Rigol DP1308A Power Supply

[Chet T16]

I've been looking at power supplies and this is f'ing beautiful.

Theres a couple on ebay now for ~500 euro delivered from hong kong. I bought my Atten soldering station from the same seller.

I'm kinda curious if its overkill or is it something i can have and use for many years to come?

I was also looking at this but judging by what i found on here they're unreliable

The Rigol got a good review on thesignalpath.com

I've budgeted myself 1000 euro for some new goodies, i want a power supply, a multimeter (i'm thinking 100 euro to replace my current $3 one) and also a funtion generator of some description, probably the USB one that i see on here (DDS3X25 iirc)

Part of me says i'm mad to spend half on the power supply but the rest of me says how pretty it is...

TBH its features are well beyond my current present needs but, like i said, i'd like something thats future proof.

Any opinions?

[hacklordsniper]

That exact power supply is on my "wish list". It does not offer anything more than 2 times less expensive products expect the fancy color LCD.

I planned to buy it this december, but surely will look forward to your review and teardown first

Here is some inside pics:

http://www.ourdev.cn/bbs/bbs_content.jsp?bbs_sn=4700100&bbs_page_no=1&search_mode=4&search_text=jpchen&bbs_id=9999
http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/312788/211189230-486747000/DHL-free-shipping-Rigol-DP1308A-Programmable-DC-Power-Supply-Triple-Output-80-Watt-Power-Supply.html

[david77]

It is up to you, of course. But my suggestion would be to get a less complicated PSU and get an even better meter instead.
I bet you could get a similarly speced PSU for 150-250$ less if you look for one with more standard controls. TBH I find this Rigol PSU looks way to complicated for daily use. Just a knob to turn is what I look for in a PSU - that is of course only my personal taste.
I can't help but feel that the extra money spent on a top brand multimeter is a better investment.

[Chet T16]

Hmm yeah, you're probably right about the meter! Picking one of those is a whole other can of wigglies.

I'm looking at this Atten now. Can't find any info on it.

Has anyone actually ordered from that site? I know someone affiliated with it was posting on here

[saturation]

There are comments on signalpath's review here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=4641.msg61678#msg61678

However, the convenience features over its basic cleanliness as a PSU is fairly high; you can get the same basic performance without programmability for under $100.

[Rufus]

Part of me says i'm mad to spend half on the power supply but the rest of me says how pretty it is...

On a budget it is mad and I wouldn't lust after that PSU anyway. Shame to see so much expense going into a user interface which is fundamentally flawed because it doesn't have a knob.

[vl400]

I have two bench supplies, an Agilent E3631A and a cheap one. The cheap one would get used for 95% of the bench proto work for the simple ease of use - voltage knob and a current knob. A micro controlled supply has its place though and you cant beat it when you need the high accuracy and control, but on your budget to equip a lab I would go for a quality multimeter.

[amspire]

I agree with david77. Most of the time, you want to be able to control voltage and current with knobs.

I am not sure about this model, but some of the power supplies with digital readouts only update the readout about once a second - that is just way too slow. It wouldn't be a problem if the power supply was only to test circuits that work, but when you are testing circuits that may not work, you need a fast display of voltage and current. If the Rigol has a slow display, then you would often have to attach a multimeter anyway.

Richard.

[Chet T16]

I have two bench supplies, an Agilent E3631A and a cheap one. The cheap one would get used for 95% of the bench proto work for the simple ease of use - voltage knob and a current knob. A micro controlled supply has its place though and you cant beat it when you need the high accuracy and control, but on your budget to equip a lab I would go for a quality multimeter.

Yep, i was just seduced by its beauty and never thought about the practicalities of no knobs! I'm really tempted by the Atten i linked to above, i think its cheap enough that i wouldn't be against the addition of one with higher contril if/when i need it.

Right, multimeter it is!

[Chet T16]

I agree with david77. Most of the time, you want to be able to control voltage and current with knobs.

I am not sure about this model, but some of the power supplies with digital readouts only update the readout about once a second - that is just way too slow. It wouldn't be a problem if the power supply was only to test circuits that work, but when you are testing circuits that may not work, you need a fast display of voltage and current. If the Rigol has a slow display, then you would often have to attach a multimeter anyway.

Richard.

These also update once a second, its mentioned in the review on thesignalpath.

I'm going to leave it, maybe i'll buy the wife something nice instead

[Rufus]

I agree with david77. Most of the time, you want to be able to control voltage and current with knobs.

I think most of the time you don't. When you know what voltage or current you want tapping it into a keypad exactly is much less hassle than twiddling a knob while watching a display.

When you want the power supply to tell you at what voltage or current something happens (like a regulator dropping out) then twiddling a knob is much easier and faster than tapping in a stream of numbers or pushing up/down jog buttons.

I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a power supply that didn't have both.

I haven't really been interested enough in power supplies to find one to lust after. The TTi QL-P and QPX series look like they might be nice but without actually using one I can't really say.

Anyone have suggestions? I'm sure Agilent must do something nice (and expensive).

[Chet T16]

OK, this Atten is now winning, i think i might order

http://www.attenelectronics.com/productBody.aspx?id=103&bid=25&sid=130

Slightly more expensive ($300 delivered from a seller i've bought from before, other is $280) than the one i posted above but the specs are much tighter.

[Chet T16]

I ordered the Atten, less than half the price of the Rigol and seems to be as much as i'll ever need

[saturation]

Give us a review please, I think there are several Atten PSU reviews on eevblog and most have had issues, maybe you'll be luckier since the model linked seems like a double simple linear PSU, which can be made fairly easily.

I ordered the Atten, less than half the price of the Rigol and seems to be as much as i'll ever need

[dsokoll]

Just ordered this DS1308A after watching this long utube video of a guy testing it in a lab...750.00 shipped. I think that is a pretty good deal. I am starting to work with LabView and i would like to play with it a bit. I just picked up the DG1022 Wafeform generator. I really like the user interfaces Rigol uses. I didn't even have to open the book to use the basic features of the generator. Now i need a bench multi meter....

[hacklordsniper]

Just ordered this DS1308A after watching this long utube video of a guy testing it in a lab...750.00 shipped. I think that is a pretty good deal. I am starting to work with LabView and i would like to play with it a bit. I just picked up the DG1022 Wafeform generator. I really like the user interfaces Rigol uses. I didn't even have to open the book to use the basic features of the generator. Now i need a bench multi meter....

Teardown, teardown, we want teardown and review