Professional, multi output lab power supply - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: luudee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2022, 06:58:54 am
content: Hi Guys, need the community wisdom!I am looking for a professional grade lab power supply:- (must) low ripple & noise ( around < 3 mV)- (must) high current, >20Amp @ 5V, >15Amp @ 12V (200W per channel should be plenty)- Don't really need more than 20V output per channel- (must) Precision adjustment of voltage and current- (must) all the usual bells and whistles, like constant current, constant voltage, etc- (must) very stable at low voltages and high currents (for example 0.65V 18A)- (very important) would like to have at least 4 channels, or capability of chaining multiple units- (must) must be able to program inter channel power sequence (including delay)- (very important) Programmable emulation of noise and ripple would be nice- (nice to have) parallel channel operation to increase current- (nice to have) serial channel to increase voltage- (nice to have) remote sensingSo far, I could only find one that meets all my requirements: Rohde & Schwarz NGP804.But it has quite a hefty price tag at around $5,500 USD for this configuration (NGP804).Before I drop that kind of cache, I'd like to hear alternative suggestions from all you wise people!Merry Christmas & Blessed Hanukkah, to those who celebrate!luudee

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2022, 12:59:38 pm
content: Did you look at brands like Delta and EA-Elektronik?

author: luudee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2022, 01:58:49 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on December 20, 2022, 12:59:38 pmThanks Nico, I took a look ....Delta (deltapsu.com) seems to only make Brick PSUs, and EA (elektroautomatik.com) PSUs are very basic and IMHO very useless, and much more expensive. No idea who their target audience is ...Cheers,luudee

author: HalFoster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2022, 02:25:08 pm
content: Your best bet is probably a model from Chroma - expensive, but for what you are wanting that is a given.Hal

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2022, 04:19:32 pm
content: Quote from: luudee on December 20, 2022, 01:58:49 pmYou got the wrong part of Delta:https://delta-elektronika.nl/productsBut Chroma is also a good option to look at.

author: uski
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2022, 06:34:34 pm
content: The specifications given are extremely demanding. Op, can you verify you actually need this level of accuracy? If you can relax your specifications a bit, you may be able to have more options.

author: luudee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2022, 03:22:06 am
content: Quote from: uski on December 20, 2022, 06:34:34 pmNo, I prefer not to relax the requirements - I'll regret it later, lolI did try to indicate (must, nice to have) what features I could live without ...What did you have in mind ?I'd like to invest in to a piece of equipment that I will hopefully use for the next 10+ years (or more).(This is obviously for professional, not hobby use)Cheap PS are a dime a dozen, well, at least it seems like it. I went through lots of PS, and am neversatisfied with their performance.Kind of tiered having to scramble and built specific solution for each case ...Cheers,luudee

author: H713
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2022, 07:20:44 am
content: None of those specs are terribly difficult, except the 4 channel requirement. The number ofgood4 channel units on the market is very small, and your list of features makes it that much more difficult.The Keysight N6700 would meet your needs, and of all the power supply manufacturers in this industry, HP/Agilent/Keysight are the ones I trust the most. If you don't 20 V at 15A from all 4 channels at once, then you could probably save a couple thousand dollars over the R&S.If you can give up the programmable ripple waveform requirement, then buying four used Agilent rackmount power supplies and interfacing them with LabVIEW is not the worst option, since they have pretty good remote control options. This would be considerably cheaper.

author: beanflying
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2022, 08:12:34 am
content: Plenty of 6000 series Agilent era used Power Supplies and more HP ones.The major downsides to these are generally rear terminals unless you mod them (thread somewhere but me and a lot of others have retro fitted front terminals)Would need some GPIB magic to make them perform some of you fancier functionality and integration to each other you might like.Major issue you might need to add heavier foundations to support the likely 100kg+ for four channelsPlus side to this is you could buy 2 or 3 for likely under $1k USD so one big boy (would need to check a model but some are 2000W) for your current/voltage and say a pair of 6632B's for more general bench use (common as dirt and 100W).As to an all in one box that is 'new' that meets your spec then open the Wallet I guess.