| Electronics > Beginners |
| Improving small unregulated power supplies |
| << < (5/8) > >> |
| soldar:
Oh, I forgot to mention that I have used a few transformer PSUs to build simple battery chargers. Provide a battery holder and a resistor and you have a battery charger. I have built a few of these for friends when they complained their fast & furious & intelligent chargers were damaging their batteries. A simple slow charger is much better. |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: soldar on September 26, 2019, 07:50:51 am ---I do not think "efficiency regulations" have much, if anything, to do with it. The losses in very small units, say under 5 or 10 W, are negligible. More powerful units get too big and heavy. A 50 or 100 W SMPS is very manageable but it would be too heavy with a mains transformer. In the very small units range I believe the main reason is economic. SMPS are cheaper and provide stable regulated output. If you want to add a linear regulator to a conventional PSU then it gets too big, too heavy and too expensive. Another point in favor of SMPS is wide range voltage input. In summary, in the very small power range, say under 10 W, I believe market forces are the reason SMPS have replaced conventional PSUs and not any regulations (which I have not seen or heard of). --- End quote --- It is absolutely about regulations, at least in the USA. The old iron transformer type is typically around 50% which is not compliant. https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/new-energy-efficiency-standards-for-small-power-adapters-will-make-a-big-di |
| Zero999:
The same is true in the EU. Old transformer based power supplies use too much power when unloaded to meet the new efficiency requirements. https://ec.europa.eu/info/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/energy-label-and-ecodesign/energy-efficient-products/external-power-supplies_en |
| soldar:
I am seriously thinking of buying a bunch of these regulators I saw mentioned in another thread and just making them into regulated PSUs at whatever voltage each one can handle. |
| Zero999:
--- Quote from: soldar on October 13, 2019, 09:20:06 am ---I am seriously thinking of buying a bunch of these regulators I saw mentioned in another thread and just making them into regulated PSUs at whatever voltage each one can handle. --- End quote --- What about reliability? |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |