Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Runco990]

I've had a few things with bad AD706 op amps in them.  Somewhat common issue???  I now keep a few in stock.

I HATE Agilent power supplies!  Who on earth decided to NOT use a direct entry keypad considering the astronomical cost of these things when new?

The twiddle knob interface is horrific.  Yes, they were "intended" more for GPIB use, but come on.... 
They REALLY couldn't afford a basic numeric entry key pad?

[AVGresponding]

The full rack width ones do.

[wolfy007]

I've had a few things with bad AD706 op amps in them.  Somewhat common issue???  I now keep a few in stock.

I HATE Agilent power supplies!  Who on earth decided to NOT use a direct entry keypad considering the astronomical cost of these things when new?

The twiddle knob interface is horrific.  Yes, they were "intended" more for GPIB use, but come on.... 
They REALLY couldn't afford a basic numeric entry key pad?

OK, good to know, I havent had to many problems with opamps that are away from front end signals, so wasnt expecting that. They are not cheap, so now Im glad I bought a couple extra (always good to have spares).

[wolfy007]

The full rack width ones do.

Speaking of which, I already have a couple of those (in a rack funny enough), a HP6621A and Agilent 6626A. Got at least one of them before I started posting here, so they may not have appeared here, and here they are with more TEA... 

[Runco990]

The full rack width ones do.

Yes, I have one of those.  0-120V.  I like that one. 

But I picked up a GW Instek psm-6003, which I think is better than the same size agilent.  In my work flow, I like to just type in current and voltage and hit enter.  I DO have an agilent 6613C, which still has the direct entry ability. 

It's like they "cheapened" the later stuff, even though they are a very premium brand.

Anyway, just a personal observation.  As far as Power supplies go, they are still excellent, and above all, LINEAR!   There be no switched mode supplies on my RF bench, thank you!

[TERRA Operative]

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

HP stuff sourced from overseas (like USA) is gonna cost an insane amount for shipping, and the only thing I've found in Japan so far is a Kikusui PAD110-20L which would be perfect to run two in series, if the seller had two but alas, only one in stock...

[Robert763]

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

HP stuff sourced from overseas (like USA) is gonna cost an insane amount for shipping, and the only thing I've found in Japan so far is a Kikusui PAD110-20L which would be perfect to run two in series, if the seller had two but alas, only one in stock...

What mains do you have? That's 4-6kW you arn't going to run that off a 100V 16A outlet.....
Look for Delta Electronika PSUs they are great for this application. You can even run the 3 phase ones on single phase at reduced power.

Robert.

[tautech]

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

HP stuff sourced from overseas (like USA) is gonna cost an insane amount for shipping, and the only thing I've found in Japan so far is a Kikusui PAD110-20L which would be perfect to run two in series, if the seller had two but alas, only one in stock...

What about something from the SPS5000X series ?
https://int.siglent.com/products-overview/sps5000x/

A pair of SPS5163X in series should do what you need.
You do have a Japan branch:
https://siglent.co.jp/

[EggertEnjoyer123]

I got a free Lecroy 7200A from another person here.

It seems to get stuck while booting - problem seems to be a dead hard drive. The hard drive doesn't spin even when plugged into another power supply.

I'll try replacing it with a SD to IDE adapter, going to take a while to get in the mail though...

[TERRA Operative]

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

HP stuff sourced from overseas (like USA) is gonna cost an insane amount for shipping, and the only thing I've found in Japan so far is a Kikusui PAD110-20L which would be perfect to run two in series, if the seller had two but alas, only one in stock...

What mains do you have? That's 4-6kW you arn't going to run that off a 100V 16A outlet.....
Look for Delta Electronika PSUs they are great for this application. You can even run the 3 phase ones on single phase at reduced power.

Robert.

We do have 200V available, but the available current rating of the mains supply is still to be verified. Apparently it's 60 amps.

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

HP stuff sourced from overseas (like USA) is gonna cost an insane amount for shipping, and the only thing I've found in Japan so far is a Kikusui PAD110-20L which would be perfect to run two in series, if the seller had two but alas, only one in stock...

What about something from the SPS5000X series ?
https://int.siglent.com/products-overview/sps5000x/

A pair of SPS5163X in series should do what you need.
You do have a Japan branch:
https://siglent.co.jp/

Will check it out, but they look to be about 350,000 yen each... both price and availability are of the essence here. At that price it would still be cheaper to buy second hand HP PSU's from USA including shipping.

[duckduck]

Hey, are we complaining about linear power supply keypads (or the lack thereof)? How about the Rigol DP832 with it's silly circular keypad. I understand why they did it (front panel real estate savings), but I still don't like it. I don't need linear power that often, so I usually use my RIDEN RD6006P (running that EEVblog user's firmware). The Rigol has a powerful fan, and the RIDEN is mostly silent. The Rigol has a silly keypad, and the RIDEN has a regular 10 key. Also the RIDEN goes to 60V. Winner winner chicken something.

EDIT: That's a stock photo, by the way. My 832 screen is monochromatic (but you get to choose the color).

[tautech]

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

HP stuff sourced from overseas (like USA) is gonna cost an insane amount for shipping, and the only thing I've found in Japan so far is a Kikusui PAD110-20L which would be perfect to run two in series, if the seller had two but alas, only one in stock...

What about something from the SPS5000X series ?
https://int.siglent.com/products-overview/sps5000x/

A pair of SPS5163X in series should do what you need.
You do have a Japan branch:
https://siglent.co.jp/

Will check it out, but they look to be about 350,000 yen each... both price and availability are of the essence here. At that price it would still be cheaper to buy second hand HP PSU's from USA including shipping.

Yep ~ $2k ea.
Still, new and with warranty.

I have SPS5042X 40V/60A and give it a good beat up from time to time and 30+A charging duties.
Never missed a beat. 

[Runco990]

I got a free Lecroy 7200A from another person here.

It seems to get stuck while booting - problem seems to be a dead hard drive. The hard drive doesn't spin even when plugged into another power supply.

I'll try replacing it with a SD to IDE adapter, going to take a while to get in the mail though...

Those drives were known for stiction.  If you can back up the data on it, try holding it at the disk spindle (to rotate around) and give it a few taps on the long end.  It may unstick and run so you can grab an image for your flash adapter.

[m k]

Open the drive, be ready to do a backup when you start.

Give it a push, center has screws, use tweezers.
Close it and make a backup.

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

Or start creating a partial charger quartet.
Though I would be pretty humble.

What is a smallest available practical "cell" voltage?

I did once a 12V/24V thing with few ON-OFF-ON switches where use is 24V and charge 12V.
On the other hand, it's 2x 4Ah.

[Ice-Tea]

@Terra I might have something rather exotic. I have no idea about  your background so .. do you read Japanese? 

[TERRA Operative]

I'm in need of a couple (as many as I can get) beefy PSU's at the moment, need a total of about 200V at 20 to 30-ish amps CC/CV PSU's to charge a field of what will be grid-tie lithium battery packs.

Or start creating a partial charger quartet.
Though I would be pretty humble.

What is a smallest available practical "cell" voltage?

I did once a 12V/24V thing with few ON-OFF-ON switches where use is 24V and charge 12V.
On the other hand, it's 2x 4Ah.

The packs are comprised of 52 LiFePO4 cells in 4 strings of 13, but we really need to charge them as a single pack.
We don't really have the time to engineer a custom solution though, we have 1500 or so packs to top up. So a 200V-ish CV/CC PSU capable of a good number of tens of amps (20-30A or more) is ideal. Ganging them in series or parallel is fine.

@Terra I might have something rather exotic. I have no idea about  your background so .. do you read Japanese? 

A very little, but I have ways and means of translating. What have you got?

[Ice-Tea]

A tower of Anelva PDC-028's. Just had a look, maybe not as suitable as I thought. 700V/5A. I only have a Japanese manual. I once ran it through google translate or something and if I remember correctly it needed the positive terminal to be tied to GND. Never got any of them to work, though. The manual just didn't make any sense to me. Not sure if you could parallel them....

[TERRA Operative]

I need lower voltage and higher current. Where would I buy 4 or 8 of them for reasonable money? I need at least 20amps so would need to parallel 4 of these and at 70,000yen each (for the single one I found on Yahoo Shopping)....... ouch.

Hopefully I can assemble two sets of whatever PSU I end up finding.

[ftg]

Whoops. Some more HP.
Went to get the signal generator.
And walked away with the measurement unit of a HP 4195A.
So I guess I now have a spare measurement unit.

[tautech]

The packs are comprised of 52 LiFePO4 cells in 4 strings of 13, but we really need to charge them as a single pack.
We don't really have the time to engineer a custom solution though, we have 1500 or so packs to top up. So a 200V-ish CV/CC PSU capable of a good number of tens of amps (20-30A or more) is ideal. Ganging them in series or parallel is fine.

Total AH ?
How hard can you push LiFePO4 ?
Harder than 1/10C ?

[Ice-Tea]

This might be an option:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/225935352257?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=707-127634-2357-0&ssspo=GrnxjS1WTma&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=LXxs_Hy_RJ-&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Had some of the series in the past, made a few post on the forum about them too. Should do what you need ;-)

[Robert763]

One option if you already have a 30V 10A+ adjustable supply would be to series it with a stack of server or telecom high power low voltage fixed supplies.

Or full-wave rectify your 200V mains put a big resistor in series and have a manual or automatic cut-off at your charged voltage....
Do a full safety assesment of course 

[TERRA Operative]

The packs are comprised of 52 LiFePO4 cells in 4 strings of 13, but we really need to charge them as a single pack.
We don't really have the time to engineer a custom solution though, we have 1500 or so packs to top up. So a 200V-ish CV/CC PSU capable of a good number of tens of amps (20-30A or more) is ideal. Ganging them in series or parallel is fine.

Total AH ?
How hard can you push LiFePO4 ?
Harder than 1/10C ?

The packs are 280Ah (52 cells in series) and can be charged at up to 0.5C, Maximum charged voltage is 189.8V

[factory]

For higher power supplies we used lots of Glassman (aka Zantrex or Sorensen) not sure they would have one supply to suit your exact requirements. At work we had many 150V 7A, one 150V 20A, one 300V 9A and one boat anchor grade at 150V weighing over 70kg, cant remember the A rating of that one. All single phase input, except the boat anchor one.

David

[AVGresponding]

I'm a little surprised you aren't designing and building your own...