Kunkin KL283 DC Electronic Load - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: dcbrown73
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 12:58:58 am
content: Greeting,I recently picked up a Kunkin KL283 DC electronic load. Searching around the Internet didn't provide much, most results returned Kunkin KL184 instead.Anyhow, I have one now and I figured I would provide a little more information about it for others that end up looking at it as an option.I will preface this with I'm a hobbyist with enough experience to be dangerous, and zero experience with an electronic load. I picked this up as I'm in the process of designing my first power supply and needed something to test with.Here is some information up front before I start providing all the pictures.It's a dual input load. I've read you can inner-connect them and use it, but the manual says nothing about it and I have not tried.I've also read that the manual is in Chinese, but mine is in English. (see below)It's smaller than I expected. HxWxD = 7" x 3" 1/2 x 11" 1/2 or 17.78 x 8.89 x 29.21 in cm. The depth is 11" even, but the knobs give it the extra half inch.The fan (powered on, no load) isn't quite. With an uncalibrated phone app it was showing about 50.2dbA (another one of my high end precision pieces of test equipment)The buttons / knobs feel like cheap low density hard plastic. They work, just don't feel that great.It doesn't have any programmable features that I can tell beyond what you see on the front panel.Finally. I read somewhere that (not sure if it was this one, but) I heard the banana plugs where not the correct distance apart for dual plugs. Well, I don't have any to test this, so I measured it with my calipers and got 15/16th. (image below) Maybe someone else can confirm how far they should be apart.Finally, I've seen these priced pretty wide. From under $200, to over $250. I got mine on eBay for $147.66. After shipping and tax it was $167.66 (US dollars) So, shop around. At $167, I think I got a good deal.On to the pictures.Included with the device: No pre-made cables except the power cable, but they do give you raw wires with connectors.The manual is in English. Here is a list of some of the features.Technical Specs13.8v at 2.5a3.3v at 1.2a The voltage seems to be off, but I counted at least 8 variable pots that might allow us to correct this.InternalsSound levels. The spike at the end we me trying to take the screenshot.I hope this helps someone out at some point.

author: H.O
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 04:48:32 am
content: QuoteBefore you start tweaking pots, have you considered the voltage drop across the leads between the source and the load? There's a 240mV difference at 2.5A and 116mA at 1.2A which is quite proportional. Take a multimeter and measure the voltage at the input of the load, don't rely on what the power supply at the other end of the leads says.

author: J-R
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 04:58:22 am
content: I picked one up last year for about $135 delivered, a new/return deal. They probably heard how loud it is and sent it back?! I installed a temperature controlled fan that night. I really liked it considering the price.The biggest functional limitation I found, at least with mine, is that it won't operate in CC mode below about 1V. Maybe you can try this with yours as well?After running into that issue, I ended up buying a nice used HP 66332A for around the same price and now only use the KL283 when I need to sink more than the HP can. Of course the 66332A has a lot of capabilities by comparison, but mostly I can't keep my fingers off that handy number pad...The KL283 post spacing seems to be about 1.5mm wider than what is typical, although depending on slop, some things will still fit.For combining the channels, one setup is you could set it to CC on both, then connect all 4 wires to the power supply, positive to positive, negative to negative. Then you could set each channel to say 15A and get 30A of load total.

author: dcbrown73
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 01:41:42 pm
content: Quote from: J-R on July 09, 2020, 04:58:22 amWell, I'm mad. hah ...and I thought I had a great deal! Nice!Quote from: J-R on July 09, 2020, 04:58:22 amI will try this when I get home.Quote from: J-R on July 09, 2020, 04:58:22 amSeems logical. I was kind of wavering back and forth about this one and the KP184 as I believe the KP184 can sink 400 watts. Though if I can tie these together and sink even more, maybe I did make the right choice. Though the only time I might need to sink that much power would be building the PSU for this AM transceiver learning project I'm hoping to build.

author: aristarchus
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 02:47:41 pm
content: Quote from: dcbrown73 on July 09, 2020, 12:58:58 amHi,I've opted for the KP184, received it a couple of days ago.Based on the specs, each one of your channels could get 300W.Just a question since it cannot be seen on the photos, what part are the power mosfets? are the IRFP250M or something else?

author: J-R
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2020, 07:31:49 am
content: Quote from: dcbrown73 on July 09, 2020, 01:41:42 pmBoth are good deals, I think mine was a bit lower because it was a return and they obviously wanted it gone. One thing about this forum is that there is always someone out there who got a better deal!Quote from: dcbrown73 on July 09, 2020, 01:41:42 pmI mostly hit the KL283 limits when testing batteries. Plenty of ways to do that, though, sometimes I use an inverter with an electric heater...

author: roberus
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 19, 2025, 02:14:02 pm
content: Hi! Thanks for the good idea to buy this product. I hope it will still work in good condition. I just bought it on amazon.co.uk, model KL283 for 150 GBP and I immediately registered on the EEVblog to reply to you about my good mood! Thank you very much!Have a nice day and I wish everyone the best. Robert