Is it still worth building an adjustable bench type 5-10 amp PSU these days?

[Kiriakos-GR]

Basically your country and Greece haves some sort of a tie, there is many Greeks down there,
and I have work even with Australians locally.
We was working together for months and we had talk about everything.

I know all the little secret words about make an OZI to go mad. LOL
But I had never use it here, because I feel like a very good friend of Dave. 

About the financial problems, yes the cannon ball got me to.
From the start of the September your media will have plenty of videos from Greece,
some times you have to fight back the injustice by your naked hands.

 
 

[SgtRock]

Dear Kiriakos:
--Unfortunately and probably justly the USA will soon be facing the same situation. Too much month at the end of the money. But that is enough of that.

--It must be very beautiful where you live. Please post some pictures when you have the time. Best Regards
Clear Ether

[shebu18]

The title of the topic is very good. I am in process of building such a power supply. I use a ATX supply for the 12V and arround 20-30A(will not be necessary). A LM317 circuit where i put a big tranzistor which provides the amps if i need to go over 1,5A. The schematic was took out from the datasheet of the lm317. Currently the supply is done. I am working on the Voltmeter and Ammeter, both witch IC7107.

I think why not bouild one if you have all the parts around you? OK, th 7107 was not around me but the rest was. I do not need more than the 11,5V i get and i do not need to go below the 1,25V minimum, so for me is was worth.

[Conrad Hoffman]

Well, if you're a beginner you probably can't build a really nice PS, more likely a POS. If you know what you're doing you probably already have a PS or three.

It, like everything, comes down to time and money and parts. If you have time and parts, but little money, it makes sense to build  a good supply. It really should have both constant voltage and constant current modes. Power supplies lend themselves to scavenging, as so many things already contain suitable parts.

If money is easier for you to come by than time (you can always buy parts) it's probably best to look for a good commercial supply by a well known maker. That means HP or Kepco for used stuff. There are also some decent new supplies if you have the $$. Watch out for digitally controlled supplies with menus like the B&K. It's so cumbersome to simply turn the output on and off that it's a hazard to your projects. This is a case where switches and knobs make more sense.

I use some big Kepco supplies, one for plus, one for minus, but I was lucky to find them surplus. At work we use a 3-output Xantrex bench supply that's very nice. It would be the ideal home lab supply, but probably too pricey.