What am i missing out on?

[chris414]

I'm in my first year of electrical engineering and do a few of my own little projects in my spare time as a hobby (just so you know where im at with electronics). Because im on a budget, about a year ago i converted a computer ATX power supply into an adjustable voltage power supply following an article on the internet, and i've had no problems with it.

However, I'm finding the one output line limiting so was thinking about rebuilding it - add another line, add some simple current limiting (only know the theory behind this, does it work as well in practise?), some digital meters, etc. What am I missing out on by not buying a commercial power supply (my price bracket would only allow a relatively cheap power supply)? I cant notice any ripple on my current power supply, i'm getting up to 3amps out of my current power supply, the voltage only goes to 22V so admittedly a bit low there, but other than that what features would be worth spending my money on?

 

[BrownOut]

How do you measure ripple? If you're using an oscilloscope, that's great. Current limiting works great in practice. It sounds like you have a fine power supply, but you want a bunch of bells and whistles so it has the look and feel of a commercial unit. ( digital meters, etc ) I don't know that you're missing anything by not using a commerical supply. What you have is probably more than sufficient for most of your experimentation.

 

[chris414]

Thanks for the advice and yeah using an oscilloscope to measure the ripple...

 

[BrownOut]

I can't imagine anyone trying to lean electronics w/o an oscilloscope. That is the best tool to have.

 

[Thunderchild]

I can't imagine anyone trying to lean electronics w/o an oscilloscope. That is the best tool to have.

very true, I've missed one ever since I started and finally got a second hand one a few months ago, now I'm selling it for a faster (50 MHz) digital one, they are becoming so much more neccessary these days.