DC load on ebay 89 dollars.

[GEuser]

A bit off da topic but I really would like a Chinese fella or fellete pop in and type

"See its not all China that does this what about those Yankee round eyed fat rednecks"

And it goes to show something about the Chinese sometimes , they have a bit of Class .. imo

[ElektroQuark]

Mine is shipped.

Seller has not answer my questions about using FEDEX, BTW.

[carpelux]

I also got a message that mina was shipped. I'm not worried about the shipping and taxes, if it turns out that I'll have to pay taxes twice I'm quite sure it can be fixed via paypal as the fees for tax and shipping was separate from the DC load itself.

[icpart]

Hi I also receive message for shipment.
Meanwhile I find some teardown pictures of that DC Load in this Chinese forum: http://bbs.38hot.net/thread-74660-1-1.html
Enjoy 

[ManCave]

Hi I also receive message for shipment.
Meanwhile I find some teardown pictures of that DC Load in this Chinese forum: http://bbs.38hot.net/thread-74660-1-1.html
Enjoy 

I love the precision resistors

[saturation]

NICE!  Thanks for the link to photos.  Pics are not the clearest but it looks well made, circa late 1990s.  The particular layout of the heat sinks and power MOSFETs are similar to desktop eloads by Array, Maynuo, BK, Itech etc., and clones designed since 2000, I wonder if the Chinese eloads I mention took inspiration from this design or are related in some way.   This Amrel would be a good buy.

Hi I also receive message for shipment.
Meanwhile I find some teardown pictures of that DC Load in this Chinese forum: http://bbs.38hot.net/thread-74660-1-1.html
Enjoy 

[ve7xen]

I have the Amrel LP-302 power supply. Apart from one of the heatsinks rattling around inside when I got it (looks like a bodge - the board was designed for discrete rectifiers on the board, but they air-wired a rectifier module to an extra heatsink pinned into the main one - guess the pins came loose over time) it's fairly well made. Real clunking power switch!

I find it amusing that the product literature advertises NO KNOBS! as if that's a feature. Their UI blows, to be honest. I only use this supply for voltages I'm unlikely to change through a project (eg. 5V logic supply) since it's so cumbersome to use. The load should be much better as it has a full numeric keypad. It also beeps on every keypress and whenever switching CC/CV modes which is incredibly irritating. There is an undocumented 'hold two keys' code to turn it off, but I don't recall what it is, or you can use RS-232.

Anyway, the main of this post is: On the supply, if the calibration data are lost (not sure if my unit has an internal battery or just "loses" its memory after a while) it will output totally wacky voltages (ie. +20V offset) and the readings will be way off. Not as dangerous with an e-load, but something to be wary of anyway. As the firmware looks very similar, I wouldn't be surprised if the loads suffer a similar issue. Test the units before use!

[philpem]

Got my "it's shipped!" email last night. Still no word from the seller regarding Fedex. That'll earn him zero stars for "seller communication"... not that I expect those ratings really matter.

As for cal constants, it looks from the photos on the Chinese site like there's a socketed battery-backed DIP module on the middle vertical PCB. If that is the case, I'll be reading it out and it'll find its way onto KO4BB. Same if there's a firmware EPROM I can read out without stripping the machine to bits.

Calibration will be "interesting"... I hope there's a manual with cal instructions included...

[macboy]

Hi I also receive message for shipment.
Meanwhile I find some teardown pictures of that DC Load in this Chinese forum: http://bbs.38hot.net/thread-74660-1-1.html
Enjoy 

I love the precision resistors

These brown ones? 

[george graves]

Got my "it's shipped!" email last night. Still no word from the seller regarding Fedex. That'll earn him zero stars for "seller communication"... not that I expect those ratings really matter.

They really do matter, actually. Ebay requires commercial sellers to maintain an average of 4.5 stars out of 5 or their account gets shut down.

Yep - you can leave positive feedback, but slam someone on the stars and it still really hurts them.  Ebay did a full knee jerk reaction to bad sellers years back to tilt the scale totally in the buyer's favor.   Good for buyers, bad for sellers.  (well not in the long run) Many ebay seller sell for a month, start a new account, sell on both, and if one gets too low of a rating they just switch to the back up.  And so on, and so on.

[ManCave]

I love the precision resistors

These brown ones? 

Yep

[amc184]

Mine arrived, I haven't unboxed it yet but I'll check it out and report here when I get time.

[Ca_s12]

Mine arrived as well. Factory box but no manual or software just a link to the manual written on a page inside the box. Looks and smells new. When I powered the unit up the lcd and fans came on but the keypad would not respond. I opened it up and the keypad had come unplugged during shipping. Just something to look out for if someone has the same issue.

[mtdoc]

I got one today as well. The link provided to a manual is wrong. It is to a power supply manual. No luck yet finding the correct manual online.  Anyone?

[ElektroQuark]

No. AMETEK has not answered me about the manual yet.

[Ca_s12]

In regards to the manual I have one for it comming in the mail and will upload it when it arrives.

[carpelux]

That sounds great!

A question for those who have received a unit: Does the calibration seem to be reasonable in specs, i.e. not 30 % off or so?

[Ca_s12]

Mine does at least at low currents no more than 2% off.

[mtdoc]

In regards to the manual I have one for it comming in the mail and will upload it when it arrives.

Excellent! Thank you.

[pickle9000]

In regards to the manual I have one for it comming in the mail and will upload it when it arrives.

Very nice, thanks.

[ElektroQuark]

In regards to the manual I have one for it comming in the mail and will upload it when it arrives.

Thank you very much.

[mtdoc]

A question for those who have received a unit: Does the calibration seem to be reasonable in specs, i.e. not 30 % off or so?

Yep. Mine looks good so far. Tested to 60V and 10A

[pickle9000]

Original list price (new) was almost 1800.00 USD.

[philpem]

Just got mine this evening - sent via bloody Hermes, which explains why it disappeared off Ebay tracking only to reappear today as "delivered"... 

Mine arrived pretty much as described in the listing -- an Amrel box (which the seller used to ship it), apparently original foam inserts, and an Amrel EL-1132 with the (somewhat peeling) protective plastic still on the front panel. Amusingly mine reports its serial number as "0000000001" with software version "2.96020040". It displays these on startup (very briefly), but if you hold Enter it'll display them again.

The front panel interface doesn't seem too difficult to use without a manual; it's the RS232/GPIB commands which will take some figuring out. There's some data on the Ametek/Amrel PLA series here: http://www.programmablepower.com/electronic-load/PLA/downloads.htm - who knows, the commands might be the same?

I've got mine running a 2.5A load test on a lead-acid battery - sadly the cable and/or connectors I'm using seem to be a bit rubbish as I'm dropping ~0.18V in the cable (0.072 Ohms)... I think that might need to be improved before I go any higher. Maybe add some sense wires...

Cheers,
Phil.

[pickle9000]

And in Western Canada, mine still hadn't made it.

I often have better shipping times from China than with the US. Not sure if that's the shipping system in general or border security. Digi-key is awesome though next day.