Lab Power supply - is innovation over?

[Magnethicc]

Hi fellow engineers,
I was wondering if any of you working with lab power supplies to develop renewable energy solutions and feel like there is room for improvment and innovation with them?
Is there any features or performences that you wish your bench power supply can do?
What are the things that are lacking with your current setup?
What are the things that you do like about your lab power supplies? it can be anything from the performance to looks and feels.

Any input is highly appriciated!

[Whales]

I don't understand your link between renewable energy and lab power supplies.  What sort of power supplies & exact use cases are you imagining here?  What are your motivations -- are you designing power supplies for a company that specifically wants customers in the renewable energy research sector?

There is no such thing as a universal lab power supply.  Power level, control loops, programmability, quadrants of operation, waveforms, price etc all vary dramatically.

[Magnethicc]

I was hoping to hear (from engineers in the field) the link between reneable energy and lab power supplies and what they are missing or what they are good at.
applications like inverters, DC/DC converters semiconductor testing, MPPT Algorithems testing, and many more that I ask to hear from you guys.

What does the engineers at R&D need (regarding their lab power supplies)? what do they need that is benefitial and new? what they already get from their lab power supply that they wish it to stay (for example with a dual/triple output power supply the ability to make channels output to follow a certain output)

Kind of like a little market survey to see if there is any features or behaviours that require innovation, and also if there are any features or behaviours of the power supply that are good and liked.

[shapirus]

Call me paranoid but this looks like AI BS.
I haven't checked other posts by this user.

[Magnethicc]

The day that people start turning on each-other due to AI has come.
I aint no AI.

[BadeBhaiya]

I have often wanted a VI tracer and logging features in power supplies. They already have all the hardware present, all that is required is the software

I often play with high power LEDs from random website without datesheets. It would be good to have a VI trace of the LEDs right from the power supply

[mtwieg]

I don't work on "renewables" but I do work primarily in power electronics.

Generally I want my lab PSU to have accurate setting and readout of the voltage and current limits (i.e. maybe 1% error is okay). Transition between CV and CC operation should be fast (like 100us) and clean.

I really like Korad supplies, they seem to be test best in terms of value relative to price. A couple things that I dislike about their user interface:
1. The power enable/disable button is not prominent enough, easy to mix up with the other buttons, which can lead to some very costly errors.
2. Their higher-end models (for example KWR103 as compared to the KA6005P) has a worst interface for adjusting voltage and current settings (neither are perfect though).

One feature which might be very attractive is the ability to sink power, like an electronic load would. Then the device could function as a battery emulator.

[Seekonk]

The fault is not in the power supplies, but those who use them.  I've never seen a more technically challenged group than in the solar world. Nothing wrong with the supplies available if you have the money.  Catering to a group technically inept is not a good business plan.

[AndyC_772]

One feature which might be very attractive is the ability to sink power, like an electronic load would. Then the device could function as a battery emulator.

One of the main reasons I chose an HP 6632B as my lab supply was for this capability. It's a fantastic way to test products that can run from, and charge, a built in battery pack.

6632B is 20V and +/-5A. There's also 6633B (50V / 2A, oddly rare on the secondary market), and 6634B (100V / 1A, also rare and mildly scary to have on my bench - but I'm still here).

[coppercone2]

The fault is not in the power supplies, but those who use them.  I've never seen a more technically challenged group than in the solar world. Nothing wrong with the supplies available if you have the money.  Catering to a group technically inept is not a good business plan.

its because of the renewables push, the idea was that you got people interested in massive infrastructure changes, that means getting people into power electronics engineering that had no interest there, in a hurry. Up until now, most renewables have been giant installations, where most of the process is mechanical or specialty electrical (50 person team working on 1 rotor for big gen turbine for water, big pipe, etc), by the time it got back to anything 'small' it was... mains or steam

Solar brought it down where there is "EE" information needed for many implementations, since their so small and distributed. So they made a new method of learning, perhaps the analogies and stuff they started with were bad.

And it is kind of a panic thing (they forcast big societal problems), so they got people through "with the boot". Not saying its the wrong move for society (its hard to say how much we screwed up, I think probobly alot because of the state of the world) but when a classical EE, that was interested in this stuff since a child on a physics level, interacts with 'renewables' people its kind of a dumpster fire

if there is subsidies involved, think of mercenary peons showing up to the battlefield with farm tools to fight alien mechs. Any subsidy by government is kind of like hiring mercenaries that get put through an accelerated program.

[BadeBhaiya]

The fault is not in the power supplies, but those who use them.  I've never seen a more technically challenged group than in the solar world. Nothing wrong with the supplies available if you have the money.  Catering to a group technically inept is not a good business plan.

Kinda curious what you mean by that? Solar is just power electronics isn't it? Why would they be technically challenged?

[paulca]

The fault is not in the power supplies, but those who use them.  I've never seen a more technically challenged group than in the solar world. Nothing wrong with the supplies available if you have the money.  Catering to a group technically inept is not a good business plan.

Kinda curious what you mean by that? Solar is just power electronics isn't it? Why would they be technically challenged?

Just watch some videos on YouTube from "DIY solar types" and how they try and explain things like voltage drop and you will see what they mean here.  They use the words, but you get the feeling they don't quite get the full meaning or simplicity behind them.

On power supplies for DIY solar power system, I found any one of my DC supplies was perfectly fine for any battery "cell" work.  My "pack voltage and DC system voltage" is only 24V with a 28.8V peak.  So even a 30V bench supply can "maintance charge" that pack independantly.  The heaviest hand is the 20A buck supply, but if you want like for like, that doesn't come close to "running spec".

On the mains side.  Nope.  Not going to play.  The spark wired the consumer unit and extension.  I do not test, nor touch that side.

If you were interested in the inverter side, then you would need AC power analysers and possible AC power synthesiser boxes.  AC loads etc.  It involves death, fire and broken equipment, so that part I paid good money for instead of DIY.