Mastech HY1803D VARIABLE DC POWER SUPPLY

by Mastech

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 5 x 8 inches ; 8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000CSQK5E
• Item model number: HY1803D
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

Product Description

For sale is a brand new, professional DC regulated power supply from Mastech, Model number HY1803D. This is a highly stable, high quality linear power supply with its output continuously adjustable at 0-18V DC and 0-3A. The unit comes with 2 LCD displays, providing accurate readout for the voltage and current values.

Features & Specifications:

Adjustable outputs: 0-18V and 0-3A Variable controls for both current and voltage outputs

Input voltage: 104-127V

Switchable Line regulation: CV <= 0.01% + 1 mV, CC <= 0.2% + 1 mA

Load Regulation: CV <= 0.01% + 3mV, CC <= 0.2% + 3 mA

Ripple noise: CV <= 0.5 mV RMS, CC <= 3 mA

RMS Protection: constant current and short-circuit protection

LCD reading accuracy: +/-1% for voltage and +/-2% for current

Environment: 0-40C, relative humidity < 90%

Size: 9" x 6.8" x 3.7"

Weight: 10 lbs

Warranty: 1 year

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars solid power supply, September 12, 2010

By 

Larry - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mastech HY1803D VARIABLE DC POWER SUPPLY (Electronics)

The two most important things about this power supply are:
(1) The single adjustment knobs - 1 for voltage, 1 for amperage - are sufficient for both fine and coarse adjustments. With a little patience its easy to adjust by 1/100th. 1/10th or greater adjustments are mostly effortless.
(2) The output reading on the display is correct. I spent about 20 minutes when this first arrived comparing voltage and amperage output with a multimeter for the entire range that this power supply supports. All values were within 0.01 of the reading on the display (*note: I was hoping for 0.5 or better, so the accuracy that I found was a pleasant surprise).

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ford Escort of power supplies., February 1, 2011

By 

Lorax (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mastech HY1803D VARIABLE DC POWER SUPPLY (Electronics)

I'm starting to get back into electronics hacking after a long hiatus, and this is a good tool for that purpose.

It arrived with the feet punched through the single wall cardboard box, and sawdust or dirt or something on the feet and bottom inside the plastic bag. It's clear they cut every corner they could to keep costs down, but if you know that going into it, I think this is a good deal.

I tested it out by hooking up a couple of 500 watt lights, and it delivered 18.8V and 3.1A, so it meets the specs. I heard only one relay click at about 9V, which means that it uses only two taps from the transformer... Other power supplies click a few times or more; more taps would make it waste less power throughout the range and run cooler, but if you use it infrequently wasting a bit of AC is not a big deal.

The meters seems decently accurate; my fluke 189 said 18.64V when it said 18.8V. The fluke said 3.077A when the mastech said 3.11A.

I'm not sure about the ripple though. I put the probe of my new Instek 1062a digital storage oscilloscope onto the banana clip outputs, and it measured approx 2mVpp ripple (varied from about 1.6mVpp to 2.4mVpp, mostly staying above 2mVpp). This is higher than the rated 0.5mV But when I tried switching between the 1x and 10x settings of the probe the measured ripple didn't change nor did waveform ripple that I saw on the screen, so there's something weird about my measuring setup; the 2V test signal on the oscilloscope at 1X did change to a 200mV signal with the 10X setting. I'm a beginner at using my DSO so take this with a grain of salt and if anyone can explain how to get a more reliable ripple measurement please tell me.

I did try powering a cheap old radio shack amplifier (277-1008c) with it, and didn't hear any more noise or hum than when powering it from 9V battery, so the ripple so far isn't an issue for me.

The binding posts are extremely cheesy; there's no hole in the posts so you have to wrap a long section of wire around the post, and there's only a very small contact area on the post base, making bare-wire connections not very practical. I think using banana plugs or perhaps spade connectors is the way to go with this. Probably not a bad idea to use a banana to binding post converter for bare wire connections, which you can easily unplug during power on to avoid any spikes from frying your circuits.

I agree with other posters that the coarse adjustment dials are sufficient, and I found it easy to adjust the voltage or current to within practical tolerances. I did find that the Voltage dial tends to cover up the "Voltage" label when this is on a tabletop, so I got confused and thought the Current label above it applied to the Voltage dial. Newbie mistake; I'll probably attach my own labels to make sure I don't get them confused. It would be nice to have backlights for the LCDs but they are readable enough in normal room light.

Overall, this seems like the Ford Escort of power supplies: Good enough to get the job done, but without any luxury or frills.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Nice, September 30, 2010

By 

Drew Rash - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mastech HY1803D VARIABLE DC POWER SUPPLY (Electronics)

The current display shows how much current is being passed. The voltage shows how much voltage is being applied. It feels solid, the knobs are perfect for fine tuning. This product does exactly what it says, and very well.