Electronic Circuits and Projects Forum

Originally Posted by 2Electrified

. . .not sure which one to purchase
Does the 2A difference really make a significant different for using on testing your basic circuit boards.
Any input would be greatly appreicated, or you suggest another brand/type I would welcome any input.

For each supply, plot the current on the Y-axis and the price on the X-axis. The third data point is zero amps for zero dollars.

If you collect data (from catalogs or the Internet) for several supplies around 3A to 5A you may see a flattening of the curve. This area probably shows where the manufacturers are competing for the best $/amp ratio, other things being equal.
Then you can see how your two supplies are doing in the whole scheme of things. Outliers
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...ine%3A+outlier
should be disregarded or researched.

Hopefully a bargain will jump out at you.
Then the question of quality becomes important. I doubt that any manufacturer is going to tell you the real value of his calculated MTBF.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...BF&btnG=Search

I used this method on another forum to rate two cordless electric drills for watts/$, A-h/$ and torque/$. Some parameters came within pennies (~1%) of each other and I do not believe this was a coincidence.
Then another poster came up with a drill that beat the pants off of the first two using the same system and was also rated a Consumer's "Best Buy".

Originally Posted by 2Electrified

I am not sure which one to purchase, like I mentioned, basically the one difference is one is 3A and the other is 5A. Does the 2A difference really make a significant different for using on testing your basic circuit boards.

For most electronic testing 3A should be adequate. Typical circuit boards generally take no more than a few watts. You would likely only need more current if you were testing something involving motors, such as stepper or servo devices, or high power amplifiers.

The 3A should serve you well for general electronics projects.

I agree, 3 amps is enough. I do many of my projects with either a 1A or 2A supply and find that these cover about 80% of the work. Another 18% of the time I need to work on something for a car, like for example a two-way radio, and in these cases I use a 13.6V 20A supply or a GelCell (12V battery) just for that purpose. The remaining 2% need something that these won't supply.