Power supply unit, variable triple output

Today I finished the project, which I started a few months ago. Three channel desktop power supply with the adjustable output voltage. In the future, I would like to add control of the current limit, but I will talk about it on another occasion.

I used two adapters, from older laptops to convert AC voltage to DC. One gives 15V DC output (a little strange output, the laptop mostly uses 19V DC, but that’s what I had, so I wanted to use it) and the other gives 19V DC.

Adapter from an old laptop, AC-DC converter
Further on, I used DC to DC (HW-411) modules purchased on eBay and 10-turn potentiometers for voltage regulation from 1.25V to 13.5V. The HW-411 is a DC-DC module with an integrated LM2596 circuit and comes with a built-in trimmer potentiometer for adjusting the output voltage. To install a 10-turn potentiometer, remove the trimmer potentiometer so that we can install a 10-turn potentiometer.
HW-411 (LM2596) DC-DC Module and 10-Turn Potentiometer
So I used three such modules and placed them on the front panel together with the panel meters, the binding post and the switch to power ON or OFF.
This is how it looks from the inside:
And that would be it, I wanted to show you how you can easily do this yourself with little effort and use old devices that usually collect dust in many homes or end up in the garbage and can still be useful.
If you choose to do this kind of device yourself, do so at your own risk. Be careful, such a device is connected to mains voltage, which can be very dangerous if you are not an expert.
All comments are welcome, thank you for visiting!

Peak voltage detector for a sine wave generator

I recently built a 1kHz sine waveform generator, the device works great, has adjustable amplitude and is suitable for testing audio amplifiers and for repairing them. So I thought it would be nice if I could install a small panel voltmeter to display the output voltage.

Through eBay, I bought five voltmeters and two of them stopped working, so I decided to investigate what happened to them and try to install one of them into the sine waveform generator.
The 3.6V voltage regulator on the voltmeter itself was blown. So I removed the voltage regulator and instead of its output pin, I connected the wire to which I connected the 3.6V voltage and the voltmeter woke up.
But that’s not all, to use this kind of voltmeter to measure the voltage of the sine wave, the voltage needs to be rectified into the DC.
The best way to do this is by making a peak voltage detector, we can do this with uA741.
Peak voltage detector and 3.6V voltage regulator
The device works fine but has a disadvantage, it only shows a positive peak voltage so that the voltage displayed on the voltmeter. For now, I will leave the device as it is, but in the future, I plan to make a device that will spin the peak voltage of the positive and negative peak.
All comments are welcome, Thank’s for visiting!

Arduino, two channel voltmeter with thermometer

This is my new Arduino project, a two-channel voltmeter with a thermometer.
This device uses Arduino’s 10-bit analog-to-digital converter, software oversampled to 12-bit and every four measurements are added to the average value. This measured value is printed on the display every 300 milliseconds.

The scheme is not professionally and aesthetically drawn, I apologize in advance if it is unknowingly unreadable. So I will try to explain how the device works and where the input signal goes.
The measured voltage is applied to the input CH1 + and CH1 terminals. There are 5 resistors at the input, giving us a ratio of 10/1, which allows us to measure 40VDC voltages. The output of the voltage divide leads to the filter capacitor and protection diodes, and then to the Arduino A1 pin to be able to convert to digital format and print in the display. The same goes for channel two.
For the voltage reference, I used the TL431, which is set to give 4.096 VDC voltage and is connected to the Arduino AREF pin.
Temperature measurement was performed by a thermistor. The resistor and thermistor that are connected to the series are a voltage divider with the variable output voltage. The output is connected to the Arduino A0 pin to convert the analog value into a digital format.
The OLED display is simply connected to + 5V and GND, and signing lines SDA and SCL, to the appropriate Arduino pin.
Arduino sketch for this two-channel Voltmeter
// *********************************************************
// Program:   two chanel voltmeter with thermometer
// Date:      01/09/2018
// Version:   1.0
// Author:    Elvis Baketa
// Description: 
// *********************************************************

#include <Arduino.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <U8g2lib.h>

// WHITE OLED LCD 0.96" 128X64 I2C
U8G2_SSD1306_128X64_NONAME_F_HW_I2C u8g2(U8G2_R0, /* reset=*/ U8X8_PIN_NONE);

unsigned long startTime;
unsigned long finishTime;

int updateDisplay = 0;
int samples = 16;
float resolution = 4096.0;
float voltageReference = 4.096;
float seriesResistor = 47000.00;

int analogValueCH0[16];
int analogValueCH1[16];
int analogValueCH2[16];
unsigned int averageAnalogValueCH0;
unsigned int averageAnalogValueCH1;
unsigned int averageAnalogValueCH2;
float voltageCH0 = 0.000;
float voltageCH1 = 0.000;
float voltageCH2 = 0.000;
float averageVoltageCH1 = 0.000;
float averageVoltageCH2 = 0.000;

float resistance = 0.000;
float temperature = 0.000;
float averageTemperature = 0.000;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  analogReference(EXTERNAL);
  u8g2.begin();
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  updateDisplay++;
  
  // read chanel one
  for(int i = 0; i < samples; i++) {
    analogValueCH0[i] = analogRead(A0);
    delay(1);
  }
  for(int l = 0; l < samples; l++) {
    averageAnalogValueCH0 += analogValueCH0[l];
  }
  averageAnalogValueCH0 /= 4;
  voltageCH0 = averageAnalogValueCH0 * (voltageReference / resolution);
  averageAnalogValueCH0 = 0;
  // convert volts to resistance
  resistance = voltageReference / voltageCH0 - 1;
  resistance = 1 / resistance;
  resistance = seriesResistor * resistance;
  // convert resistance to temperature in Kelvin
  temperature = log(resistance / seriesResistor);
  temperature = temperature * (1 / float(3435));
  temperature = temperature + (1 / (25 + 273.15));
  temperature = 1 / temperature;
  // convert Kelvin to Celsius
  // T(°C) = T(°K) - 273.15
  temperature = temperature - 273.15;
  averageTemperature += temperature;
  
  // read chanel two
  for(int j = 0; j < samples; j++) {
    analogValueCH1[j] = analogRead(A1);
    delay(1);
  }
  for(int m = 0; m < samples; m++) {
    averageAnalogValueCH1 += analogValueCH1[m];
  }
  averageAnalogValueCH1 /= 4;
  voltageCH1 = averageAnalogValueCH1 * (voltageReference / resolution);
  voltageCH1 *= 10;
  averageVoltageCH1 += voltageCH1;
  averageAnalogValueCH1 = 0;
  
  // read chanel three
  for(int k = 0; k < samples; k++) {
    analogValueCH2[k] = analogRead(A2);
    delay(1);
  }
  for(int n = 0; n < samples; n++) {
    averageAnalogValueCH2 += analogValueCH2[n];
  }
  averageAnalogValueCH2 /= 4;
  voltageCH2 = averageAnalogValueCH2 * (voltageReference / resolution);
  voltageCH2 *= 10;
  averageVoltageCH2 += voltageCH2;
  averageAnalogValueCH2 = 0;

  if(updateDisplay > 4) {
    // display data
    u8g2.clearBuffer();
    u8g2.setFont(u8g2_font_profont22_tf);
    averageTemperature /= updateDisplay;
    u8g2.setCursor(0, 16);
    u8g2.print("T ");
    u8g2.print(averageTemperature);
    u8g2.print(char(176));
    u8g2.print("C");
    averageVoltageCH1 /= updateDisplay;
    u8g2.setCursor(0, 32);
    u8g2.print("CH1 ");
    u8g2.print(averageVoltageCH1);
    u8g2.print("V");
    averageVoltageCH2 /= updateDisplay;
    u8g2.setCursor(0, 48);
    u8g2.print("CH2 ");
    u8g2.print(averageVoltageCH2);
    u8g2.print("V");
    u8g2.setCursor(0, 64);
    finishTime = millis() - startTime;
    u8g2.print(finishTime);
    u8g2.print(" ms");
    u8g2.sendBuffer();
    averageTemperature = 0.000;
    averageVoltageCH1 = 0.000;
    averageVoltageCH2 = 0.000;
    updateDisplay = 0;
    startTime = millis();
  }
}
Here you can download Arduino sketch and Eagle PCB files to make this device.
All comments are welcome, Thank’s for visiting!