Korad KA6005P / KA6003P VS Owon P4603 / Multicomp MP710087

[neel]

Hello,

After spending a week looking at low priced bench PS and watching lot of reviews I have narrowed down my list to those linear models in the title for my first bench PS with a 200€ max budget.
I now need to make my choice between those and still have some questions that were not answered in the reviews.
My usage will be repairs (would like to try injection to find shorts, mostly for TV / computer repairs, no phone), basic electronics circuits, maybe some battery charging (but I already have a nice Turnigy Reaktor 300W/20A charger for that), or just powering various devices.

OCP/OVP speed:

I know this is one of the biggest weakness of the Owon/Multicomp where those protections are too slow to be a real protection for the connected circuit/device (unless when you slowly manually crank up the voltage/current maybe ?).

But I have not seen this being tested on the Korad.
Is the Korad really much quicker to shut down when OCP/OVP kicks in ? Enough to prevent damages to the hooked circuit ?

This could be a deciding factor if the Korad was really much safer for finding shorted components using injection for example. Now, from what I understand of this method, the goal is to crank up the current progressively until you can find the heating area, so maybe the Owon/Multicomp is as capable as the Korad despite the poor OCP/OVP ?


OCP/OVP memory:

I like the fact the Owon/Multicomp store the OCP/OVP settings in memory along with voltage/current output settings.

I have not found if the Korad do the same ? (it would be less convenient if you need to set OCP/OVP manually when you call a voltage/current memory)


Permanent display:

One of the feature I really like with the Owon/Multicomp is the permanent display of the measured output + set output + OCP/OVP, whereas the Korad will only display one thing at a time.

Do you also find this is a big improvement in usage ? I feel having the 3 informations always displayed can help preventing mistakes.
For exemple, with the Korad I may call back a memory and forget to set OCP/OVP accordingly if they are not saved along with the V/A output settings.

Also the Korad has no indication on the display to indicate Lock state (ON/OFF).

The only area the Korad display may be better is the CC/CV state (especially if you change the LED colour). If find this is not the best idea on the Owon/Multicomp to just switch the CC/CV letters using the same colour and located at the same place on the screen. This mean the change is small (only 2nd C letter becoming V). For exemple it would be easier to see that change if CC was displayed Red and CV green. Sad we cannot hack the FW to make changes like that.


On the fly adjustments (output ON):

I have noticed from the various YT reviews that the Owon/Multicomp have a significant delay for applying on the fly voltage/current changes. The Korad seems much quicker in this area, with OTF changes being almost instant. I'm not only talking about the readback on the PS but the info coming from the electronic load used by reviewers. The Korad seems to apply changes very quickly whereas the Owon/Multicomp have that delay (around 500ms delay, haven't checked precisely but can clearly be seen by naked eye).

Do you find this is a big PRO for the Korad in real usage ? (of course it will also depend on what you do)


Calibration:

Both can be calibrated by the user, and were always well calibrated by default in the reviews. So none win in that regard I guess. I have a decent DMM (Brymen BM257s) but it is not calibrated.


That's all what comes to my mind for now, I may think about other questions I would have forgotten but I guess most important aspects are there already. If you have any other aspect that you find is much better with one or the other unit feel free to tell about it.

For now, I cannot decide between the Multicomp MP710087 and the Korad KA6005P. I can get both at a similar price, a little below 200€ VAT & shipping included. For the same price I would get 5A/300W going with the Korad VS 3A/180W for the Multicomp. The Korad is older style (display especially) but since it has been on the market for much longer it may also be more robust / bug-free with all the updates it has received over the time.

Help me decide which one I may less regret buying !