Recommended bench power supply for beginning hobbyist

[pkilcoyne]

Hello all,
I'm a qualified electronic engineer who's worked in computer networking/ Cisco for the last 15yrs. Recently I've gotten back into electronics from a hobbyist point of view, I've bought a scope and now I'm hoping to add a bench power supply.

Can anyone recommend a decent bench power supply, dual output preferably, that I might buy to suit the general hobbyist considering budget and also that I'd like to only have to buy once.

Many thanks,

Paul

[Stray Electron]

  You don't show where you are in the world and their are different brands in different countries so it's difficult to make a brand recommendation for you.  Also it depends entirely on what you planning on working on. A guy building Tesla coils will need a different power supply with very different capabilities than someone that collects 1960s transistor radios!   But my suggestion is that you look for a used HP or other major brand power supply that has documentation and parts available. That pretty well leaves out anything made in China!  You can buy used HP (and others) PSUs on E-bay and Craigslist for next to nothing due to their weight and subsequent shipping costs.  Find one near you and go pick it up in person and save a ton of money. I have used HP supplies that I've bought off of E-bay for as little as $10 that still work great and are nearly 50 years old! I recently bought a HP 6114A Precision Power Supply for $10 that was made in 1976 and it's accuracy is dead on!  This thing is well build enough that it will probably last forever but if it fails, parts and documentation are readily available for it. 

   PS  I also strongly recommend a power supply that has both constant voltage and constant current modes and that has adjustable current limiting!  I repair a LOT of electronic items and it's nice to be able to set the current limit and not to have to worry about burning up an item that may have shorted caps or other problems in it.

  If you're like me and work on a wide range of equipment, you'll probably eventually find yourself with a closet full of power supplies! Mine range in size from little bitty 0 to 20 volts and 400Ma to others that output 100 amps and others that go to 2000 volts!