Power Supply for Home lab?

I've designed and built many power supplies in my lifetime and if you want something simple that's premade then e14 has reasonably priced adjustable and programmable power supplies.

The Tenma  72-253572-2535 is a good start with both Constant Voltage and Constant Current modes

With both modes available it is very easy to use it to test LEDs.

Another handy tool to have is an accompanying DC load unit as this will enable you to properly test power supplies and batteries)

LOOkatu .. I'm going to build it myself.. MAKE IT MYSELF..
Thanks COMPACT

mudz

Looking forward to it..
Thanks!

mudz

My comments here is Not to be taken as Legal Advice. It is just an Simplified Overview of the US Patent Process as recently modified by the 2011 AIA (America Invents Act)  NOT ACA (ObamaCare). AAR. Do post your designs if you do not believe they are Patentable. If you believe the Designs are Patentable (over the Prior Art) then keep them secret and seek further Legal Advice for Patent Protection. By posting your (possibly Unpatentable) designs, you are contributing to the Prior Art.

To which other people's designs will be judged against. i.e. they will not be able to Patent what you designed. In "closely similar" inventions (designs) your Prior Art will help to exclude any later Designer from "exclusively benefiting' from your design (b/c your design is now Prior Art)

Dear Edward - thanks for your comment.

My own, admittedly unusual, opinion is that patents are a bad thing for society in general and that they usually benefit those with power and resources at the expense of everyone else. Sometimes my customers insist on patenting stuff -  I can't stop them !

I am always delighted to put my own tiny spanners into other peoples patenting works - and in this case it might even have the spin off effect of being helpful to someone as well.

MK

Great looking op-amps Michael - they also have pretty good output drive current capability.

Doug

Hi Michael,

I'm new to this blog, but I've been in engineering for many years, mostly test equipment and microwave communication equipment. Microwaves requires lots of good analog and digital control so I've done a lot of that too. My interest in your blog on a lab power supply fits into my latest project that I thought you might find interesting. That is to create a platform of control, display, packaging, cooling, and power management that would allow engineers to build specialized equipment that they would need for whatever their specialty was. Examples of what I know everyone needs is of course, lab power supplies, so this would be my first product. Next would be a programmable load, several varieties of microwave frequency synthesizers, microwave power detectors, block converters for extending the range of radios, and spectrum analyzers. Because you have a lab power supply designed, it seemed to me that you might be interested in participation in creating a product on this platform that would be remotely controlled, have a display of the voltage and current, a single knob control that would allow setting the output very precisely and stepping or scanning over a predetermined range with variable size steps. I am well on the way of completing the housing, control, display, etc.

These would have a standard interface so that they could easily be integrated into an automated test system.

I strongly believe that in order to sell test equipment one needs to be able to provide many different solutions in a multitude of areas so that a catalog would be extensive, and one would go to it for a solution of whatever their problem is. Hewlett Packard used to do this when Dave and Bill were around, but the new company has moved into bigger and more complex systems meant for volume manufacturers. (For example, a top of the line spectrum analyzer and now run several hundred thousand dollars.) They have also split off various companies that Dave Packard spent his lifetime collecting. I want to provide an alternative for consultants and engineers that have small labs and smaller budgets, In order to quickly generate a multitude of test equipment many different engineering talents would be required, so I plan to make the platform open source with standard interface so that engineers could easily create what they needed, but not have to worry about all the details of making a salable product, and marketing it. My role in this is to create the system for this to happen, define interfaces, create the market, and communicate with the participants.

Would you have an interest in participating in this?

Fred Storke

Hi Fred,

What is your opinion of the Red Pitaya?

Compact

My 2c worth... its awsome, I have one and am currently performing a review of it

It seems a bit too expensive to me.

Does it have an electrically isolated USB connection to its host PC?

you connect mainly  through ethernet to the host, all the apps are web based so in that regard it is isolated due to the transformer in the ethernet physical layer connector circuit

there are a couple of USB ports too but they are not isolated and not normally used for the apps like Scope, Spectrum and LCR

@Fred,

I've only just noticed your post - I'm afraid that I'm much too busy with bread and butter work at the moment to even play with my own pet projects so I couldn't get involved in something else as well.

Good luck with the scheme and I'm almost always able to chat about details - just not free to put any serious effort in.

MK

@Fred,

I've only just noticed your post - I'm afraid that I'm much too busy with bread and butter work at the moment to even play with my own pet projects so I couldn't get involved in something else as well.

Good luck with the scheme and I'm almost always able to chat about details - just not free to put any serious effort in.

MK