Cool Tools Kit Awards 2020

This is a story about POWER

130 years ago, Tesla has battled Edison to provide electricity to the world. Regardless who won, both AC and DC has continued to serve us well up till today. The most reliable tools that i continue to use are the various power supplies. They are my war chest of power supplies.

From the modest 5V regulated voltage bread board module (shown with the new element14 gift breadboard from quiz), to various dc-dc converter modules, to the countless DC adapters i have amass over the years, they have served in various battlefield. Now, while some of them are killed in action, some missing in action, some veterans war heroes still march on. One of them i consider my oldest friend is this black color simple transformer based power supply. It is a gift from my father, who, as a chargeman, has amazed me since i was young to the world of electricity. My father is a maker, who create some fancy electrical gadget like battery driven go cart for us to ride on. I ended up taking electronics engineering , and this power supply is hand built by him.

My oldest friend - recipient of the medal of long service and highest bravery for the service of electrified world

The design is simple but well thought of, its output is banana plug and can be clipped onto almost any input connectors. It has a simple analog voltmeter. It has a fuse for simple replacement. throughout my study, i have used it in my assignment, it has powered up various different projects that need different voltage level, and it is even more convenient than lab benchtop power supply. Even the simple box is well built with good long lasting material. It is the veteran that continue to be callable for service, even after over 25 years in service. It well deserve the long service medal and knighthood of the power supply.

In one way or another, i wish to create such a custom design power supply/gadget for my father (who has retired but still happily repairing old items and small invention). The multi-comp 3D printer is sort of a small dream device for me now to print custom casing and design with my dad   below is an old non branded power tool that my father revived by combining it with a battery from Bosch. There is a lot of makeshift connector and casing, even the gear coupler, i got to salute my father for his handy skill. i would think a 3D printer can really make his creation and my own many fancy ideas to become reality. . custom gears, coupling, casing, connectors....these are often the tiny missing link that bind a fancy idea into reality.

figure: currently my father is creating this only-one- in the world power drill . A 3D printer will help to create great custom holder and design for the gadget, and many more gadgets to come.

Now, let's glance through my war chest:

Switching Power Supplies: they power everything from PC to various industrial automation projects. They comes in various different shapes and built, and power ratings

In this picture, we house 2 of them in a box to provide 12V and 24V output. Similar to my father's veteran power supply, it has a fuse.

Adapters

Technically speaking, most of these are switching power supply but with epoxy covered casing. These are perhaps the most popular as almost every eval board and gadgets are powered by one. They are normally small size, and provide different voltage, different current.

one problem is that there are quite a variants of the connectors, sometimes making life difficult to us to connect easily to other devices. sometimes i cut the adapter connector and use

an adapting connector instead, just like the photo below

here is an adapter with adjustable output and some various connectors. my personal bias is that i don't like adjustable type. one problem is i find the

value is inaccurate another problem is we might forget to turn the voltage to correct position and killing our boards.

when a laptops or other gadgets died, the adapters are mostly still intact. i ended up collecting more and more of them. i would call the final resting place of most of the power supply, although many of them still usable.

Benchtop power supply

an essential items for most projects as they can provide higher current compared to switching power supply or adapters. But they are also bulky and heavy

some of them have special functionality, like i have one in the office (i can't go there to take a photo, due to MCO of Covid19 outbreak) has serial port for simple control.

Some other special power supply i used before before but doesn't won are those that can select the output load resistance, and source measure unit (SMU) that can source current or voltage and at the same time measure them. One way to imagine it is that a SMU is like a dc power suplly and a DMM, that can be used to sweep the voltage to a DUT like diode and provide the I-V curve. One advantage is that for production testing it is simpler and faster as we only need to deal with one electronic test equipment (ETE) rather than two.

Battery

you will be amaze but some project is better to be powered up by battery. I have simple battery, lithium ion, LiPo, and lead acid. Each of them have their different suitability, but one typical benefit of battery is like the much higher current that can be drawn compared to benchtop power supply. Plus, they are mobile.

Voltage Regulator

the last retiree i want to mention is this automatic voltage regulator (AVR). Back in the day my university, the PC is an expensive items, and we need to protect them by regulating the power input. The AVR does only one thing, stabilize the power and damp any spike. Now, AVR is like dinasaur, belonging to museum as display item.

other misc power supply that i don't put photos are

- a 240V to 115V step down transformer for AC power

- travel chopper based step down power adapter --> i killed one of my device because of this.....they can't be used to power high current device.

- a step up voltage transform for AC power

- inverter -> for converting dc power to AC power. from my solar panel

This is a story about POWER

130 years ago, Tesla has battled Edison to provide electricity to the world. Regardless who won, both AC and DC has continued to serve us well up till today. The most reliable tools that i continue to use are the various power supplies. They are my war chest of power supplies.

From the modest 5V regulated voltage bread board module (shown with the new element14 gift breadboard from quiz), to various dc-dc converter modules, to the countless DC adapters i have amass over the years, they have served in various battlefield. Now, while some of them are killed in action, some missing in action, some veterans war heroes still march on. One of them i consider my oldest friend is this black color simple transformer based power supply. It is a gift from my father, who, as a chargeman, has amazed me since i was young to the world of electricity. My father is a maker, who create some fancy electrical gadget like battery driven go cart for us to ride on. I ended up taking electronics engineering , and this power supply is hand built by him.

My oldest friend - recipient of the medal of long service and highest bravery for the service of electrified world

The design is simple but well thought of, its output is banana plug and can be clipped onto almost any input connectors. It has a simple analog voltmeter. It has a fuse for simple replacement. throughout my study, i have used it in my assignment, it has powered up various different projects that need different voltage level, and it is even more convenient than lab benchtop power supply. Even the simple box is well built with good long lasting material. It is the veteran that continue to be callable for service, even after over 25 years in service. It well deserve the long service medal and knighthood of the power supply.

In one way or another, i wish to create such a custom design power supply/gadget for my father (who has retired but still happily repairing old items and small invention). The multi-comp 3D printer is sort of a small dream device for me now to print custom casing and design with my dad   below is an old non branded power tool that my father revived by combining it with a battery from Bosch. There is a lot of makeshift connector and casing, even the gear coupler, i got to salute my father for his handy skill. i would think a 3D printer can really make his creation and my own many fancy ideas to become reality. . custom gears, coupling, casing, connectors....these are often the tiny missing link that bind a fancy idea into reality.

figure: currently my father is creating this only-one- in the world power drill . A 3D printer will help to create great custom holder and design for the gadget, and many more gadgets to come.

Now, let's glance through my war chest:

Switching Power Supplies: they power everything from PC to various industrial automation projects. They comes in various different shapes and built, and power ratings

In this picture, we house 2 of them in a box to provide 12V and 24V output. Similar to my father's veteran power supply, it has a fuse.

Adapters

Technically speaking, most of these are switching power supply but with epoxy covered casing. These are perhaps the most popular as almost every eval board and gadgets are powered by one. They are normally small size, and provide different voltage, different current.

one problem is that there are quite a variants of the connectors, sometimes making life difficult to us to connect easily to other devices. sometimes i cut the adapter connector and use

an adapting connector instead, just like the photo below

here is an adapter with adjustable output and some various connectors. my personal bias is that i don't like adjustable type. one problem is i find the

value is inaccurate another problem is we might forget to turn the voltage to correct position and killing our boards.

when a laptops or other gadgets died, the adapters are mostly still intact. i ended up collecting more and more of them. i would call the final resting place of most of the power supply, although many of them still usable.

Benchtop power supply

an essential items for most projects as they can provide higher current compared to switching power supply or adapters. But they are also bulky and heavy

some of them have special functionality, like i have one in the office (i can't go there to take a photo, due to MCO of Covid19 outbreak) has serial port for simple control.

Some other special power supply i used before before but doesn't won are those that can select the output load resistance, and source measure unit (SMU) that can source current or voltage and at the same time measure them. One way to imagine it is that a SMU is like a dc power suplly and a DMM, that can be used to sweep the voltage to a DUT like diode and provide the I-V curve. One advantage is that for production testing it is simpler and faster as we only need to deal with one electronic test equipment (ETE) rather than two.

Battery

you will be amaze but some project is better to be powered up by battery. I have simple battery, lithium ion, LiPo, and lead acid. Each of them have their different suitability, but one typical benefit of battery is like the much higher current that can be drawn compared to benchtop power supply. Plus, they are mobile.

Voltage Regulator

the last retiree i want to mention is this automatic voltage regulator (AVR). Back in the day my university, the PC is an expensive items, and we need to protect them by regulating the power input. The AVR does only one thing, stabilize the power and damp any spike. Now, AVR is like dinasaur, belonging to museum as display item.

other misc power supply that i don't put photos are

- a 240V to 115V step down transformer for AC power

- travel chopper based step down power adapter --> i killed one of my device because of this.....they can't be used to power high current device.

- a step up voltage transform for AC power

- inverter -> for converting dc power to AC power. from my solar panel

Nice post - I like power supplies - I just can't help buying them (but mostly I buy old ones at auctions or on ebay).

Current favorites are a 4 channel HP 6629A which lives under the bench and is controlled via HPIB by a GUI that runs on a PC. It's connected to a little breakout pod so theactual footprint on the becnh is tiny. About 30 years old, still within 0.1% of settings on voltage and working fine.Cost £50 plus abVAT and about £20 shipping. With the GUI it offers all the fancy features of modern 4 channel supplies and the ability link any combination of outputs.

My other everyday machine is a modern AimTTi with 2 outputs (forgotten the model number and can't check right now of course.).

There are loads of others dedicated to particular test set ups, and some unloved (for whatever reason) and banished to cupboards.

MK

old is gold. HPIB is really an old protocol predating the GPIB. i have worked at calibration software during my days at Agilent (now keysight, and before Agilent it was HP ) so i have my hands on some really old HP electrical test equipment (ETE). Many of them obsolete with more than 20 years old but still run with top notch accuracy. one i remember is the HP 3458A metrology grade DMM and one specialty is that it has the older HPIB type of commands that is not fully compatible with the newer GPIB. Back then, no newer generation of DMM is able to replace the 3458A. my very first encounter of SMU is during my time there, where we use Keithley SMU as one of the ETE to calibrate Keysight U2722A SMU. i couldn't recall the Keysight power supply model that i use though but i recall a lot of engineering hours have been put in to understand the inside-out of the power supply for calculation of measurement uncertainty, an important component in performing calibration.

finaly the pandamic is lessen and people starts to travel. The power supply has evolved too. Now, we start to use li-ion battery in a casing fitted with battery charger board and dc-dc boost up regulator become power supply. most of these modules comes with current measurement and is handy to mreasure power consumption of the device that we are powering up.