Hey guys,
I am in the process of deciding on a good rout to take for the power supply for my project. I had a couple of questions about it.
More info on the device: The device is for home brewing, its a standalone device that sits on the floor, shelf, mounted to a frame, etc. Its actually pretty simple - there is a power on/off, a screen, 3 buttons to interface the microcontroller/screen, a power cable, and that's pretty much it. The microcontroller uses transistors/relays to control a load (internal to the device) that requires 12 volts @ 20 amps.
I have always just used power adapters/wall worts in the past for all of my projects, so this is a bit new to me. The highest current rated 12 volt power adapter I could find was @ 12 amps and it costs about 30 bucks (ebay). Here is a photo of it as an exampe:
Something like this would of been perfect if it were offered as a 30 amp, but this doesn't seem to exist.
So the next option is to use an actual 12 volt power supply, these are rated @ 30 amps and actually cost less (20 bucks). Here is a photo for an example:
While this meets the specification, for a consumer product this just doesn't seem like the best idea, even if it were pre-wired (this would still need to be located outside of the device in a similar fashion as a power adapter would be, its a bit of an eye sore, and the electrical terminals are exposed - seemed like someone could get shocked?)
So this brought me to my 3rd idea... what if I created a simple power supply that resided on the PCB inside the device? I found several plans online on how to make a transformer or transformerless power supply. The device has internal heat ventilation, so the added heat is not a problem. The problem I found with the transformer version was that the transformers are expensive - especially one that can handle enough current for 20+ amps. And to be honest, I actually had a hard time even locating an appropriate transformer for this. So I started looking into transformerless power supply circuits, and this seemed like the way to go.
So it looks like these transformerless power supplies basically consist of a bridge rectifier circuit, paired up with some resistors, zener diods, and some even had a few IC's like the 78XX linear regulators incorporated, maybe some transistors, all of which could supply 12 volts @ 30 amps. It doesn't matter if the power supply is not very efficient, and that the power is not optimized and is dirty power. Its only going to be used to power a micro controller and the load, so dirty power doesn't matter (I would of course incorporate a few filtering circuits anyways).
My main concern was mains isolation. With this device will it even matter? Would it be able to still get a certification? People aren't going to be exposed to any of the circuitry so it seemed like this would be ok. Mainly I wanted to get some of your opinions on this, or if there is a better idea that I should go with. Or if I should just go with the eye sore 30 amp power supply I mentioned above and have it sitting outside next to the device? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
I am in the process of deciding on a good rout to take for the power supply for my project. I had a couple of questions about it.
More info on the device: The device is for home brewing, its a standalone device that sits on the floor, shelf, mounted to a frame, etc. Its actually pretty simple - there is a power on/off, a screen, 3 buttons to interface the microcontroller/screen, a power cable, and that's pretty much it. The microcontroller uses transistors/relays to control a load (internal to the device) that requires 12 volts @ 20 amps.
I have always just used power adapters/wall worts in the past for all of my projects, so this is a bit new to me. The highest current rated 12 volt power adapter I could find was @ 12 amps and it costs about 30 bucks (ebay). Here is a photo of it as an exampe:
Something like this would of been perfect if it were offered as a 30 amp, but this doesn't seem to exist.
So the next option is to use an actual 12 volt power supply, these are rated @ 30 amps and actually cost less (20 bucks). Here is a photo for an example:
While this meets the specification, for a consumer product this just doesn't seem like the best idea, even if it were pre-wired (this would still need to be located outside of the device in a similar fashion as a power adapter would be, its a bit of an eye sore, and the electrical terminals are exposed - seemed like someone could get shocked?)
So this brought me to my 3rd idea... what if I created a simple power supply that resided on the PCB inside the device? I found several plans online on how to make a transformer or transformerless power supply. The device has internal heat ventilation, so the added heat is not a problem. The problem I found with the transformer version was that the transformers are expensive - especially one that can handle enough current for 20+ amps. And to be honest, I actually had a hard time even locating an appropriate transformer for this. So I started looking into transformerless power supply circuits, and this seemed like the way to go.
So it looks like these transformerless power supplies basically consist of a bridge rectifier circuit, paired up with some resistors, zener diods, and some even had a few IC's like the 78XX linear regulators incorporated, maybe some transistors, all of which could supply 12 volts @ 30 amps. It doesn't matter if the power supply is not very efficient, and that the power is not optimized and is dirty power. Its only going to be used to power a micro controller and the load, so dirty power doesn't matter (I would of course incorporate a few filtering circuits anyways).
My main concern was mains isolation. With this device will it even matter? Would it be able to still get a certification? People aren't going to be exposed to any of the circuitry so it seemed like this would be ok. Mainly I wanted to get some of your opinions on this, or if there is a better idea that I should go with. Or if I should just go with the eye sore 30 amp power supply I mentioned above and have it sitting outside next to the device? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
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