Easy Computer Power Supply for your Model Railway

[@davidportch8837]

I am happy to cut the wires and it could be used for both purposes... For model railway I would be tempted to lower the value of the fuses as I would not be using anywhere near that current draw and the faster the fuse blows the better... great video - thanks...

[@ModelRailroadTechniques]

Great idea about lowering the value on the fuses. Didn’t consider that. Thanks for your kind words.

[@kenr86]

I've tried both methods, I go with the way you showed, terminating the ground and +12 volt supplies into terminal blocks. At the club I'm in, we use some of these for our 12 volt LED lighting supplies.

[@ModelRailroadTechniques]

Sweet. I am going to use more of these little guys for my accessory bus power.

[@EsotericArctos]

There are a lot of tutorials around for turning ATX PSU's into power supplies. I think this is the first one I have seen using it on a Model Railway. It's a great idea as you can get stable 5v, 12V and 3.3V from an ATX PSU. You can also use a step-up converter to bump the 12V up to the voltage level for DCC track power or just take the 12V via a rheostat for DC track power. Most ATX PSU's have good current rating on the 12V line so a good step up converter can work really well. For those who are not comfortable pulling the PSU apart, you can connect the power on to ground externally and do all connections externally. Your power on signal is usually a green wire. Yellow is usually 12, Red is 5, Orange 3.3 The others you don't need, unless you want to use the purple stand-by power for and a relay device for remote power on, instead of hardwiring the the green to ground. Always test your voltages though as some Power Supplies do not use standard colours, especially cheap, older or proprietary (HP / Dell as example) As a note on your +5V load. Test your power supply. If you don't need it, leave it off. Most newer PSU's do not need a load, but some older ones will need it. If your load LED starts getting too warm, you may need a higher current resistor, or test with a slightly higher resistance. As a tip on LED's. Under drive them where you can. They are more efficient when under driven, and a slight under drive doesn't affect brightness noticeably, but will increase life of your LED's considerably.

[@ModelRailroadTechniques]

As always Brendan great insight. I am doing a video 2 to make this a little better. I didn’t consider the step up for higher voltages