First the packaging. There's nothing fancy here, but it doesn't need to be. The power supply comes in a thin cardboard box. Foam padding is used to protect the item in transit, and the power supply itself is also packaged in a plastic bag. The AC mains cable and the DC alligator clips are just in the box, together with the manual.
The unit is quite compact. There are four knobs, two terminals and a switch on the front. The switch is to turn the unit on/off. The knobs are to adjust the DC voltage and current. The terminals are for connecting your DC leads. The back of the unit has the mains connector and a fan. The input mains voltage can be either 110V or 220V and can be selected with a switch next to the mains connector.
The manual that's included is small and is written in some bad English, but it does get the point across. It's definitely worth reading as the power supply has some quirks in how it operates (more on this later).
The power supply is rated to provide 30V at a maximum of 10A, but from my measurements, I was able to get it to go as high as 31.5V at 10.1A. These exact numbers would probably vary from unit to unit, but it's good to see that at least the actual numbers are not less than advertised. I did notice that there is a small variation in the voltage that is set on the unit vs what my multimeter showed. This variation was around 0.1V.
The unit comes with two sets of knobs, two for voltage adjustment and two for current. There is a coarse and a fine adjustment for each. The controls are a little bit touchy but you can get the full range of values set. On the voltage side - the coarse knob lets you go from 0 to 30, the fine adjustment gives about a 0.05V range to fine-tune the output.
On the current side - the coarse adjustment goes from 0 to 10 and the fine adjustment gives a 0.1A range to fine-tune.
The power supply works in both constant-voltage (CV) and constant-current (CC) modes. The CV mode is straight forward - set the desired voltage and that's what the unit will provide. The CC mode setting is a bit quirky - to set, you have to short the terminals (connect the + and - together) until the CC light turns on, this now lets you adjust the maximum current the unit will provide (at potentially varying voltage i.e. if you're trying to draw more current than the set maximum, the voltage supplied will be ramped down). After setting, the terminals can be un-shorted and used to power your project. Another quirk (or really just an observation) is if you want a constant voltage, you should set CC mode to the maximum limit of 10A first, this way you will not get a drop in voltage unexpectedly.
This unit usually sells for $122 AUD, but right now you can get it for $89 from this link - Minleaf NPS3010W 110V/220V Digital Adjustable DC Power Supply. It's a very good price for what you get and is a great addition to your hobby toolkit.
-i
