Good evening ladies and gentlemen, today I will show you how I adapted a power brick to be suitable for hard disk drives, optical drives, floppy drives, and anything that uses Molex, SATA, and floppy power connectors.

I created this because I need to test some parts without using a big computer PSU, and without having to use my PC power supply, with the risk of damaging its hardware.

So read on and let's get started!

Step 1: Acquire a Power Birck

The power brick I chose (well, I didn't exactly choose it, I recovered it from the junkyard!) is a Lacie Sunfone acml-51.

It can be powered with 100 to 240 Volts AC, 50~60Hz, and outputs 5V at 2A (10W), and 12V at 2.2A (26.4)W.

It can be found on various e-shops, its price ranges from 10 to 30 $.

Step 2: Acquire Wires

I recovered the wires from old computer PSUs.

I will be using a cable which has 2 Molex connectors, and a terminal floppy connector. I will be adding a SATA connector scavenged from another cable.

Step 3: Remove the SATA Power Connector From the Donor Cable

SATA connectors have 5 wires, because they also supply 3.3V.

It is not needed, as SATA equipment can work with 5V as well, infact, there are plenty of Molex-SATA adapters, which lack the 3.3V.

Make sure you have one of these angular SATA connector, they are much easier to remove and reconnect.

To remove it:

pop the cap on the back with a small screwdriver or your nails.

Mark the colours on the connector or keep them in mind, inverting them will damage whatever you connect to it.

As you can see, the cables run through it, as the connectors have sharp edges that cut through the insulation and reach the wire. Simply grab the cables and pull them out.

Now your connector is free.

Step 4: Put the Connector on the New Cable

Be careful to put the right coloured cable where it belongs! Not doing so will damage whatever you connect to it. Just refer to another SATA cable or keep in mind where the colours are placed.

To insert the new cables, simply inhumanely push them inside the notches, I helped myself with a small screwdriver to push them all the way in.

Step 5: Connecting the Cable to the Power Brick

To connect the cable, I wanted to use a screw terminal, in the event I ever need to dismantle it or add more connections. Feel free to do as you please, soldering them will make it look clean and good.

Cut off the connector.

Remove some external insulation to expose the cables. GND is wrapped around without further insulation, +5V is the white one, +12V is the red one. Make sure you check with a multimeter where each tension actually is! You never know.

Now simply screw them together in the terminal, GND with the two black wires, white wire with red wire, red wire with yellow wire.

Now hook it up, and check if every tension is where is is supposed to be!

Yellow: +12V.

Red: +5V.

Black: GND.

Step 6: Good to Go!

Your power brick is ready. I just tested it with a HDD and it is all fine.

The HDD I tested consumes up to 3.25W on the 5V line, and 6W on the 12V line.

Max power output for this brick is 10W on 5V, and 26.4W on 12V, so keep in mind how much stuff you connect to it and check the power consumption on the device!

I will also use it to learn how to make musical floppies with the Arduino!

Have fun!