In my dabbling in hobby electronics, my primary power supply is the one that I built in my third semester of my undergraduate education. Building this supply was the primary task in Electronics Lab I (required at the time for all engineering students of every stripe) and it took around half the semester to complete. The power supply was purchased as a kit that had been designed in-house for this course, making it simple enough to understand while we assembled it. We soldered and screwed the supply together and then tediously measured its performance by the metrics we had been learning in class.
The supply itself is nothing fancy. Its a linear supply with three independent outputs, two of them variable and one fixed at five volts. I've had to replace the transformer in the past and the paint is chipping off in many places. It still works fine and I no intention of replacing it any time soon.
The biggest pain in using it, though, is that it contains no displays indicating the voltage of the variable outputs. Historically, I've used a voltage meter to set them. In searching for a simple digital voltmeter for another project, I realized I could use the same item to add displays to my power supply. For just a few bucks, I found the part on eBay and was able to graft them onto the supply.
There are a few more things I'd like to do in the future: add a 3.3V fixed output and add the current draw from each supply. I don't know if I have front panel real-estate but there is still plenty of room inside for such improvements. Adding it to the list of things I'll probably never get around to...
Trevor, your blog entries always make me smile because usually I have no idea what you are talking about and even if I do understand, I am amazed that you understand all this electrical/electronic stuff. If there is any genetic disposition to this, it must be hidden deep in your ancestral past. Instead I believe its your unique gifting from God.
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