Monday, November 26, 2012

Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit


Price : $79.99
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Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit - Assemble this kit and you will have Elenco's popular AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply, ideal for use in school labs, service shops or anywhere a precise DC voltage is required. It features three fully regulated solid-state power supplies, 1.25-15V @ 1A, ?1.25 to ?15V @ 1A, or (3-30V @ 1A) and 5V @ 3A. It also has 6.3VAC @ 1A and 12.6VAC center-tapped @ 1A A special IC circuit keeps the output voltage within .2V when going from no load to 1 ampere and is fully protected from short circuits. Dimensions 3 ??(H) x 8?(W) x 6 ??(D). Weight 7 lbs. Made in the United States.

Features include:

•Build an AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply, useful anywhere precise DC voltage is required
•Features three fully regulated solid-state power supplies
•Ideal for use in school labs
•Made in the United States
•For 30 years Elenco has been using their strong engineering and design skills to develop reliable, affordable electronic test equipment, tools, and educational kits


This review is from : Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit
Great Kit! Great Price! . This is an excellent kit. The quality of the components is high. The workmanship on the chassis is high. The documentation is excellent...includes many pictures, diagrams, theory of operation, check sheets, etc. This kit is sold in the Amazon toy store but it is NOT a toy...it IS a solid experimenter bench power supply. It is easy to assemble. It worked perfectly first time it was plugged in. I cannot verify the stated regulation or ripple specs (lack of proper test equipment and load cells at home). The only negative I have (and it isn't bad enough to reduce a five star rating) is the wiring of the regulator ICs and a power transistor is by direct soldering to the component leads...pretty low class. But it helps keep the kit cost low by eliminating sockets. Good soldering technique is required to accomplish this part properly.All-in-all a really good value and a lot of fun to assemble.
Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit Reviews
A very good choice for the experimenter or hobbyist . While it isn't designed to compete with lab grade power supplies costing several hundred dollars, it works very well and should more than meet the needs of the average experimenter or hobbyist.I was going to add more filtering across the binding posts but after looking at the output under load with an oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer I see no need. The output is very clean and stable.While the construction is simple and straight forward, this kit does require good soldering and assembly skills. Mostly for wiring the binding posts and voltage regulators that mount to the heat sink. You need to free-hand solder wires to the leads of the binding posts and TO-220 regulators which takes a little experience and skill. Instructions are better than average with plenty of information about how the circuit works. The only trouble I encountered was a nut that didn't have any threads, which I replaced with one of my own. Other than that everything was there and it worked perfect when done. I put it together in an evening with many, many breaks. Total time actually working on it was probably 1-2 hrs.Bottom line, I'm happy and am comfortable recommending this power supply. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because of the wiring of the regulators on the heat sink.
Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit Opinions
Definitely Not a Toy . This kit, at an unbeatable price for its functionality, is much more difficult to put together than I originally had expected. Wiring the terminal plugs is going to be an exercise of your engineering prowess and patience. Soldering the ICs will make you reconsider whether the makers of this unit know what they're doing. Also, the kit should have provided shrink tubing to protect the leads of the ICs from making accidental contact with one another, especially since they are potentially reachable from outside the enclosure.

The circuit board itself is well made and outlines the polarity of diodes and the electrolytic capacitors. The instruction booklet details the process of soldering and explains the circuit quite well. It however, falls short on the order of the instructions. If I were to go back and assemble this kit again, I'd have made significant changes to the order in which parts are assembled/soldered. I'm not convinced Elenco did a check to see that someone who hasn't designed/assembled this kit could follow the instructions to the letter without issues.

***Pros***

Really Good Price Point
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Most of my purchasing decision relied on this basic measurement: is it worth it at this price? The answer: yes

Positive and Negative Rails
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When working with OpAmps, it's great to have a negative rail integrated into your power supply. Other kits at this price range did not have this.

AC and DC Power
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I haven't found many other power supplies providing both AC and DC power as a kit in this price range (on Amazon).

***Cons***

Hard to Assemble
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Terminal plugs are not solderable, this means you will be working in a confined space to wrench a wire in between to very small nuts on a peg, 7 times

Inefficient
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The supply makes use of linear regulators instead of switch mode regulators. But that this price...you can't blame them.

Has Potential Safety Issues
---------------------------As this is a kit for students and hobbyists, more care should have been taken to prevent accidental shorts from poor soldering. Including some small heat shrink tubing would remedy this situation

No Extra Parts
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If you drop a nut, screw, or resistor...good luck. You'll have to get a new one. The only extra part in this kit is some slack in the wire you get.

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While I wouldn't discourage anyone trying to get a great deal on a variable power supply, I would have to warn them that this kit will take a good deal of patience to assemble and you should buy heat shrink tubing for the ICs to avoid shorting them out. That being said, this is a great addition to a basic electronics lab if you don't have to assemble it yourself!
Poor packing led to broken PCB . This product was received with a broken PCB.It's pretty hard to break a PCB. Careless packing and handling are the only reason that this product could have shipped with a broken PCB. It would actually take effort to break the PCB so someone along the line must have known something wasn't right.I have to take this product down a notch since it is such a hassle to have to ship this back for a replacement. Who has time to take off work to stand in line at the post office to return things? Regardless of how well it may work when in good condition if the purchasing experience is unpleasant then reviews should reflect that. Had I known of this I'd have skipped it and paid more for a fully assembled unit. Whatever apparent savings there might have been from assembling it myself was lost when a defective item was shipped.....I'm bumping this up to two stars because having assembled it and gone through the instruction sheets I've actually decided it's a pretty cool old school design.However, the components are of pretty low quality and with the return issue I can't bring myself to take it up to three stars.
Elenco AC/DC triple output power supply kit . This kit is very good. It is easy to put together, and the final product is of high enough quality to use for years to come.I have read some complaints about soldering the binding posts. May I suggest that if you are having a problem in this area, that it is you who need to improve your technique. I had no problems soldering to these posts, and I am just getting back into electronics after many years away from it. You can do it easily, but only if your soldering technique is up to snuff.The only reason I am only giving this 4 stars is because of the rather lame method of attaching the transistors/voltage regulator ICs to the heatsink and then having to soldering wireds to each of their terminals. Come on Elenco, there are much better ways of doing this.Anyway, It took me a few hours to put together and it worked perfectly the first time out. Double check your work every step of the way, and you will be fine. Be especially vigilant when wiring the sections illustrated in Figure I on page 9. You don't want to miswire the AC.
Pretty Good . I don't have a lot of experience soldering so I started with a couple of Elenco soldering practice kits. By the time I finished those I was convinced my soldering skills were good enough to tackle this power supply kit.All in all it took me about 4 hours total and that included lots of breaks from actual work to carefully review the instructions.Like others have said, it would have been better if the IC's were mounted on the PCB versus the heat sink. I also had a quite a bit of trouble attaching wires to the binding posts but I got it done eventually. It helps that I have small hands. Anyone with big hands could have a bit more difficulty.Curiously, I got -1.25 to -16.6 V on the negative variable output and +1.25 to +17 V on the positive variable output. Not really sure why. All other tests checked out perfectly.As long as I don't go shaking this thing like crazy I feel that it will last for a long time.
Power supply . The power supply arrived on the advertised and neatly packaged. The instruction are very good. I was able to completely assemble and test the power supply in about 5 hours. I am slow, but steady and experienced with electronic kits. Two things stand out: 1) You need a decent soldering iron with a variable temperature control. The Sn based solder is MUCH more challenging to work with than the old Pb product. This has nothing to do with Elenco, lead is no longer used due to it's poisonous nature. I found that the solder traces, especially on the large 'lytic caps needed much more heat.2) Put a 2cm length of 5mm heat shrink tubing over the wire leading to base (middle) leads of the transistors and regulators mounted on the heat sink BEFORE soldering the leads. Again Sn based solder can lump easily, and there is not much room between the collector, base, or emitter. I also tinned both the wire and leads before I assembled this part of the kit.Other than these cautions I am enjoying my new power supply. It's nuthin' fancy, but I don't need anything really upscale. Remember, 1A is a lot of power when working or modern electronics.
AC/DC power supply . This power supply is an excellent value. It performs very well. The AC output is useful. I have kit building experience, so there was no problems in building this unit.

Cons Review
this could have been better . I've just finished assembling this. It works, but I find some of the assembly techniques cheap. The biggest one is highlighted in other reviews: the voltage regulators don't mount on a circuit board. They mount to a heat sink that sticks out the back of the unit. Wires are attached to the legs that go to the PCB. The instructions caution the assembler to be careful not to let the legs short together. Indeed. If only they had been mounted to a circuit board, there would be no danger.Other gripes: Some of the binding posts have to be tied together, rather than that just happening on the circuit board. The wiring is also pretty tight in there. The directions do a good job keeping everything accessible, but repair makes me nervous. I'm glad I didn't make any major mistakes!All the parts were included in my kit. My only problem parts-wise is that one of the PCB mounting legs snapped when I installed it. There isn't much extra included except a bit of wire.That all said, it is attractive, and the semiconductors seem fine and the circuits familiar and reasonable. The instructions are complete and reasonably well-written, and I expect no problems from this for a long time.


Feature Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit

  • For 30 years Elenco has been using their strong engineering and design skills to develop reliable, affordable electronic test equipment, tools, and educational kits
  • Made in the United States
  • Ideal for use in school labs
  • Features three fully regulated solid-state power supplies
  • Build an AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply, useful anywhere precise DC voltage is required


Product Details

EAN : 0756619001883
UPC : 756619001883
MPN : XP-720K
Brand : Elenco
Weight : 6 pounds
Height : 5 inches
Length : 10 inches
Width : 7 inches
Binding : Toy
Manufacturer : Elenco
Manufacturer Maximum Age : 16 years
Manufacturer Minimum Age : 12 years
Model : XP-720K
Publisher : Elenco
SKU : XP-720K
Studio : Elenco

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