Nasty, Lazy and Cheap (12v 5A Charger Power Supply)

January 24, 2010 · Posted in How To · by simon · 2 Comments 

P1020234I don’t know about you, but I think the cost of RC power supplies is simply ridiculous.  I have a hefty 30A bench supply that I was fed up of lugging around.  I wasn’t about spend £50, £100 or even more on a ‘proper’ RC supply.

I wanted a small and light, and above all, cheap power supply to run my HOT POWER (AMAZING name!) charger off.  So I made one…

In my Graupner Ultramat 14 charger I knew there was what looked like a laptop power supply to provide mains input capability.  I know other chargers use something similar.

My charger only needed 5A input, so I trawled ebay for a laptop supply with 12v 5A output.  £8.99 including delivery! Bargain.

Chopped the cable off short, soldered on some 4mm sockets.  Then I ruined it by Shoe Gooing the cable to the side of the supply.

I could have gone to the trouble of putting it in a nice box etc, but that would have made it bigger.  I could have left the leads dangling, but I wanted it neat and tidy.

The end result is brilliant, perfect for running a regular charger, or a soldering iron.

The boys laughed at my nasty construction skills, but funnily enough they agreed it was a perfect solution for less than a tenner.

Make one today.  Hell, if you really want one I’ll make you one, for about £50.

Written by simon.