I am studying various ATX power supplies schematics and don't understand the need of the voltage selector as switching power supplies work at range of voltages. In most schematics i see the 110V line connected after the bridge rectifier between the resistors and filtering capacitors. Why?
In these schematics, 110VAC is connected through a voltage doubler schematic in order to get the same 310V DC after the rectifier.
These solutions are pretty outdated now. The typical modern PSU is universal and can work from 90..250VAC on the input without voltage selector.
"Switching power supplies work at range of voltages." They work at a range of voltages they are designed to work at. The larger the range you want to support, the more it will cost in the design (in $, size, reliability, etc). It's one thing to make an 80W laptop supply work across 100-240V, but it's quite another to do the same for a 450W ATX supply, and the benefit to the customer is much lower.
[Update: this paragraph is speculative and wrong:]
The switch likely rewires the primary in the transformer so that the regulation circuit doesn't have to work over such a large range.
[Update - comment added after downvotes:]
OK, I've been voted down. The 2nd paragraph is speculative and wrong , so I won't protest. I am well aware than SMPS transformers don't run at line frequency, but I wasn't aware that you couldn't still have a split primary with a switch on that transformer. And the schematic was not up at the time.
My ignorance of that doesn't invalidate the main point - the switched voltage doubler still serves to reduce the range over which the supply needs to adapt automatically. So that brings me to a question: is it not harder, in terms of cost/efficiency/reliability, to make a PSU that can adapt over a 1:2.6 range as opposed to 1:1.3? And, does not the tradeoff become more significant with higher power? As long as a PSU with a switch is more efficient & reliable than one without, I'll take the one with a switch for a desktop. @johnfound answer says that modern PSU are univeral without a switch - that's absolutely true for wall warts and laptop supplies, but most ATX supplies have switches.
So it's a good question, and I believe my first paragraph is a good answer. But I'm prepared to learn more.
