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Now this is dealing with powered electrical equipment - i will not be held responsible if you injure yourself or others by using this guide.or damage to conponents. As with all electrical equipment take proper precautions and safety measures. While a normal PSU will probably not kill you, it will hurt like hell!
There comes a time in every modder's project where you will want to test lights, electronics and other electrical gear. The problem is that you need to have the PC assembled to do this right?
Wrong! You can actually turn on a power supply without the rest of the PC attached
When you look at a normal 20 or 24 pin motherboard plug, you will see a vast array or wires. The ones we want to pay attention to are the Green wire and generally any of the Black or Ground wires. This green wire is the Power On sense wire. These wires are essentially connected together when you hit the power button on the PC signalling the PSU to start up.
So, if you take a peice of wire and connect these two wires, the PSU will start up the same way, just without the rest of the PC, leaving you free to test your gear without possibly damaging your box.
You can of course be more elaborate and attatch a switch for a more permenent test PSU.
The same can be accomplished with a PSU tester, available online or at most PC stores. Many of these warn against leaving them plugged into the PSU for long periods of time and can get very hot, so beware before doing this.
Another thing to be aware of is that it is in fact bad for the PSU to be run without any load on them as well for a long time, so be sure to disconnect your solution as soon as you are finished testing your gear.
Keep in mind that a PSU produces 12v power, which can also be used with a variety of car accessories and the like.
