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ATX to Lab Bench Power Supply Conversion

Step 4Connecting front-panel items

Connecting front-panel items
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Here, I am connecting the appropriate wires to the binding posts, power switch, fuse holder, and LED's.

In an ATX power supply, there should be a wire that is used to turn on the power supply. You can see this wire (It's green) in the second picture; it is the green wire in the middle, where it says "ON/OFF" on the PCB. I connected this to the switch, and the other pole of the switch went to ground. The +5, +12, and -12 are connected right to their wires on the PCB. The ground wire is connected through the fuse holder before the binding post.

Initially, I was going to use green LED's, but I realized I had many more red LED's than green LED's, so I switched them over to reds. In the first picture, you can see the holders I installed into the front. I connected the LED's through a common resistor to ground. The LED on the left (from the front view) is a standby LED. It is lit whenever I have the power supply plugged into the wall. It is connected to the +5V standby wire on the PCB. In my PS, it's purple. The other LED is the "Power On" LED, and it is lit when I have the power supply turned on. It's connected to the "Power OK" signal wire, which goes to +5V when the power supply detects that it has stabilized the voltages. In my PS, it's the gray wire.
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6 comments
Mar 5, 2012. 6:57 PMseraine says:
For some reason, my standy led takes about a minute to turn off when it loses power because it takes a while for the voltage to drain off. Is anyone else experiencing this, and is there a simple solution?
Feb 7, 2011. 7:06 AMNiKiToS says:
I have no writing near green wire which says on/off and it doesn't say PGS near the gray wire, it does say +5v SB near my purple wire... should i just ignore the fact that it doesn't say it, and carry on with your arrangement, or search for another PSU?
Jan 16, 2010. 9:36 PMhyratel says:
You know, it really does help if you put all this effort into a WORKING psu, instead of a dead one. </frustrated>
Jun 4, 2008. 3:40 PMtheyikes says:
Sweet! Finally I have a use for my ever increasing stock pile of PSU's! keep up the great work and keep the ideas flowin'! Cheers!

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Author:matthewbeckler
A PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.