New Bench Power Supply - Chinese

[DW1961]

P.S. the mains earthing arrangement looks "interesting" and soldered? to the PCB mounting tabs. That would fail most international safety standards.

Here are more pictures. It looks like the ground once had a spade connector on it, then got cut off and soldered. I'm going to send the image to the vendor and see what they say.

[Someone]

P.S. the mains earthing arrangement looks "interesting" and soldered? to the PCB mounting tabs. That would fail most international safety standards.

Here are more pictures. It looks like the ground once had a spade connector on it, then got cut off and soldered. I'm going to send the image to the vendor and see what they say.

ha ha ha, and in the bin it goes with the rubbish where it belongs.

[Gyro]

It's fairly common to use a soldered connection rather than a spade for the earth connection, less likely to become detached (or mis-connected). The chassis earth connection should directly to a dedicated mechanical connection though, to an unpainted area with a tag with shakeproof washers to ensure solid connection, rather than an indirect connection via the PCB.

I've seen worse though - at least it's immediately adjacent to a mechanical PCB mounting bracket.

[DW1961]

It's fairly common to use a soldered connection rather than a spade for the earth connection, less likely to become detached (or mis-connected). The chassis earth connection should directly to a dedicated mechanical connection though, to an unpainted area with a tag with shakeproof washers to ensure solid connection, rather than an indirect connection via the PCB.

I've seen worse though - at least it's immediately adjacent to a mechanical PCB mounting bracket.

It's strange because the way they did it is much more labor intensive than simply soldering it to the bracket that is solde4red to the PCB. The bracket has 4 really nice solder points connecting it to the PCB. Then that "U" bracket is screwed to the chassis. There is another "U" and solder joints just like the one in the image that comes back up through the PCB connecting the front panel posts.

I mean, that's a lot more work than screwing it to the chassis and then running a wire directly to the front panel post. I doubt the ground will ever come loose, since the "U" bracket has 4 really nice large joints connecting it to the PCB and the ground solder joint is very robust and nice looking too, but still, just seems like more expense and work than screwing it down.

[niner_007]

There is no reason to buy such PSU. First of all, this is switching power supply, and this means that it's output is very noisy, it produces high EM interference for nearby equipment. And it's max current is just 10 Amps which is almost the same as for popular linear PSU with 5-10 Amps. In addition this is a cheap Chinese switching mode PSU, which means that it is even more noisy than branded PSU, it produce more EM interferences, has unstable output and is not reliable. This is just a noisy kids

You shouldn’t be throwing around 5 or 10A so causally, that is very significant amount of power for a linear supply. Korad is not a high quality manufacturer, I’d be concerned for my life or DUT, I’d never use one, but if budget is a concern, you inspect the product and are careful, it’s understandable, that might the only option for lots of folks.

[nctnico]

My point in posting was to just have people get a look at it and see what they think (Like Eddie does in the above video, minus scoping it). It seems some people are more interested in simply shutting me down, instead of offering any constructive feedback. Like one poster said, what's with all of the attitude? Geeze.*

Nobody is shutting you down. It is just that the power supply you have there has been brought up several times already with various brands & model numbers. It isn't new. Whether a switching PSU is usefull or not depends on your use. If you are going to use it for developing circuitry (and it is very likely you need to make measurements) then a switching PSU is a horrible choice. The electric noise will show up on all your measurements. OTOH, if you need a beefy power supply to power a circuit just to have it powered on (like during burn-in testing) then a switching PSU is fine for use as an adjustable wall-wart / lump in chord PSU.

I have a similar model PSU like you have but I no longer use it due to the noise of the fan. I bought a bunch of fanless Gophert and Rek power supplies (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rek-kps6003-and-gophert-nps-1602-60v-3a-psu-hack-review/msg3336994/ which can deliver 60V @3A. Other voltages / currents are also available but I deal with 48V DC equipment regulary so 60V is more convenient for me.

[DW1961]

My point in posting was to just have people get a look at it and see what they think (Like Eddie does in the above video, minus scoping it). It seems some people are more interested in simply shutting me down, instead of offering any constructive feedback. Like one poster said, what's with all of the attitude? Geeze.*

Nobody is shutting you down. It is just that the power supply you have there has been brought up several times already with various brands & model numbers. It isn't new. Whether a switching PSU is usefull or not depends on your use. If you are going to use it for developing circuitry (and it is very likely you need to make measurements) then a switching PSU is a horrible choice. The electric noise will show up on all your measurements. OTOH, if you need a beefy power supply to power a circuit just to have it powered on (like during burn-in testing) then a switching PSU is fine for use as an adjustable wall-wart / lump in chord PSU.

I have a similar model PSU like you have but I no longer use it due to the noise of the fan. I bought a bunch of fanless Gophert and Rek power supplies (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rek-kps6003-and-gophert-nps-1602-60v-3a-psu-hack-review/msg3336994/ which can deliver 60V @3A. Other voltages / currents are also available but I deal with 48V DC equipment regulary so 60V is more convenient for me.

This one's fan only comes on during a heavy load. Why can't you just swap out the fan with a different less noisy fan, and or run it without the cover on it, or a modified mesh cover that lets it breath better?

Absolutely would need a no noise source  for developing circuitry. I do understand. People were making personal attacks instead of product comments, and that's what I mean by shutting me down.

I'm only using  it to power things for testing, to see if they come on, how much amps they use, things like LED srtrips, fan controllers, things that are already powered by switching power supplies.

It would be nice to see it's actual noise and voltage performance on a scope, like Eddie above did on that Kaiweets model (Ripple test a cap application at video 28:06):


 He simply used a cheap 1uF poly capacitor to really reduce the noise. I wonder why the manufacturer didn't just install something like that in the first place?

[nctnico]

My point in posting was to just have people get a look at it and see what they think (Like Eddie does in the above video, minus scoping it). It seems some people are more interested in simply shutting me down, instead of offering any constructive feedback. Like one poster said, what's with all of the attitude? Geeze.*

Nobody is shutting you down. It is just that the power supply you have there has been brought up several times already with various brands & model numbers. It isn't new. Whether a switching PSU is usefull or not depends on your use. If you are going to use it for developing circuitry (and it is very likely you need to make measurements) then a switching PSU is a horrible choice. The electric noise will show up on all your measurements. OTOH, if you need a beefy power supply to power a circuit just to have it powered on (like during burn-in testing) then a switching PSU is fine for use as an adjustable wall-wart / lump in chord PSU.

I have a similar model PSU like you have but I no longer use it due to the noise of the fan. I bought a bunch of fanless Gophert and Rek power supplies (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rek-kps6003-and-gophert-nps-1602-60v-3a-psu-hack-review/msg3336994/ which can deliver 60V @3A. Other voltages / currents are also available but I deal with 48V DC equipment regulary so 60V is more convenient for me.

This one's fan only comes on during a heavy load. Why can't you just swap out the fan with a different less noisy fan, and or run it without the cover on it, or a modified mesh cover that lets it breath better?

No fan is better than a low noise fan. The fan going on & off is just irritating and a decent fan costs as much as a significant part of the price of the alternative, fanless PSUs I bought.

He simply used a cheap 1uF poly capacitor to really reduce the noise. I wonder why the manufacturer didn't just install something like that in the first place?

There is a bit more to it because a lot of noise is being pushed into the ground. I tried to improve the EMC/noise performance of the PSU I have (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/cheap-variable-switching-power-supply/msg676967/#msg676967) and it still isn't particulary good.

[wizard69]

What the forum owners want is one thing (with respect to file size).   However high resolution images actually have value in this thread when the posters is looking for comments on the new power supply.    1080P is not high resolution, not even close really.    Of course high resolution is only useful when there is quality in the photography.   So what the forum wants to support resolution wise is one thing, having the full resolution pics available in general, someplace, is a good idea.

. . .
For some reason I had to limit my images to 5000kb, which is about 3 images per post. Sorry for the multiple replies, but it was the only way to get the images uploaded.

There is absolutely NO REASON to upload a 5 MB image to the forum!   
I don't need to watch fleas running underneath SMD resistors.
There is a thread somewhere about how big images should be.  I haven't followed it to its end.
But, images that size SHOULD be scaled down before posting.  IMHO.

My 'dark' theme for the forum limits the display of images to my screen size (i.e. 1080p).
The best thing I ever wrote.

Which does little for people running 4k screens.   1080P is sort of  like watching old TV videos from the 1960's.   The video may be a funny comedy but actually watching the video can be a joke all  on its own.

[electr_peter]

Gophert released new series of PSUs. Gophert PPS-3202/1610/6003 is very similar to NPS-3205/1610/6003 (same power, output jacks on the front) with some changes:

• vertical form factor - it will use less space on the bench, can be bolted down
• 3rd LED display for power
• 20 presets for V/A settings

Currently costs slightly more than "horizontal" NPS/CPS series, maybe will be interesting due to form factor.

[nctnico]

Gophert released new series of PSUs. Gophert PPS-3202/1610/6003 is very similar to NPS-3205/1610/6003 (same power, output jacks on the front) with some changes:

• vertical form factor - it will use less space on the bench, can be bolted down

Currently costs slightly more than "horizontal" NPS/CPS series, maybe be interesting due to form factor.

Personally I strongly prefer the horizontal form factor because it is easier to stack. It is one of the reasons I bought a whole bunch of Gophert (-ish) NPS series PSUs.[/list]

[electr_peter]

Vertical form factor maybe interesting to lab setups consisting of one small table without any stacking options where every square cm2 is valuable. Not space efficient otherwise.
I use few horizontal Gophert PSUs, they stack fine or fit well in low height gaps. Still running fine, but supplied banana cables (too high resistance, not suitable for "high" currents of 3-5A), IEC7 mains cables (far too high resistance, questionable materials, get something decent instead) and banana sockets (just look at them) are a joke. Easily fixable to a better standard though.

[DW1961]

Vertical form factor maybe interesting to lab setups consisting of one small table without any stacking options where every square cm2 is valuable. Not space efficient otherwise.
I use few horizontal Gophert PSUs, they stack fine or fit well in low height gaps. Still running fine, but supplied banana cables (too high resistance, not suitable for "high" currents of 3-5A), IEC7 mains cables (far too high resistance, questionable materials, get something decent instead) and banana sockets (just look at them) are a joke. Easily fixable to a better standard though.

Incidentally, this is exactly why I requested another switcher: The previous one I received was horizontal and took up more space on my small bench. It's really small, like  L7.5" x W3.4" x H5".