The use of an OLED display is very seductive, as it allows fancy displays. What you discover later is, that the lifespan of an OLED is not that long when used 24/7. That's why we went back to the good old 7-Segment LED display. This one uses a module from Ali, paired with a Power Brick like the VTX-214-060-224. (High MTTF). This shall result in a reliable Power Supply without any concession.

In order to make this thing even more appealing, a second dc/dc converter (PDQ30-Q24-D15-D) produces a ±15 V, 1 A auxiliary voltage, available at a LEMO connector. (Widely used in labs at ETH/D-PHYS).

The design is straightforward. It uses a Power Brick like the VTX-214-060-224. This allows for many different options when it comes to assembly. Not only can you choose between many output voltages, but also different manufacturers offering the same form factor are available out there. It is labelled 'beginner-friendly', as not much can go wrong.



A view inside ... not much there ... the VTX-214-060-2## does the job

Possible candidates to be assembled :

Part Number	Output Voltage (VDC)	Output Current (mA)
VTX-214-060-205	5.0	10'000
VTX-214-060-209	9.0	6'600
VTX-214-060-212	12.0	5'000
VTX-214-060-215	15.0	4'000
VTX-214-060-224	24.0	2'500
VTX-214-060-248	48.0	1'250

The Part Numbers are from vigortronix™, bought at farnell™, but other manufacturers offering the same form-factor also exist. Some research mayst be necessary.

The "VTX-214-060-2## is a compact AC-DC power converter. It features a wide AC input 85V to 264VAC and a DC input voltage 100 to 370VDC. The converters have been designed with low power consumption, high efficiency, high reliability, reinforced isolation. It offers good EMC performance compliant to IEC/EN61000-4 and CISPR32/ EN55032 and meets IEC/EN/UL62368, EN61558 standards. The converters are widely used in industrial, power, home appliances, instrumentation, communication and civil applications." says the datasheet.

This is exactly what is called for a by a 'student-proof' design. It allows easy assembly as well as good-natured behavior when it comes to overload conditions. And the use of a dc/dc converter is not disadvantageous, as you can use it to teach noise measurement techniques, low-pass filtering and much more.

ITEM	SUPPLIER
U/I meter	DC0-100V 10A LED Digital Voltmeter Amperemeter from Ali
Connector 4 mm	Farnell, #4064885 and #4064878
Case	2 x KOH 04 A 160 ME, from fischer elektronik
Frontpanel	Gerber File
Rearpanel	Gerber File

The device offers a lot of options to be measured. As this is time consuming, those tasks are usually declared as 'homework'. You mayst be inspired by our guide and may combine that with a Python exercise.

The LEMO connectors have been added to make this device even more useful. LEMO is a standard introduced by the company of Léon Mouttet. It is widely used at ETH. The usual pinout is: Pin1:+15V, Pin2:GND, Pin3:-15V and Pin4:High Voltage.

The webmaster does not read these comments regularely. Urgent questions should be send via email. Ads or links to completely uncorrelated things will be removed.