | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 150 | 180 | 220 | 240 | 270 | 330 | 370 | 390 | 470 | |
| 100 | 2.08 | 1.94 | 1.82 | 1.77 | 1.71 | 1.63 | 1.59 | 1.57 | 1.52 |
| 120 | 2.25 | 2.08 | 1.93 | 1.88 | 1.81 | 1.70 | 1.66 | 1.63 | 1.57 |
| 150 | 2.50 | 2.29 | 2.10 | 2.03 | 1.94 | 1.82 | 1.76 | 1.73 | 1.65 |
| 180 | 2.75 | 2.50 | 2.27 | 2.19 | 2.08 | 1.93 | 1.86 | 1.83 | 1.73 |
| 220 | 3.08 | 2.78 | 2.50 | 2.40 | 2.27 | 2.08 | 1.99 | 1.96 | 1.84 |
| 240 | 3.25 | 2.92 | 2.61 | 2.50 | 2.36 | 2.16 | 2.06 | 2.02 | 1.89 |
| 270 | 3.50 | 3.13 | 2.78 | 2.66 | 2.50 | 2.27 | 2.16 | 2.12 | 1.97 |
| 330 | 4.00 | 3.54 | 3.13 | 2.97 | 2.78 | 2.50 | 2.36 | 2.31 | 2.13 |
| 370 | 4.33 | 3.82 | 3.35 | 3.18 | 2.96 | 2.65 | 2.50 | 2.44 | 2.23 |
| 390 | 4.50 | 3.96 | 3.47 | 3.28 | 3.06 | 2.73 | 2.57 | 2.50 | 2.29 |
| 470 | 5.17 | 4.51 | 3.92 | 3.70 | 3.43 | 3.03 | 2.84 | 2.76 | 2.50 |
| 560 | 5.92 | 5.14 | 4.43 | 4.17 | 3.84 | 3.37 | 3.14 | 3.04 | 2.74 |
| 680 | 6.92 | 5.97 | 5.11 | 4.79 | 4.40 | 3.83 | 3.55 | 3.43 | 3.06 |
| 820 | 8.08 | 6.94 | 5.91 | 5.52 | 5.05 | 4.36 | 4.02 | 3.88 | 3.43 |
| 1000 | 9.58 | 8.19 | 6.93 | 6.46 | 5.88 | 5.04 | 4.63 | 4.46 | 3.91 |
| 1200 | 11.25 | 9.58 | 8.07 | 7.50 | 6.81 | 5.80 | 5.30 | 5.10 | 4.44 |
| 1500 | 13.75 | 11.67 | 9.77 | 9.06 | 8.19 | 6.93 | 6.32 | 6.06 | 5.24 |
By changing resistor R2 for a 2k ohm potentiometer we can control the output voltage range of our PSU bench power supply from about 1.25 volts to a maximum output voltage of 10.75 (12-1.25) volts. Then our final modified variable power supply circuit is shown below.
Variable Voltage Power Supply
We can improve on our basic voltage regulator circuit by connecting an Ammeter and a Voltmeter to the output terminals. These instruments will give a visual indication of both the current and voltage output from the regulator. A fast-acting fuse can also be incorporated if desired in the design to provide additional short circuit protection as shown.
Disadvantages of the LM317T
One of the main disadvantages of using the LM317T to regulate a voltage is that as much as 2.5 volts is dropped or lost as heat in the regulator. So for example, if the required output voltage is to be +9 volts, then the input voltage will need to be as much as 12 volts or more if the output voltage is to remain stable under maximum load conditions. This voltage drop across the regulator is called “dropout”. Also due to this dropout voltage some form of heatsinking is required.
Fortunately low dropout variable voltage regulators are available such as the National Semiconductor LM2941T Low Dropout variable voltage regulator which has a low dropout voltage of just 0.9 volts at maximum load. This low dropout comes at a cost as this device is only capable of delivering 1.0 amp with a variable voltage output from 5 to 20 volts. However, we can use this device to give an output voltage of about 11.1V, just a little lower than the input voltage.
So to summarise, our bench power supply that we made from an old PC power supply unit in the previous article can be converted to a variable voltage power supply by using a LM317T to regulate the voltage. By connecting the input of this device across the +12V yellow output wire of the PSU we can have both fixed +5V, +12V and a variable output voltage reanging from about 2 to 10 volts at a maximum output current of 1.5A, enjoy
HandBit
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