- Joined
- Mar 1, 2013
High wattage 1U PSUs have amazed me ever since I got to work with some in a server room. After I found one on Amazon for only $20, I decided to buy one in order to take apart.
It's the highest quality and most complex PSU I have ever taken apart! There's a UCC3895 full bridge controller, two UCC3818 PFC controllers (two phase PFC), a PIC, an EEPROM, some oddball "DNA 1006" ASIC (cryptographic anti counterfeiting measure?), and a Freescale chip. Output rectification is synchronous as expected for that power level, with 6 MOSFETs. The output transformer secondary seems to be made from stamped copper sheet, in a group of three in parallel. The output capacitors are strangely on a secondary board with some resistors and SOIC MOSFETs on them, presumably to quickly discharge them on power off and maybe as a minimum load to keep it stable.
As for how to use it, a jumper (or relay) from pin 33 to pin 36 will power it on and allow it to be used as-is as a very high power 12V power supply. You can use buck converters to get 5V and 3.3V for replacing a common ATX PSU or just run it as a secondary PSU. Tweak one of the pots inside to get it up to 12.8V and it would work nicely for using a car amp or other automotive electronics at home, or for stuff like Peltiers. (Albeit those with a Peltier setup big enough to require a 100A PSU would probably be better off just hacking a cheap A/C unit.) Add another rectifier and 24V is easy to get, and with a little rework, 48V is also possible. For the advanced electronics hobbyist, such a unit is near ideal for a compact gaming rig with a built in high power audio amplifier.
It's the highest quality and most complex PSU I have ever taken apart! There's a UCC3895 full bridge controller, two UCC3818 PFC controllers (two phase PFC), a PIC, an EEPROM, some oddball "DNA 1006" ASIC (cryptographic anti counterfeiting measure?), and a Freescale chip. Output rectification is synchronous as expected for that power level, with 6 MOSFETs. The output transformer secondary seems to be made from stamped copper sheet, in a group of three in parallel. The output capacitors are strangely on a secondary board with some resistors and SOIC MOSFETs on them, presumably to quickly discharge them on power off and maybe as a minimum load to keep it stable.
As for how to use it, a jumper (or relay) from pin 33 to pin 36 will power it on and allow it to be used as-is as a very high power 12V power supply. You can use buck converters to get 5V and 3.3V for replacing a common ATX PSU or just run it as a secondary PSU. Tweak one of the pots inside to get it up to 12.8V and it would work nicely for using a car amp or other automotive electronics at home, or for stuff like Peltiers. (Albeit those with a Peltier setup big enough to require a 100A PSU would probably be better off just hacking a cheap A/C unit.) Add another rectifier and 24V is easy to get, and with a little rework, 48V is also possible. For the advanced electronics hobbyist, such a unit is near ideal for a compact gaming rig with a built in high power audio amplifier.
