Monday, 26 December 2016

power supply - What would happen if I connect two different DC voltage sources in parallel?


I have a computer power supply that I'm hacking together as a bench supply. For this particular model to power on, I need a minimum load across both +5V and +12V.


"Easy," I thought, "I'll just connect both +5 and +12 to my power resistor!" And it worked, but then I started thinking, what does it mean to have these two different voltages connected in parallel? If the voltages were the same, then I would be increasing current. But what about different voltages?


Also, what if I connected +5 and +12 in series, and then put a load on that? The equivalent voltage would be +17V; what would be the difference between that and parallel?


Or am I going about this the wrong way; should I put a separate resistor on each rail? It seems like I can do better than that.




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