DC Power Supply Recommendations

[lvb]

So after a long hiatus, I am back to the LAVA forums.  I am looking for some DC power supply recommendations from the community: something that works well with LabVIEW, along with the ability to acquire at a minimum voltage and current at a 20th century rate (i.e >10 Hz).

I have worked with a lot of different vendors in the past, but nothing really stands out.  In addition to this, there has been so many mergers and acquisitions.  Looking to the community for some advice on what you like, along with some unique features from power supply technology.

 

Thanks,

Brian

[hooovahh]

I've had good luck with the Genesys Lambda TDK supplies.  Rack mountable, modern, and a few features I don't see in a lot of supplies.

We've had cases where we would need 3 power supplies in one test rack.  Maybe a low current high voltage, high current high voltage, and low current low voltage.  Or there might be designs where we have one power supply for each nest location so each UUT gets a separate supply.  Normally for serial devices this would mean one RS-232, or RS-485 for each supply.  Or you can go with the more expensive GPIB.  But these supplies can be daisy changed and addressed.  So one RS-232 port out of a computer can control I think up to 16 supplies.

Another neat feature is the quick ability to change out of remote mode which some might see as a hazard but I think it can be disabled.  There might be times I would command the supply to something using the software, and then I would want to manually override it with the controls on the front.  All you have to do is press the remote/local button and then the controls on the front are enabled.  After I command a new output using my software it turns back into remote mode.

As for drivers, every Genesys I've used work with the same drivers found here.  Pretty clean, and much better than some I've seen in the driver network.  It's what I recommend for new systems, and using the same drivers for a large range of capabilities makes swapping them out easy.  Of course a IVI compatible supply can say the same thing.

[lvb]

hooovahh,

Thanks for the info, I have also used TDK-Lambda in the past, they seem like to gold standard.  Any suggestions on something a little less expensive that works well with LabVIEW?  For instance, the BK Precision 9201 is about 1/3 of the price of a TDK supply:

http://www.bkprecision.com/products/power-supplies/9201-200w-multi-range-60v-10a-dc-power-supply.html

[hooovahh]

I've certainly worked with other ones, but they mostly all suck for one reason or another.  Another issue is all the other cheaper, crappier ones, are so forgettable I don't remember the brand or model.  I've heard good things about the BK, but haven't used one programatically before.

[Jordan Kuehn]

I have had some good experiences with Agilent power supplies in the past.  Most of them were GPIB, but they have some USB controlled ones as well.

[Tim_S]

I've been using Sorenson power supplies. They aren't as good as they used to be. My issues with them are with the RS232 communication when the PC tries to reconnect (nothing seems to work requiring shutting down the program, power cycling the Sorenson, and then bringing the program back up). Otherwise they haven't given me problems for my application. We've been using them to supply power to electronic control modules (ECM) and vehicle sensors. The ECMs can have a huge inrush to where we put in a marine battery with trickle charger in the system to act like a battery backup. For LabVIEW communication, it's just well documented SCPI commands over serial for what I've been using.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Tim_S

[mwebster]

Second for Sorensen's.  I've used their DLM600's on several projects using GPIB.  Drivers on driver network have been fine for me.  I'm not sure how fast you can sample back their IV though.  Whenever I've needed that information faster than human monitor speed, I've tended to put in a couple of signal conditioners and a shunt so I can get DAQ sampled / aligned input. Oh, and only 1U high and half rack wide so you can pile in several in a small footprint.

I also really like Acopian gold box power supplies.  The programmable ones have been stable and linear enough in my experience that they can run open loop after calibrating (i.e. 1V AO = 5V supply, 10V AO = 80V supply, calculate scale and offset and you're off to the races).  Again, you'd need DAQ hardware and signal conditioning to sample back voltage and current.

Edited May 20, 2016 by mwebster

[bigman]

Hi,

If you need low price, i found / use this kind of PS : http://elc.fr/en/online-quotation/adjustable-and-multiple-power-supplies/100-power-supply-32v-20a-640w.html

 

His streng is that you can control in many ways (USB //modbus // analog ) and it can be reeuse for other projects.

There is also a double output PS with same design.

The LV drivers seems fine (not used yet)

Regards