So, I've gotten by for a long time in this hobby with a few critical bench tools for the electronic part of this hobby:
DIY Voltage/Current limited Smoke Stopper
Inexpensive digital voltmeter
Inexpensive watt meter
And various flight packs or a 4S pack of AA nicad batteries to power the various RC electronics we use.
While looking for Winter projects to work on, I found that there are inexpensive components that can be slapped together to basically combine most of the above into a single power supply / volt-amp meter, so I decided to do that. I was torn between buying an inexpensive, used, quality power supply or building a DIY unit. I probably could have gotten an used power supply with similar power ratings (or higher) for less, but I liked the programmability of the DPS5015A unit.
Given the following parts (all sourced from Banggood):
Programmable 50V/15A Power Supply/Meter
AC/DC 24V/9A Transformer (why my version is limited to 24V/9A)
Chassis/housing for all the electronics
4mm Banana jacks/connectors
When they all arrived, I ended up realizing I needed some additional parts to round it out, but knew I could source them locally from my favorite "You Do It Electronics" store:
Neon SPST Rocker Switch
AGC/3AG Fuse holder
10 A fuses
12AWG Quick Connect .25 Female Terminals (for the switch and fuse holder)
I had an old power strip that donated the wall/AC plug and wire -- it happened to be an extra long 6' cable, with nice 12AWG copper wires, so it also donated some extra wiring to connect the switch, fuse, transformer, and power supply in the chassis together.
It all went together fairly straight forward in a plug-and-play style. The chassis was what required the most work, using a dremel tool and drill to cut out the front and rear panels for all the components I wanted to mount. The feed into the AC/DC transformer has the active/live wire (the black wire in my AC cable) follow the following route:
Fuse Holder -> Switch -> Transformer.
The neutral (white) wire is connected straight through, and the earth/ground is connected to the AC/DC transformers ground plane via a screw/nut I had to source from a local True Value Hardware (I just didn't have the right size on hand). I put the switch and fuse in the back to minimize the length of wires needed inside the case, based on the best layout I could figure out for the components. While it would be more convenient to put the power switch up front, the front panel of the DPS5015A actually also has a power switch for the output terminals.
I am very happy with the end result. The user interface to the graphical UI on the front panel is a little lacking, but serviceable. There's a rotary knob / push button device that could have been used more effectively for navigating the UI, but it's not used for that purpose. Instead, one must tediously use the up/down buttons. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any open source software for the device, nor even software updates from the manufacturer.
Anyhow, I programmed some presets to emulate the various batteries I use in RC, with different current limits to suit my testing, setup, configuration needs. 2A for configuration, setup stuff, and 8A for motor run ups, etc. There are about 10 presets that can be saved, so I have the following configured:
M0: 5V, 2A (for testing, RX's, flight controllers, servos, programmable LED strips, charging/powering USB devices, etc)
M1: 3.7V 2A (1S stuff, individual LEDs, etc)
M2: 7.4V 2A (2S stuff, ESC programming, etc)
M3: 7.4V 8A (2S motor testing)
M4: 11.1V 2A (3S stuff, 12V FPV setup/config stuff)
M5: 11.1V 8A (3S motor runups, power fully setup aircraft, etc)
M6: 14.8V 2A (4S stuff)
I could have setup more, but as I mentioned, it's tedious to program the presets given the user interface that the DPS5015A unit has. I setup some banana cables with XT60, Deans, JR male connectors so I could connect ESC's, etc I have to the power supply. I can use existing charge connectors/cables with female connectors if I ever want to connect a battery to this unit (e.g. use this as a charger).
Here's the end result:
https://goo.gl/photos/prnQkzm9M2FUYx5k8
It ended up being a bit of a pricey project rounding out to about $90 with all the little added parts, but it was still a fun project and glad I went this route. I like the ability to program specific configurations and settings. That's something an older used basic bench/lab power supply probably wouldn't be able to provide, especially the analog ones I see on craigslist or ebay.
DIY Voltage/Current limited Smoke Stopper
Inexpensive digital voltmeter
Inexpensive watt meter
And various flight packs or a 4S pack of AA nicad batteries to power the various RC electronics we use.
While looking for Winter projects to work on, I found that there are inexpensive components that can be slapped together to basically combine most of the above into a single power supply / volt-amp meter, so I decided to do that. I was torn between buying an inexpensive, used, quality power supply or building a DIY unit. I probably could have gotten an used power supply with similar power ratings (or higher) for less, but I liked the programmability of the DPS5015A unit.
Given the following parts (all sourced from Banggood):
Programmable 50V/15A Power Supply/Meter
AC/DC 24V/9A Transformer (why my version is limited to 24V/9A)
Chassis/housing for all the electronics
4mm Banana jacks/connectors
When they all arrived, I ended up realizing I needed some additional parts to round it out, but knew I could source them locally from my favorite "You Do It Electronics" store:
Neon SPST Rocker Switch
AGC/3AG Fuse holder
10 A fuses
12AWG Quick Connect .25 Female Terminals (for the switch and fuse holder)
I had an old power strip that donated the wall/AC plug and wire -- it happened to be an extra long 6' cable, with nice 12AWG copper wires, so it also donated some extra wiring to connect the switch, fuse, transformer, and power supply in the chassis together.
It all went together fairly straight forward in a plug-and-play style. The chassis was what required the most work, using a dremel tool and drill to cut out the front and rear panels for all the components I wanted to mount. The feed into the AC/DC transformer has the active/live wire (the black wire in my AC cable) follow the following route:
Fuse Holder -> Switch -> Transformer.
The neutral (white) wire is connected straight through, and the earth/ground is connected to the AC/DC transformers ground plane via a screw/nut I had to source from a local True Value Hardware (I just didn't have the right size on hand). I put the switch and fuse in the back to minimize the length of wires needed inside the case, based on the best layout I could figure out for the components. While it would be more convenient to put the power switch up front, the front panel of the DPS5015A actually also has a power switch for the output terminals.
I am very happy with the end result. The user interface to the graphical UI on the front panel is a little lacking, but serviceable. There's a rotary knob / push button device that could have been used more effectively for navigating the UI, but it's not used for that purpose. Instead, one must tediously use the up/down buttons. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any open source software for the device, nor even software updates from the manufacturer.
Anyhow, I programmed some presets to emulate the various batteries I use in RC, with different current limits to suit my testing, setup, configuration needs. 2A for configuration, setup stuff, and 8A for motor run ups, etc. There are about 10 presets that can be saved, so I have the following configured:
M0: 5V, 2A (for testing, RX's, flight controllers, servos, programmable LED strips, charging/powering USB devices, etc)
M1: 3.7V 2A (1S stuff, individual LEDs, etc)
M2: 7.4V 2A (2S stuff, ESC programming, etc)
M3: 7.4V 8A (2S motor testing)
M4: 11.1V 2A (3S stuff, 12V FPV setup/config stuff)
M5: 11.1V 8A (3S motor runups, power fully setup aircraft, etc)
M6: 14.8V 2A (4S stuff)
I could have setup more, but as I mentioned, it's tedious to program the presets given the user interface that the DPS5015A unit has. I setup some banana cables with XT60, Deans, JR male connectors so I could connect ESC's, etc I have to the power supply. I can use existing charge connectors/cables with female connectors if I ever want to connect a battery to this unit (e.g. use this as a charger).
Here's the end result:
https://goo.gl/photos/prnQkzm9M2FUYx5k8
It ended up being a bit of a pricey project rounding out to about $90 with all the little added parts, but it was still a fun project and glad I went this route. I like the ability to program specific configurations and settings. That's something an older used basic bench/lab power supply probably wouldn't be able to provide, especially the analog ones I see on craigslist or ebay.
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