A few weeks ago I reignited my electronics hobby by purchasing a couple of “put it together kits” that were on clearance at RadioShack. The first kit I tackled was the Velleman K8048 PIC Programmer & Experiment Board.

Velleman K8048 PIC Programmer & Experiment

I’ve played with microcontrollers/PICs in the past, specifically the Parallax BASIC Stamp 2.

Its an exxcellent kit for the novice at a reasonable price.

Parrallex BASIC Stamp Activity Kit

Soldering the components on the Velleman K8048 board isn’t that difficult. If you don’t have experience soldering I highly recommend that you watch a few YouTube videos and practice with a few wires.

TIP: Solder likes to flow toward the hottest area.

After I had completed the kit I went to my drawer of power supplies to locate a 12v unregulated or 15v regulated DC output power supply. Out of the 20 or so power supplies none of them met the requirements. I figured I could either buy a new one or have some fun in building a variable output power supply.

My next posting will be part one of several covering my experiences with designing and building my power supply.