If you are serious about about playing with electronics and rc cars you will quickly find the need for a consistent AC power source.

….if you are really serious then there is no way around investing in a nice regulated multi-voltage and adjustable current lab power supply. Here are some Google results in case you are not sure what those are. Obviously those are superior to any homemade or DIY power supply.

But let’s say you need a cheap 12Volt supply to run your DC rc car charger or maybe you build your own RC track and you want to add some low voltage lighting. In this case you don’t want to expose your $300 regulated lap power supply.

Easy solution – build your own 12 volt power using an old Xbox 360 power brick!

An Xbox360 power supply can be easily found on ebay for cheap. However you will notice that when you measure the contacts that your meter reads 0 (zero) Volt. That is because the 360 power supply has a stand-by mode.

1) To remove the Xbox360 stand-by you simply need to open the power supply  – you will find 4 screws under the rubber stoppers/pads).

2) You will see a red and blue wire. Now you have 2 choices. Option 1) Add a switch in between the red and blue 2) Just connect red and blue together (short them out) and your 360 power brick will always be on when plugged in.

3) Next remove the positive and negative cables and solder your own cables in place.