Jaycar power supply failure- new world record

[David Aurora]

Bought one of those MP3087 supplies this afternoon (dual version of the supply in #30). Yeah, I know, I could probably shop around for better, but I had the money on me for once today, near a store (I HATE waiting for delivery), and I've desperately been needing something a step up from my various home made boxes.

Well, the magic smoke released before I could even see what the screen looked like powered up. Seriously, the very instant it was powered up I smelled/heard the unmistakeable smell/sound of an electrolytic dying painfully. Back to Jaycar in the morning for a replacement or refund. I'm so tempted to take a look inside but I'm not about to void the warranty on something I've owned less than 3 hours. I'll see if they mind popping the cover when I'm in there though haha, I'm very curious. I'm not a doctor nor a psychic, but for some reason based on the sounds/smell/general vibe I kind of suspected a reversed cap.


Goddammit.

[EEVblog]

Definitely worthy of some pics!
Get them to void the warranty for you 

Dave.

[firewalker]

Definitely worthy of some pics!
Get them to void the warranty for you 

Dave.

And reveal the black magic happening inside? No way! 

Alexander.

[David Aurora]

Fuck it. Couldn't resist taking a look. It's a whole 13 hours or so until they open 

I figure if I didn't get sold a busted product, I wouldn't NEED to open it, therefore my warranty should remain valid. Or something. I dunno.

Anyway, yep, looks like 2 dud caps. I'm not going to bother trying to figure out if they were the problem or failed because of another problem. But here ya go, pics inside the dual version:

[firewalker]

Tell them it's Dave's Jones fault for voiding the warranty and point them to the thread! 

Alexander.

[David Aurora]

Tell them it's Dave's Jones fault for voiding the warranty and point them to the thread! 

Alexander.

 

[mariush]

Some of those opamps (the 8pin DIP chips) look like they're slightly out of socket ... don't know if their bottoms exploded or just came loose from shipping.

Check the bridge rectifier (s) , replace those capacitors that are swollen after the rectifier.

There's probably something more faulty with it.

[Shock]

No fan

[T4P]

"BOOM!" It so went like a failed rocket 

No fan

Why does it need a fan? My dual tracking 30V 3A PSU has NO fan! If you say it blew up because it had no fan you are wrong either, the caps blew up on powerup

[David Aurora]

Got a new one now, time for a test. Couldn't help but laugh in the store when I went to exchange it, they had a power failure and apparently don't use the backup systems they sell themselves haha. They couldn't use phones or tills or anything.

I also noticed when I chucked the old one on the counter that there was a screw missing from the heatsink. Combined with the scuffs I found on areas of it last night, I wonder if maybe it had already been returned/"repaired".

P.S. Dave, you'll be glad to know the staff in there have been watching your videos. We had a bit of a chat about the single channel one you tore down

[David Aurora]

So... before I pull apart or return the second one of these in a matter of days...

Does anyone know if there's a meter calibration pot in these? I just noticed that the 2 channels don't match my multimeters, or even each other 

[digsys]

I've had a lot of stuff fail from Jaycar. Over the years it seems to be getting worse (cheaper). Some (DC-AC converters etc) is dangerous.
Why do  keep going back? Well, often I have to fix a problem ASAP, or find something for a friend that's cheap. If no one else is open,
or has stock, I take a chance. Some stuff ends up in the bin, had too many arguments with idiots trying to explain the "issues".
The times I do open them up to check, I wish I hadn't :-)  ... at least I know what to expect.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Got a new one now, time for a test. Couldn't help but laugh in the store when I went to exchange it, they had a power failure and apparently don't use the backup systems they sell themselves haha. They couldn't use phones or tills or anything.

I don't use them anymore either. I'd get twelve months out of the batteries with practically only standby use. The last one went rogue, caught fire and then took out a couple of computers which was annoying. Bought a new Centurion one from Altronics that is as noisy as a passing train but at least hasn't let me down and killed anything (touching wood). I posted about that on here.

[David Aurora]

Got a new one now, time for a test. Couldn't help but laugh in the store when I went to exchange it, they had a power failure and apparently don't use the backup systems they sell themselves haha. They couldn't use phones or tills or anything.

I don't use them anymore either. I'd get twelve months out of the batteries with practically only standby use. The last one went rogue, caught fire and then took out a couple of computers which was annoying. Bought a new Centurion one from Altronics that is as noisy as a passing train but at least hasn't let me down and killed anything (touching wood). I posted about that on here.

Interesting you should mention the fire thing... a staff member told me exactly the same thing and told me NEVER to buy their older stye backups. Apparently the new one with an LCD is fine, but the old ones were prone to fire 

Yeah I buy less and less from there these days too. Same story, lots of shit products. Every now and then though, budget or location sends me in there for something.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Got a new one now, time for a test. Couldn't help but laugh in the store when I went to exchange it, they had a power failure and apparently don't use the backup systems they sell themselves haha. They couldn't use phones or tills or anything.

I don't use them anymore either. I'd get twelve months out of the batteries with practically only standby use. The last one went rogue, caught fire and then took out a couple of computers which was annoying. Bought a new Centurion one from Altronics that is as noisy as a passing train but at least hasn't let me down and killed anything (touching wood). I posted about that on here.

Interesting you should mention the fire thing... a staff member told me exactly the same thing and told me NEVER to buy their older stye backups. Apparently the new one with an LCD is fine, but the old ones were prone to fire 

Yeah I buy less and less from there these days too. Same story, lots of shit products. Every now and then though, budget or location sends me in there for something.

So a LCD prevents it from blowing up. That gives me a lot more confidence. 

 

[David Aurora]

Got a new one now, time for a test. Couldn't help but laugh in the store when I went to exchange it, they had a power failure and apparently don't use the backup systems they sell themselves haha. They couldn't use phones or tills or anything.

I don't use them anymore either. I'd get twelve months out of the batteries with practically only standby use. The last one went rogue, caught fire and then took out a couple of computers which was annoying. Bought a new Centurion one from Altronics that is as noisy as a passing train but at least hasn't let me down and killed anything (touching wood). I posted about that on here.

Interesting you should mention the fire thing... a staff member told me exactly the same thing and told me NEVER to buy their older stye backups. Apparently the new one with an LCD is fine, but the old ones were prone to fire 

Yeah I buy less and less from there these days too. Same story, lots of shit products. Every now and then though, budget or location sends me in there for something.

So a LCD prevents it from blowing up. That gives me a lot more confidence. 

 

Haha. Man, the discussion was hilarious that day. Standing in the store, in the dark, with my blown up power supply and the staff member raving about how shitty their products are and telling me the main ones to watch out for, which ones had been redesigned since major fuck ups, and so on. He actually also mentioned he refuses to sell those fire producing units to anyone. So that's a good sign I guess 

Shit products aside though, Jaycar has got to have some of the best staff anywhere, ever. The occasional dickheads seem to get weeded out really quickly. All the staff I regularly deal with at multiple stores are super friendly, super helpful and super honest about product quality. If something sucks and they know about it they always seem to give me the low down on it.

[ptricks]

Seems to be a trend to use as much wire as possible inside a supply. The inside looks like the spaghetti monster had babies .
Are all the caps in the supply JakeC brand ?  That brand sucks .

[AmmoJammo]

Very, very old thread I know... But it seems the MP3087 power supply has had a pretty big redesign, externally anyway.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MP3087

Which confuses me a bit, as it no longer has separate fine/course adjustments, and the current limiting adjustment?

It also no longer has binding posts?

Does anyone have the newer version, and how does it compare to the old?

[TerraHertz]

Zooming in on the picture, there appear to be two 'protective covers' at the bottom front, labeled "EXT OUTPUT" with a warning symbol.  What's the bet there are screw terminal blocks underneath?


Dear God, did the safety Nazis finally make banana posts forbidden even on low voltage bench power supplies?

Golly, I'd better take my 300VDC 1.2A bench supplies with front panel screw posts outside and burn them.

[peter.mitchell]

Very, very old thread I know... But it seems the MP3087 power supply has had a pretty big redesign, externally anyway.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MP3087

Which confuses me a bit, as it no longer has separate fine/course adjustments, and the current limiting adjustment?

It also no longer has binding posts?

Does anyone have the newer version, and how does it compare to the old?

@Ianscottjohnston has both the single channel and the dual channel version of it, here is a link to a short video on the single channel version from his youtube channel;

[SeanB]

Zooming in on the picture, there appear to be two 'protective covers' at the bottom front, labeled "EXT OUTPUT" with a warning symbol.  What's the bet there are screw terminal blocks underneath?


Dear God, did the safety Nazis finally make banana posts forbidden even on low voltage bench power supplies?

Golly, I'd better take my 300VDC 1.2A bench supplies with front panel screw posts outside and burn them.

You mean my neon sign transformers with the exposed porcelain insulators for both the mains inputs and the 14kV output are dangerous? Who would have thought that, I was just annoyed that they would flash over in the rain when it dripped on them.

[Bored@Work]

Very, very old thread I know... But it seems the MP3087 power supply has had a pretty big redesign, externally anyway.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MP3087

Could also be they changed the supplier and just kept the old name. The new one looks like from Ningbo Jiuyuan Electronic, also known as QJE.

QJE use that style of enclosure for many years. And yes, they do have screw terminals. For people who set up semi-permanent experiments and don't want to bother with banana plugs.

[Someone]

Golly, I'd better take my 300VDC 1.2A bench supplies with front panel screw posts outside and burn them.

HP6448 (images stolen from some ebay listings)

See, just needs a small "Warning High Voltage" printed vaguely near the terminals. Not shown in these pictures is the power inlet on the rear, which is an exposed terminal block that wouldnt even meet protection from the standard test finger.

[AmmoJammo]

Zooming in on the picture, there appear to be two 'protective covers' at the bottom front, labeled "EXT OUTPUT" with a warning symbol.  What's the bet there are screw terminal blocks underneath?

Quite right there! But that still means there's no way to simply and easily connect bare wires, like I would be doing 99% of the time... 

The other thing I've noticed, is there's a version that does 5amps on each output, and another thats only rated at 3amp... makes me wonder how different the internals really are!

[jokkydee]

Shit products aside though, Jaycar has got to have some of the best staff anywhere, ever.

I wish I could say the same thing about the Jaycar in Adelaide, complete opposite. Some of the worst customer service I've experienced and everyone else I know who has been there seem to agree.  So for me, average quality products and shit customer service. I only go in there as an absolute last resort for electronic components if other stores are out of stock.