A DIY lab power supply? I actually built a "laboratory power supply" myself. Actually, I only put standard components together - but at least there was a little personal contribution.

What did I want to achieve:

• two fixed voltages (5V, 12V)
• for the 5V I wanted to have voltage and current display
• variable voltage output up to approx. 40V with corresponding voltage and current display, but in any case with adjustable current limitation
• USB ports with 5V power supply, but also with enough "power" behind it

Then I selected the following components:

Switching power supply with two voltages: Meanwell RD-50A (5V/6A, 12V/3A, 54W). Available e.g. here on eBay. The 12V go directly to banana jacks on the front panel of the lab power supply.

The 5V only go via a meter (available e.g. here on eBay) and then to both banana sockets and two USB sockets on the front panel of the laboratory power supply. The USB sockets (available e.g.  here at Amazon) all be connected to 5V with adapters  (also available at Amazon).

I used the following module for the variable power supply with current limitation: JOY-IT DPS5005 (available e.g. here on eBay).

This is fed via another switching power supply Meanwell LRS-150 48 (48V/150W). The JOY-IT module then delivers about 90% of the input voltage at the output, i.e. max. about 43V here.

A USB module is connected to the DPS5005 (DPS-5015, available e.g. here on eBay), which can be used to make the settings for the switching power supply module from the PC.

This USB port goes to the outside via two adapters Micro-USB to USB A (available e.g. here at Amazon) and then USB-A to USB-B (available e.g. here on eBay).

For the case I used a Bopla table case from Conrad Electronics. That fits perfectly - a bit tight, but fits!

The housing comes without a front and rear panel - but they have to be assembled to fit anyway.

Of course, a power supply jack is required as additional part, like this one here on eBay incl. a fuse and 2-pole switch. To be on the safe side, I added a 40mm fan to the rear wall. which is connected to 12V via a switch that can be switched off.

Being a metalworking dyslexic, I made the front panels (and back panel) in wood for now.

When everything was satisfactory, I had the front panels manufactured by a service provider (Schaeffer). They offer nice software, the Front Panel Designer, with which you can configure the front panels according to your wishes and order them straight away.

It wasn't cheap - but, hey...

Of course, in the end the labels didn't match 100%, but that's negligible (at least for me). Overall, I like the result - and so far it works 🙂

A DIY lab power supply: Don't ask for the total price 🙂

You could have bought a ready-made power supply for that!

...but where's the fun in that?