Old School Power Supply Build Pics.
So the chaos on the dinning room table there is the operational circuit after I got it all bread boarded. Note the toroidial transformer on the right and the big 18,000 uf caps up towards the center. In between is my high voltage bread board. I just got a bunch of binding posts and mounted them to a panel. I did not like the idea of hot 120v A/C flopping around.
The next pic is a close up of the circuit that controls the relays. Note the heat sink on the zener diode. In the end after much circuit tweakage it cooled down but by that time I had already done the heat sink and a little fan to keep the sucker cool.
Then there is the final assembled and installed supply. There are two toroids on this supply. I stacked them one on top of the other.
Finally there is the circuit with a parts list.
Warning, warning, warning, this electrical stuff will start fires and can kill you. OK, I feel better now. Seriously, be careful. 18,000 uf caps do some crazy stuff.
Why is this Old School? Well I chose to use relays to cut in the resistor that controls the in rush current. The higher tech methods are to use an active circuit with an SCR or a thermistor. The thermistor seems to be the component of choice for these unregulated supplies. But I didn't want any residual resistance hanging around so I went with the relays. I could not figure out the SCR until much later. Next time maybe.