Looking for ideas/uses

[soundinvst]

I have been scraping out some medical equipment and have about 20 of each :

1:1 torridal isolation transformer
12v linear power supply
24v linear power supply
serial microprocessor
fused, filtered AC power cable connector
medical/hospital grade power cable
12v case fan
keyed power switch/lock
misc. fuse holders, breakers, wiring harness

Also, some items not pictured:

Pentium III XP based computer
15" touch monitor
circuitry to operate various 5v solenoid latches
hall effect sensors on, or near latches

I have been looking at plans for utilizing an isolation transformer for test bench setup. I was wondering about the linear power supplies for that purpose as well (12v & 24v). I have seen some conversions of PC power supplies for the test bench. I have some of those to work with as well. Would the linear power supplies be good for incorporating in some form of amplification? They are supposed to be low noise, although not the most energy efficient. I look forward to your input.

[Mick Bailey]

The isolation transformer would be good for working on SMPS circuits and is pretty much essential.

The linear supplies are useful and can be made adjustable by using a variable regulator, or use fixed regualtors to give 3.3v, 5v (digital), 6.3v (tube heater), 9v (stomp boxes), 12v, 15v, 24v (relay) outputs.

Ideally for a bench supply you want +/- 15v to power op-amp circuits. You may be able to rig this up. 12vac is also useful for Line 6 products.

As for amplification, 24v would power a chip amp.

[loudthud]

Those linear power supplys typically have lots of overhead because they can provide full output at 105/210VAC. So you can get much more Voltage if you just run them unregulated. Something like 35V out of the transformer for a 24V regulated supply. Many use a Full Wave CT rectifier configuration so you may be able to get twice the Voltage with a Full Wave Bridge.

[soundinvst]

Thanks for the replies! These do indeed use full-wave center-tapped rectification with positive and negative output terminals. What would be be best and easiest way to convert one to 18v? They have a "voltage adjust" trim pot but it is only +/-5% of the rated output. I was thinking of putting a 430 ohm 1W resistor in series with the 1.32k ohm load until I read about the overhead I am likely to get.