Get a LiPo Charger Power Supply cheaply – 1000W Server PSU

by Oscar

Ben Joslin shared his project with us, where he turned his powerful computer/server PSU into a LiPo chargers power supply, which saved him a lot of money.

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Check out another DIY Charger PSU project we recently covered.

Make your own 1000W DC charger power supply

Recently, my power supply decided to give up and caught fire. It was fairly expensive and as the company i bought it from disappeared from the face of the earth, i started shopping around.

I was quite surprised that there weren’t many available at a reasonable price or those that were cheap, would probably break under the pressure i put them under. If you parallel charge like i do, it’s quite easy to get up to charge currents of 15 amps or more and an 80 watt PSU simply won’t cut it.

I had seen many computer bench power supply mods before but wanted something with a bit more punch to really make proper use of my icharger 208b (350W). I found cheap, small and powerful server power supplies. They are designed for high performance and use high quality components.

I decided on modifying an HP D800 server power supply which i purchased for £15 with free delivery on eBay. It is a 1000w power supply capable of providing 82 amps of continuous current at 12 volts.

HP D800 psu server power supply for lipo charger ebay

Parts Used

The other parts I used were:

  • Power connectors of your choice e.g banana sockets, female bullets or whatever suits the dc input of your charger
  • Small wire for using as jumper connectors
  • Solder and flux
  • Tools: soldering iron, phillips screw driver

Steps

The first step is to open the power supply. Make sure it is unplugged and you have left it unplugged for a couple of hours to discharge the capacitors.

Unscrew the screws on the top of the case.

HP D800 psu server power supply for lipo charger screw location

Unscrew the screws on the side.

HP D800 psu server power supply for lipo charger screw location open case

Release the mains kettle lead connector and unscrew the 4 board retaining screws.

HP D800 psu server power supply for lipo charger soldering

Turn the power supply upside down and lift up the base to expose the base of the circuit board.

Solder the jumper wires as shown below. This will allow the supply to output 12v whilst not connected to a server. If your power supply can take 14v, you can join the points marked (B) with a 2.8k resistor which will increase the output voltage to 13.8v. This will only work on this particular model. This is the maximum this supply with output before the voltage protection circuit kicks in and turns the unit off. Make sure your connections are neat and wont short with the case.

Reassemble the supply and prepare to add the power connectors. Flux the two pads on the top and bottom. I slotted my power connectors and soldered both sides to ensure a strong connection. The positive side of the unit is red and negative is the black side. Be sure to only use the pads shown here.

HP D800 psu server power supply for lipo charger connector pads

Put some large heat shrink over the positive terminals or liquid tape if you have it. This will help ensure you don’t short it when plugging in the leads to the sockets.

Plug the supply in and turn it on. The green LED on the rear should light up. You know have a very quiet and powerful power supply.

HP D800 psu server power supply for lipo charger battery

There are many, many mods similar to this and information on those can be found from a google search.

Safety Warning: this DIY hack is for people with advanced electronic/electrical skills only. You are doing this project at your own risk.

Author : Ben Joslin Bio: Hates the term "drone", and I don't wear ladies underwear...

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20 comments

Sergio Vial 1st April 2019 - 5:58 pm

Dear Oscar; what amazng idea for have a good and reliable super powerful PS. I already have the HP DPS-1200FB-1 A . My question is, may I make the same increase in voltage output with this PS?.

Thank you very much for your assistance and advise, I admire you for your incredible knowledge and the well done tutorials.

Best regards

Sergio Vial from far away Chile

Reply
Joe O 30th January 2019 - 10:59 am

Wow this worked great. Very small connections to solder. Got it to work! Thanks. 30 dollar power supply.

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Andrew 16th August 2018 - 12:58 pm

Could anyone tell if a Dell PSU would work the same? I am an IT tech and have access to these items but all we have is Dell Servers. If someone could confirm that would be great!

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Oscar 20th August 2018 - 6:05 pm

I don’t see a problem if power/voltage/current rating match the application :)

Reply
david roundtree 20th February 2018 - 7:47 pm

looking for delta dps700eb and tdps1350 conversion and to increase the voltage 13.8 or 14.5 if possible

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oz 16th December 2017 - 1:01 pm

There is no need to open the power supply to do the jumpers.
rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19644011&postcount=958

If running these off 110 to 120V AC, they are only 70A (~850W), not 1000W.

Reply
david roundtree 21st February 2018 - 7:05 pm

750 wanna get 14.5 volts ana the tdps1350 trying to get it as high as15volts I need the wiring pinout for these unit

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adil 21st July 2017 - 12:54 am

i also figured out about the hp server 750 watt redundant power supply that we can get 13.85volts easily…
i hope it will help you guys..watch the video and share with other friends..im leaving an link below..
youtu.be/4P1-lpzYV1Y

Reply
Daniel l Lawrence 9th July 2017 - 2:58 pm

Does anyone know if the jumper pins are the same on this model 512327-B21. Thanks in advance for any help

amazon.com/gp/product/B0025B0FAW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Reply
Damian 30th January 2017 - 10:25 am

What was the reason for using a link wire ‘B’ in the photo, when you mention it requires a resistor to operate at the higher voltage?

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G_lux 10th November 2016 - 2:56 am

I attempted this conversion but I ran into a small issue .

As soon as I plug it in I get the green light to turn on for 1/2 a second. I also get 12v for that split second. After that the green light turns off and the left fan turns on and stays on. After that point I do not get any voltage output. Any ideas?

Reply
Wigglesdetroitfpv 4th December 2016 - 5:24 pm

I had that happen on a bad psu that I attempted to use. Is the one you are trying to convert from an old computer that you forgot had a bad psu like I did? Lol

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JimK 9th July 2016 - 8:06 pm

My charger will accept a max of 18v, any suggestions other than parallel supplies?

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Vincent 2r2b 4th July 2016 - 5:43 pm

I did mine with two HP PSU with this usefull link: http://www.tjinguytech.com/my-projects/diy-24v-47a
My input is 1000W @24V on my Powerlab6 and I am really happy with my build.

Reply
Alex 3rd July 2016 - 2:30 am

When I did a server PSU conversion I installed EC5 connectors like the FMA Direct / Cellpro / Powerlab stuff comes with. None of my models use EC5 and EC5 also does not match the charger’s output connections. Because of this using EC5 eliminates the reverse-polarity risk while also eliminating the “battery connected directly to PSU” possibility…

Reply
Glouferu 20th June 2016 - 1:45 pm

Powerlab6 with this Server PSU is a good combo :)

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Eike 19th June 2016 - 10:46 am

Can you recommend the 208b? Also can you charge LIHV packs with it?

Eike

Reply
Ben Joslin 19th June 2016 - 3:03 pm

Its a fantastic middle of the range charger! I abolutely love mine. The packs balance really nicely and i run it on 20a paralell charges all day long

Reply
gazab 19th June 2016 - 7:47 am

EXACTLY what I was looking for! I just ordered the same psu off ebay. Not as cheap as this one but still way cheaper and better than most normal charger power supplies I’ve found. Thanks!

Reply
Sam 19th June 2016 - 6:21 am

Awesome! I got one of these last week and have been waiting to do this. Thanks for the how to

Reply