The custom power supply in Electronics has a few basic components.  An old Dell PC power supply, a bunch of wires and connectors and a DC-DC buck/boost converter module to give us variable output.  That module was no longer working so I swapped it out for a new one.   The culprit for the module dying?  No idea.  Could have been a lot of things and it’s going to stay a mystery.

When installing the new module I had a 50-50 chance of getting the wires right for the direction the knob turned to change the voltage and this time, the odds were against me.  After prying the old module’s hot glued body off the side and desoldering and connecting up the new module it turns out I put the control wires in backwards and you turned it counterclockwise to increase.  Thought about leaving it that way for the comedy factor and decided against that.  A little wire swapping and lo! the knob works as it should.

The new module seems to be working just fine.  I haven’t priced out new DC-DC buck/boost modules in awhile and it turns they are now even lower in cost, under $2 each.  I ordered three as spares just to make sure for next time.