What manufacturers are good for external power supplies?

[yami759]

Sorry if this kind of question has been asked before, but I need a 5V power supply that can provide at least 3A. As I'm still fairly new and the circuit I'm making is a gift for a loved one, I don't want to deal with mains voltage and would get something off the shelf that I know will work good and be safe. As such, I was looking for a traditional wall-adapter type power brick. In my search, however, I realized that I knew almost none of the companies listed after filtering my search criteria, and as such I don't know which ones I can trust. Prices range anywhere from $12 to $80, and I have no idea how much I should pay to get a "good" power supply. If anyone has experience with these companies or can recommend a decent power supply, that advice would be very helpful. Also, I only have looked on Digikey, but if someone can recommend a better place to get power supplies (in a reasonable time) I'd definitely give it a look.



The only company I recognized, which was omitted from the list above, was Adafruit, who has a 10A power supply listed for $32.

[Old Printer]

You don't give us much to go on as far as what this PS needs to do beyond 5V & 3A  DC output I assume. Here is a basic wall wart style charger, likely surplus, but this is a good dealer and they have dozens of power supply's. I buy a lot from them.
http://www.mpja.com/5-Volt-DC-Plug-Power-Supply-4A-Regulated/productinfo/18520+PS/

[jeremy]

If you can live with 2.5A, I usually just use a raspberry Pi power supply: http://au.element14.com/stontronics/t5989dv/psu-rpi-5v-2-5a-multi-plug-blk/dp/2534971

Has all of the various international adapters, international standards marks, and costs something like $10.

[flynwill]

I've used numerous CUI ones with no issues at all.

[dmills]

We tend to use a mixture of Meanwell, XP and TDK at work depending on the price point, got thousands of Meanwell GSTs in the field which are not tending to come back, so I take that as being a reasonable indicator.

Regards, Dan.

[schmitt trigger]

I have had good results with LiteOn

[cvanc]

I also have used several from CUI with good results.

Suggestion:  Filter your Digi-Key search for units rated for 'medical' use... these are generally higher quality.  Good luck.

[tooki]

TDK-Lambda and Delta are basically the Rolls-Royces. Mean Well has a quite good reputation and is cheaper.

[schmitt trigger]

I also have used several from CUI with good results.

Suggestion:  Filter your Digi-Key search for units rated for 'medical' use... these are generally higher quality.  Good luck.

This is actually a very good and clever suggestion.
You'll pay a little more, though.

[Karel]

I also have used several from CUI with good results.

Suggestion:  Filter your Digi-Key search for units rated for 'medical' use... these are generally higher quality.  Good luck.

This is actually a very good and clever suggestion.
You'll pay a little more, though.

I use medical approved wall adapters all the time. Imho they are worth the extra couple of dollars for several reasons:

* no auto-certification, they must have done all laboratory testing for EMI/EMC and safety
* much lower leakage current, very nice when doing sensitive measurements

Do a simple test. Take an ordinary powersupply without ground terminal (like most wall adapters) and connect it to the wall socket. Take the floating output cable connector in one hand and touch the metal of the connector. Now, with the other hand touch something that is electrically connected to ground. Warning! It's not funny! It can hurt a lot!

This problem is much less with medical approved powersupplies.

[Zero999]

I also have used several from CUI with good results.

Suggestion:  Filter your Digi-Key search for units rated for 'medical' use... these are generally higher quality.  Good luck.

This is actually a very good and clever suggestion.
You'll pay a little more, though.

I use medical approved wall adapters all the time. Imho they are worth the extra couple of dollars for several reasons:

* no auto-certification, they must have done all laboratory testing for EMI/EMC and safety
* much lower leakage current, very nice when doing sensitive measurements

Do a simple test. Take an ordinary powersupply without ground terminal (like most wall adapters) and connect it to the wall socket. Take the floating output cable connector in one hand and touch the metal of the connector. Now, with the other hand touch something that is electrically connected to ground. Warning! It's not funny! It can hurt a lot!

This problem is much less with medical approved powersupplies.

I suppose everyone has a different pain threshold. I've done that before and can feel a slight tingle, but wouldn't describe it as painful.

Fortunately, it's possible to avoid that. Take an ordinary, two pin PSU and connect the 0V side of its output to mains earth, via a couple of Y capacitors: one for the +V and another for the 0V.