There are a bunch of used HP common rail power supplies for sale on eBay. They have a 12v output at 62 amps (750 watts) and you can get one for less than $30 post free. Made by HP for data centre use they are top quality and very efficient. There are a bunch of sites on the interwebs showing how to use them, there is also mod to up the voltage to 13.8v too.
URL?
That is cheap. I see there are some 1500W common slot PSUs fairly cheap too. Even the ones that require shipping from the US, the shipping is fairly cheap (~$40) considering the weight.
I'm not sure that I can think of a use for one right now though. Tempting all the same.
I think I've seen similar (or the same) 12V server PSUs over a year ago on Ebay, so they'll probably still be around if you want one later.
I've got a 30V 80A DC PSU, originally part of a TV transmitter, for when I get around to some induction heating experiments. On single phase it only gets up to 28V though, and just 50A according to the bloke I bought it from.
-- __ __ #_ < |\| |< _#
I have several 50V 120A supply boards here, also from an analog TV transmitter (and the PA modules too, excluding all heatsinks). I'm scared enough of them that they're not even stored near any cables that could be used to connect them! Three phase, of course.
I could use that if you ever want to get rid of it, 28v DC is a common power supply for aircraft.
I'll keep that in mind, though it's quite compact compared to a lot of the other stuff taking up space.
-- __ __ #_ < |\| |< _#
Mine arrived today, a very nicely made unit as you would expect from HPs professional side. Smaller than I expected but quite heavy, I'm thinking of getting another and stacking them for 24v.
Is one side of the output grounded like in ATX supplies? I have always felt a bit uneasy about disconnecting the output from ground on those, as I don't know whether they rely on the connection from Protective Earth to the secondary of the transformer as the means of preventing unsafe voltages on the output in the event that the primary - secondary insulation of the transformer happens to fail. The secondary winding is thick enough that I can imagine some manufaturers trying to use that strategy to pass safety testing rather than extra layers of inter-winding insulation.
Yesterday I found one of those server power supplies in a skip, along with the rest of the server that it came from. It is a Dell brand, not sure whether those have been reverse engineered (like the HP) yet to allow me to fool it into turning on without the rest of the server. The server is from about 2007? so I am guessing probably not worth putting much effort into using it as a computer anymore. It has a Xeon E 5420 but someone already took out the RAM and hdd so I haven't tried booting it. Lots of nice fans in it, and OSCONs and MOSFETs etc for the core voltage regulators.
If you want 24V, from time to time Rockby have offered a Wipos P1 24-20 DIN rail mounting 24V 480W fanless SMPS, but I recall that it was more than $100. Up to 3 of them can be put in parallel.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.