PC Power supply question

Hi All, New builder here.

I recently bought a metric Prusa Mendel kit from Canada. I added the Linear bearings to it as my plastic parts were not for the old style plastic bushings. My one major concern is for the power supply I recieved what looks like a standard PC power supply. I am not sure if this is what he intended to ship me, and I have gotten no real response from the seller on ebay, I have looked for a couple of weeks on all the wikis and on youtube, and have yet to find a method to convert this to 12 Volts that makes any sense. The wiki just has some poor pictures of wiring, and the youtube videos are not very explainatory. I am really concerned about doing something wrong and frying the ramps controller. In fact I have not even found any satisfactory documentation on how to hook power up to it. And every new resource I find, the printers have different parts, or are configured differently. Is this project worth finishing if I can find a way to power it, or am I better off just junking it? I would hate to throw 700 dollars invested away.

Any advice about power or any links to diagrams would be very helpful Thanks in advance.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2012 06:56AM by Von Nuemann.

I don't have a RAMPS, but you can power it from a PC power supply no problem. If you look at [reprap.org] and [reprap.org].

The basic steps are to wire green to black on the PSU connector to make it turn on with the power switch, then connect one or more of the +12V (yellow) and ground wires to the RAMPS.

For my board I take the 4 pin connector from the PSU and cut off the connector, strip the wires, and connect to screw clamp connector.

Thanks BobC, so as I understand it, that 4 pin connector has the 12 Volts needed to power it, and the Conversion I have seen of this transformer is basically away to get rid of all of the clutter and connectors that are not needed. Thanks a ton.. That is a start at least, I will put a voltometer to these and see if I can find where they would go to the 4 pins on the driver board.

Von Nuemann Wrote:
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> Thanks BobC, so as I understand it, that 4 pin
> connector has the 12 Volts needed to power it, and
> the Conversion I have seen of this transformer is
> basically away to get rid of all of the clutter
> and connectors that are not needed. Thanks a
> ton.. That is a start at least, I will put a
> voltometer to these and see if I can find where
> they would go to the 4 pins on the driver board.

Just use a piece of wire or something to short the green wire in the 20 or 24 pin connector to ground (one of the black wires). This will turn on the power supply. Then cut off the 4 pin CPU connector, it has two yellow and two black wires. Put these wires into the screw connector of the RAMPS, yellow to 12V and black to ground. That's all there is to it.

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Thanks Cameron, That helps a ton!!!!!!

You guys are awesome!

Looks like I have RAMPS 1.4. I plugged both sets of black/ yellow wires into the almost built printer, powered the ATX transformer on, and now I have a small board mount green LED blinking every second or so, SO looks like we have progress. Thanks a ton BobC and Cameron!

Von Nuemann Wrote:
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>Thanks a ton BobC and Cameron!

Not a problem at all. I enjoy helping people get into the wonderful world of 3D printing.

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