[GTALUG] Benchtop power supply

[Chris Tyler]

Remember that a *lot* of Amazon Marketplace kit that plugs into the mains
is not safety-certified (which means it's illegal to sell here and it's
illegal to use; Amazon washes their hands of responsibility for anything
"sold" by a third-party through their marketplace, though product actually
"sold by Amazon" is certified).

Some of it is absolutely fine and the vendor just hasn't spent the money
for a safety certification, but I've found many, many devices that could
never pass a safety cert and should never go near mains power.

Obviously anyone purchasing a benchtop power supply generally has the skill
to assess the safety of their own kit, but unless you take the box apart
and check the internals, I wouldn't have confidence in (e.g.) the mains
isolation of many of these uncertified supplies.

-Chris

(the marketplace vendor ads are amusing in this regard -- the ad for one of
the benchtop supplies on amazon.ca assures you that it's completely safe
because it has a fuse (!), and another advertises that the *detachable
cord* is UL-certified :-/   CE/RoHS/FCC is also often promoted as safety
certification but of course it's nothing of the sort)


On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 2:08 AM William Park via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>     (Cross-posted to both GTALUG and KWLUG, because I belong to both.
>     Please reply to the list you're subscribed to.  Otherwise, mail
>     admin gets mad at me.)
>
>
> I need a benchtop power supply (0-30V, 0-5A, though 0-10A would be
> nice).
>
> Question:
> - What brand do you recommend?
> - Amazon.ca recommends "Sky Toppower" brand.  Anyone have experience
>   with these?
>
> --
> William Park <opengeometry at yahoo.ca>
> ---
> Post to this mailing list talk at gtalug.org
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