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  • Author Author: jw0752
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A Thing of Beauty

jw0752

As long as I can remember one of my favorite activities is salvaging electronic components from unused equipment and circuit boards. Recently I took apart a large piece of medical equipment and found myself with a 900 Watt Tectrol Switching power supply. This power supply is a beast with two 5 volt outputs rated at 15 Amps and 38 Amps respectively. It also has plus and minus 12 volts supplies of 15 amps and 10 amps each as well as plus and minus 24 volt supplies with 13 amps on the plus and 3 amps on the minus.

 

Here is a picture of the unit.

 

 

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I was seriously thinking of dismantling this unit for the parts -------- that is until I opened it up.

 

 

While I had difficulty getting the quality of pictures that I wanted here are a few of what I found inside the anodized steel case.

 

 

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Just looking at the stacked toroidal transformers and how carefully their leads had been bent to pass to the circuit board made me aware that I was not just looking at a piece of technology but also a great piece of art. I turned off the desoldering iron and put the cover back on the unit. It would be a waste of beauty and the magic that this unit can do in its assembled form for someone like me, who can barely build a small analog power supply, to take it apart.

 

I wish I could think of a meaningful use for it but it is too big for anything I can imagine.

 

 

Have you got any ideas?

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  • John, you are too modest in your goals.  I, for one, think you should attempt a buck regulator.  You could make it on a small power scale so nothing larger than a machine elf could be harmed very much if it blew up.  Buck regulators are inherently more stable than every other form of switcher, easing the design burden.  A possible controller might be formed by the PWM output and A/D input of a smaller variant of an MSP430, or a conventional SMPS controller.

    Christmas is coming, save your pennies.  Simulate first!

     

    All you need, materially, minimally, is an appropriate capacitor, inductor, pair of switches (or switch and catch diode which amounts to the the same thing, in concept) and a controller.  Maybe some connectors.  And a load.

  • in reply to D_Hersey

    Hi Don, Thanks for the ideas. You over estimate my abilities. I am hoping that Peter will make the build one of his lessons so I can follow along and build it without putting any elves in danger. I thought of putting one red and one green LED on the power supply and call it 2 flies riding an elephant.

    John

  • in reply to jw0752

    Put a perpex lid on it, add a couple of large resistors and turn into a "visible heater".

     

    Mark

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