Author Topic: Short survey  (Read 5295 times)

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Offline fospsqTopic starter

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Short survey
« on: October 27, 2015, 12:16:35 pm »
For my school engineering project, I am going to build a power supply for electronics hobbyists. I have to do some research first, so I would be really grateful if anyone fills out this short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K9RGBZJ

My idea is to make a bench power supply that is powered by a laptop charger, so I would not be working straight from the mains (not allowed). Thanks for your help!
 

Offline mathsquid

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2015, 12:23:12 pm »
Would you post the results when the survey is finished?
 

Offline bitshift

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2015, 12:26:45 pm »
Done :) Please post the results when you are done. It would be very interesting to see.
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Offline MikeW

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2015, 12:31:28 pm »
For my school engineering project, I am going to build a power supply for electronics hobbyists. I have to do some research first, so I would be really grateful if anyone fills out this short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K9RGBZJ

My idea is to make a bench power supply that is powered by a laptop charger, so I would not be working straight from the mains (not allowed). Thanks for your help!

Back in my day they wouldn't have even let us do that.

If it didn't work with a 9volt battery then you couldn't do it. No arguments.
 

Offline MikeW

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2015, 12:58:41 pm »

Back in my day they wouldn't have even let us do that.

If it didn't work with a 9volt battery then you couldn't do it. No arguments.

They wouldn't let you use mains voltage in an engineering lab? How are you supposed to learn?

My labs had 3 phase, big ass motors, transformers, wye, delta connections.. thats where we learnt about all that stuff.

Its good to have a respect for things that can bite you but if you plan on working in the electrical field the time to learn about potential hazards is while you are in school.

This was when doing my Electronics GCSE at secondary school.

Wouldn't have gone so far as to call it an engineering lab, more like a classroom with some soldering irons.

I suppose they took the view it just wasn't worth the risk in case they got sued or something. I also suspect they took the view that you just didn't need to do anything with mains to cover the general point of the syllabus, so again, why take the risk.

Although we were allowed to use acid baths to etch PCBs  :-//
 

Offline fospsqTopic starter

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2015, 01:23:31 pm »
I'll gladly post the results when its finished!
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2015, 01:40:54 pm »
For my school engineering project, I am going to build a power supply for electronics hobbyists. I have to do some research first, so I would be really grateful if anyone fills out this short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K9RGBZJ

My idea is to make a bench power supply that is powered by a laptop charger, so I would not be working straight from the mains (not allowed). Thanks for your help!

Back in my day they wouldn't have even let us do that.

If it didn't work with a 9volt battery then you couldn't do it. No arguments.

Blimey.

We had tesla coils, van de Graff generators, radioactive sources (although one of my friends fob watches was so strong it had to be destroyed at Harwell!), lead acid accumulators (=high current), Weston cells (= zero current :) ), mercury, metallic sodium and potassium, dead lab mice for dissection, tested for hydrogen by explofing it with a "squeaky pop", and many other interesting things. And the explosions of stoichimetrically correct mixtures of oxygen and acetylene at the Royal Institution were great fun. Happy days.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
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Offline c4757p

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2015, 02:19:57 pm »
Can you elaborate on "Floating output(s)"? Is this with respect to earth, or with respect to the other channels in a multichannel supply? There's a big difference in how I (and probably many others) would rank those.
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Offline Bob F.

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2015, 02:44:34 pm »
Done.  Let us know how it all goes.   8)
 

Offline BillyD

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2015, 02:53:30 pm »
Done.

Actually I'd be interested to see what other people put into the 'Are there any features not mentioned above that you consider essential in a power supply?' question. For me it was:
- silent or near silent operation
- low ripple
- clear uncluttered display

 

Offline dmills

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2015, 04:17:12 pm »
Just because I have a POS TENMA on the bench at work that FAILS this bit....

The Voltmeter needs to read output voltage setpoint when the output switch is turned off, NOT READ ZERO when the output is off. How useless is that? For bonus points make the current meter read current limit setpoint when the output is off.

I successfully built a valve based radio transmitter within the 9V battery limitation at school, I Just used 100 9V Nicad packs in series for B+. The teacher never clocked what I was doing, turns out that 900V DC @ 100mA is quite sufficient to talk around the world on 20M CW, also turns out that 9V battery snaps are **not** rated to break 900V DC under load, and neither are small glass fuses....

Regards, Dan.
 

Offline fospsqTopic starter

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2015, 06:45:53 pm »
Can you elaborate on "Floating output(s)"? Is this with respect to earth, or with respect to the other channels in a multichannel supply? There's a big difference in how I (and probably many others) would rank those.

I meant both with respect to earth and with respect to all the other channels (if there are multiple). Could someone please explain for me how a set of outputs could be floating with respect to each other but not with respect to earth?

I'm sorry for the confusion!
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2015, 06:48:59 pm »
I'm sorry for the confusion!

You are young. You are making (small) mistakes. You are learning from them. Good!

As I told my daughter, don't worry about making correctable mistakes, but do try to make new mistakes :)
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline c4757p

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #13 on: October 27, 2015, 06:54:03 pm »
Can you elaborate on "Floating output(s)"? Is this with respect to earth, or with respect to the other channels in a multichannel supply? There's a big difference in how I (and probably many others) would rank those.

I meant both with respect to earth and with respect to all the other channels (if there are multiple). Could someone please explain for me how a set of outputs could be floating with respect to each other but not with respect to earth?

Well, they can't really - but the survey isn't just about multichannel supplies, so if the question implied a single channel then it's possible. And IMO having that single channel floating wrt earth is absolutely essential, I will not buy any power supply that is earth-referenced (with minor exceptions; my HV power supply is earth referenced for specific safety reasons).

Quote
I'm sorry for the confusion!

No problem dude, if the worst thing that happens to me is some confusion I'm having a good day ;D
No longer active here - try the IRC channel if you just can't be without me :)
 

Online crispy_tofu

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #14 on: October 27, 2015, 08:01:07 pm »
Done.  ;)
 

Offline Wirehead

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #15 on: October 27, 2015, 08:24:32 pm »
Done!  :-+
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Online Vgkid

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #16 on: October 27, 2015, 08:59:09 pm »
Done, I pretty much use bought power supplies(that is what I use now), though I'am building one...
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Offline Ryano

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Re: Short survey
« Reply #17 on: October 27, 2015, 09:39:41 pm »
Done!
 


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