I needed an adjustable DC power supply for my workbench, but I wanted something that felt like a character in the story of my practice, not just a piece of equipment. Assembled with parts from a 1975 Soviet television and an Arduino Nano, this was my first major build—the culmination of eleven months of study and many failures along the way.

To give the power supply a personality, I scoured outdoor markets for older tech that I could adapt and repurpose for this project. I live in the country of Georgia, so most old tech is from the Soviet Union. It took me two months of searching to find a transformer I liked: A 24V 3.3A unit that was produced in Czechoslovakia in 1983. The chassis, the bridge rectifier, and the main filter capacitor all came from a 1975 Юность-603P black-and-white television that I had for several months been trying (and failing) to bring back to life. The LCD display is driven by an Arduino Nano.