Good Morning and Happy New Years Eve. I was wondering if anyone has used these type of units for bench power and testing? Would like any feedback, good, bad, or indifferent. I've included the specs on one of the units. Not sure they would work and the prices seem to good to be true. Nice looking, but looks can be deceiving.
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Remember, they are DC supplies. They are not a substitute for a transformer.
Lad Nagurney; Thank you for the feedback. I'm tracking. Maybe for anything but model railroading.
Yep, using mine all the time. On the right a inexpensive Chinese 10A 1.5V-30V supply, and on the left a home brew from modules, dual 5A supplies, 0.6V to 30V supplies.
The 10A supply had a bad habit of shooting past the set voltage when first turned on, so I added a 2 second time delay before the voltage was applied to the output jacks. Problem solved, and it's worked perfectly for me.
When loading PS/2 or PS/3 sound and chain files, it's much more reliable to do it with DC power on the boards, so I feed my TIU with DC power. Also very handy for all sorts of bench chores, testing bulbs, motors, etc.
Of course, I'm also developing electronic products, and having DC power around is key to that effort.
There certainly is a bewildering array of power supplies out there these days. If you are looking for a good solid bench dc PS pretty much any one should work. 95% of all my bench dc needs are satisfied by a compact 0-30 volt 1 amp supply which I have used for 20+ years. For those occasions needing heavier current I also have a 0-30 volt 10 amp unit identical to the white one pictured in the middle of your examples. It works very well and meets its ratings.
Most of these units however have a little quirk that can bite you hard. You must fire it up first, adjust the voltage, and THEN (and only then) connect the load. Reverse peocdure to disconnect. If this is not followed you will immediately toast the unit, rendering it a useless paperwweight. Don't ask how I found this out!
To overcome this anomally and avert further disasters, I added an internal load relay that connects the load to the supply, and it can only be energized after the unit is safely powered up. There is a thread here on the forum showing exactly how to do it. Link here Both gunrunnerjohn and I modded ours at the same time, and both mods are covered in the thread, with lots of pictures of each. This mod makes these idiot proof. For the price you can't go wrong, and they work great with the mod.
Hope that helps, Rod
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