Power Supply for our Cockpit

[washburn_it]

This thread would like to be a suggestion (especially for beginners) regarding the "Power Supply System" of our cockpit.
Instead of using several small (and probably limited) power supplies, we can use an ATX power supply that can give to electronics stabilized voltage also at high current.
Considering a 450 Watt ATX power supply, we can have 20 Ampere at 12 Volt and some more at 5 Volt (plus overload, shortcircuits and overheat protections).
There is no need for a motherboard to turn it on but a simple jumper between two pins of the power supply's connector.
I hope this may be useful, regards.

Roberto

[N242AM]

Good suggestion Roberto. I have used this approach and example for many years.

http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.batts/ps/PowerSupply.htm

[washburn_it]

Good article !
More or less is the same thing that I did but since I had a 20x2 LCD display and an ATMega16 getting dust in a corner of my desk, I decided to add some "extra" function to my PSU: a voltage/current monitor.
I'm using 4 of 8 ADC converter of the ATMega to monitor +12V and +5V lines and, above all, the "flowing" current out of those two lines.
Voltages are already monitored but for the current I'm waiting for the arrival of an ACS712 instead of using the classic 0.1 Ohm resistor.
The ATMega drives also the LCD display where voltages/current are shown.

Regards,

Roberto