Old power supply identification

ElectriSean

Eternal Student
Mentor
Looks pretty old school, possibly home built. From the meter it looks like 10A continuous, and adjustable voltage... Probably rock solid if it works :)
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Looks like they may have been one of them 60's or 70's Heath kit projects. If it is they designed and kitted out some serious DIY electronic stuff.
 

FlyingFoam

Member
I have been searching more online and thanks to PsyBorg's suggestion I have gotten closer to finding this same power supply. On the other hand Heathkits oldest battery eliminator, the be-1, does not seem to be as old as this one although I could be very wrong. Either way it seems that kits this old and in this relatively good condition are quite rare. If anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them, it somewhat surprises me that I cannot find this online. Thank you for your help.
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
You might be able to search on a sub-component's part number and find something correlating. Are there any part numbers on that at all?
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I have been searching more online and thanks to PsyBorg's suggestion I have gotten closer to finding this same power supply. On the other hand Heathkits oldest battery eliminator, the be-1, does not seem to be as old as this one although I could be very wrong. Either way it seems that kits this old and in this relatively good condition are quite rare. If anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them, it somewhat surprises me that I cannot find this online. Thank you for your help.

You have to remember. Those project back then were like the foamies are to us now. Some of the innards were expensive so they saved money by re purposing cases and cabinets instead of paying high prices for the heathkit branded ones.

I would look at the switch configuration and as well as the meter and see if you can get a close match from schematics. It will take time but its still winter so a new hobby to while away some time til flying season comes isn't necessarily bad. Another tell might be the part numbers off the transformer
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Could very easily be a one-off homebrew supply. Pretty common to just make your own from the 40's up until the early 70's or so. There are still people who make their own just because sometimes it's the only way to get just what you want or can do it cheaper than buying one (though it's getting tougher and tougher to build for less than buying anymore.)

Do you have some photos of the internals?
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Just be careful, in a power supply like that it's highly probable that there are some big capacitors that can store quite a charge well after it's been unplugged. Enough to seriously injure or kill. If you're not sure what you're looking at be very careful not to touch anything when you have the cover off!