Inside A Compact Intel 3000 W Water-Cooled Power Supply

February 22, 2026 by Maya Posch 10 Comments

Recently [ElecrArc240] got his paws on an Intel-branded 3 kW power supply that apparently had been designed as a reference PSU for servers. At 3 kW in such a compact package air cooling would be rather challenging, so it has a big water block sandwiched between the two beefy PCBs. In the full teardown and analysis video of the PSU we can see the many design decisions made to optimize efficiency and minimize losses to hit its 80 Plus Platinum rating.

For the power input you’d obviously need to provide it with 240 VAC at sufficient amps, which get converted into 12 VDC at a maximum of 250 A. This also highlights why 48 VDC is becoming more common in server applications, as the same amount of power would take only 62.5 A at that higher voltage.

The reverse-engineered schematic shows it using an interleaved totem-pole PFC design with 600 V-rated TI LMG3422 600V GaN FETs in the power stages. After the PFC section we find a phase-shifted full bridge rectifier with OnSemi’s SiC UF3C065030K4S Power N-Channel JFETs.

There were a few oddities in the design, such as the Kelvin source of the SiC JFET being tied into the source, which renders that feature useless. Sadly the performance of the PSU was not characterized before it was torn apart which might have provided some clues here.

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Inside A Fake Mean Well DIN-rail PSU

February 16, 2026 by Maya Posch 28 Comments

Looks just like the real deal in a dark cabinet. (Credit: Big Clive, YouTube)

These days, you can get fakes, bootlegs, and similar for just about anything. While a fake handbag isn’t such a big deal, in the case of a DIN-rail power supply, you’d better make sure that you got the real deal. Case in point, the fake ‘Mean Well’ DIN-rail PSU that [Big Clive] got his mitts on for a detailed analysis and teardown.

Even without taking a PSU apart there are often clear clues that you might be dealing with a fake, starting with the logo and the rest of the markings. Here it’s clear that the logo is designed to only appear to be the MW one at a quick glance, with the rest of the label being poorly copied English gibberish containing copious “unnecessary” double “quotes”.

So what do you get for £3-5 in this +12VDC, 1.25A rated PSU? Shockingly, the insides are actually quite decent and probably close to the genuine MW, with basic noise filtering, proper isolation, and apparently a real class-Y safety capacitor. Similarly, the chosen DK124 control IC is more than capable of the task, with a good circuit for the adjustable voltage control.

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Build A High Voltage Supply For Vacuum Tube Work

November 25, 2025 by Lewin Day 12 Comments

If you work on simple digital projects, just about any bench supply will offer the voltage and current you’re looking for. However, if you’re working with valves, you’ll often find yourself needing much higher voltages that can be tricky to source. [Chappy Happy] has shared a design for a simple HV power supply that should prove useful to vacuum tube enthusiasts.

The build is fairly basic in nature, lacing together some commonly available parts to generate the necessary voltages for working with common vacuum tubes from a 12 volt DC input. Inside the supply is a UC3843A DC boost converter, set up to output high voltage up to around 300 volts DC, with a ripple filter added for good measure. The output can be adjusted with a knob, with a voltmeter on the front panel. There’s also a 12-volt output, and a LM2596 step down converter to produce 6.3 volts for the filament supply. The whole project is built in an old Heathkit project box, and he demonstrates the supply with a simple single-tube amplifier.

If you find yourself regularly whipping up tube circuits, you might like to have something like this on your workbench. Or, you might even consider cooking up your own tubes from scratch if you’re more adventurous like that. Video after the break.

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BenchVolt PD: USB PD Meets Benchtop Precision

October 10, 2025 by Matt Varian 43 Comments

USB power has become ubiquitous — everything from phones to laptops all use it — so why not your lab bench? This is what [EEEngineer4Ever] set out to do with the BenchVolt PD USB adjustable bench power supply. This is more than just a simple breakout for standard USB PD voltages, mind you; with adjustable voltages, SCPI support, and much more.

The case is made of laser-cut acrylic, mounted to an aluminum base, not only providing a weighted base but also helping with dissipating heat when pulling the 100 W this is capable of supplying. Inside the clear exterior, not only do you get to peek at all the circuitry but there is also a bright 1.9-inch TFT screen showing the voltage, current, and wattage of the various outputs. There is a knob that can adjust the variable voltage output and navigate through the menu. Control isn’t limited to the knob, mind you; there also is a Python desktop application to make it easy changing the settings and to open up the possibility to integrate its control alongside other automated test equipment.

There are five voltage outputs in this supply: three fixed ones—1.8 V, 2.5 V, and 3.3 V—and two adjustable ones: 0.5-5 V and 2.5-32 V. All five of these outputs are capable of up to 3 A. There are also a variety of waveforms that can be output, blurring the lines between power supply and function generator. While the BenchVolt PD will be open-sourced, [EEEngineer4Ever] will soon be releasing it over on CrowdSupply for those interested in one without building one themselves. We are big fans of USB PD gear, so be sure to check out some other USB PD projects we’ve featured.

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Laptop Brick Is Brought Back From The Brink

June 14, 2025 by Al Williams 9 Comments

We’ve all been there. [Kasyan TV] had a universal adapter for a used laptop, and though it worked for a long time, it finally failed. Can it be fixed? Of course, it can, but it is up to you if it is worth it or not. You can find [Kasyan’s] teardown and repair in the video below.

Inside the unit, there were a surprising number of components crammed into a small area. The brick also had power factor correction. The first step, of course, was to map out the actual circuit topology.

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Turning Down The Noise On SMPS

March 17, 2025 by Bryan Cockfield 13 Comments

On paper, electricity behaves in easy-to-understand, predictable ways. That’s mostly because the wires on the page have zero resistance and the switching times are actually zero, whereas in real life neither of these things are true. That’s what makes things like switch-mode power supplies (SMPS) difficult to build and troubleshoot. Switching inductors and capacitors tens or hundreds of thousands of times a second (or more) causes some these difficulties to arise when these devices are built in the real world. [FesZ Electronis] takes a deep dive into some of the reasons these difficulties come up in this video.

The first piece of electronics that can generate noise in an SMPS are the rectifier diodes. These have a certain amount of non-ideal capacitance as well as which causes a phenomenon called reverse current, but this can be managed by proper component choice to somewhat to limit noise.

The other major piece of silicon in power supplies like this that drives noise are the switching transistors. Since the noise is generally caused by the switching itself, there is a lot that can be done here to help limit it. One thing is to slow down the amount of time it takes to transition between states, limiting the transients that form as a result of making and breaking connections rapidly. The other, similar to selecting diodes, is to select transistors that have properties (specifically relating to inherent capacitances) that will limit noise generation in applications like this.

Of course there is a lot more information as well as charts and graphs in [FesZ]’s video. He’s become well-known for deep dives into practical electrical engineering topics like these for a while now. We especially like his videos about impedance matching as well as a more recent video where he models a photovoltaic solar panel in SPICE.

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No Frills PCB Brings USB-C Power To The Breadboard

January 6, 2025 by Tom Nardi 30 Comments

At this point, many of us have gone all-in on USB-C. It’s gotten to the point that when you occasionally run across a gadget that doesn’t support being powered USB-C, the whole experience seems somewhat ridiculous. If 90% of your devices using the same power supply, that last 10% starts feeling very antiquated.

So why should your breadboard be any different? [Axiometa] has recently unveiled a simple PCB that will plug into a standard solderless breadboard to provide 3.3 and 5 VDC when connected to a USB-C power supply. The device is going to start a crowdfunding campaign soon if you want to buy a completed one — but with the design files and Bill of Materials already up on GitHub, nothing stops you from spinning up your own version today.

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