cool power supply

I like the USB power connector on the front. I have a couple of variable-speed USB powered fans that I use when I test power parts, and that fits right in. I'd been using my 500 MHz 4-channel Rigol scope as a USB power supply.

I need these to test a +-60 volt half-bridge switching amp, to see how the driver and fets work but especially to see if I'll fry the inductor.

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, John Larkin <jlarkin@highland_atwork_technology.com> writes

I'm guessing they save on EMI suppression components for a start.

It doesn't seem to be available in the EU/UK.

Brian

Just now I need bulk +-60 volts to test my switching h-bridge amplifier. I'll scope it out and see how spikey it is.

Volume, SE Asian material sourcing, subsidised shipping, no environmental or safety regulation and slave labour?

In North America, criticism is mostly sour grapes. These units' supply simply taps off a gigantic and vibrant local market.

It's also conceivable that the reliability and design integrity of these things is getting better, with experience. There's a continuing issue with thermoplastic misapplication/substitution and electromechanical switch contact ratings. A quick inspection should reveal whether mods are required to make it (apparently) lab-safe.

No doubt the type you've described IS available, but the part number you quote is for a 30V model.

RL

Amazon makes it hard to reference items without all the Prime baggage. I got the 60 volt version for $71, free shipping.

It's really nice. The voltage and current settings are with encoders,

4 digit resolution, accurate to better than 0.1%. The displays are big and bright. The enclosure is very nice. Amazing.

An amateur can set up a very serious electronics lab, with a nice parts assortment, for under $500 these days. That, plus a used AoE, can get a kid going.

Hey kids !

Don't buy anything without a service manual and replaceable components.

RL

I get the appeal of gear you can know everything there is to know about and keep in top working order yourself for decades, but do you want to be an electronics designer or a tech?

Sometimes I just want to get a task done and if I need to buy something relatively inexpensive to do it that's what I do. I can always find a willing recipient if I then don't need it. Worst case electronics recycling is a thing.

I have a few boat anchors but I also don't have the space to fill my whole little space with them.

For $71, if it breaks I'll toss it.

And essentially nobody provides schematics or service manuals or repair parts any more.

Deaigner or Tech. That's a good one.

If a designer doesn't spend SOME time in the trenches, they'll not make much of a designer.

If your tools break these days, you spend most of your time waiting for a replacement to show up, learning how to use them, from ground zero - with any of the oversights and errors that entails (never mind the hairbrained GUI).

Know your tools, their limitations/foibles - save yourself a lot of time. You won't break them as frequently.

RL

Hell John, do didn't really need this toy in the first place.

Who cares if it breaks?

RL

I have a 6-layer proto PCB coming soon. We added a v-score breakaway that has a half-bridge switching amplifier that I want to test before it goes into a couple of products. I need +-60 volts at 6 amps to test it, and this is close enough. $140 for both supplies is great even if I use them once.

But they will be nice additions to the lab.

When the boards are built, I'll snap off the little wing on the right, which is my half-bridge test. Other people will get boards to test other stuff, like the efinix FPGA and the big mosfet array with the CPU cooler.

We decided to put the four giant mosfets on the parts side of the board, thru-hole shiny-side up, and squash them with a cpu cooler fan thing.

I hate when things like power supplies and function generators have bizarre GUIs that make the simple things hard to do. This little supply is very intuitive, except that you have to know to push the encoder knobs to shift the digit being tweaked.

The display is fabulous for people with mediocre eyesight.

I like the knobs, as opposed to push buttons. I can look at a scope or something and twiddle the voltage or current limit smoothly without having to look at the supply, or wind up pushing it around on my bench.

Turning knobs is intuitive. My Audi makes me push buttons to do anything, which is actually dangerous.

Our digital delay generator has a spinner knob for that same reason. Look at a scope, hang your left hand on the knob, tune a pulse delay or width or amplitude.

Sing its praise in 6 months time.

Line switches, line power sockets, output sockets, fuse holders, knobs, displays, solder joints, coil formers are all suspect.

Does the precise output change when somebody farts in the next room? What's the output at start-up? USB or bluetooth? Getting more complicated, fast. Mind you, it's probably already unobtanium or sold with a different brand name /price, by a different seller, today. One solution is to buy double quantities and pray that the same thing doesn't break in all of them - shelves of parts mules. This sort of defeats the price advantage.

There ARE longer-term brands and suppliers that have been in business long enough to at least cover their warranty period. (TopPower? perhaps somebody has other suggestions)

Hope your spinner knob is optical. The more spinning it does, the more wear it will see. They're the first things to go on off-shore fabs here, without any user involvment.

RL