On 9/29/2023 12:00 AM, whit3rd wrote:
Yeah, it's more useful to know the power setting BEFORE you hit the ON switch sometimes.
In addition to wanting to know, most folks know what they WANT the
setting to be!
An "output enable/disable" control gives you exactly this "margin";
a power switch powers up the controls -- with the outputs disabled.
This allows you to talk to the device to ascertain its current
settings as well as command new settings.
As for digital-controlled function generators, don't try to phase-lock those things.
There was one at work with a faulty encoder knob, that we sent to get calibrated.
It came back calibrated, of course, but still broken.
A knob that applies a plus/minus ten percent shift was my main need at one point,
and I had to build the power supply myself; nothing available off-the-shelf was that flexible.
Bench space is ALWAYS at a premium, here (some of my prototypes would completely cover a typical bench, leaving no room for test gear). So,
I always want to be able to "hide" those items out of the way -- meaning
their controls and displays are not accessible.
Nowadays, that's relatively easy with network hooks into tools.
But, that hasn't always been the case...
I rescued three, triple output, digitally programmable power supplies
many years ago. I had no desire to run GPIB to talk to them (costly
cables, I/F card, requires a nearby PC, etc.). So, I hacked the
design to support a serial port as the transport medium. And,
added support for a crude "programming/sequencing" language so
I could preload a set of actions and then just command the device
to "run the program":
Set V1 12.35V
Set I1 2.00A
Set V2 15.00V
Set I2 1.25A
ENABLE 1
DELAY 5 sec
ENABLE 2
etc. This really makes testing a breeze!
They max out at ~50VDC but that's been adequate for all but the
worst case PoE tests that I've had to perform...
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