HP DPS-800GB Power Supply Breakout Board

ukewarrior

ukewarrior

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With the advent of bitcoin mining and Drone Battery charging, a large interest has developed in high amp 12V power supplies.

As an alternative to the ubiquitous Meanwell supplies, folks have been repurposing super high quality Server power supplies.
Why? Because they are inexpensive for the Watts produced.
These 'hot pluggable' supplies from the folks at HP (and others) are designed to run for many years and are manufactured in the 100's of thousands of units. Quality, Space and Efficiency are of the utmost in the design of these supplies.
However, they are not general purpose and do not come with a terminal strip across the back for direct wire connection.
Therefore, you can find various breakout boards to connect to these proprietary designs.

You can find these supplies, used, on ebay and other sites. Or you may be like me and get them for free when servers are retired from use.
You'd be surprised how many folks get these for free by talking to their IT department.
(I do NOT sell these supplies)

The particular model I built a breakout board for is the HP DPS-800GB Power Supply.
This is an extremely popular and numerous supply.
It can run off either 120V or 240V AC.
Its basically a 12V supply, but does produce 4 different voltages: (at 240V AC these numbers go up)
+12v at 65A (780Watts) ... that is NOT a typo.
+5V at 2A
+3.3V at 8A
-12v at 300ma
It's also amazingly small for the power: 230mm x 88mm x 54mm.

I produced these for my own use. I have more than I need.
If you want a bare PCB, they are $2. PM me if interested.
I have not load tested these. So, I don't know if you could really pull all 65A through this board or not.

As a reference, here is what someone else has created for this same supply:
http://www.gigampz.com/store/p1/Gigampz_for_DPS-800GBA_%28Special_Order%29.html
My solution is way cheaper. The parts cost about $8. ( A BOM is listed below the pictures)

Click to enlarge the pictures of my breakout:
Hp power supply breakout #1.jpg
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Hp power supply breakout #2.jpg
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BOM

The Bill of Materials is really simple.
There is the edge connector, Terminal connectors, LEDs, resistors and a switch.
Everything is optional except the edge connector.

The trick with this supply is that it won't turn on the +12V power rail until two of its output pins are shorted together.
This is done with the switch in the upper left hand corner. Of course, you can also just solder a permanent jumper across the holes and forget about the switch or use something more simple like a pin header with a jumper plug. The holes are spaced at the common 2.54mm distance.

The resistor values are determined on the LEDs you use and will vary on the LED and the voltage driving it. There are many online calculators to use to determine appropriate values. All resistors are 1/4W. (tayda part: A-2200; for example)

The main terminal blocks are on 5mm spacings. (tayda part: A-4569) qty: 6
The small terminal blocks are on 3.5mm spacings. (tayda part: A-662) qty: 3
The LEDs have a footprint suitable for a 3mm LED. Any color will do. I use LEDs from light strings! (tayda part: A-261) NOTE: pick different colors!
The switch can be anything with a 2.54 pin pitch. Has to be narrow. (tayda part: A-5102) (Save money with a pin header and a jumper)

Details:

The edge connector is 2x32 pin, right hand, through hole, with a 2.54mm hole spacing.
Specifically an FCI 10053363-200LF was used in the pictures.
(I know there are other lower cost alternatives. I have found generics to this on ebay for about 1/4 the price off mouser, BUT have not tried any of them.

Most folks have what they need to build this in their parts box with the exception of the FCI connector.
PM me if you need more info.
 
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That’s awesome! Nice work. I totally agree with your view of server power supplies. I finally saw the light about these!
 
My other hobbies include anything radio controlled. In the R/C world, server power supplies are used quite often. Especially since lithium polymer batteries are the norm for a lot of R/C products. I wondered why people in this hobby had not used them as often. I chalked it up to the size being the issue. Mean well power supplies tuck very nicely into CG boxes.
Nonetheless, very nice product. I was thinking of building something similar for the 2850 power supply that I got from one of our IT guys at work. I asked him and he had an old server in his garage collecting dust. Score!!
 
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rstehle said:
Very Cool! What in the heck makes their worth $49.99?
Click to expand...

There is logic builtin that you could do remote monitoring, which adds to the cost. I don't think it adds THAT much though.

I bought a 750 watt PS off Amazon last year and ran some of my lights off it this past year. It worked great! The only problem is now that bitcoin is as big as it is the PS cost more too! I paid $16 and the same one runs for $22, still not a bad price for a PS that is 750 watts and like said before, designed to run all the time.

I drilled my PS and soldered on terminals that are rated at 30 amps. I then used liquid electrical tape to protect what was still exposed. I really like the break-out board as far as not needing to hack a PS (I needed to add a resistor to trick mine to be on), but I wanted to take up less room.

0909172302_HDR.jpg 1121170626b.jpg
 
Well....

The parts are pretty simple. The resistors and LEDs cost about 20 cents. (tayda electronics)
The main black connector is about $8 if you buy at mouser, but off aliexpress you can get them for about $2.
Then there are 6, 5mm, two terminal connectors. These are about 15 cents each for a total of 90 cents. (tayda electronics)

The big cost variable is the big black edge connector. If you look around, you could actually build this for about $4 in parts.
 
Where do you find the printed circuit board? On the last parts you mention, do you have parts number so I can find these parts the websites.
 
If you look in post number one at the bottom is the BOM and you will see that I also have PCPs for sale
MrTeaIoT said:
Where do you find the printed circuit board? On the last parts you mention, do you have parts number so I can find these parts the websites.
Click to expand...
 
Have anyone try to run these with home 240v AC such as using Dryer plug for test? How long have this PSU use in the Server before retired them? I like to get one but afraid would not last long since pass their warranty time. How long can one of these last?
 
10+ years is not an unreasonable expectation for expected life.
The cooling fans are the item most likely to fail with age.
Otherwise, they may very well last to be 15-20 years old.
Afterall, how old are some other electrical items you own?
Most are used in pristine conditions and are extremely well made.
Most were used 4-6 years when retired.
MrTeaIoT said:
Have anyone try to run these with home 240v AC such as using Dryer plug for test? How long have this PSU use in the Server before retired them? I like to get one but afraid would not last long since pass their warranty time. How long can one of these last?
Click to expand...
 
It also depends where they were used. These are really high quality power supplies designed to be run 24/7 at pretty high loads. If it was used to its peak in a server room that is pretty dusty then they might not last as long, but if not I suspect they will last years in this hobby. Especially using this board design if one goes just unplug it and plug in the new one. As I posted above I actually drilled holes and soldered mine. I think these supplies are great and trust it to get a lot of use out of it.
 
Good to hear that. I will get a few and using the breakout board so I can swap them if needed. Have you test the maximum output of the power and how many pixels can it power? Does these small unit can actually produce the max of 850 watts power as specs? Why this unit use 0.3A on standby without any usage?
 
It works with the HP blue label 460W unit. I just called them and they confirmed which of their products with the power supplies I had. The were very responsive. YMMV

T
 
I suggest you get One and test it out.
I don't have any real world experience with these for pixels yet.
MrTeaIoT said:
Good to hear that. I will get a few and using the breakout board so I can swap them if needed. Have you test the maximum output of the power and how many pixels can it power? Does these small unit can actually produce the max of 850 watts power as specs? Why this unit use 0.3A on standby without any usage?
Click to expand...
 
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