sparkfun.com

With prices for benchtop power supplies hovering around $150 for an entry level unit most electronics hobbyists, such as myself, tend to rely on a multitude of wall warts and USB powered serial breakout boards for supplying power to our projects during development. When I saw the Benchtop Power Board Kit last week while browsing the Sparkfun site my nether region was all a tingle -- a benchtop power supply that uses an ATX power unit from a PC. For $15!

I can't say I was a bundle of anticipation waiting for my package from Sparkfun. With Spring quickly moving into Summer and the garden planting half finished my electronics to-do list has been collecting dust. However, the notion was growing that this kit (once completed) would solve a lot of my project slow downs and I began soldering as soon as it arrived.

The board itself is well laid out and there are only a handful of parts so the kit doesn't require much in the way of thought to assemble. You will need to provide your own solid core wire to connect the binding posts to the board. I completed the kit in about 15 minutes, dusted off an old ATX power supply, plugged it in and fired the thing up. Voltages measured almost right on the money on each rail. This is a pretty slick unit -- now I only need some time to get back to that electronics to-do list.

[Some discussion has been made about static minimum loads on ATX power supplies and that a lack of static loads may make your PSU go *poof* with the requisite amount of smoke and sparks. See some additional discussion here.]