A microcontroller-based DC power supply

Abstract

These days, majority of electronic devices work on DC power source, so every electronics laboratory needs a powerful regulated bench supply and there is a requirement of a reliable and customised power supply. The idea presented here is to build a DC microcontroller based power supply. In the model described here a microcontroller monitors the actual and desired current and voltage settings. The Power Supply is flexible enough to meet different user requirements. This system is implemented by a differential control loop and is able to recognize faults, when the current limit is exceeded, and take corrective actions to prevent any permanent damage to the system or to the load. The voltage and current settings are adjustable digitally using four buttons, two for the voltage and two for the current. These provide a resolution of 1mV in voltage and 10mA in current. The target and the actual measured values of the current and voltage are shown on an LCD. Such a project involves both the hardware and software implementation.