There are tons of Instructables on how to hack a discarded ATX (computer) power supply unit (PSU) into a lab bench power supply. This is not one of them. My observation is that most makers, hackers, and mad scientists don't follow instructions very well. We like to improve on what already exists and fit the product to our needs.
KENTEK 400W 400 Watt ATX Replacement Power Supply for HP Bestec ATX-250-12Z, ATX-300-12Z, ATX-300-12Z CCR. Apr 25, 2011 Is it a relay in the power supply, or, is it on the main board? Thanks for your help. P/S is a Bestec Model ATX-300-12Z REV: DDR 4 answers.
My objective here is to give you all the information that you might need in order to hack an ATX PSU to meet your needs. This isn't so much an Instructable as it is an Informable. This is meant as a reference guide and so I've tried to avoid extensive explanations. If you want a greater depth of information, see Step 6.
Table of Contents 'Introduction'. So, you want to hack an ATX PSU, but you don't really know where to start?
There are basically two common hacks. Open the PSU; cut the connectors off the wires; drill holes in the existing housing; insert binding posts, switches, etc.; and attach the wires appropriately (See the photos for my version of this method). Build a box with the requisite binding posts, switches, LEDs, etc.; wire them to ATX and Molex connectors; and plug your creation in to an unmodified PSU. Method B is more work, but allows you to easily swap out the PSU when you burn it out doing something dumb. (Did you see that pretty power supply box in the photo? It's now a paperweight. With binding posts.) It also gives you more room to add functionality.
And you get to build a box! Birdseye maple and dovetails, anyone? One piece of vocabulary before we continue: A 'rail' generally refers to a PSU's output of a particular voltage. In the context of ATX PSUs though, 'rail' refers to each output that has a separate group of current-regulating circuits. This nuance is why it makes sense to talk about having multiple +12V rails in some PSUs.
Upon opening a PSU, you will find that it is a jubilee of wires in the worst way possible. Thankfully, the colors are (typically) standardized as shown in the chart. Your PSU may not have all of the wires on the chart, depending on the age and output of your unit. See the notes in the chart. Remember, you should probably only be messing with the wires that would be accessible without opening the PSU's case (i.e. Wires that exit the PSU and end in connectors). If a wire is completely internal to the PSU (i.e.
Starts and ends its run inside the PSU's enclosure), you probably don't need or want to change it. The chart only shows the wires that leave the enclosure. Whatever nefarious plans you have for these wires, realize that each pin in an ATX connector is rated to a max of 6 amps. It might be a prudent assumption that other portions of the circuit are similarly rated. So, for instance, if you plan to use all 20+ amps that the +5V rail can throw, you should probably connect as many of the red wires as practical to whatever you're powering.
That might mean sticking a bundle of wires on your binding post (if you're using option A from Step 1), or it might mean taking connections from the ATX connector and a few molex connectors (if you're using option B). Either way, the more wires, the better. You should also know that a PSU (because it is a 'Switched-Mode Power Supply', or SMPS) requires a minimum load in order to provide consistent voltage. Most people suggest taking one of the +5V (red) wires and wiring it to ground (black) through a 5 or 10 ohm, 10 watt resistor. For some PSUs, the fan is just enough load to get them to power up without the resistor, or they may have a resistor built in. Given that not having a large enough load will detract from a unit's reliability in unpredictable ways, I would strongly suggest using an additional resistor (or use your +5V to power a tiny USB hot-plate to keep your coffee within spilling-distance of your sensitive electronics-that's fine too).
If you want to waste the minimum amount of power, or if your unit behaves erratically, you can usually look up your PSU's minimum loads for each rail on its spec sheet. From there, you can probably figure out which rails need resistors, and how big those resistors need to be. The two common ATX connectors are 20 and 24 pins. There are also 20-pin connectors with adjunct 4-pin connectors that can be mated together to function as a 24-pin connector. 24 pins is the newer standard. Chances are that if you have a PSU with a 24-pin connector you will not have a -5V rail. You can also buy adapters to use a PSU with 20 pins on a 24-pin motherboard connector or vice-versa.
These adapters are also a good source of a pre-wired connector if you don't want to scavenge one off of a motherboard and then spend an eternity soldering wires to each pin. (Mmmmm, de-soldering and re-soldering 20+ connections. Have you gotten your California-recommended dose of lead today?) If you are planning on connecting to your PSU through the connectors (i.e. 'method B'), you will need to use more than just the ATX connector to safely use the PSU's full power. As mentioned in 'step 2', a conservative estimate would be to use at least one supply wire per 6 amps carried (based on wire-gauge-to-amperage tables, as well as the max rated amperage of a molex connector).
Image Credit: Please note that the supplied graphical chart is not my work. It is reproduced here for informational purposes only from This site is also linked to in References & Further Reading (step 6). In addition to the ATX connector, PSUs will have some or all of the following additional connectors: 4-pin molex connectors (aka 'Peripheral Connectors') +12V2 connector (aka 'P4 12V' connector) PCI Express (PCI-e) power connector SATA power connector Floppy drive power connector Aux power Connector(s) I would suggest that you ignore the last three connectors listed, as they are small and fiddly to deal with. To safely get the maximum power from your PSU, you are likely interested in the 4-pin molex, which will give you more wires coming from the +12V1 and +5V rails, allowing you to spread the load and lower the resistance. Many PSUs have a 'daisy chain' of multiple 4-pin molex connectors that are connected in series on the same set of wires (see the last picture).
Obviously, you only need to connect to one connector per set of wires. The +12V2 connector is intended to be connected to some motherboards in order to supply additional power to newer, larger processors. It is labeled '+12V2' because it is usually a completely separate rail from '+12V1'. On the PSU's label, it will give separate maximum loads for each +12V rail. You can use them separately, or wire them together to achieve a higher maximum load. Realize that the PSU may have a maximum total load as well, or that there may be maximum loads for groups of rails (e.g. +12V1 is rated to 16A and +12V2 is rated to 14A, but the side panel may say that maximum load for both +12V rails is 20A, so even if you wire them together, you're not going to get the 30A that you might have thought).
The PCI-e power connector is intended for graphics cards with power demands higher than 75W. It will likely only be present on fairly new PSUs that supply 450W. These connectors may have rails of their own ('+12V3' and up), or they may not.
Image Credit: Please note that the two supplied graphical charts are not my work. They are reproduced here for informational purposes only from This site is also linked to in References & Further Reading (step 6). As I mentioned in a few of the previous 'steps'; there will be maximum rated outputs for each rail individually and probably also for groups of rails. See the first image for an example of how a PSU label shows these limitations. If you are planning to modify a PSU ('method A'), be sure to test it for functionality before you put all the effort into modifying it. You can do this by plugging the PSU in and then using a small piece of wire to connect the green 'PSU on' pin on the ATX connector to any of the black 'ground' wires.
This will turn it on so that you can check the outputs with a voltmeter. Don't forget to check for +5V on the grey 'self-test OK' wire. Alternatively, you can use a power supply tester designed to test ATX PSUs, which you can typically buy for around $20 USD online. I would recommend against testing an unknown or salvaged PSU by installing it in a computer, both because it may damage the computer and because your 'testing' may not be comprehensive.
If you plan to use fuses on your project, put your fuses on the outputs, NOT the ground (Yes, you will need quite a few fuse-holders). The PSU already has an internal fuse or other overload protection, so using fuses mostly enables you to protect whatever you're powering from the PSU's full wrath.
You could also use small circuit-breakers, which are available at many electronics retailers. In order to figure out which of a PSU's +12V lines are on different rails, you can (after unplugging it) use a multimeter to check resistance between the +12V pins on the different connectors. Any resistance greater than essentially zero is indicative that the two connectors that you are testing are on different rails. If you are adding components inside the PSU's enclosure, be careful to leave enough space for airflow so that the PSU can still cool itself. If you need more space, you can always move the fan onto the exterior of the case, using the original screw holes.
If you drill any holes in the case, try to keep the metal filings out of the electronics! If you would like to add a variable voltage feature to your PSU, there are several ways to do it (see some of the links in step 6).
The simplest way is to use a potentiometer (a variable resistor), which will probably limit the amperage of your adjusted voltage to somewhere between 1 and 2 amps (unless you find a really monstrous potentiometer, in which case, please buy me one too). Another option is to use adjustable regulators (e.g. The Texas Instruments LM338). This approach would be more complex, but could allow for a higher maximum amperage on your variable output (see the comments for more discussion on this topic). Many thanks to everyone who has gone before me and made this type of information available on the Internet.
I can't lay claim to very much original research, but I hope that you have found my aggregation and condensation of information to be useful. If you need more information or more detail, I'm happy to try to help you myself, but you many find the following references helpful as well. Also have a look at the comments section on this Instructable-I've answered a few questions there, when the entirety of the answer didn't seem to fit into the rest of the Instructable. I hope that you take your new knowledge and parlay it into some serious DC amperage. Remember, if knowledge is power, then knowledge of power is power squared.
General Information on ATX PSUs: Helpful Project Pages from Outside Instructables: Other good Instructables on PSU modification: (. That is very strange. Dell has used non-standard wire colors in the past, and it looks like they've done it again. I am hoping that the pin-placement is mostly the same, so that you can use the chart from 'Step 3' (the one that shows the ATX connector from the pin-side) to figure out what your colors mean.
Your pictures look like some of the pins might be different, though, so I would suggest that you also look to see if the wires have anything written next to the contact points where they are attached to the circuit board. Additionally, you should use a multi-meter to check all of the voltages and confirm your suspicions. About the '+3.3VS' wire: I think the 'S' probably stands for 'sense.' The 3.3 volt sense wire is normally either brown, or a similar color to the 3.3V wires (typically orange). If I'm right, then it needs to be connected to the +3.3V wires so that the PSU can properly regulate its 3.3 volt output. Can you be more specific about what's not working?
Am I correct that you're using wires from the +12V2 connector, but they're not giving you any power at all? Are you getting power on other connectors? Is the PSU plugged in and switched on? Is the green 'PSU on' wire attached to a ground wire? Is the PSU's fan spinning? Also, a side note: laptops are easy to fry and hard to fix. If the laptop is valuable to you and you're at all unsure about what you're doing, consider buying a laptop adapter instead of jury-rigging a PSU.
I will answer your questions below, but I want to start with a warning: DO NOT try to charge an 18650 or any lithium-ion battery using a homemade charger. Charging a lithium-ion battery requires specific voltages and a charger capable of monitoring and supervising the charging process. If you incorrectly charge a lithium-ion battery (including overcharging a cell, trying to charge an over-discharged cell, or supplying the wrong voltage to a cell), it will likely catch fire, explode, or both.
I hate to discourage anyone from working on a project that they think is interesting, but charging lithium-ion batteries is dangerous, and building a charger for them should be considered an advanced electronics project. I would suggest that you buy a well-reviewed, commercially-available charger for your 18650's. Also, I would suggest that you only use protected 18650's (meaning that the batteries have a small circuit board in them that prevents them from being over-discharged), especially if you are using the batteries to power DIY projects. Over-discharging a lithium-ion battery can be nearly as dangerous as improperly charging one.
Finally, to answer your original questions: you can add as many binding posts as you want to any of the rails, but remember that those posts as a group will only ever provide a total amperage up to the rated amperage of that rail. If the color-standardization of your wires is normal, then the brown wire is a sense wire for the 3.3V rail and you should attach it to that rail. If you're unsure, then check if the wire is supplying any voltage (a sense wire shouldn't be) and confirm that it is in the same position as the sense wire in the ATX connector by using the wiring charts in 'Step 3'.
. ATX-300-12Z power supply (5188-2625).
Bestec ATX-300-12Z power supply. (5187-6114). Replacement Upgrade for Bestec ATX-300-12Z power supply. ATX-300-12Z REV.: ATX-300-12ZBC, ATX-300-12ZCDR,ATX-300-12ZEDR, ATX-300-12ZDDR, ATX-300-12ZBD, ATX-300-12ZCD and ATX-300-12ZCC. This Brand New Replacement Upgrade power supply is Compatible with these following models: HP Pavilion Compaq P/N: 5187-6114, 5188-2625, 5188-0129, 5187-5116, 5188-0129,5188-0131, 5189-3964 and replaces 410507-001 power supply. High Quality Brand New 400's Watt replacement power supply for your Intel model and AMD, Celeron, Celeron D, PIII and Pentium 4 Computers.
Bestec ATX-250-12Z and ATX-300-12Z Power Supply Installation. Replaces and upgrades Original 300 Watt ATX-300-12Z REV.: BC, CDR, EDR, DDR, BD, CD And CC.