Power Supply

[Techniker]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a decent, cheap power supply? The circuits I am dealing with are fairly insensitive, so the emphasis is on cost. I am looking for something that will provide DC at 0-18 V and possibly up to 3 A. I would also like the ability for it to do constant voltage (emphasis here), but constant current would also be nice.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Techniker

 

[midnightcruise]

if you are looking for good bang for the $ on benchtop supplies, check out mastech power supply. They have a 0-30 V and 0-10 A supply for $139 (probably find it cheaper on ebay).

http://www.mastechpowersupply.com/variable-power-supply/switching-power-supply/cat_7.html

 

[Techniker]

Thanks! I saw one on Amazon from Mastech with 0-18V and 0-3A for $85. I definitely wanted to get at least 24 V out of it, but I had not seen that one! So the additional $50 seems to be worth it. The 10 A definitely makes it worth it, since I eventually want to run some band-pass amplifier circuits on it. Right now, I am planning on running some PIC microcontroller circuits off of it.

Have you ever ordered anything from them before? They seem to have good reviews.

 

[midnightcruise]

I have the 0-30 V and 0-10 A supply... I use with some wireless TI stuff for work and Arduino (lazy mans pic) for hobby stuff. If you are looking for a scope, the Rigol DS1052E is great. It can be easily hacked into a 100mhz scope. Great scope for home use... I use it all the time!

Also check out: http://www.eevblog.com

Fun site for electronics tinkerers.

 

[Techniker]

I have the 0-30 V and 0-10 A supply... I use with some wireless TI stuff for work and Arduino (lazy mans pic) for hobby stuff. If you are looking for a scope, the Rigol DS1052E is great. It can be easily hacked into a 100mhz scope. Great scope for home use... I use it all the time!

Also check out: http://www.eevblog.com

Fun site for electronics tinkerers.

Thanks for the site. There goes my weekend!

How did you know my next question was about an oscilloscope? My undergrad had a couple of electronics labs and I still have access to oscilloscopes there, but it just isn't the same as having your own.

Have you seen this? I still can't believe it's real (and especially at that price). Unfortunately, its application seems limited. http://www.suntekstore.com/V1-5-ARM-Pocket-Size-Digital-Oscilloscope.html

 

[midnightcruise]

Have you seen this? I still can't believe it's real (and especially at that price). Unfortunately, its application seems limited. http://www.suntekstore.com/V1-5-ARM-Pocket-Size-Digital-Oscilloscope.html

That scope is a bit slow and very cheaply built, but for the price it does a great job. I would make sure you get ver 1.5 or 1.6. They don't have any of the bugs that riddles the earlier versions. Same scope only newer circuit design and firmware. Not sure if all the 1.4 and earlier ARM scopes are upgradeable to 1.5/1.6

BTW: I figured the next item would be a scope After you have a power supply and start tinkering, you need a scope to see what is going on...lol.

 

[Techniker]

Have you ever outputted the Rigol DS1052E to a PC and if so, how well does it work? I'm fine with just screen capture, but can it do live stream as well? (Even the ones in our electronics labs didn't have a live stream- they were capture only).

While I have a captive audience, what about wave form generator? No use for it at the moment, but it's good to have someone's recommendation to keep in mind.

What do you think of the Arduino? With its rapid rise in popularity, I am thinking that I should consider trying it out- there are a ton of modules out there for it now. I think I read in Scientific American that there are even some school microsatellites being made with them.

Back in my day (okay, which was last year), all of our PICs used Basic and C (and some did C++ too).

 

[Sancho]

I have a old Heathkit 0-24v 0-3a powersupply for my insentive needs, I got it second hand, but its very stable.

I'm very found of hp/agilent function generators, but cost is high for a new one. Worth looking for if you dont mind going used. I think I have a 33120 series but I cant recall.

Scopes, all I can say is I hate the tektronix I have at work...I cant count how many times I've wanted to fling that thing into a wall or dyno roller. This is not someplace to go cheap as a good scope will allow much easier trouble shooting.

 

[midnightcruise]

The DS1052E (now hacked to be a DS1102E) has excellent live stream output (Frame rate is a bit slow, but clear) and you can control every function (except power) with your mouse. I have attached a pic of the live "Virtual Panel".

Every so often I have needed a waveform generator, but if I can't barrow one, I just breadboard up a circuit to generate what I need.

I think the Arduino is the lazy way to develop, I is great for a hobby or quick prototype, but for anything going into production it's not worth the extra $ and overhead. You can prototype out a product with it, then switch over to a TI (pick your favorite PIC here) when heading to production.

I am an old C/machine code programmer that has been pushed all then way through the various languages over the years and now using C# .NET. I liked having the granularity of C, but I have to admit the .NET stuff looks and feels finished with little effort.

 

[Danglerb]

PS and scope, I'd look for some quality used items. College surplus yards, hamfests (amateur radio swapmeet).

 

[hifi_hokie]

I've always had good luck with Astron linear supplies, for a basic bench supply. I still have an RS-20 (non-adjustable model) that I've abused the past 10 years as a desk PSU for ham radios, and it just keeps going...

Scopes, all I can say is I hate the tektronix I have at work...I cant count how many times I've wanted to fling that thing into a wall or dyno roller. This is not someplace to go cheap as a good scope will allow much easier trouble shooting.

Analog or digital Tek? I've been thinking about one of those digital storage ones...

 

[Sancho]

Digital Tek, non storage model

 

[fordbroncodave]

if you take a pyramid, pyle or astron power supply and regulate the amount of voltage going in, you can very the amount that comes out (kind of like a variable speed box for a wood router)

 

[Stuey]

Extech's got one in that range, 18V/3.0A.

http://www.extech.com/instruments/product.asp?catid=39&prodid=211