On Tue, 15 Sep 2020 15:31:23 +0100, Graeme
wrote:

In message , T i m
writes

There are loads over the normal suppliers but I wondered if anyone
here had got something reasonably recently that they could recommend?

I, and quite a few people I know, regularly use units from Maplins and
Circuit Specialists (Europe) with excellent results,

I forget about Maplins these days. ;-(

although our use is
operating ancient (open frame) and modern (can) electric motors (toy
trains), where voltage requirements can be anywhere from 4 to 30, and
amps less than an amp to 5 amps.

Yes, something I discovered when automating a section of BIL's model
railway layout with an Arduino and using PWM. On the same settings,
one loco would hardly move and another would fly off the track!

I don't think the Maplin units are available unused now, but CSE units
are :

https://www.circuitspecialists.eu/po...er-supplies/sw
itch-mode-dc-bench-power-supply-adjustable-0-30v-0-5a-csi-3005sm/

That's spooky Graeme, that looks *exactly* the same as the one my mate
had in his PC shop and *we* used many times, till he sold up (and took
it with him). ;-(

My only criticism of it (and we shared it actually) is that it was
easy to grab the 'Coarse' rather than 'Fine' knob if you were doing
something on the fly. Apart from that, it always did what we asked of
it and was pretty compact (and being portrait rather than landscape,
took up very little shelf space). ;-)


Highly recommended.

That's the sort of thing I was hoping for, thanks. ;-)

10amp unit also available.

Looking at the price difference (nearly double) and assuming the 5A
model really can source 5A continuously (for 8 hours it says) then I
might just go with that, certainly for now.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. With the advent of all these electric scooters and cycles, some
of which running 36V+ battery systems I'm wondering if a 50V (3A)
might be of use to me? Circuitspecialists do a 50V / 3A linear PSU
that just sneaks in under my price limit. ;-)

My iCharger can 'boost' the output voltage over the input voltage:
https://www.icharger.co.nz/icharger-1010b
And has the balance feature so I might stick with that for the
batteries.