Digital Benchtop Power Supply (1)

Every electronics laboratory needs a powerful regulated bench supply. In the model described here a microcontroller monitors the actual and desired current and voltage settings.There are many types of laboratory benchtop power supplies available, from the very simple to the highly sophisticated. They range from linear, purely analogue supplies with only voltage regulation to switching supplies with both current and voltage regulation using a microcontroller, also offering programmable signal patterns and various monitoring functions, while also driving an IEEE interface.Our benchtop power supply lies in the middle of this spectrum. Depending on the rating, it offers a voltage range of 0-25 V at up to 2.5 A or 0-20 V at up to 1 A. The voltage and current settings are adjustable digitally using four buttons each (two for coarse and two for fine control). These provide a resolution of 100 mV in voltage and 10 mA in current.