Breaking in a new power supply?

[broderp]

I just got my new RIGOL DP832 and after posting about it in another thread, a member mentioned they were "tweaking and burning in" their new supply.

Q- Can anyone offer up any advise as to what is best practice with a new supply?  Is burning it in a good/ common practice? How is this best accomplished?

Q- What teaks do you guys perform on new supplies? Aside from opening  them up and cleaning up loose wires and such (which I can't do without voiding my warranty) is there anything I should be/ could be doing to improve performance?

Q- I also see that I do not have the latest firmware on my unit.  Does upgrading firmware ruin the factory calibration in anyway?

Sorry for the noob questions, but this supply is my first personal (read "brand spanking new")supply, and even though to many it's a "cheap" supply, to me its expensive so I want to baby it and take every precaution to make sure it lasts for years. 

Cheers,
Raymond

[Simon]

I think someone has been spinning you a yarn or you have a vivid immagination, why on earth should you need to tidy up loose wires etc ? it's a power supply not a 1960's car engine

[broderp]

I think someone has been spinning you a yarn or you have a vivid immagination, why on earth should you need to tidy up loose wires etc ? it's a power supply not a 1960's car engine

Well, I didn't make it up, but in defense of the persons who stated this, I believe this is more a preference (to me anyways) as I am very anal about this sort of stuff myself.  I also like to have all wires routed nice and tidy.     You should see me when I work on my car.  I've added wiring/harnesses and such under the hood for sensors, aux lighting etc. and I HAVE to splice in neatly, solder, electrical tape then wire loom anything I do to make it look OEM and very clean.  It always adds up to extra work, but work I am proud of.  It's my OCD. 

[Simon]

so what should a "burn in" constitute ? how should it effect the life of the power supply ? like i say it's not  car engine, it does not need to be "run in"

[Richard Crowley]

If it were a cheap, no-name (or unknown-name) clone from Ebay, it might warrant opening up just to double-check that something didn't shift or loosen during shipment across the planet. But I would think that a respectable vendor like Rigol shouldn't need such end-user QC.

As for "burn-in", unless the manufacturer recommends it, I would think it is a waste of time, energy, and the life-span of the gear.
Whomever recommended that has made an unwarranted extrapolation and has too much idle time on their hands.

I would think that we should expect that Rigol themselves should be able to definitively answer the question about the firmware update affecting the calibration. I am rather surprised it isn't mentioned in the user manual.  You DID read the manual, didn't you???

[broderp]

If it were a cheap, no-name (or unknown-name) clone from Ebay, it might warrant opening up just to double-check that something didn't shift or loosen during shipment across the planet. But I would think that a respectable vendor like Rigol shouldn't need such end-user QC.

As for "burn-in", unless the manufacturer recommends it, I would think it is a waste of time, energy, and the life-span of the gear.
Whomever recommended that has made an unwarranted extrapolation and has too much idle time on their hands.

I would think that we should expect that Rigol themselves should be able to definitively answer the question about the firmware update affecting the calibration. I am rather surprised it isn't mentioned in the user manual.  You DID read the manual, didn't you???

I read thru (the pertinent sections) and they say NOTHING regarding firmware upgrading.  I stumbled across it here on the forum!       They only provide a quick start up guide, but I downloaded and printed the manual weeks ago from RIGOL's website.  Page 2-56 is the start System Information section.  The give general info about manual calibration, calibration interval and that's it.  There is absolutely no mention of firmware, upgrading or upgrading considerations.  Now I will admit I may have missed it, but I doubt it.

The information on upgrading is found on the RIGOL website, but is not very straight forward.  I've downloaded the instructions and filled out the request for them to tell me what I need.  Seems kind of hoaky, but should be easily enough accomplished.

With regards to burning it in, I suppose if you buy into the belief that most electronics will fail within the first 90 to 180 days, burning in a supply may expose these types of issues.  Perhaps for some this is within a return or exchange window from the dealer that would be quicker than shipping a defective unit back to RIGOL for warranty repair. ?  Just saying. 

I appreciate your candor thoughts on the topic, this is why I asked.  I'm open to all idea's and will decide based on what I learn and think which way to go. 

[jlmoon]

I think someone has been spinning you a yarn or you have a vivid immagination, why on earth should you need to tidy up loose wires etc ? it's a power supply not a 1960's car engine

Well, I didn't make it up, but in defense of the persons who stated this, I believe this is more a preference (to me anyways) as I am very anal about this sort of stuff myself.  I also like to have all wires routed nice and tidy.     You should see me when I work on my car.  I've added wiring/harnesses and such under the hood for sensors, aux lighting etc. and I HAVE to splice in neatly, solder, electrical tape then wire loom anything I do to make it look OEM and very clean.  It always adds up to extra work, but work I am proud of.  It's my OCD. 

Well Broderp, you sure don't want to look behind my Lab work area,  I could swear I have seen a nest embedded in all those wires.. not sure if a Rat's nest or a Bird's nest.. 
There are so many power cables, rf lines, network & other cables that I gave up along time ago. 

[tautech]

Basic burn in to catch imminent failure should have been done prior to packaging at the factory.
Setup to meet advertised spec will also been done.
Designers will have experimeted with internal layout and IF mods like you describe WERE needed, they would have been done.
If new FW is available, the manufacturer presumes you will follow their instuctions of instalation and not stuff it up.

Essentially the PSU's reliability is governed by 2 things, your wise usage and MTBF of componentry.

Get on and just use it.

[German_EE]

Burn in - Run power supply at maximum load for 2 minutes to make sure that nothing breaks then 80% of full load for an hour until it's nice and toasty. You then open the case and after checking for burnt components tighten every nut, bolt and screw in sight (especially devices on heatsinks).

Put it back together and you should then be OK for the working life of the device.

[Richard Crowley]

... You then open the case and after checking for burnt components tighten every nut, bolt and screw in sight (especially devices on heatsinks).

Put it back together and you should then be OK for the working life of the device.

@broderp said in his original post that he could NOT open the case without voiding the warranty. it is most certainly NOT worth voiding the warranty for such extraordinarily low potential benefit.

[GoneTomorrow]

I tend to like "burning in" things on arrival as a personal preference. The hope being that any imminent fault is caught during this (e.g., power transistor not mounted correctly to heat sink), and not when I actually need the thing working.

I bought a Tenma bench PSU (cheap), and burnt it in by using a length of wire equaling 10 ohms in a bucket of water, put 30V across it and did some other stuff for a couple of hours. Came back; no flames, and still maintaining voltage and current = 

[jeroen79]

"Burning in" is something that I associate with playing white noise on your new stereoset to make sure that the electrons in your $2000 audiophile cables are aligned before playing your music on it.

An inspection or test to see if the quality is as you expected is a different thing IMO.

[broderp]

RIGOL responded to my inquiry about upgrading the firmware.  I had filled out the request on their website including all info from my unit.   I got the response below:


Raymond,
Although Released firmware is designed to either correct or enhanced various features of an instrument there is always the possibility of the unexpected or that the "Correction" has changed how the instrument works in a particular application or situation.   Without a known limitation or identified issue, firmware upgrades are not always recommended.
Currently upgrading the firmware of the DP8 requires two different files. The first of the files can be downloaded from here
      Link-DP800 Boot and DSP Update
Instructions for installing the upgrade can be downloaded from here
      Link-DP800FWUpgrade_To_00_01_09.pdf
Regards,
Rigol Technology
Chris Armstrong
Rigol Technologies USA, Inc.
Director of Product Marketing & SW Applications


What?   Makes me want to not upgrade!  Sounds like they are hiding the fact the upgrade is buggy!  To which I replied:

Are you saying I should not upgrade the firmware or it may introduce other bugs or glitches?  Your response makes me a bit leery to update my new DP832.
May I please ask if updating the firmware will compromise or require me to have my unit recalibrated?
Thank you for your time and the files.
Sincerely,
Raymond

They promptly replied with:

We have high confidence in our updates, but there are always risks. We leave it to users to weigh what the update helps them do vs the potential risks. I see no reason it should need calibrated after the fact.

Regards,
Chris

Chris Armstrong
Director of Product Marketing & SW Applications
Rigol Technologies
10200 SW Allen Blvd.
Suite C
Beaverton, OR 97005

So this answers my question regarding the need for calibration.

I downloaded the files and instructions.  Let me tell you, they are less than stellar and definitely not all inclusive or detailed.  As it turns out, they linked me to generic information and had I not read thru the thread on this forum about current boot loader and version I would have been totally lost.

The boot process hung every time.  I wasn't sure if it was just slow or what.  I took the chance and realized that I had already had the current/latest boot loader version (1.09) so I skipped this and went to the second part.  BAM....it started the upgrade instantly and completed.   All is well right?  Nope.

The instructions attempt to walk you thru pressing M1, M2, M3 etc. buttons in some pattern to update the analog boards.  The issue was I never got the screen they were saying to get as the supply went straight to the normal operation screen within a second of saying it successfully updated. 

Restarting the supply does show my new digital revision as 01.13.

So I'm wondering if this is it or if I somehow need to complete the other 5 steps I can't seem to access and update the analog boards.   

Sorry for the long rant....

[broderp]

... You then open the case and after checking for burnt components tighten every nut, bolt and screw in sight (especially devices on heatsinks).

Put it back together and you should then be OK for the working life of the device.

@broderp said in his original post that he could NOT open the case without voiding the warranty. it is most certainly NOT worth voiding the warranty for such extraordinarily low potential benefit.

yep, a 3 year warranty is something I'm not willing to void at his point! 

[Richard Crowley]

I'm very wary of firmware upgrades.  I can't think of EVER performing a firmware upgrade that was any benefit to me.  And I can think of MANY times I suffered side effects, some of them SEVERE to FATAL from installing (or attempting) a firmware upgrade.  Show me how it fixes some problem I am having RIGHT NOW and maybe I will consider it.  Otherwise I would rather have "outdated" but WORKING, thank you very much.

Latest example: in a fit of insanity, I installed an "upgrade" to my HTC One Android phone, and now I can't use the "Play Store" to install apps.  It keeps crashing and saying that it can't contact the mother ship or something.  Of course it didn't "fix" any problem that I could see.  Bah!  Humbug!  They can keep their "upgrades".

[VK5RC]

Switch it on,  give it a good blast,  so if an early failure occurs the sales agent is compassionate /not obstructive,  otherwise " if it ain't bugg***d,  don't fix it". HiHi

[broderp]

I'm very wary of firmware upgrades.  I can't think of EVER performing a firmware upgrade that was any benefit to me.  And I can think of MANY times I suffered side effects, some of them SEVERE to FATAL from installing (or attempting) a firmware upgrade.  Show me how it fixes some problem I am having RIGHT NOW and maybe I will consider it.  Otherwise I would rather have "outdated" but WORKING, thank you very much.

Latest example: in a fit of insanity, I installed an "upgrade" to my HTC One Android phone, and now I can't use the "Play Store" to install apps.  It keeps crashing and saying that it can't contact the mother ship or something.  Of course it didn't "fix" any problem that I could see.  Bah!  Humbug!  They can keep their "upgrades".

Good point.  I rooted my phone and am happily running for almost two years now on an outdated version of android. No updates.

I did ask in the appropriate thread what the differences were in the case of my PS with the new Firmware.  Hopefully I will get some answers there.

I did manage to figure out the final process in the upgrade last night.  I got the 'digital' part done (with little help from the bad instructions) and figured out the 'analog' part of the upgrade, again with out any help from the instructions.

So it appears all is well.  In my limited use, it appears not much has changed, other than allowing me to see more info under the SYSTEM INFO screen.  Operation appears unaffected.