This Power Supply has been available for a while perhaps, but I just noticed it now, it is just £11+tax, which is very good for a (hopefully) safe power brick. The information here is just informational : ) use caution with supplies capable of high current output.
Region-specific variants:
Power supply with UK plug Power supply with EU plug Power supply with Aussie plug Power supply with US plug
It has a normal 5.5/2.1mm barrel connector, center positive, and 1.5m long lead. A fairly significant annoyance (forgivable at the price) is that it doesn't use C8 (figure-8) or larger IEC connector on the mains supply side. It doesn't have a power LED either, which would be convenient.
Anyway, at 8V output it looks ideal for small motorized projects (I think Lego and Fischertechnik both use this ballpark voltage for their motors), or even 7805 voltage regulator based projects where 7.5 or 8V is a nice input voltage for them. I've briefly looked at the output and it may need a capacitor on the output to smooth things a bit (since this power supply is manufactured for use with motors, you'd expect a capacitor across the power rails anyway, close to the H-bridge) or a linear voltage regulator.
Anyway, here is the output when supplying 1 amp (I used a speaker simulator for the load, it is 8 ohm).
The scale is 100 mV/division, so the switching noise amplitude is about 300 mV p-p:
Here is the output with a low-cost 1000 uF 16V electrolytic capacitor across the supply:
Adjusting the vertical resolution to 20 mV/division:
From the specifications in the datasheet, it appears protected from output shorts:
Anyway, I think it could be a handy power supply to have, especially with the high current capability.
On the safety topic (with no liability, these suggestions are just being given for free as things to think about) I believe it would be a good idea to use some protection (perhaps a polyswitch) for at least the low power portion of circuits. Something like RXEF010S would be handy, costs about £0.50 and could operate a microcontroller and small display for instance. Also, if you are powering actual motors/hobby servos etc., then bear in mind that motors do not like being stalled, so keep an eye on them, and implement some protection if possible to handle the stall condition, because even though the power supply may be protected, the rest of your circuit and nearby possessions/property may not be.
Flame retardant wiring would also be a good idea (definitely not e-bay wire!).
Thanks for reading.
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