Bench power supply

[Shutterdial]

I am looking for a good power supply that is digital.  At least 10 amp.   What do you recommend.  Everything i have seen say do not buy a cheep Chinese one.  I want something like this

[Audioguru]

I saw one on ebay that looked like that one. It is so Cheeeep that the ad does not even say if it has voltage or current regulation. I don't think it was certified to be safe.

[Cliff Matthews]

Welcome! A prime way to squeeze all the goodness from the EEVblog forum is to use the search. I've found that if you go to the top level and search from there, it will search all sub-forums (I guess that's the way most are, but I've tried others and nothing compares to this place).

As regards the bench supply, many Asian products use model numbers that reflect function, so a 30v @ 5a will often have 305 in the model name. So maybe use "3010 supply" as your search (15 results). Dave has some tear down video's on similar models too. Many of these Chinese wonder boxes are "built to a price" (to quote Dave) cutting corners on safety or using cheap caps. Some members knowingly buy them and mod them out of the box. All this and more should make for some good reading - cheers!

[bitseeker]

Welcome to the forum, Shutterdial.

Some information that will help folks give recommendations:

What is your budget?
What are you going to use it for?
How much noise in the output is acceptable for your use case?
Does it have to be new or are you OK with used equipment?

Also, enter at least your country in your profile as it may have an impact on what's relevant to your part of the world.

[Shutterdial]

I was looking at a tenma 72-6910 used
I will use it for leds,   Amplifiers  power radios, maybe charge a battery.  etc.
New  or used.   I would like to be in the $100 maybe up to $200

any help is appreciated. i just don't want to buy a piece of junk

[StormJunkie]

I was recently in the market for a desktop supply as well.  Very similar budget to yours.  I ended up going with a Instatek GPD-3303S.  It's a 30v 3A dual channel supply (technically 3 channels, third channel is 2.5V, 3.3V, or 5V).  Found mine on ebay for $140.  The two main channels can be run in series for 60v 3A out, or parallel for 30V 6A.  So far, I'm very happy with it for the price.  Down the road I may pick up a newer Rigol or Siglent supply, but for now the GPD-3303S does everything I need.  It's a $400-$500 supply new.

[Hideki]

I think you mean GW Instek (Good Will Instrument Co., Ltd in Taiwan) and not "Instatek".

[Kappes Buur]

If you really need a power supply able to deliver 10A then the Zhaoxin RXN-3010D seems to be a fair choice. Sure it is made in China, but what is not nowadays. Since it is a linear supply the weight of the supply is quite substantial. The more current, the heftier the supply.

Personally I have two Zhaoxin RXN-305D linear supplies, which have served me quite well so far, and recently got a Zhaoxin KPS3005-DU switching supply, which I now use more frequently (more features and settings). All three are capable of 5A each, which has been sufficient for my purposes.

There are many detractors for supplies made in China and they may have a point, since some manufacturers have put very little into their products in the way of design or quality of components or manufacturing process. So, make sure you buy from a dealer who stands behind the product they are selling.

[Shutterdial]

I would like to find a single output  10 amp supply  If possible. 

[bitseeker]

Instek also make single-channel supplies. They should work just fine for your purposes and are about mid-range in price. Note that high-current power supplies often are of the switching type especially if they're compact in form factor. Linear ones get pretty large and heavy to deliver 10+ amps.

For LEDs, battery charging, and the like, a switchmode supply is fine since the noise isn't an issue. For audio amplifiers and some radios, linear would be better. It just depends how good the filtering is in the device's own power supply.

If you're going to charge batteries, be sure to add a diode to prevent reversing the current on the power supply. Many have been damaged without proper protection.

Here are some to peruse: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=instek+10a&_sacat=0