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Win a Tenma Power Supply

Congratulations to our winners!

Wow! You guys came up with some really creative ideas! There were over 100 individual ideas submitted and they were a blast to read through.

 

The winner of the Tenma Supply is !

His submission literally made James laugh out loud: turning the supply into a mouse to scare a cat.

 

Congrats on your new supply!

 

But that's not all! We're going to find some element14 Community swag for the following honorable mentions:

 

This giveaway is closed.

Now that you know the basics of how to use a power supply, wouldn't it be great to have one to use on your very own bench?  Well, you are so lucky because James has one to give away!

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James is always looking for novel ideas for how to use the equipment on his work bench. . . so in this contest, he's asking for ideas on the most unique use for a power supply that maybe isn't just using it as a power supply.  (I don't think he means gutting it and using it for a potted plant.)

 

Add your suggestion in the comments below (no later than Friday, November 1) and you're entered with a chance to win.

 

James will select the winner and announce her/him on this page no later than November 14, 2019.

 

Learn More about the Tenma Power SupplyLearn More about the Tenma Power Supply

 

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  • I'd pull it apart and get it to put out more than 3A for a start!

  • in reply to dougw

    Great idea D! Maybe it exists and I haven't found it yet but a procedure for testing USB cables would be nice. Jame's goal is to simplify the testing and minimize the equipment required.

     

    Sean

  • Recently I came across a very interesting article about running the shortest path algorithm on an analog computer that simulates the total network as strings of leds. (Analog Computing: Shortest Path | Analog Zoo ). For testing a large network you need quite some leds, and as every led has a forward voltage of 2.2V, this needs a high voltage power supply.  The power supply also needs to be used as current source. On the website mentioned above a current source is built, but when using the Tenma in current mode no additional electronics are needed. Furthermore the maximum voltage of the Tenma is 32V per channel for two channels. When putting them in serie, which is very simple as described by James in his excellent basics of how to use a power supply, this sums up to 64V. This makes it possible to test large networks, up to 30 LEDs in the shortest path. Would be great to be able to perform this experiment.

     

  • You could use this supply to make experiments in the Biology lab, you could use it to show muscle contraction or nerve conduction!

  • I would like to set this power supply up to be able to rapidly test USB cable performance. I have a large collection of USB cables that is still growing. It seems every device comes with yet another USB cable.However not all cables are the same and sometimes they don't perform well enough, usually because they incur too much voltage drop when higher currents are drawn. I have tested lots of different USB cables to show how variable they can be, but what I really need is a way to quickly test cables. If the test isn't quick, I won't do it, and when a problem crops up, it always takes too much time to isolate it to the cable and then find a better cable.

    A dual supply allows the input and the output voltage of the cable to be monitored while the cable is in use by a target device. To do this one supply would be set for a voltage of 5V and a current limit of 1 A (or more if needed). The other supply would also be set for 5 V but the current limit would be set very small, say 1 mA. Each supply output would be connected to a USB connector so a cable could be connected between the supplies. The supply set to a small current would also be connected to the target device (but unable to supply enough current to power it) When a test USB cable is connected between supplies, the target device would get enough power to run.

    The target device current would be the sum of the currents from both supplies (basically the high current output plus 1 mA).

    The voltage to the target device would show on the low current supply voltage meter.

    The voltage drop in the cable would be the high current voltage minus the low current voltage.

    The voltage drop could also be determined by shorting the cable at the low current end instead of connecting it to the second supply and the load.

    In that case the high current supply would go into current limit and if the current was 1 A, its voltage display would equal the voltage drop in the cable.

    This application uses 2 supplies and both current meters and both voltage meters. and utilizes both voltage and current set points.

    To make the tests quick I would design a PCB with 2 sets of USB connectors and 2 sets of banana plugs. One set of connectors would have its power pins in parallel and connected to one set of banana plugs while the other set of USB connectors would also be connected in parallel, but connected to the other set of banana plugs. There would also be a switch to short out one side and an output USB connector for a target device.

    The tester would be able to test any cable by itself or any cable powering any target device simply by plugging the cable in or plugging in the cable and the target device.

    Here is a picture showing some of the USB connectors that might be installed on a PCB to mate to arbitrary USB cables:

    image

    Of course these connectors would also allow the power supply to power or charge several USB devices at the same time.

  • image Other than powering the boards..I'll use it to frying the boards image
    I bought a 12v 9Ah battery specifically to do high ampere experiments but I don't have any adaptor to charge it other than regular transformer. Will use this bench power supply If i get my hands on it.
    Also, I can use this to charge my old laptops(charger is long gone using other company charger of lower A rating), phones with this. Can try powering neon lights bought from Chinese site which are still not powered because stupid me forgot to add that stupid controller to power them. Ehhe

  • With an external attachment (and/or hacking the knobs) the 2 variable channels could be used to make a voltage/current controlled voltage/current source.

    The voltage/current of one channel is measured and a electromechanical contraption with stepper motor would turn the current or voltage set knob of the other channel with a stepper motor. The 5V fixed rail could be used to power the external attachment.

    Now all the PSpice VCVS, VCCS, CCVS and CCCS can come to life.

     

    Then I would call it Frankensupply and enter it into the sharethescare ShareTheScare 2019 - Halloween Project Competition .

    - W.

     

    PS: To measure current and voltage, my Watt-A-Live INA209 Power Monitor Shield FeatherWing could be used. (Yes, this is a shameless self-plug. This is bad and I should feel bad. image)

  • I can use it to electrolysed water. Acidic water at anode and alkaline water at cathode for home use.

    i will get a off the shelf electrolyte. plug the electrolyte, turn on power supply. thats it!

    adjust the ph level by turning the voltage/current knob.

    parallel two channels (32V@6A, shall be enough!) to get higher/lower ph water.

     

    electrolysed water can be used for several purposed. There are some studies on slightly acidic electrolysed water against bacteria, and could be potential alternative to traditional chlorine treatment.

    I can use acidic water to wash the vege!

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40846-6

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6189622/

     

    Besides, I can also get alkaline water for drinking (people still debating the benefit of it).

  • Hi ,

     

    I'd like to see use his PSU to show the effects of physical loading of DC motors and how the drawn current changes and what the effect of varying the supply voltage could be. This is something I believe many of the Element14 and wider community could really get a good grasp of if James did another one of his great videos. As the Tenma 72-13610 has dual 0-32v@5A it should have more than enough power available to give a good demonstration.

     

    A suitable test chassis could be made consisting of two 12v DV motors, as is often used on robots and autonomous vehicles. This could use 3D printing for example. James could then build a variable friction 'rolling road' to stress and load each side or opt to physically load the chassis and drive it about on some umbilical power cable. Using the constant current and constant voltage modes of the Tenma he could show the effects of loading on the performance....I know I would learn a lot from that demo.

     

    A split screen video showing the Tenma PSU readouts in the corner whilst the main shot shows the robot would be very informative.

     

    I recently took part in the Sixth Sense Design Challenge and built #r2b4 where I detailed in a few blogs my novice ideas on motor torque and current requirements:

    R2B4 #3 - Drive Motor Calculations, Drive Train Design and Control Design

    R2B4 #5 - L298 Troubles

  • I think an unusual use for this power supply could be to power an HHO generator for micro soldering equipment!

    Another use could be in etching metals/circuits or electroplating using dc current!