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- Sep 22, 2010
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Edit: Since this thread got bumped I thought I'd add an update. The PSU is fine and I've used it without issue many times since. The problem was something I caused by not limiting the voltage to the max safe voltage for the diode. I'll leave the original post as a lesson in what not to do for anyone who my read this in the future.
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To say I'm a bit upset with this product is a bit of an understatement right now.
I purchased it earlier this week from Amazon since having a bench supply around would mean not having to rig up an LM317 driver and power supply every time I want to test a diode. It arrived Wednesday and I finally had time to try it out tonight. For constant current mode according to the directions you set the voltage knob to max, the current knob to minimum and power it up. Then you attach your load and adjust the current to your desired setting. I set everything up and it seemed to work great. The diode looked nice at 220ma (about half what I planned on setting the driver at) but I was starting to get reflections off the wall and decided it's be a good idea to get my glasses before continuing. I powered it down and went to get my glasses. When I came back I reset everything as before so I can monitor it from 0ma up to the 475 I planned on running it at but this time it goes up to 2ma I hear a relay click and the voltages shoots up to 18.5v @ 0A. WTF. A quick check shows everything was set correctly so I try again. Same thing. At this point smoke starts to shoot out my ears because I realized that even at 2ma the diode was toast. A quick check with my LM317 test driver (which powered it fine earlier tonight) confirmed it so now I have a dead $52 diode and a bench supply I can no longer trust. I don't want to know how much I'm going to have to pay to ship the damned thing to amazon.
So now that I've done my ranting does anyone have this supply? I'm trying to figure out if it's screwed up or if there was a ID-10-T error involved somewhere before I send this ting back next week. At this point I'm heavily leaning towards the unit itself being screwed up. I guess I can extract the red diode from the sled and use it as a guinea pig and see if it's the supply or user error since it's not a standard can and is more or less useless for hobbyist use. What sucks is I know DTR uses the 15v, 5A version made by the same company and he doesn't seen to have any issues.
Times like this make me want to take up drinking.
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To say I'm a bit upset with this product is a bit of an understatement right now.
I purchased it earlier this week from Amazon since having a bench supply around would mean not having to rig up an LM317 driver and power supply every time I want to test a diode. It arrived Wednesday and I finally had time to try it out tonight. For constant current mode according to the directions you set the voltage knob to max, the current knob to minimum and power it up. Then you attach your load and adjust the current to your desired setting. I set everything up and it seemed to work great. The diode looked nice at 220ma (about half what I planned on setting the driver at) but I was starting to get reflections off the wall and decided it's be a good idea to get my glasses before continuing. I powered it down and went to get my glasses. When I came back I reset everything as before so I can monitor it from 0ma up to the 475 I planned on running it at but this time it goes up to 2ma I hear a relay click and the voltages shoots up to 18.5v @ 0A. WTF. A quick check shows everything was set correctly so I try again. Same thing. At this point smoke starts to shoot out my ears because I realized that even at 2ma the diode was toast. A quick check with my LM317 test driver (which powered it fine earlier tonight) confirmed it so now I have a dead $52 diode and a bench supply I can no longer trust. I don't want to know how much I'm going to have to pay to ship the damned thing to amazon.
So now that I've done my ranting does anyone have this supply? I'm trying to figure out if it's screwed up or if there was a ID-10-T error involved somewhere before I send this ting back next week. At this point I'm heavily leaning towards the unit itself being screwed up. I guess I can extract the red diode from the sled and use it as a guinea pig and see if it's the supply or user error since it's not a standard can and is more or less useless for hobbyist use. What sucks is I know DTR uses the 15v, 5A version made by the same company and he doesn't seen to have any issues.
Times like this make me want to take up drinking.
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