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First power supply

THESE are the things I am in the process of learning.

My rule of thumb: No touchy the killing things until thoroughly understood!
 





You may be able to get more current from a variable DC supply with a lower maximum voltage for reasonable cost. I recently picked up a 0-5V/0-75A power supply from ePay. When you review the manufacturers website, you can see from all the models they offer, as the max voltage goes up, the max current goes down.

I suspect they are using the same transformer in all the models.
 

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I got a 0-16V 40A power supply locally for around $200, no current regulation, but it's been friggin indestructible. I use it for fun more than anything else, 40A melts wires into pools of white hot metal in no time :D
 
Man if only I could find a regulated one for a price like that. I could use my 18V3A to power water pumps and cooling fans and such.
 
Things that is awesome!!!!! Haha, I would be afraid of that kind of power!
 
ya know, I have tons of scrap copper powercords lying around and really want to melt some down to make my own heatsinks. You guys are giving me ideas. So, a MOT could give me that kind of current?
 
Yes but you need ounces and ounces of copper to make a heatsink if you don't have an inert atmosphere to melt it in as the surface gets heavily oxidized. In the end small/thin copper makes a poor choice for DIY smelting.

Now re; high current power supply. I can design a fixed current regulator for whatever diode you want that wont cost much more than the number of LM317's and heatsinks needed. Making it variable increases cost tremendously. If I were to design a SMPS version it is unlikely a beginner could build it and get it working, so simple linear approaches are best.
 
Whats tremendously? Price for laser drivers of this output are a couple grand from what I can find.
 
Sigurthr said:
Yes but you need ounces and ounces of copper to make a heatsink if you don't have an inert atmosphere to melt it in as the surface gets heavily oxidized. In the end small/thin copper makes a poor choice for DIY smelting.

Now re; high current power supply. I can design a fixed current regulator for whatever diode you want that wont cost much more than the number of LM317's and heatsinks needed. Making it variable increases cost tremendously. If I were to design a SMPS version it is unlikely a beginner could build it and get it working, so simple linear approaches are best.
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Perhaps you didn't take me literally when I said I had tons of copper wire laying around. This was not a euphemism. While we are on the topic, I also have access to many German made heatsinks that are mounted to variable speed 12A motors (they're just not suitably shaped for most of my needs). I can easily get a quarter pound of this kind of copper.

I have no problem getting through the oxidation on the surface if that's what's required. I have no idea what it would require to create an "inert atmosphere".
 
Well, ok, I had an idea...but, I am not sourcing argon, creating an atmosphere, etc...there is a point to which the $3 from Fasttech is worth it.
 
Yeah, you'd need an inert gas and a means of regulating and dispensing/containing the gas.

As far as the definition of tremendously, you'd need to spend more to DIY than to buy a bench unit. Btw, never look for niche power supplies, they're outrageously overpriced. Call it a constant current psu and pay $10-$200, call it a laser psu/driver and pay several grand.
 
Why not just use a single LM317 and a passbank? Much cheaper than a crapload of 317's ;)
 
^Maybe not. I saw them for 32 cents somewhere around here. Either way, you'd need fewer pass transistors than lm317s I would think.
 
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