---
product_id: 1637142
title: "AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit"
brand: "elenco"
price: "€ 215.45"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
category: "Elenco"
url: https://www.desertcart.de/products/1637142-ac-dc-triple-output-power-supply-kit
store_origin: DE
region: Germany
---

# 3 fully regulated outputs DIY assembly kit Made in USA quality AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit

**Brand:** elenco
**Price:** € 215.45
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> ⚡ Power your projects with precision, pride, and DIY flair!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit by elenco
- **How much does it cost?** € 215.45 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.de](https://www.desertcart.de/products/1637142-ac-dc-triple-output-power-supply-kit)

## Best For

- elenco enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted elenco brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Enduring Build Quality:** Durable silicone-insulated transformer wires and a sturdy metal case built to last decades
- • **Robust & Reliable Design:** Solid-state regulation with <0.2V voltage variation and built-in short circuit protection
- • **Upgrade-Friendly Platform:** Room for mods like multi-turn pots and digital displays to customize your power supply
- • **Hands-On Learning Experience:** Engage with a classic through-hole kit perfect for mastering electronics fundamentals
- • **Precision Triple Output Power:** Dual adjustable DC rails (±1.25-15V @ 1A) plus 5V @ 3A for versatile projects

## Overview

The Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit is a US-made, DIY electronics kit featuring three fully regulated solid-state outputs (±1.25-15V @ 1A and 5V @ 3A), plus AC taps. Designed for educational labs and hobbyists, it offers precise voltage control with built-in short circuit protection. Its robust construction and upgrade potential make it a cost-effective, hands-on tool for mastering power supply fundamentals.

## Description

Product Description Assemble this kit and you will have Elenco's popular AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply, ideal for use in school labs, service shops or anywhere a precise DC voltage is required. It features three fully regulated solid-state power supplies, 1. 25-15V @ 1A, 1. 25 to 15V @ 1A, or (3-30V @ 1A) and 5V @ 3A. It also has 6. 3VAC @ 1A and 12. 6VAC center-tapped @ 1A A special IC circuit keeps the output voltage within . 2V when going from no load to 1 ampere and is fully protected from short circuits. Dimensions 3 (H) x 8(W) x 6 (D). Weight 7 lbs. Made in the United States. Features include: Build an AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply, useful anywhere precise DC voltage is required Features three fully regulated solid-state power supplies Ideal for use in school labs Made in the United States For 30 years Elenco has been using their strong engineering and design skills to develop reliable, affordable electronic test equipment, tools, and educational kits Recommended Ages: 12 and up From the Manufacturer Assemble this kit and you will have Elenco's popular AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply, ideal for use in school labs, service shops or anywhere a precise DC voltage is required. It features three fully regulated solid-state power supplies, 1.25-15V @ 1A, –1.25 to –15V @ 1A, or (3-30V @ 1A) and 5V @ 3A. It also has 6.3VAC @ 1A and 12.6VAC center-tapped @ 1A A special IC circuit keeps the output voltage within .2V when going from no load to 1 ampere and is fully protected from short circuits. Dimensions 3 ½”(H) x 8”(W) x 6 ½”(D). Weight 7 lbs. Made in the United States.

Review: Great value for this kit - Okay, there are a number of reviews here on desertcart that point out the cons of this unit. Allow me to say this about how the regulators are installed on the heatsink. The only way to keep costs down as well as build assembly simple, is to use this method. Other options would require active cooling with a noisy fan and internal heatsinks with pin guides for the PCB which for people new to kits like this (and Elenco designs this series for students), would increase difficulty. If you've never loosely stuck a TO pack to a pin guided heatsink (with thermal grease), then tried to tighten things up and solder in place, then finish screwing it in place before ( and that would have to be done four times in this kit), then this is a much simpler solution. All things considered I would prefer to have the individual heatsinks on the PCB, but I do get the design for cost and build simplicity. But as others have said make sure you heat shrink the exposed leads of each of the TO packs, so make sure to have some on hand. Now for the binding posts, there is no excuse. Elenco not only picked the cheapest posts they could find, when it became a problem they didn't bother to correctly address the problem. See a modern, quality binding post will be hard nickel plated on the post part but the area you attach the wiring will either be gold plated or bare, polished copper. Why? Because you can solder to gold or copper. You cant really solder to nickel very well. The reason they are fully nickel plated is because of costs. Nickel is a good electrical conductor (not great, but good enough), and really resists wear from the constant friction of plugging and unplugging of your leads. So thats a good thing. But when these cheap posts are made, they just plate the entire steel part in nickel instead of just the binding part and then polishing the internal hookup part as that is several extra steps that raise costs. So Elenco decided that on the 2010 revision of this kit to include 7 extra nuts but not add instruct the builder that they should just use the extra nuts to attach the wires in place with. Now the overall quality of the posts is fine, you just cant really solder the wires to them easily. Trying to use the extra nuts to bind them to the posts in cramped quarters is also pretty annoying. Run down to your local Radio Shack and pick up a $2.00 pack of 22 gauge ring terminals (catalog 64-3114) and use them instead. Just give yourself and extra half inch of wire on each of the binding post wires. Strip off one full inch instead of the 1/4" the instructions say. Double it over and solder it together. Then crimp it in the ring terminal and screw into place with the extra nut. Much simpler than trying to solder the posts or holding the wire in place in such cramped quarters. Other than that, the only parts I found that were just bad were a couple of caps. One of the 22,000µf and my 47,000µf were right at the very brink of their +/- 20% range, so I upgraded all my caps to new, high temp, low ESR caps that should last a good decade or two. Total price was an extra $7.00 with shipping. So if you can, check your caps before you build. You should be fine, but caps are cheap and good ones will last for a long time. A few do's and don'ts for the kit: Dont use the included lead free solder unless you have a tip and iron for lead free solder. Its hard to work with, it eats up your tip, and requires a good bit of excess heat. Do get some .20, .30, or .40 size 60/40 or 63/37 lead solder with a rosin core. When it comes to electronics, lead is indeed your friend. Don't use the included two pieces of plastic based heatshrink tubbing. Do get an assortment pack of different size heatshrink tubbing and use that instead. Heatshink all exposed contact points in the kit with individual tubes and not just one big one. This kit can be modded a bit. Like many who have built this kit, I chose to install a couple of 2k, 10 turn, wire wound pots to make fine tuning type adjustments. The simple carbon pots that come with the kit will work just fine. I just wanted more precision (ie fine tuning) when setting my voltages. If you don't happen to have a couple of these in your parts bin, then they will cost a bit. Upwards of $35.00 for two with shipping. That includes an extra few bucks for new dials since the included dials, wont fit most multi-turn pots. If you go this route, you will have to drill out the holes just ever so slightly more. We're talking just a hair or two. There is also plenty of room for a display to be installed in the company logo area of the front panel. I will be adding one in the future as I can see that checking my voltage every time with a multimeter will become a bit of a pain. I've already seen one kit where somebody installed a 20 x 4 line LCD display for this and it reads voltage and amps for all outputs. There is even a little extra room between the AC and DC rails for installing a load circuit, which I plan to do. So you can spend twice the price to upgrade this kit if your not careful. Keep in mind that most of these mods are just fun to add and helpful but are not needed. For that amount of cash you could just but a PSU with a display, and fine tuning built in. But the main reason to do it with this kit is it offers dual adjustable DC jacks at 1 amp, a constant 5v DC at 3 amps, and a 6.3/12.6v AC. You cant come anywhere near a quality tri-rail PSU at the $120-$130 mark. So the mods can be fun, useful, let you learn a little if your new to electronics and offer serious bang for the buck features that you would normally pay several hundred bucks for in a prebuilt PSU. The case and transformer are very well made and should last a very long time if treated with care. The taps on the transformer are made with silicone covered wire (which really surprised me) so they wont get brittle with age and heat like the common PVC types. The overall circuit is very simple, through hole based so if a componet happens to fail it would be an easy fix. All in all, its a great value kit that offers lots of upgrades options and should last a long time. I got it in January when desertcart was selling it for $49.00 (with prime), and I see that its now up to $59.00. That seems to be the average price online, so I dont think it will really go up more than this. I've put about $40.00 in parts and upgrades to it, and I'm very pleased with the end result. When I'm finished with future upgrades it will be about $120-$130 spent and I'll have a very versatile PSU, thats cool running, silent, and built to last. I give it five stars. ***EDIT*** Quick tip for building: Flux and tin ALL the PCB solder pads before you begin to populate the board. The solder pads on the PCB are beyond huge and if you try to solder components without the tinning, it will make the work much slower as it will take forever to heat up those large areas and leave your iron on your parts for to long. Don't forget to clean off any excess flux when you are done assembling the PCB.
Review: GOOD SUPPLY, HERE'S SOME FRIENDLY ADVICE - It's a good project and I enjoyed making my kit. There are several excellent reviews of this item here such that all I can really do is reinforce a few points: This is not a kit for a total novice. Be especially careful on page 9 of the instructions. If you're going to mess up, you really don't want to do so on the high-voltage side of the transformer. If you have some heat-shrink tubing, you should use that on each AC connection individually, and throw away the provided, oversized stuff. I recommend using 60-40 tin-lead solder and a separate, liquid flux instead of the provided, rosin-core leadless solder. Otherwise, you may be in for a few cold solder joints. As others have stated, the pads on the circuit board are oversized and hard to heat up; it's also kinda tough to solder to the binding posts. The binding posts I received have doubled nuts on them so you could use crimp-on ring terminals instead, but I don't recommend that...they would work loose over time. When you're breadboarding something you want a power supply you can count on, not one that has an intermittent problem of its own. Soldering to the leads of the ICs and power transistor is definitely a little fussy. Slip some heat-shrink tubing on the center lead and that will help you avoid them shorting out when you screw the heat sink to the case. As others have stated the reason Elenco did it this way is difficult to fathom. It's no more economical and I would much rather solder in a few jumpers on the board than run fragile, 22-gauge wires to these components. Some of the components are kinda cheap, especially the pots and caps. They should have provided another piece of mica for the LM7805. I powered up my unit for the first time today and here are the readings: AC 6.88v left, 6.87v right, 13.76v across the hots. A little higher than the labeled 6.3v, but these are tapped directly from the transformer so depend only on the transformer wiring and mains supply. DC regulated: 5.02v DC negative: -1.289 to -16.87v DC positive: 1.276 to 20.17v ( This can happen when you use cheap pots. ) I did not bother to short-circuit test the LM317 and LM337. They will either do their job or they won't, and sooner of later that test will occur by accident. Bottom line is that I had fun making it and now have a serviceable supply for about what I would have had to pay just for the case, binding posts and heat sink.

## Features

- Build an AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply, useful anywhere precise DC voltage is required
- Features three fully regulated solid-state power supplies
- Ideal for use in school labs
- Made in the United States
- For 30 years Elenco has been using their strong engineering and design skills to develop reliable, affordable electronic test equipment, tools, and educational kits

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN | B0002DT0GU |
| Best Sellers Rank | #275,579 in Toys & Games ( See Top 100 in Toys & Games ) #2,524 in Educational Science Kits |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (223) |
| Date First Available | May 10, 2004 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Item Weight | 0.01 ounces |
| Item model number | XP-720K |
| Manufacturer | Elenco Electronics LLC |
| Product Dimensions | 8 x 6 x 3.5 inches |

## Product Details

- **Brand:** Elenco
- **Compatible Devices:** General Computer Use
- **Connector Type:** ATX
- **Cooling Method:** Air
- **Form Factor:** Mini ITX
- **Item Weight:** 0.01 Ounces
- **Item dimensions L x W x H:** 8 x 6 x 3.5 inches
- **Model Name:** XP-720K
- **Number of Connectors:** 2
- **Wattage:** 4200 watts

## Images

![AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71r8iHyfJDL.jpg)

## Questions & Answers

**Q: Is this kit built already**
A: No. It's a kit. That means you need to build it.

**Q: Elenco, can i order only the bottom part of the case where all the writing is in front?**
A: Elenco kits these as a complete unit. Most people need that, and kiting less than that would make no sense.  The cost between the case without the lid and the lid is minimal but keeping two SKU's around would be out of this world.  If you don't need the lid, just don't use it.  Parts are mounted to the bottom, front and back of the case.  I would also suggest getting two 2K 10 turn pots for the voltage adjustments, it makes fine adjustment much easier.

**Q: With no meters/leds, how does one know how much voltage/amps are being generated?  i'm new to electronics.**
A: The fixed 5VDC is regulated at very close to 5VDC so nothing needed there.  The other adjustable voltages are intended to be monitored/set with a volt meter.  I bought 2K 10 turn pots for both which made fine setting of voltage much easier.  Once they are set, they don't move.  As for current, if you are concerned about monitoring that, then another meter would be in order.  Alternatively you can just buy two of these at $7.95 ea and have both current and voltage built into the power supply.  https://www.amazon.com/McIgIcM-Digital-Voltmeter-Ammeter-10ADetector/dp/B06XR2XKNT/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=panel+voltage+meter&qid=1616113934&sr=8-3

**Q: I am interested in using this for converting my cordless power tools to run off of a/c power. Will this handle 7.2V-18V tools? Maximum Wattage?**
A: Nope, the power is much too low.  The variable outputs are rated at 1 Amp.  Power is Voltage * Current, so at 18V you only get 18W, I expect a power tool to use a few hundred watts.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great value for this kit
*by K***I on February 21, 2012*

Okay, there are a number of reviews here on Amazon that point out the cons of this unit. Allow me to say this about how the regulators are installed on the heatsink. The only way to keep costs down as well as build assembly simple, is to use this method. Other options would require active cooling with a noisy fan and internal heatsinks with pin guides for the PCB which for people new to kits like this (and Elenco designs this series for students), would increase difficulty. If you've never loosely stuck a TO pack to a pin guided heatsink (with thermal grease), then tried to tighten things up and solder in place, then finish screwing it in place before ( and that would have to be done four times in this kit), then this is a much simpler solution. All things considered I would prefer to have the individual heatsinks on the PCB, but I do get the design for cost and build simplicity. But as others have said make sure you heat shrink the exposed leads of each of the TO packs, so make sure to have some on hand. Now for the binding posts, there is no excuse. Elenco not only picked the cheapest posts they could find, when it became a problem they didn't bother to correctly address the problem. See a modern, quality binding post will be hard nickel plated on the post part but the area you attach the wiring will either be gold plated or bare, polished copper. Why? Because you can solder to gold or copper. You cant really solder to nickel very well. The reason they are fully nickel plated is because of costs. Nickel is a good electrical conductor (not great, but good enough), and really resists wear from the constant friction of plugging and unplugging of your leads. So thats a good thing. But when these cheap posts are made, they just plate the entire steel part in nickel instead of just the binding part and then polishing the internal hookup part as that is several extra steps that raise costs. So Elenco decided that on the 2010 revision of this kit to include 7 extra nuts but not add instruct the builder that they should just use the extra nuts to attach the wires in place with. Now the overall quality of the posts is fine, you just cant really solder the wires to them easily. Trying to use the extra nuts to bind them to the posts in cramped quarters is also pretty annoying. Run down to your local Radio Shack and pick up a $2.00 pack of 22 gauge ring terminals (catalog 64-3114) and use them instead. Just give yourself and extra half inch of wire on each of the binding post wires. Strip off one full inch instead of the 1/4" the instructions say. Double it over and solder it together. Then crimp it in the ring terminal and screw into place with the extra nut. Much simpler than trying to solder the posts or holding the wire in place in such cramped quarters. Other than that, the only parts I found that were just bad were a couple of caps. One of the 22,000µf and my 47,000µf were right at the very brink of their +/- 20% range, so I upgraded all my caps to new, high temp, low ESR caps that should last a good decade or two. Total price was an extra $7.00 with shipping. So if you can, check your caps before you build. You should be fine, but caps are cheap and good ones will last for a long time. A few do's and don'ts for the kit: Dont use the included lead free solder unless you have a tip and iron for lead free solder. Its hard to work with, it eats up your tip, and requires a good bit of excess heat. Do get some .20, .30, or .40 size 60/40 or 63/37 lead solder with a rosin core. When it comes to electronics, lead is indeed your friend. Don't use the included two pieces of plastic based heatshrink tubbing. Do get an assortment pack of different size heatshrink tubbing and use that instead. Heatshink all exposed contact points in the kit with individual tubes and not just one big one. This kit can be modded a bit. Like many who have built this kit, I chose to install a couple of 2k, 10 turn, wire wound pots to make fine tuning type adjustments. The simple carbon pots that come with the kit will work just fine. I just wanted more precision (ie fine tuning) when setting my voltages. If you don't happen to have a couple of these in your parts bin, then they will cost a bit. Upwards of $35.00 for two with shipping. That includes an extra few bucks for new dials since the included dials, wont fit most multi-turn pots. If you go this route, you will have to drill out the holes just ever so slightly more. We're talking just a hair or two. There is also plenty of room for a display to be installed in the company logo area of the front panel. I will be adding one in the future as I can see that checking my voltage every time with a multimeter will become a bit of a pain. I've already seen one kit where somebody installed a 20 x 4 line LCD display for this and it reads voltage and amps for all outputs. There is even a little extra room between the AC and DC rails for installing a load circuit, which I plan to do. So you can spend twice the price to upgrade this kit if your not careful. Keep in mind that most of these mods are just fun to add and helpful but are not needed. For that amount of cash you could just but a PSU with a display, and fine tuning built in. But the main reason to do it with this kit is it offers dual adjustable DC jacks at 1 amp, a constant 5v DC at 3 amps, and a 6.3/12.6v AC. You cant come anywhere near a quality tri-rail PSU at the $120-$130 mark. So the mods can be fun, useful, let you learn a little if your new to electronics and offer serious bang for the buck features that you would normally pay several hundred bucks for in a prebuilt PSU. The case and transformer are very well made and should last a very long time if treated with care. The taps on the transformer are made with silicone covered wire (which really surprised me) so they wont get brittle with age and heat like the common PVC types. The overall circuit is very simple, through hole based so if a componet happens to fail it would be an easy fix. All in all, its a great value kit that offers lots of upgrades options and should last a long time. I got it in January when Amazon was selling it for $49.00 (with prime), and I see that its now up to $59.00. That seems to be the average price online, so I dont think it will really go up more than this. I've put about $40.00 in parts and upgrades to it, and I'm very pleased with the end result. When I'm finished with future upgrades it will be about $120-$130 spent and I'll have a very versatile PSU, thats cool running, silent, and built to last. I give it five stars. ***EDIT*** Quick tip for building: Flux and tin ALL the PCB solder pads before you begin to populate the board. The solder pads on the PCB are beyond huge and if you try to solder components without the tinning, it will make the work much slower as it will take forever to heat up those large areas and leave your iron on your parts for to long. Don't forget to clean off any excess flux when you are done assembling the PCB.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ GOOD SUPPLY, HERE'S SOME FRIENDLY ADVICE
*by B***E on February 16, 2017*

It's a good project and I enjoyed making my kit. There are several excellent reviews of this item here such that all I can really do is reinforce a few points: This is not a kit for a total novice. Be especially careful on page 9 of the instructions. If you're going to mess up, you really don't want to do so on the high-voltage side of the transformer. If you have some heat-shrink tubing, you should use that on each AC connection individually, and throw away the provided, oversized stuff. I recommend using 60-40 tin-lead solder and a separate, liquid flux instead of the provided, rosin-core leadless solder. Otherwise, you may be in for a few cold solder joints. As others have stated, the pads on the circuit board are oversized and hard to heat up; it's also kinda tough to solder to the binding posts. The binding posts I received have doubled nuts on them so you could use crimp-on ring terminals instead, but I don't recommend that...they would work loose over time. When you're breadboarding something you want a power supply you can count on, not one that has an intermittent problem of its own. Soldering to the leads of the ICs and power transistor is definitely a little fussy. Slip some heat-shrink tubing on the center lead and that will help you avoid them shorting out when you screw the heat sink to the case. As others have stated the reason Elenco did it this way is difficult to fathom. It's no more economical and I would much rather solder in a few jumpers on the board than run fragile, 22-gauge wires to these components. Some of the components are kinda cheap, especially the pots and caps. They should have provided another piece of mica for the LM7805. I powered up my unit for the first time today and here are the readings: AC 6.88v left, 6.87v right, 13.76v across the hots. A little higher than the labeled 6.3v, but these are tapped directly from the transformer so depend only on the transformer wiring and mains supply. DC regulated: 5.02v DC negative: -1.289 to -16.87v DC positive: 1.276 to 20.17v ( This can happen when you use cheap pots. ) I did not bother to short-circuit test the LM317 and LM337. They will either do their job or they won't, and sooner of later that test will occur by accident. Bottom line is that I had fun making it and now have a serviceable supply for about what I would have had to pay just for the case, binding posts and heat sink.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by M***E on May 17, 2014*

I purchased this kit about a month ago as I had a need for a multi output power supply that was easy on the budget. Everything in this kit was well designed and laid out, case was pre-drilled and labelled, instructions were written in an easy, step by step process. For those who are developing an interest in electronics, this is not only a good starting kit, but also a great starting point to supply power to subsequent kits without needing to use "wall wart" power adaptors. This will be a great asset to my electronics workbench and it will be for yours as well!

## Frequently Bought Together

- Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit
- Elenco TL-16 Electronics Banana to Alligator Test Lead Set

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*Product available on Desertcart Germany*
*Store origin: DE*
*Last updated: 2026-01-28*