Server converted power supplys.

[sureshot]

If you jump multiple outputs together, and then tinker with jumper wires and stuff to trick it into giving 13.8v, are you in any way compromising it's protection systems? If a switching unit goes nuts and starts pumping excessive voltage into your £500 radio even for a few seconds then it could be a false economy.

Not impossible to get a fault with over voltage, but highly unlikley. I've been faffing about with converted smps atx mainly, but server units and even game console psu's... i'm yet to see an over voltage problem. If anything these things are over protected, I've had a retail linear dump 19 Volts into a radio, it died, I know why, bad design. I've really given these things some stick. Its never gone over voltage, I think there hard to kill as well, simply because they designed to sniff out fault situations if they where to accure. In short i'm certain there safe. If you really wanted to add an aditional crowbar you could, but its not really necessary.

[Admiral]

Do these PSU units do all of the clever sensing for voltage irregularities or does the smart equipment they were designed for play any part in the monitoring of them? Obviously a radio isn't quite as smart as a server unit.

These are genuine questions by the way, not some form of argument as I have never used one of these beasties, I have an old school 50amp linear unit but it's the size of a Volkswagen.

[sureshot]

To the best of my knowledge some will and do need feedback from there host device they are powering. This is why we trick them into thinking there in there intended environment, its not always perfect, but we try and get as close as possible to getting the best most stable voltage for loads possible. Some units won't play ball no matter how hard you try.

Its unkown territory, unless someone out there has trodden the path before (like the RC forum guys) the biggest user of these things. The single biggest fear for me, and others trying new units is what's been said many times before....Electrical noise on the output. If we get a quiet supply its a big bonus. I'm not going to pretend these things won't make noise, because they can, and badly in the worst units. But having said that its possible to find high quality units that put out no more than a few tens of millivolts noise, and this is well with in usable noise limits. RF gear is by its nature is fussy about its power source, but there are many units that can be used with no problems. A lot of the new psu's sold by radio retail traders are smps, but these are very good quality units, finding server or atx units with as good noise propertys is not easy. But not impossible, I don't have half the kit I could do with for noise testing, but do the best with what I've got. Some hours connection to lighting, halogen typically for testing stability, then connection to a none critical radio for some real time use normally determines if there exeptable for radio use. After a few overs with other stations you get some idea if the unit gets a green or red light. Ideally I would like to do testing under various loads whilst monitoring noise with a scope. But I can't take it that far at the moment sadly.

Maybe someone else can take up that challenge before me ! But back to your question, what where trying to do is not perfect far from it, but we try to get as close as possible, and it is trial and error stuff, only time and use of a unit says if its any good for radio use.

[sec1223]

valid question admiral but like sure said, these arnt just normal psu's, these are over engineered and probably had more gone into its design that most hf sets !...

iv used mine for a while now and had good results with it.. this latest one is smaller and better with higher voltage and for the price i paid, you cant go wrong..

you'l actually find that a lot of the RC guys use these (in a double config to give 24v) for charging li-on batteries and they are very very popular.

give one a go and load it up with a few 55w halogen bulbs to see how it lies regarding stability and performance.

[Admiral]

I think I just might, it sounds a bit poncy, but I struggle to lift my PSU about these days as it's so damn big and heavy, I only need 30-35amps at home so may give one of these things a go if you lot haven't bought them all.
Cheers for the info, I'll have a read through the whole thread when I get a spare hour or two.

[sec1223]

il sell you a converted one ! lol

[Buick Mackane]

it sounds a bit poncy, but I struggle to lift my PSU about these days as it's so damn big and heavy, .

I pity the fool who can't lift his own PSU, Man up sukka, And dont go giving me any that jibberjabba.

[sec1223]

i nearly bought a mil spec psu but it weighed 48 kilo's so i didnt bother

[Admiral]

il sell you a converted one ! lol

I'll happily buy a converted one that does 50amps if the price is right, saves me blowing myself up.

[sec1223]

PM sent .

[sureshot]

Found this whilst looking into. Sec 1223's conversion. Might try this one as well soon. http://pa0fri.home.xs4all.nl/Diversen/D ... %20eng.htm

[sec1223]

Found this whilst looking into. Sec 1223's conversion. Might try this one as well soon. http://pa0fri.home.xs4all.nl/Diversen/D ... %20eng.htm

looks good..

" the PCB has a conductive intermediate layer of the same polarity.".. so to me, that means that i can drill through the pcb to attach terminals.

[sureshot]

Found this whilst looking into. Sec 1223's conversion. Might try this one as well soon. http://pa0fri.home.xs4all.nl/Diversen/D ... %20eng.htm

looks good..

" the PCB has a conductive intermediate layer of the same polarity.".. so to me, that means that i can drill through the pcb to attach terminals.

Yes makes fiting terminal and binding posts easy if you can drill through the blade interface.

[sec1223]

look what iv just got in very cheap as a donor case !... i can fit 2 SPSU's in there with room to spare lol

[sureshot]

If it where mine i'd put the most stable high current unit I had in that case ! Nice score there sec.