My biggest draw back right now is that I am not sure where on the printerboard I should be soldering my power to.

If you still have the ends (that I told you to throw away), then you should have a four-pin connector that looks like one on your printer.

I've never seen a printrboard before, I guess that's what I get for not doing research before answering your question.

Take a look at this drawing from google.

fdm_process wrote:

Do you mind helping me through this? I'm not the most electrically inclined person. I'm going to open my ATX power and count all the wires.. I seem to have a bunch more than this guy has. Thanks for the link, I need to watch it a second time and then I will ask more questions.

Absolutely, I'd be happy to help. I have an ATX power supply that was messed up (capacitor blew), and after getting the computer back up and running I decided to fix the old one and convert it to a bench power supply. I can take some pictures and show you what I did if it'll help you.

The number of wires doesn't really matter, because the colors are all connected to the same place - ie, all the yellow are connected at one point on the circuit board. You can desolder them and add your own thicker wire if you want, or just bundle them together. At this point you can probably cut all the tips off if you'd like - you won't be able to use any of them with your printer.

Would a drawing help?

Yes, a drawing would certainly help. My biggest draw back right now is that I am not sure where on the printerboard I should be soldering my power to. I'm waiting on my rocker switch to come in so I can power the bad boy up and add some LEDs to the ACC terminal but that should be here tomorrow.

Do you mind helping me through this? I'm not the most electrically inclined person. I'm going to open my ATX power and count all the wires.. I seem to have a bunch more than this guy has. Thanks for the link, I need to watch it a second time and then I will ask more questions.

Absolutely, I'd be happy to help. I have an ATX power supply that was messed up (capacitor blew), and after getting the computer back up and running I decided to fix the old one and convert it to a bench power supply. I can take some pictures and show you what I did if it'll help you.

The number of wires doesn't really matter, because the colors are all connected to the same place - ie, all the yellow are connected at one point on the circuit board. You can desolder them and add your own thicker wire if you want, or just bundle them together. At this point you can probably cut all the tips off if you'd like - you won't be able to use any of them with your printer.

Would a drawing help?

There are a few different colored wires on your power supply.

Black is ground, yellow is +12v. You'll have multiples of each - the thicker the wire, the more current it will be able to carry (in other words, five wires soldered together will carry more than just one).

You'll need a way to turn the power supply on from standby - it doesn't turn on by itself. To do this you need to connect the single green wire to a black one. You can do this via a switch or solder them together.

The other wires can be cut off (just make sure you tape them up so they don't short anything out).

A video like this might help you out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2oSFpKh_Uw (Skip to 5:00)

Hope this helps
Josh

Do you mind helping me through this? I'm not the most electrically inclined person. I'm going to open my ATX power and count all the wires.. I seem to have a bunch more than this guy has. Thanks for the link, I need to watch it a second time and then I will ask more questions.

Black is ground, yellow is +12v. You'll have multiples of each - the thicker the wire, the more current it will be able to carry (in other words, five wires soldered together will carry more than just one).

You'll need a way to turn the power supply on from standby - it doesn't turn on by itself. To do this you need to connect the single green wire to a black one. You can do this via a switch or solder them together.

The other wires can be cut off (just make sure you tape them up so they don't short anything out).

A video like this might help you out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2oSFpKh_Uw (Skip to 5:00)

Hope this helps
Josh

You may have to do additional research to determine which lines to combine if you need more current than a single lead will provide. From what little I understand, each power supply has what is called a rail and each rail has a current limit. For example, let's say that one rail will give you five amperes at twelve volts, but you need ten. Combining two rails will give you that current level, simply by twisting/soldering/otherwise connecting those two leads together.

I no longer have the power supply, but one of my pc PSU units came with a data sheet detailing each connector and the specifications to cover the rail to which it was connected. Very useful information for your purposes.

Here's another useful and apparently comprehensive resource for your use:
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psunonpc/nonpc.html

The links are somewhat organized, including one that covers how the "standards" are not always applied to power supplies with respect to current available on specific rails. I'm sure you'll find some brain-numbing reading on this one, but also useful references.

Which of the connectors on this thing am I looking for? I have what appears to be a 20 pin with another 4 pin off to the side, then I also have a separate 4 pin with more 4 pins hanging off of it.

I'm in desperate need of some wiring help here. If it helps I'm wiring into the existing printerboard on my SD3.