So I dissassebled a whole bunch of DL DVD burners at work today

qumefox said:

MASTECH HY1803D LINEAR DC POWER SUPPLY 0-18 V @ 0-3 A - eBay (item 350376442174 end time Sep-24-10 15:15:48 PDT)

There are others, but that's basically what you need. Any power supply that will do up to 7v DC and has adjustable current limiting will work for any diode your likely to ever mess with.

I use a BK 1670 myself. Picked it up at a hamfest for $35 but I had to do some bodywork on it's housing since it'd been dropped at one time, and recalibrate both meters, but since then it's worked perfectly.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link Qumefox.
I think I will pick up on of these. Been looking for a power supply that has variable voltage/current that can do at least 3A. Looks inexpensive but adequate.:beer:

NP, but i've never personally dealt with those. Only seen them. I was actually planning on getting one until I stumbled on the BK I ended up getting.

The first thing you'll want to do though with any psu when dealing with something as critical as LD's where you HAVE to know what your driving it at, especially when pushing the limits. Find a good DMM that's known to be accurate.. I recommend Fluke meters. When I recalibrated my BK, I actually begged/borrowed and scrounged up FOUR Flukes of various models heh. All measured within a couple mV and mA of each other when I tested my supply, so I just adjusted the meters to agree with the DMM's on both current and voltage..

I'm not sure you'll have the ability to adjust the meters in one of these ebay power supplies, but the point is, you still need to test what it displays compared to a known correct meter, so if nothing else, you can know what it's true output is. 50mA difference between output and display can make a big difference in having a working LD or an LED.

When I was doing this I also tested a cheap radioshack DMM I had against the flukes, and I found out it was actually off more than the meters on my power supply were. So it ended up getting calibrated as well.

qumefox said:

NP, but i've never personally dealt with those. Only seen them. I was actually planning on getting one until I stumbled on the BK I ended up getting.

Click to expand...

Well I'll pick it up anyway and report back with a review when I get it. It definitely wont be as nice as the BK. You found a great deal on that one.
+1 :thanks:

It's basically the same one I got at Fry's. There all Chinese knockoffs.

BK's are made in china too heh. And there's actually nothing really special about them anymore, but back in the day they were of better quality.

But make sure you read my above edit about testing to make sure it's really outputting what it says it is.

Thanks for all the info. What would be the most accurate way to test the current on the PS? should I use my test load that I use for setting current on my laser drivers?

That's pretty much what I did. Just put a known accurate DMM set on current in series with the test load and see how much the DMM and the power supply differ as far as readings.

Haltom City :wave:

Welcome to the forum!

jib77 said:

Haltom City :wave:

Welcome to the forum!

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Should i pick anything else up from fry's while i'm there? batteries, hosts? special wire?

Boosted98gsx said:

Thanks!

Should i pick anything else up from fry's while i'm there? batteries, hosts? special wire?

Click to expand...

The only thing I got there is solder wick and hakko soldering iron tips.

As far as wire get some of the silicone stranded wire from flayminpyro, I also would get a dummy load and flux from him: link

Batteries from LarryDFW (see link in his signature).

And hosts from either Jayrob or Ehgemus.

Boosted98gsx said:

Thanks!

Should i pick anything else up from fry's while i'm there? batteries, hosts? special wire?

Click to expand...

You should get some clip leads for the power supply, because it does not come with any. Have a look around Fry's has lots of interesting items that could be useful. Their wire selection is not the best, but it will get you started until you can get better somewhere else. I picked up a selection of Resistors, Diodes, etc.

Ok, well Fry's didn't have a power supply. So looks like I'm stuck with the one from ebay.

Did You have Them check the other DFW stores? I can not believe all the store here are sold out.

Coherent Light said:

Did You have Them check the other DFW stores? I can not believe all the store here are sold out.

Click to expand...

Do you have a part number? They were very "busy" doing whatever they were doing and not very willing to help by looking stuff up for me.

The Fry's label reads

Velleman PS1 $79.99
Velleman PS1503SBU
Supply 0-15 volts dc
Adjustable Output
PS1503SBU 5095835

Both the voltage and current are adjustable.

We have one similar to this up here at work ... its good up to 5A and only $80:

link