Accuracy – VoltLog

Is the UNI-T UDP3305S the BEST Programmable Power Supply? Find Out! | Voltlog #478

Are you tired of juggling multiple power supplies on your workbench? The UNI-T UDP3305S could be the solution you’ve been waiting for. This programmable DC power supply unit combines four independent channels into one sleek and powerful package, making your life easier and more productive. With three independently programmable outputs (two at 0-30V 5A and one at 0-6V 3A) and a fixed 5V 2A USB output, the UDP3305S offers a total combined power output of 348W.

Its 1mV/1mA resolution and low ripple voltage of less than 350uV (measured at 1MHz bandwidth) make it suitable for powering even the most sensitive analog circuits. One of the standout features of this unit is its ability to internally switch channels 1 and 2 to series or parallel mode, eliminating the need for external wiring and separate adjustments.

Need more than 30V? Switch to series mode for up to 60V at 5A. Need more current? Parallel mode delivers 30V at 10A. The 4.3-inch TFT display provides a clear and intuitive graphical user interface, allowing you to monitor and adjust settings with ease. The unit also offers advanced features like waveform viewing, programmable sequences, monitoring, triggering, and data logging.

With a robust build quality, rubber corner protection, and a carry handle, the UDP3305S is designed for the demanding workbench environment. Connectivity options include USB, Ethernet, RS232, and digital I/O, enabling remote control and integration into automated test setups. While the included Windows software could be more polished, the instrument itself excels in usability and performance.

Compared to alternatives from Rigol, Siglent, and others, the UNI-T UDP3305S offers more features at a lower cost, making it an attractive choice for professionals and hobbyists alike.

EastTester ET5410A+ Electronic Load Review | Voltlog #453

In this comprehensive review, we take an in-depth look at the EastTester ET5410A+ Electronic Load, a 400W max, 150V, and 40A fully programmable dummy load. With its 3.2-inch TFT display, this unit promises an improved user interface over the 7-segment display found in the Kunkin KP184. However, as the review unfolds, it becomes clear that while the ET5410A+ has some notable strengths, it also has areas that could benefit from improvement.

One of the key aspects evaluated in the review is the accuracy and precision of the unit. The manufacturer claims a resolution of 1mV and 1mA, but the reviewer found that this was not always the case, with the display sometimes showing only 10mV and 10mA resolution. After some investigation, it was discovered that a setting in the menu allowed switching between a low range (20V, 3A) and a high range (150V, 40A), which affected both the maximum input and the display resolution.

The functionality of the ET5410A+ is impressive, with features like battery testing, LED testing, and transient testing modes. However, the review highlights some potential software bugs, particularly with the battery discharge feature in Constant Resistance mode, which some users reported issues with on older firmware versions.

Build quality is a mixed bag, with both good and bad aspects. The reviewer praises the overall PCB assembly but raises concerns about the mains earth wiring, placement of wires and connectors, and the lack of full plated footprint holes for the MOSFETs. Safety concerns are also raised, with the earth connection passing through the PCB and soldering issues observed during the teardown.

Voltlog #284 – Riden RD6006 Power Supply Review

Welcome to a new Voltlog, if you’ve been watching the channel for a while you might know I’m a fan of the gopher power supply units, I think they are great value for money, they’re simple and they have good specs, in fact I reviewed their latest revision in Voltlog #255 and it had very low noise at the output, even though it is a switch mode power supply. They’re pretty compact, they don’t take up much space on the bench so what’s there not to like about these?

But in recent years there’s been another company which has slowly built-up a name among hobbyists due to their really low priced power supply modules, the name of the company is RuiDeng and they’ve been selling these compact switch mode power supply modules for $20 to $30 for years. They were not great specs, the quality was not great, you needed an external power supply unit but they had a bunch of functionality built into that color TFT display and they were cheap so everyone gave them a try

Now RuiDeng has developed and released a new model RD6006 which resembles a real bench power supply. It has a bigger front panel and it comes with a separate enclosure and power supply unit which are optional.

Voltlog #276 – What Is The CO2 Concentration In Your Home?

Welcome to a new Voltlog, in the previous video I showed how I built this monitoring system for CO2, it’s based on an ESP32 development board and it uses two sensors the MH-Z19B and the CCS811. In that video I explained the differences between these two sensors so please watch that to better understand the current video and the conclusions presented here.

I’ve let the system run and collect data for the past few days and now we can take a look at the data and draw some conclusions which might help you decide what sensor to use in your future projects or it might determine you to build a similar data logger to check the CO2 levels in your home because I assure you if you do not have a ventilation system, chances are you are sleeping in some high CO2 concentration levels.

Voltlog #275 – CO2 Concentration Measurement System With MH-Z19B & CCS811

Welcome to a new Voltlog, you might remember these two sensors from a previous mailbag, this is the MH-Z19B and this is the CCS811 both of these report CO2 levels but they measure this differently and I’ll explain this in a moment. I got these two sensors in order to monitor CO2 levels in my home, to determine if the levels rise too much at night, especially during the winter time when we tend to keep the windows closed most of the time. I live in an old apartment building where there isn’t much provision for ventilation and so I suspect the air I breath during sleep is high in CO2 levels as it builds up over night.

In this video I’m gonna show you how I built the monitoring system using an ESP32 board that reads the sensor data and then sends it over the network to an MQTT server running on my raspberry pi. I then use node-red to insert the data into InfluxDB and then finally Grafana to monitor all of this data in a nice graphical user interface. The beauty of this setup is that all of this software is free to use and open-source.

Voltlog #255 – Gophert NPS-1601 Review (possibly the best power supply in this price range)

Welcome to a new Voltlog, those who have been with me since the beginning of this channel, may know the first video I ever released, Voltlog #1 was a review of a switch mode bench power supply from Gopher Technology. It was the CPS-3205C and it was a great little unit, it has served me well over the years and I still have it.

At that time I complained about the fact that the unit has the output jacks on the back which is not really convenient for bench use. There were also other issues mentioned while measuring the performance of the power supply, I will link that video on screen if you want to watch it but the video, audio and editing quality are lower than what you’re seeing today.

Gophert made some improvements to the original design and have now released a newer version of that power supply, it has a new model number it’s NPS-1601 but it’s the same range of 0-32V and 0-5A. There are other models with different ranges but this is what would correspond to the CPS3205 I reviewed years ago.

They have made a bunch of changes on the front panel, the most important one is they moved the output jacks to the front panel so now it’s easier to connect the output of this power supply but they are still not standard spacing so you can’t connect one of these adapters with banana jacks. They have also redesigned the front panel completely, they are still using 7 segment displays but now they also have a wattage display which can be switched on temporarily in place of the amps display, you press the watts button and it will show watts measurement for about 3 seconds before reverting to amps display.

The switch for A/V adjustment is now tactile instead of a sliding switch but the rest has stayed the same. I like this redesigned front panel I just wished they used a lighter color for the text, because for example there are some markings which are barely visible next to the LEDs.

Here is a set of pictures I captured during the teardown:

Voltlog #230 – Guidelines For Board Level Temperature Sensor Layout & Placement

Welcome to a new Voltlog, today I’m gonna show you some techniques that you can use when doing temperature measurements. Typically you will want to measure either the ambient temperature or the system or component temperature. Depending on one of these goals you are going to follow different design rules to achieve that. And to better illustrate the problems, I have these 3 pcbs which have exactly the same electrical circuit but with different layouts on the pcb.

The boards consist of an esp8266 and a digital temperature sensor and you might expect that since all 3 boards are placed so close together, they should all indicate the same temperature but that is not the case as we can see on this graph we are getting 3 different temperatures and only one of them is close to the actual ambient temperature measured with another thermometer, so why is that happening? Well the answer lies in the layout of the PCB and that includes component placement, copper planes and various other elements on the PCB.

Voltlog #175 – Aneng AN302 Pocket Multimeter Review & Teardown

Welcome everyone, review time again, today we are taking a closer look at this pocket multimeter. It’s the Aneng AN302, 8000 count, true RMS multimeters. It comes with this black pouch and inside, the meter is wrapped in some bubble wrap. I don’t know about you but when I’m receiving stuff from China it always contains this popped bubble wrap, have you noticed the same? I wonder why the bubble wrap is already popped, cause it kinda defeats the purpose.

Here are some links where you can order the Aneng AN302 Pocket Multimeter: Aliexpress, Amazon, Ebay, Banggood.

Here are some links with the other items mentioned in this video:

Here is the pocket multimeter spreadsheet where I list all the meters I’ve looked at.

Voltlog #174 – UNI-T UT125C Pocket Multimeter Review

Hello and welcome everyone, today it’s review time and we are taking a look at the UNI-T UT125C Pocket Multimeter. This is a 4000 count, CAT III 600V pocket meter they claim but as we’ll see in a moment it’s a bit bigger than an actual pocket meter.

Here are some links where you can order the UNI-T UT125C Pocket Multimeter: Aliexpress, Amazon, Ebay, Banggood.

Here are some links with the other items mentioned in this video:

Here is the pocket multimeter spreadsheet where I list all the meters I’ve looked at.

Voltlog #139 – Aneng AN8009 Multimeter Review

In Voltlog #114 I reviewed the Aneng 8008 and I said it’s probably the best $25 multimeter that you can buy. Today we are taking a look at the Aneng AN8009 which is a newer model from Aneng.

In the end I would say this new AN8009 model is just as good as the AN8008 and they are both great beginner multimeters but they can also be good for the more advanced user who better understands their limitations.

My recommendation is to take a look at the differences between the two and choose based on your needs: ask yourself, do I need temperature measurements? Do I need the extra resistance range? Or do I need the square wave output. Better yet, and this is what I would do, I would get both models to have all of those functions when needed. Also it’s good to have two multimeters because you can measure both voltage and current at the same time.

Here are some links where you can get the Aneng 8009: