I am lucky to have access to a laser cutter which is what I use to cut basically anything but metal. It works great and is perfect every time once you have the settings right. There are places online you can order them from as well but more and more “makerspaces” are popping up at libraries and other places around town.
You can check and see if there is a local one near you. Or even there are lots of guys on craigslist that will do laser cutting as well. The acrylic can be purchased from home depot.
Everything is soldered actually, the connectors are used for the banana plugs partly due to those cheap plugs melting if you try to solder directly to them and to make them removable if needed at a later date. They are soldered to the wire though. I tested it and there was basically no resistance between the connector and the plug so I was not worried.
I could not figure out a better way of describing that without making a long post even longer.
Basically to adjust the voltage/currant you press the set button (or the volt/currant button on the DPS) and it starts the first digit of the volts/current setting blinking.
While it is blinking you can adjust it with the control knob. To go to the next digit you press in on the control knob.
The issue is that after about a minute on the DP but only a few seconds on the DPS the digit stops blinking and in order to make another adjustment you have to press the set button and scroll over to the digit you want again.
Not a major deal but quite annoying when making lots of changes to the same digit.
Far as course/fine adjustment it is not a potentiometer, it is a digital control wheel. Each “click” of the wheel around, moves the selected digit 1 point +/-. You can select whatever digit you want to adjust so it can be as fine or course as you want it to be.
Each spin of the wheel feels like 40 “clicks”, so you could move the digit by 40 points if desired in a single spin (it will automatically adjust the next digit to the left accordingly once you reach 0 or 9 respectively and keep turning the wheel)
Good to see another manufacture personally getting involved with BLF! I think someone must have sent you a PM?
You can view and reply to PM’s by clicking the “messages” link on the left hand side of the screen.
While you are here I did have an idea that would be very unique and useful for these high powered power supplies.
It would be very cool if you have a separate voltage sensing input for the unit. This way you could connect it to the end of the main power leads and read the voltage after all the voltage loss in the wires.
Here is why:
For example I am using 14 gauge leads that are 1m long. They loose about .03 volts per amp, so if I am sending 10 amps through the wires it drops .3 volts or so. if I used cheaper leads the voltage drop can be as high as .15 volts per amp which would be 1.5 volts @ 10 amps.
If you had a separate input for sensing the voltage with a separate pair of wires then the power supply could automatically adjust the voltage so that the voltage at the end of the wires is always correct.
My RC battery charger does this and it works VERY well and greatly improves accuracy and performance, particularly with low quality wires.
Nice find IA4W, very reasonable price too, thanks!
PS: Bunny is doing great, I’ll have to post an update in your thread when I get a chance.
Texas_Ace,
One of the reviews on the Ali store says the higher amp units aren’t as accurate in regards to V displayed as the lower A units, has this been your experience?
There is very little to go on for these in regards to reviews so I want to say thanks for bringing these to our attention and taking the time to do a write-up, it’s very much appreciated.
That was most likely my review you saw. Same as I mentioned here the 3012 is slightly less accurate then the 50v5a but only slightly and it is stated in the specs that it would be.
Basically the 50v5a has 3 decimal places where the 3012 & 5015 have 2 decimal places is what it boils down to. This is not a negative at all, simply different specs.
For flashlight use this is unimportant IMHO, now if you are dealing with something that it would be important, then sure, get the lower amperage but better speced version. So far everything I have got from them has been within the stated specs so I am more then happy.
Probably was, there aren’t any reviews out there for the 5015, and only a couple for the smaller units. Found a pretty good YouTube review for one of the smaller ones.
As far as the dual input V input you suggested, a different option, that might be easier to implement, would be to have a fine adjustment pot for the voltage output. That way you could wire up any type of leads you want, and adjust the voltage until it matched what you actually have at the cable ends. That would work for a lot of different wire sizes and leads, because everyone’s is going to be different in a project like this where you have to make your own. And for those that don’t want to, or aren’t comfortable with adjusting it, it could simply be set to read at the unit from the factory, that way it’s essentially be unchanged from how it works now. But it’d be a great benefit for those who are comfortable tweaking it a little.
Does that sound like something that would work or that could be implemented by the manufacturer?
Sadly this would not work. The voltage reads dead on as it is if you just connect it to a multimeter. The issue is that once you start pumping current through the wires you get a voltage drop. The voltage drop can vary by a significant amount just based on how you inserted the lead plugs for example.
You could have some kind of voltage skew in the firmware that would automatically skew the voltage by .x volts per amp, this would get you much much closer and is actually a pretty good idea. Would be really easy to add as well.
but to be exact it would have to take a separate voltage reading. There is simply no other way as it can not know what is going on at the ends of the wires otherwise.
I hear you. I struggle with the same thing. It’s not the concepts that are too complex as much as the expressions and wording that might make it hard to understand. Less complex sentences and common words is the general rule.
Yeah, big boy PS. Definitely, not too big for you though. I’ve played with a couple of server PS’s (all 12v) and they are very tame with even light loads. Just so smooth. That model does need 220v and is a bit over 22 inches long. Pretty sure I will be ordering one though. If I do, thinking I will mount it under my work bench with an outlet attached to the top of the bench.
Yep, server power supplies are a bargain for sure. The parts alone cost WAY more then that. Heck the scrap price I bet is close to that just for the raw materials.
I seriously considered getting one of those myself to power the various power modules I have laying around all from a single, clean source.
I ended up skipping it mostly because of the size, I am pressed for space as it is in my “work area” and could not justify the supersized power supply. Plus like you said they are generally 220v and that was a non-starter for me. No way am I running a 220v socket to my work area just for that lol. I hate running wire through walls.
^
You can convert a branch to 220v at the breaker box, but that would make all the other outlets on that branch 220. You would need a 220 breaker and then black and white would become hot and ground would become neutral. You would also need to change the outlets to 220 outlets (there are some in a 110ish format and you would need to check your local codes. Pretty sure you don’t want to go that route, but just throwing that out in case you were not aware (I bet you are).
You might want to consider the ProLiant DL380 (DPS-600PB). 12v (Think it can be modded into the 13’s) and 47amps. Supposed to be very reliable and run forever (exaggerating, of course). With a slight modification, the outputs can connected in series. Common for folks to run 2S, 3S, and 4S for 24v, 36v, and 48v, respectively. I saw one where the guy had 2S with jacks for 5, 12, 17, and 24v. I think 2 units would be the max you could run on a typical 110v, 15A home outlet.
Yeah, I knew it was possible to convert to 220v but with the old wiring in this house I would not trust it. Plus every dang circuit seems to be connected to half the dang house!
No joke, 1 circuit runs the microwave, all the kitchen outlets and lights, the hallway + outlets, the formal room lights + half the outlets (which also happen to power the main computer), plus a few other things I forgot.
Someone got super laze and just started daisy chaining things together in an endless loop! That stupid circuit will pop if you use anything high powered at all. Forget using the microwave and anything else at the same time.
The rest of the house is not that much better. Already had to add a few circuits to run the computers separately as they kept popping the breaker by themselves.
:+1: