EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: ivaylo on July 18, 2015, 04:25:02 am

Title: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: ivaylo on July 18, 2015, 04:25:02 am
So I picked up an anonymous piece of equipment (mostly to harvest those cool Bourns multiturn pots). I could tell it was a custom job, but judging by the exterior it seemed pretty nicely designed, pretty cool front panel and all. Nothing could prepare me for what  was inside though... Designed by a Liberal Arts major is an understatement. A whole wall wart for a transformer (with all of it's output cable nicely coiled!)... A tiny 24V switch for a mains switch... All 110V solder joins hanging around bare... Two boards attached to each other with a single loose bolt... A piece a foam taped on the lid for "insulation"? Still keeping the Bourns pots, but I thought I'd share  |O
Title: Re: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: TiN on July 18, 2015, 05:07:12 am
Man, you broke it's calibration now since you open it! :-DD
Title: Re: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: T3sl4co1l on July 18, 2015, 05:22:01 am
Surprised they bothered to screen print it.  Unless it was already something commercial, but that seems unlikely.

My guess, it comes from a university and was a "grad student special", or it's test equipment from a small company or department that doesn't have QC procedures for their home-made equipment.

Tim
Title: Re: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: Refrigerator on July 18, 2015, 05:33:07 am
I guess it was someone's school project ? He/she made it look nice on the outside and as long as it works and you don't have to show the insides you should be good to go.
Title: Re: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: amyk on July 18, 2015, 05:35:51 am
:wtf: Any idea what it does? It doesn't look like there's much in it. Some sort of quack device?
Title: Re: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: SeanB on July 18, 2015, 06:08:41 am
Keep the black painted copper strap holding the transformer as well, and the DVM modules as well.

You could take some of those Chinese SMPS modules and mount them inside and make a nice 4 isolated output power supply as well.
Title: Re: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: NiHaoMike on July 18, 2015, 06:21:14 am
It looks like some sort of I/O panel, probably for experimenting with stuff.
Title: Re: Interesting choice for a power supply design...
Post by: ivaylo on July 18, 2015, 06:43:13 am
Yeah, some sort of education project makes sense come to think of it. But when I had to make those 25 years ago they were always looked at inside and out, on this one someone spent all the money for the outside...