Bench Power Supply

[James]

Hi all,

 

 

I want a bench power supply to test electronics etc

 

Also for my microcontroller stuff — running small electric stepper motors, display units etc etc

 

Any tips on what to look for?

 

Ideally I'm looking for variable voltage and current — and nothing too huge or expensive

 

 

 

James

[spitfire6]

Hi James,

Check out the second hand bench top linear adjustable power supplies on EBay.

There are also some new switch mode power supplies from our Asian friends. Inexpensive but you would probably need to fabricate a box.

 

Generally, 0 to 30 Volts @ 0 to 2Amps should be fine for micro/PIC stuff.

Current adjust(Limit) is also good as you can set this first and then increase the voltage.

Separate switch for power and output is good.

Analogue meters instead of digital are preferred as the digital will not be as accurate as your DMM and also quicker to set.

Dual output is good if they can be run in parallel to give you twice the output voltage or twice the current.

Current limit light is good.

Current sense terminals (IE four terminals with jumpers) are ok if free or you need exact voltage at high loads.

 

 

 

I got a nice dual 0-30VDc 0-3A Linear supply from EBay second hand (Farnell) for about 30 quid I think.

Also got a Spectrum analyser ( 1KHz to 1GHz) rather cheaper than the original 20K.

 

Cheers,

Iain.

Edited November 6, 2012 by spitfire6

[James]

Thanks Iain!