Power supply

[T3sl4]

Ah, I designed one of those once upon a time. The idea was to turn a regular 3.3-5-12V supply into an adjustable, current limited one:

http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms/Circuits_2008/Hi-amp_Regulated_Supply_2.gif

Compensation capacitors (not shown) are probably required across the op-amps. LM324 is suitable, and for the MOSFETs, you might use IRFZ34 or so. Big heatsinks.

Tim

 

[joem]

will this power supply work with a small gold deplating cell about the size of steve's cell in his video
it's only $5

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Yea it should. Don't try to do much material at one time.

 

[butcher]

This supply may not be much different from your car battery charger, or could be very different, without seeing design I cannot tell if it is a constant current and variable voltage supply or a variable current and constant current design, from the looks of the case I would assume it is not a switching power supply, but just a simple transformer, with bridge rectifier and capacitor filter, and maybe a possible regulator.

a lead acid 12 volt battery charger is constant voltage (usually 13.5 to 14 volt), and a variable current power supply, (which means its output voltage would stay 13.5 volts, but as the cells resistance changes the current draw will change.

I would also use some current limiting or current protection devise, to protect your power supply from short circuits, like a series lamp or fuse, cells can have varibles resistance all the down to none (a short) that can ruin a working power supply.