On 09/30/2013 05:09 AM, Philip Hands wrote:
Benson Mitchell benson.mitchell+arm-netbook@gmail.com writes:
On Sep 29, 2013 9:50 AM, "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" dave@treblig.org wrote:
Have you tried a normal PC power supply; I think there is a way to fudge them to believe a motherboard is connected.
That's the ticket.
But there is one gotcha with this -- some PSUs won't operate or don't operate well with no or very low load (they need like 1-5% of rated current, minimum). So check the voltages with no load, if all seems well, good! otherwise, throw a 12V light bulb on the output and that should make it behave.
Also, RepRappers have found that one often needs to put load on the 5v circuit to get reliable 12v:
http://reprap.org/wiki/PCPowerSupply
Cheers, Phil.
As a follow on, this is an open hardware ATX breakout board.
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/ATX_Brakout_Board_design_overview
They do not that many old PSU had the load requirement, but modern ones do not.