POWER DESIGNS PRECISION POWER SUPPLIES

[HalFoster]

Resurrecting an old (but very good) thread:

I am about to start refurbishing and selling a lot of my collection of Power Designs supplies and a few could use a new coat of paint.  For the newer models, especially the precision ones, I'm thinking of either Behr Premium's Mayan Treasure Gloss or Rust-Oleum's Satin Lagoon. For the older models which tend to be more of a green shade I'm thinking of Rust-Oleum's Satin Vintage Teal (all spray paints).

Does anyone have comments or suggestions?

TIA,

Hal

[Barbouri]

New addition to the Power Designs Inc. collection.
A 5015D supply with an output of 0 to 50 volts DC at 1.5 amps across the entire voltage range.
So far I haven't been able to find any documentation for this unit, other than a single page specification sheet which doesn't quite match.
The spec sheet lists the 5015D as having Uniply regulation, but my 5015D doesn't use it.
I will be upgrading to the higher resolution display boards as soon as all the parts arrive.
https://www.barbouri.com/2022/08/20/power-designs-inc-5015d-power-supply-cleanup-and-repair/

[notcalibrated]

Hi, I found some interesting evidence of Power Designs' involvement with NASA.

NASA CR-147853 (1976, available online pdf) lists PDI as a supplier of Nuclear Instrumentation Module (NIM) power supplies for Skylab. The NIM seems to be a device to measure radioactive particles. (As far as my layman brain understands, that is) I'm unsure if it was used on Skylab itself or the shuttle for it.

Just thought that might be a little interesting to some following this thread.

[Barbouri]

NIM is an acronym for Nuclear Instrumentation Methods, and is a standard DOE/ER-0457 for instrumentation modules.
The NIM standard is used for nuclear and high energy physics.
Power Designs made several supplies based on the NIM standard such as the AEC-320, AEC-315B, AEC-650, and several HV BIN supplies.
It is quite likely that they were used for powering radioactive particle experiments on Skylab.

[randymatt444]

Well, I read this whole (38-pages) thread last night.

First of all, I have WAY too much test gear as it is. Second, lots of power supplies such as the old LEADER LPS-151/152s. think I have 3 or 4.

Then I saw the Power Designs stuff, I mean I had seen them before but,,, not the inner workings and such (from Dave's EEVblog teardown video). I have a ton of old 2200 - 2400 scopes from TEK, as to me, the design and manufacturing during those times was magic. I just love the old analogue stuff. 

So today I made my usual eBay stop and this 2010 pops up...

Yes, I bought it. Looked so clean!

I asked the seller if he knew the history of the unit:

"I purchased from a retired MIT professor. While I cant say with certainty, many of the items from him appeared to be new old stock."

[mawyatt]

Our lab was littered with these Power Designs power supplies, about the only thing that wasn't Tektronix or HP!!

They were/are great supplies, very stable and clean outputs

Best,

[Tubesrule]

Greg,
          I decided to try to figure out the resistor( again, searching at midnight)  that's destroyed on my 6010, I was at your site,just now looking at your work on one. But I still can't make out the resistor, I believe is R50 on the board, the one behind the Thyristor, which it was also bad, already replaced. So if you or some else can give me the values of that resistor. The project will move forward, the the board upgrade you offer. Thanks
 As a side note, need to find a few volts on my keithley 164 so beautiful inside

[Barbouri]

Hi Tubesrule,
On my PD 6010D R50 is a 0.75 Ohm wirewound resistor.
Including a zoomed in picture of the area around SCR CR18.

[Tubesrule]

Thanks, but since I was working from memory and at midnight I had the wrong R#, its R58 !!

[Barbouri]

R58 is a 100 Ohm 1% 1/4 watt resistor. (Brown Black Black Black Brown)
De-soldered and measured on my unit at 100.3 Ohms, in circuit measurement was 39.8 Ohms.

[Tubesrule]

Greg,  Thanks for all your help, but I'm a dumbass. Since every search I do throws back the 6010D. Well I don't have the D, I have the analog 6010. So I'm debating what to do, the only pic I find showing the board of a 6010 is on the tech obsessed blog. I can't make out the blue resistor, but is all fun and games. I just want to get it going.
Again thanks, so I guess my board is going to stay analog 

Rey

[Barbouri]

Hi Tubesrule,
Although I don't have a lot of experience working on the pre-digital display units, I have spent considerable time going thru a lot of the older schematics.
What I have noticed typically is that there is usually not a lot of difference between the basic parts of the circuit between digital and analog display versions of the same models other than the displays.
If your resistor is in parallel with a 0.01 uF capacitor, and connected to the center anode pin of the SCR, it is most likely the same value as the 6010D circuit.

If you really want a digital display on your 6010 unit, it will be a little more difficult, but not impossible to adapt the display to the voltages driving your analog meter and fabricating a bezel.

[Tubesrule]

Well, Greg again thanks, I'll give a try, just to see if I can move forward with the project. Well if i get this thing going, maybe I'll try the digital upgrade

[Tubesrule]

Success, thanks to Greg for the pointers. Only two parts replaced, the SCR and the mystery resistor. Now to try to figure out the calibration. After that, I might do a recap.  Not bad for like 15.00.

Rey

[HalFoster]

It is an 100R 1%

[HalFoster]

Sorry, didn't catch that @Barbouri had already answered... thought he was speaking of his 6010D.  Might have been actually, I imagine that all that changed between the two models was the meter circuitry.

Hal

[Tubesrule]

Hi Hal, No worries thanks for the reply. Anything you can get out there about the 6010 would help. I done a bunch of searching, for a manual or schematic. Nothing anywhere, I really want to do a restoration, so is perfect. Everything is original might even consider the @barbouri upgrade.
Thanks
Rey.

[The Doktor]

Tantalytic capacitors, what to do? I'm currently working on my 5020 precision supply. It has several small electrolytic caps which currently read in the pF range, so I'm thinking just replace all electrolytic caps. I picked replacements, all physically smaller of course, then checked the values against the parts list. It shows several being "Tantalytic" caps, which I believe is a GE brand name for a wet tantalum cap. Some caps are same value and voltage, but manual shows some as electrolytic and others as tantalytic. They look the same.

2 questions:
1. Replace all?
2. With what?

I'm thinking yes and whatever, but not sure. Advice?


Thanks
Ed

[HalFoster]

I'm pretty sure they aren't wet tantalums but I could be wrong about that.  If they were Spragues I would say keep them but GE... if you find a bad one go ahead and replace them all.  I would just go with good 105C electrolytics, at about 150% of the original value, from a good manufacturer.  Looking over the datasheet I don't see why a tantalum would be required.  Of course *do* automatically replace the AL electrolytics.

Hal