EZ Power Supply tester

[starfury1]

Hi All

To cut a long story short I was going to build a test setup for testing the few dud supplies I had here.
(I will at some point soon, for better testing of psu's)

Anyway I sort of remembered that there was things like this available.
So time being what it is as a quick fix I got me one online.
(there are few types around)

They are some what cheap and for a quick "go, no go" thought why not.
You people in the USA should get them for a song and a dance
Lucky people You

Cost me $30 plus AU plus shipping.

Bit about the device

You can only test one Connector for molex SATA power or 3.5 Floppy at a time

It will test 20/24 pin ATX connectors and does show PG in milliseconds
It will test 4,6,8, pin connectors on the other side of the unit
you can plug both in at the same time, plus one of the above

It you have one of the floppy molex or sata connectors plug in the leds will show green for +12 Vc +5 Vdc (Has 3V3 led also)

They do stress not to leave it hooked up for very long
(internal load I guess)

I found a review of one which baggs out the accuracy a bit, but really what to you expect, its not a Fluke

The Review I found (there are few but mostly saying same thing)... has disassembled pics

Link to review

OK my thoughts on it;

I would treat this as a go no go device with a reasonable idea of what the voltage is.
(I haven't look into how accurate it is)

One Draw back is;

The LCD cover is really flimsy so I would highly suggest that if you want one to throw in your box, get a piece of clear acrylic perspex and cover the front of the unit.

Drop something on it and it will probably be Silicon Heaven for it.

Anyway if anyone is using one or thinks their crap please post,
all opinions welcome

Thats what forums are about.

I know the old hands here would have their bee's knee's setups for recapping

For a quick check to sort the wheat from the chaff this could be a handy little device for the up and coming recappers.

Cheers all

HTH somebody anyway

Footnote: last and first shot take with 7M Kodak cheapie othe with Sony 3.2M (effective) cybershot

[starfury1]

Re: EZ Power Supply tester

I should stress this point thought...

It isn't going to help you find boarder line bad caps...
in power supplies...

Rebooting computers and your eyes are a better guide
(along with a good esr and capacitance meter)

Only possible voltage problems on supply rails and connectors
Or as a quick way to fire up a supply and get an idea of whats happing with it

[PeteS in CA]

Re: EZ Power Supply tester

Looks cute. I wonder how much load it puts on each O/P - even 25W or 30W is a fair amount of heat in that small a case. When I was at Delta I built a test box with 20W or 25W of load, with window detectors and Go--No-Go LEDs for each O/P. It was basically a "Is it alive?" tester, though I set the window for each O/P so that if an O/P was too low or too high, its LED would be off. I used an spare ATX case with fan. This is nice, giving actual readings and the time until PG becomes "true". At ~$30 + S/H, what I built was probably less expensive in parts cost (10 TL431s, 5 or 10 TO-92 transistors, 5 LEDs and some resistors, bought at a surplus place), but you get more function, plus, how much is your time worth?

[starfury1]

Re: EZ Power Supply tester

Hi Pete, all

Yeah thats sounds like more the go.....

You can build something thats going to give you a much better test rig and monitoring station to really see whats happening, more then this unit can provide

If you really want to get into these things, guess thats what you got to do to make your life a little easier

As to the load... yeah I thought about that "not much" if the photos on the review link are anything to go by.

All I can see is a 5W 33 R power resistor (if I read it correctly) sitting across the 5 volt rail (pin 21,21 top) I think.
If this is the case 5V/33R=0.15 A or 150 milli-amps not much loading going on here.

Accuracy does leave a bit to be desired, Id use a meter if you really want it

I did a quick check,
Unit was showing 5V4 on 5VSB (it was showing flashing 5V4 Stand By)
(second right display at bottom)

Monitoring pin 9 showed on DVM as 5V35

For those wondering, I was measuring the stuffed macase psu with replaced 470 uf caps. it died.... but this is for another topic area

Cheers

[starfury1]

Re: EZ Power Supply tester

ok I just couldn't resist when I found this...and No I don't want to know the price
but if you just won the lottery it might be the way to go

Have a look at this setup

[Galvanized]

Re: EZ Power Supply tester

I like the Stingray, it was not that expensive,iirc.
The hot-box he set-up has worked out well. Two Antec Trio PSUs did not go into thermal shut down and went out with a flash/bang. One Silverstone ST75F Strider burnt up because the thermal shut down was not properly located, I think this has been sorted out since the RMAed unit passed the hot-box.
Note: He tests on his dining room table.
Look up the price of the Sunmoon or PM him here for a quote. He likes to share. He passed his old test set-up onto another owner run hardware review site.

[starfury1]

Re: EZ Power Supply tester

Thanks Galvanized for the info.

I was actually trying to find some info for another forum member and came across this in my search....I haven't read it fully but was quite impressed.
so after my el cheapo post I thought I just had to post this

A lot of reviews I read do not got to that level of testing, which I think is a bit of a shame.

Seems a lot of test and monitoring functions are now being done like the Stingray and a much cheaper price to boot which is a good thing if the accuracy's there.

I like the idea of being able to see whats happening at once

As to the dinning table LOL yeah I have had to use worse places
like sitting on a garage floor with CRO multimeter and sig gen

Thanks again for the info

Cheers

[Galvanized]

Re: EZ Power Supply tester

On page three of this review there are a couple video clips that might be of interest.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=43
This ST75F-750W unit is based on the ST60F-600W unit's platform and has been stretched to the limit. Still a decent unit but lacks the 600W unit's rock-solid stabilty.