Agilent E3631A or Keithley 2230-30-1

[kamran4149]

Which one of these two bench power supplies are more user friendly, reliable and standard for educational purposes? I am putting a lab together for an educational institute and need to make a decision as which one to purchase?
Which one would you recommend? Any input would be appreciated.

[electronic_eel]

Basic design & build quality comes first, but with both of these brands you won't do anything wrong.

With a bench supply it is important to me that I can easily see whats going on, so I want to see the voltages & amps of all outputs at once without pressing any buttons or similar.
The Agilent one only shows the data of one output: big minus.

I can also recommend these ones:
http://www.tti-test.com/products-tti/psu/qlp-series.htm

[kamran4149]

Thank you for the response. Honestly I am very familiar with the Agilent E3631A and have worked with them for many years. However, I have never worked with the Keithley 2230-30-1. But it seems like this one has a few extra features compare to the Agilent and still is less expensive!! I just want to make sure I am not overlooking anything and to make sure that Keithley is also user friendly and reliable for educational purposes. From your response, I read that I will no go wrong if I get the Keithley 2230-30-1 Power Supply.

Any other input?

[MarkL]

I have a E3631A and I find the user interface with the single knob, modal display, and blinking digits to be a bit clunky and unfriendly to use.

I haven't used the Keithley 2230-30-1, but it has a keypad to type in the values you want.  That's one up on the Agilent right there, especially for student use.  And it's also more compact and has higher voltage and current on the 30V channels.

[kamran4149]

Thanks for all your responses. I agree it seems like Keithley 2230-30-1 is a good alternative to Agilent E3631A.