Cool Stuff

my father bought this power supply kit off of Amazon. over Thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to solder and construct it. it came with 2 of them, which my father didn’t realize, but it was all good. besides, it gave me a chance to refine my soldering skills again over winter break. he showed me the schematic and explained the different components and their configurations. it was a pretty fun experience overall, and I'm very grateful for my father's teaching and guidance. :D

LM317

voltage regulator used to maintain the output voltage.

• screwed onto a heatsink to help dissipate heat.

transformer

used to change AC voltage levels.

• step-up increases voltage level.
• step-down decreases voltage level.
• ex: charging brick for your phone contains a transformer to convert from high AC voltage to low DC voltage.
  • note: transformers themselves don’t directly convert from AC to DC. this conversion is done using other components.

capacitors

used to store electrical energy.

• groups of them are configured for filtering to reduce noise from miniscule changes in voltage.

knob

allows user to adjust output voltage.

digital display

used to view output voltage value.

here are some photos:

bottom left: used to light up a yellow led.
bottom right: one is used to power a multimeter. the other is used to power a 555 piano.