An Easy Peasy Portable Power Supply

Arguably the most important tool in one’s workshop, beyond a soldering iron and multimeter, is a variable power supply. These devices let you power and test a wide range of electronics, but for the most part they’re constrained to a bench. This, of course, makes them very reliable, but when you want to take one "on the road," creator “lonesoulsurfer” shows how to make a portable unit out of a AA battery holder, variable power/charging PCB, and a new or recycled rechargeable battery.

The heart of the module is this step-up power supply and charger module (available on eBay Australia or what appears to be a US listing), which could be also be useful for a wide variety of other projects. It features a small trimmer pot for adjustment, but a larger potentiometer was attached for this supply job, allowing ‘surfer to easily vary output on the fly. Here it’s charging a LiPo battery form an old laptop, although something from a phone or even an 18650 cell would work nicely as well.

Voltage is shown on a small numeric display, and hookups are via a par of banana jacks. The device can even be used as a voltmeter when not supplying power itself, making it quite a convenient all-in-one tool when you’re not at a proper lab. The project has a nice hacker/recycled aesthetic, and you can see more about the build in lonesoulsurfer's write-up.