Here is an image of my solenoid driver board. It is 99% autorouted but I did make the traces for the positive inputs for the solenoids much larger for the 10 amps peak they might see. The current is very brief so the traces are probably larger than they need to be. The traces for the solenoid inputs are 100 mils, the rest at 16 mils and I have the entire top and bottoms of the board as ground. There are five vias but I do not think I can avoid them. I also probably need to line the ICs in a way that is more pleasing to the eye and I have to add the silk screen layer to label everything.
Last November, I fried my 'lab power supply' that I made from a computer PSU. I was testing my solenoids and the stress was just too much for the PSU. The mistake I made was rapidly turning on and off my solenoid which likely resulted in voltage transients (spikes). Since the PSU does have a current limiter, it was likely the constant voltage spikes that caused the damage. There are various methods to suppress voltage transients such as by-pass capacitors and zener diodes. In particular solenoids and other inductive loads experience these voltage spikes, hence my no longer functioning bench power supply. ATX Breakout Board I could have just rebuilt the same power supply by adding binding posts etc to the PSU housing but after searching the internet an ATX power supply breakout board seemed a popular option. The main advantage compared to my old power supply was the addition of fuses on the outputs. The extra safety this provides is perf...

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