$20 100 AMP 12v Power Supply: Good for Ham Radio?? || HP DPS-1200 Review

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4 жыл бұрын

The HP DPS-1200 is a $20 1200w power supply, capable of OVER 100 AMPS! But is it really noisy on the HF Bands? Maybe a little, but it's not bad for $20! I compare the noise with a battery, a Radioshack 3A 12V unit, and the HP unit on my Icom IC-7300.
These power supplies are surplus from somewhere, since there's so many on eBay and they're so unbelievably cheap - see for yourself at www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...
I bought mine for $24 shipped, and it was delivered in 3 days. These units are often bought by RC hobbyests to charge lithium/LiPo batteries quickly since they supply so much current.
You will have to do a small resistor mod to get it to turn on, and figure out how to connect some wires to the large PCB trace contacts - I used a drill and some hardware.
Here's the resistor mod instructions: blog.seidel-philipp.de/hp-dps...
Even more info here: endless-sphere.com/forums/vie...
Don't want to buy on eBay? You can get a sub-$20 power supply that provides 30A 13.8v here: amzn.to/2WxbyhE
Blog: n0ssc.com/
Twitter: / n0ssc
Twitch: / kawfey
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Пікірлер: 112

@JxH 4 жыл бұрын

For under US$10, one may purchase a special Break Out Board that plugs straight onto the PSU's card edge. It allows the PSU to power up (i.e. the resistor), has a built-in digital volt meter (of as-yet unknown accuracy), and a dozen output PCI-E power connectors. My Break Out Board just arrived today, and it allowed me to fire up the PSU immediately.

@DonzLockz 7 ай бұрын

Where did you buy it and does it work or still work okay? Thnx

@TGCFabian 4 жыл бұрын

Saw this video, and immediately bought it! Powersupply works good, very clean, and much better than my before powersupplies, thanks!

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

Glad I could help! Let me know if you do any mods to it.

@TGCFabian 4 жыл бұрын

@@N0SSC I have not added any mods, i am thinking of a Fan mod, just so its abit faster, but the performance is great! thank you so much for the tip! u gained yourself a big ol sub! :D

@HamRadio2 4 жыл бұрын

Great video, Sterling

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks 👍

@lapatriot9268 3 жыл бұрын

You can get breakout boards specific to the psu. No nuts and bolts required.

@chuck4050 4 жыл бұрын

I picked one of these up a couple years ago did the mod wish I had drilled through but soldered some #4 wires on for a amp that requires 60 amps and it has worked really well. I would like to put it some kind of a case to protect it but still keep it small and portable. Good video Sterling better buy quick they go fast!

@tahlularose9267 4 жыл бұрын

Don't drill the holes like he did, it's a multi layer board and you can easily brick the power supply.

@crf80fdarkdays 2 жыл бұрын

@@tahlularose9267 doubt it if your careful about it

@BoHolbo 4 жыл бұрын

I’d love to see the noise from the different PSUs at different loads. I suspect that the (tiny amount of) noise generated by the HP supply, will be greatly reduced if it were loaded with the amps it was designed to deliver under normal conditions. (Which in Sterlings case is about 37.5A) The power supplies for servers with two PSU slots or more, are designed for redundancy purposes, and for that reason, they have been designed to safely deliver max. current, but are only intended to deliver 50% or less when everything is working perfectly. The idea is (if available) to connect each of the PSUs with different phases. Under normal operating conditions, the PSUs share the load equally, but they are designed to take the full load if necessary. If we take this example (120V-AC input) of a max. output of 75A/12VDC. We get 37.5A at a 50% load. This means that the designed “target” load of this PSU is about 30-35A nominal. (Including a small safety margin.) IMPORTANT: It IS possible to modify this PSU to increase the output voltage, but it’s kinda’ risky to your health if you’re not careful: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fJaBirSf2bbPf2g.html Cheers from Denmark! 73’ de 5Q3M

@taylorcamdyn9947 2 жыл бұрын

Instablaster

@greg5929 4 жыл бұрын

Sold me bought 4 for less the $65; you can also install Bananna Jack vs wire lugs to do quick (dis)connects. Also found recommendation of looping the 12VDC output leads on a ferrit core .

@dreupen 4 жыл бұрын

Try adding a few ferrite core ring. I have a Yaesu FT-891 which I power with a battery on my sailboat and with a Roswell ATX power supply (44A@12V). I wrapped the power leads each around 1in ferrite ring. I see no noticeable PS noise. In fact the radio at home performs a little better, but that's likely due to the antenna: EFHW-80 vs 50ft random wire & auto-tuner. I used Fair-Rite 5980001001 which I purchased from Mouser for about $1 each.

@DonDegidio 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Sterling, Looks like you could use the MFJ 1026 noise canceling signal enhancer. 73 WB3BJU

@drewbacca1662 4 жыл бұрын

I really liked this video. It was informative but also just as entertaining. Thanks for putting it on the tubes. For about the same price I bought a 12v 30A switching power supply from Amazon with voltage adjust and was able to hit 13.8v. Your video makes me want to break out the RTLSDR dongle and see what it picks up. Maybe a 7300 or an Oscope down the road. Thanks again. 73

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! I think this is something similar to what you bought - amzn.to/2yqaYdB - where have all these cheap PSU's been all my life?! I ought to pick one up and give it another comparison. I need an oscope too to "scientifically" compare them.

@de_w8tam 4 жыл бұрын

@@N0SSC I just picked up my first scope.... Still learning how to use it, but I bet I could do those measurements on the DPS-1200a I just ordered. :D Thanks for the video! 73 de w8tam

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

Thomas Martin yes you can! Let me know how much ripple you find!

@de_w8tam 4 жыл бұрын

@@N0SSC Very clean output. There's some very low level (on the 100mv scale) noise, but overall very good out of the box (12.3v). I'm going to try turning the voltage up a bit and see if the output stays that clean.

@chriscoel 4 жыл бұрын

I too have one of those 30A ones.. there's a easy mod to clean up them a bit with noise.. using a couple capacitors to "link" to ground.. Basically a 10uf cap to AC ground from (+) and then (-) to AC ground.. 2 different caps.. I've not seen or noticed any noise issues vs a battery on my 891 w/ the 30A amazon ones. That HP Unit looks much more reliable and beefier though then the Amazon ones lol

@rbmwiv 9 ай бұрын

What about a cap bank for filtering? I would definitely use some big caps in the output from the hp supply. A capacitive smoother will definitely clean it up I guarantee it will. I am gonna get one and add a filter because I only have 5a

@joemason9187 5 ай бұрын

Great vid old bean

@SunilSharma-tc4qb 4 жыл бұрын

This is really a useful video. Thanks. I have below comments; 1. How we can set 13.8V? 2. Do noise in present case is not meeting desired 13.8V to ic-7300? Thanks.

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

You have to take the case off and perform some mods, that I didn't go into, nor do I recommend it. The IC-7300 and most other ham radios performs just fine slightly off of 13.8v.

@AdamosDad 4 жыл бұрын

I thought the biggest problem would be with 80 meters. Thanks for the vid I found this after ordering and having 2nd thought about it. 73's kd9oam

@Kristjan10a 2 жыл бұрын

I made my power supply the same way buy drilling, but there is a problem with that. Some power supplyes have multiple layers, and i drilled throw them, and at first nothing happened. But one day it shorted and caused a lot of smoke and burning smell. Wat happened was that outer copper pad was +12V, but thay had added a GND between pcb layers and it afinaly shorted 12 to ground. After that i checked against a strong light if can see multi layer board traces and i discovered that most of my PSU-s had traces running throw pcb layers. After that i stopped drilling ind souldered most of my conections. Onely drill pcb-s if u cant see multible copper layers. This prevents shorts. lesson learned i guess. I have i think about 15 psu-s and most of them are different brands and moddel numbers, but onely few i can drill, and most have multible layers so drilling is not a good idea. Some have multible layers but have the same voltage layer so drilling is OK, but u cant know the layer voltage before drilling. Now there are brakeout boards that fix this problem. No soldering or drilling. Alsow u can make custom psb-s with your one blade connectors. JLC ja PCB wais make it simple. Dont have it in estonia, but i souldered copper plate to the pcb and then drilled holes in the added copper plate. But for thair cheap price thay are awesome and reliable just need to think about how u connect them cause thay have no wires connected just bare copper strips on pcb. I made a power supply using two PSU-s in paralel, and it can deliver 300A @ 13,5V.

@automoto95 3 жыл бұрын

i got that psu i solder the resistor but something is wrong with it power up (green led on only for few seconds ) and automaticly turn off i should return it?

@angelaisola_real-estate-ca 2 жыл бұрын

So what do I need if there’s an EMP? To put in my Faraday cage to power up my CB Radio after the SHTF

@robertmeyer4744 4 жыл бұрын

got the same 7300 and same QRM . Switchers can be noisy but there is a few things that do work. hash choke on pos lead. EMI/RFI filter on ac input . shielding on switcher . I get noise from CFL lights and switched to LED much better ! I run a solar power ham shack . I have a MPPT controller that made some hash noise but chokes cleaned it up alot . none at night on battery ! also using 12V RV lights some LED some incandescent very quit ! on a clear winter night 160 meter can open and work very well with little hash noise. in my home the worst is my microwave ! 73's

@opranjr 4 жыл бұрын

Finally, a dude that made a 100% relevant video. Thanks, man. 73's from YO3BAA, Bucharest, Romania.

@glbaker5987 3 жыл бұрын

I found a old PlayStation I think it was and it had a 64 amp power supply inside it I do not know why it needed such a high one but I was glad it did and it made me a perfect fire supply but I don't know what I'm going to power you and I'm thinking about building a amp but it's sitting here and I'm thinking have a good day new year God bless you

@olds97lss 3 жыл бұрын

Not sure how many amps your pulling. I just got one today to use for RC Lipo charging. I have 2 chargers running off it set to pull 15A each, so 30A total at 12V with 10.5V set as the low limit. The PSU lasted about 3 minutes, then gave a loud POP and no more voltage on the output. I'm not sure if I got a defective one or what the deal is. I figured 30A being less than half the rated, I wouldn't push it too hard. Mine was a DPS-1200FB A. I only got this one because the dell ones I have are REALLY loud with no load. The fans in them with no load run full throttle at 12,000RPM's. This stinks when I'm discharging packs at the end of a day as there isn't any load on them, the chargers are just dumping the watts out to heat internally. So for 3 hours, I have to listen to a jet engine running in my office... Since I work in the room these are in (you can hear them throughout the house), I figured I'd give the HP one a try since it doesn't do that with the fan until it gets put under load and temps go up.

@ramonlgonzalez 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, You are the Best, qualification A+. WP4MFS PUERTO RICO

@AndrewMurphy8383 2 жыл бұрын

one thing you forget to say sterling it also can be from a transformer arking from the nebour hood that could cause hash

@garrylandrito3083 2 жыл бұрын

I just bought a Rci 2970 N4 I was wondering if you have that or if you know where I can get them.

@radiotests 2 жыл бұрын

I like your style, Im disabled, poor and just got my license. Im hoping your videos will help me go live and still buy medicine!

@Bigrockets101 4 жыл бұрын

Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood all say 13.8 volts + or - 15% The 12.7 volts that this power supply can be adjusted to is more than sufficient and well within 15%. It is also very quiet, well protected and well regulated. It is far better than a commercial ham radio power supply.

@HamRadioTV 4 жыл бұрын

Great demo video! Yeah, noise sucks the fun right out of HF at home. How much fun would it be to be while on a battery to start shutting houses off at the main breaker in your neighborhood. hehe

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

I need to get ready for the next power outage.

@rbmwiv 9 ай бұрын

I have one radio that defaults to low power mode if it's not over 13v. You can only get high power at 13+

@ridgerunner893 3 жыл бұрын

Try a capacitor I used a 2200 if 25 v cap across negative and positive and it knocked the noise out of my cb radio , I had 3 s units and now there is 0 noise

@jay-rus4437 4 жыл бұрын

Rookie question. Im completely new to Ham, just got my call sign a couple weeks ago. So here is my question, could you use an AC to DC supply (or any other appropriate power supply) and then install a noise blanker in between to reduce some of the unwanted interruption? Is that a completely different application? If so, what is the sequence of equipment needed for a home base system? AC power to DC power converter, (possibly noise blanker), radio, coax, antenna? What other considerations do I need to look at for getting a base station setup? Okay....sorry....that was more like several questions 😁

@RileyTheMonster299 2 жыл бұрын

Use a car audio power cap in between your power supply and radio it'll clean up your noise and it'll give you a nice even consistent Supply

@jay-rus4437 2 жыл бұрын

@@RileyTheMonster299 ….made this post over a year ago. Since then I have my shack setup on a completely off grid solar array and lifepo4 battery bank. The only AC power in my shack is computer, which I could run off of an inverter, but havent found it necessary. All of my lighting, fans, equipment are all dc powered. Cut down on my RFI drastically.

@mikebutlermedia4211 3 жыл бұрын

Good job! In the next episode will you show how to adjust it up to 13.8V? :)

@ivaylogeorgiev1281 3 жыл бұрын

Can I get your email?

@TheSmokinApe 4 жыл бұрын

That does look like it might be an affordable option, just don’t short those pads by accident 👍

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

That's exactly what I did, with a socket wrenching the positive side while it was plugged in. welded it to the chassis a bit but the supply lived!

@TheSmokinApe 4 жыл бұрын

N0SSC lol 😂

@AdamosDad 4 жыл бұрын

⚡️💩

@MickeyMishra 2 жыл бұрын

Server power supplies have built in Over current protection.

@minibikemadman 2 жыл бұрын

I have (4) 1200 watt HP supplies like this in trying to sum together.

@SheikhN-bible-syndrome 3 жыл бұрын

How could I make it out out 15.8 to 16.4v?

@ThomasOrdon 2 жыл бұрын

You need to add a few small but happy 12-volt 1/8F ¤ caps or bigger ones because the power supplies really are not meant for load changes so drastically so the cats help there as well as help mitigate noise I'll see if you remember you're plugging it into an AC main which has noise in it there's a few other things but yeah

@Henning_Rech 7 ай бұрын

Those PSUs are built for servers that change their load in milliseconds.

@alunroberts1439 2 жыл бұрын

I got one mine was not clean so I put it in the bath gave if a wash it never worked again.

@zacki5663 Ай бұрын

Reason these are cheap is the lifespan Server PSUs are heavy on electrolyte capacitors. The ones in them are generally rated to last just about the warranty period on a server before drifting. Once these reach Ebay they’re fromm. off-warranty servers and most surely have capacitors that have been working 24/7 over that period. Yes, you’ll get a $20 PSU and have dying capacitors that are worth $20+ a piece. When these fail it’ll be in annoying and dangerous ways, like a big voltage drop on shutdown, or spike on power, or random and inconsistent surges of switching. noise during operation

@ke6igz 4 жыл бұрын

Wonder if I could run a 500 watt solid state HF amplifier on one of these?

@clarkturner9413 3 жыл бұрын

That's what I am going to try to do in a week or so. I have a Ten Tec Hercules II and 115 ac service. I have run my Hercules on a 75 amp power supply before (but at 13.8 volts) and it was fine. This one might be just fine. I'll let you know.

@ae4xo 4 жыл бұрын

We use one like this for 3 repeaters that we have

@daniell8387 3 жыл бұрын

I used this to replace my 12 amp linear old Thompson Electronics power supply, worked fine. Instead of lugs I used banana plugs, and my janky ass distribution solution brings it to my CB and kenwood 2m radio, no problems.

@daniell8387 3 жыл бұрын

1 week later and it's still nto giving me troubles. I might buy a couple more power supplies to hoard for when the rest of the ham community finds out about it

@victain 3 жыл бұрын

you can buyt pcb boards that slot on the back even will whow you data on an lcd screen

@marywhore1 2 жыл бұрын

Im trying to find 300A convertor.

@fatalbrett 3 жыл бұрын

Great units for so many diff things rc cars computer components radio's ect well worth it ps buy a breakout board with the psu.

@pedrowalter 4 жыл бұрын

I got the same power supply. PD19. Not much info over internet of how to increase the voltage to 13.8 for this especific model. I can make mine to 12.7. after that the ovp kicks in. Do you know how to get the 13.8 volts??? Thanks 73

@WI9LL 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome video Sterling, but Bob is not my uncle 😭. I may have to grab one of these to play with. What radio is that? I want a waterfall and have a lot of gear to sell when ham fests re-open.

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

That's an IC-7300. Who doesn't have one nowadays? They're going for around $800 now. Also you can always use online swaps like QRZ or ebay, but yea I do miss the in-person contact too. A lot of us are trying to figure out how to bring some of that back during stay-at-home.

@WI9LL 4 жыл бұрын

Ah, 7300 I see it now

@nightmantle 4 жыл бұрын

Got a supply, but a 470 resistor on it, drilled the two pads, and no green light. I get a quick spin up of the fan and that's it. Ideas? There is a very real chance of me not being good at eletronicals

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

I started with a 1k Ohm resistor, and that didn't give me the green light. A 470 did. You might have to play around with the value. Also make sure the resistor bridges pads 33 and 36 (the first and 4th pads from the left looking from the top) - blog.seidel-philipp.de/hp-dps-1200fb-power-supply-hack-for-charging-lipos/

@nightmantle 4 жыл бұрын

@@N0SSC did you know, reading the package is essential? Used a 470k instead of a 470....will report back

@nightmantle 4 жыл бұрын

Bob's your uncle on the 470. 73 kc3odv

@CORZER0 3 жыл бұрын

Welcome to the future.

@box420 3 жыл бұрын

Oh man I picked 4 super micro brand ones for 100$ and each are rated at 85amps at 12v

@tonybutler3502 3 жыл бұрын

I will get a similar unit and will try heavy ferrite core chokes on input and output, might help but I am just an on ship's radio office trained on tubes HI Many thanks indeed 73 Tony G3ZRJ

@davidburns4176 4 жыл бұрын

Why does everyone use the resistor? I jump pins 33 and 36 and they run just fine.

@MidlifeRenaissanceMan 3 жыл бұрын

You can short, but the smarts identify it as a fault and it usually cranks the fan up to max. If you use the resistor, it runs normally and quietly. At least that’s the case in the HP unit I scored. I also jumpered a resistor in the feedback loop to push out 13.2V for my older FT747GX

@kennethmadsen6474 3 жыл бұрын

From my understanding it differs between models. Some can get away with just shorting the pins.

@AtomicElectronCo 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks bud, but I wish you and others who talk about these alternate supplies also show us how it hooks up to the back of the HR radio. Can you use the sockets from the computer PS?

@N0SSC 3 жыл бұрын

WALLDORF ELECTRON_CO I started it off just by soldering hookup wire to the pads, connecting that to a power pole. In the second version, I drilled through the pads to attach nuts and bolts for ring terminals instead of soldering to the pads. I plan to make another video on these showing the connections and some of the weird power drops i’ve seen.

@robertengel8342 Жыл бұрын

How did you test that the 1000 resistor didn't work?

@bbcellular Жыл бұрын

By testing it lol

@robertengel8342 Жыл бұрын

@BB Cellular obviously. "How did you test the 1000 resistor" smart a$$.

@bbcellular Жыл бұрын

@@robertengel8342 ummm, the same way he did the 470. Not sure what's so hard to understand.

@rkelly5803 4 жыл бұрын

I accidentally bought two of the smaller 750w ones. Hopefully they work just as good. 🤷🏿‍♀️ Thanks for the video.

@englishrupe01 4 жыл бұрын

They will work fine but may need to solder the resister to different tabs.

@quagmire94 3 жыл бұрын

have you tried using solar panels on a battery yet, ?

@quagmire94 3 жыл бұрын

also, if theirs no Ground on the power supply, OR the device its powering it can completely eliminate the sound. if you connect the ground to a probe on a oscope, and just check out how much shits flowing through it noise wise theirs alot of it .

@souldoc123 4 жыл бұрын

ceck te noise without yours lamps tuned on...drossels makes a lot of noise..

@KO6BXL1 8 ай бұрын

now imagine if this could be done with an old desktop power supply...

@amymoriyama6616 3 жыл бұрын

I don't care so much about noise, but I could use a beefy 12v power supply for cheap and server power supplies might just do the job.

@exploringearth3223 6 ай бұрын

this is better suited for vhf uhf

@MAZEMIND 2 жыл бұрын

101st

@tahlularose9267 4 жыл бұрын

Don't drill the holes like he did, it's a multi layer board and you can easily brick the power supply.

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

Fortunately this part of the board only has the top and bottom layer, which are both + and - 12v. I would be inclined to heed your advice, and buy a breakout board. I've learned these power supplies are super popular with GPU cryptocurrency mining, so breakout boards are all over the place.

@JustinK0RPL 3 жыл бұрын

Incorrect.

@AA0Z 4 жыл бұрын

When you say "give it the Juice", are you talking about pre-murder OJ Simpson or post-murder OJ Simpson?....cause there is a difference ya know.... :)

@Eagleoneradiogod 4 жыл бұрын

If the glove dose not fit, you must aquit.

@JonathanLopez-tw8ef 3 жыл бұрын

@mobapc4095 3 жыл бұрын

I dont like those beping QRP.. always just messy trafick for no reason..

@StevenDavidson_sjdmd 2 жыл бұрын

Forget these now. They're all marked up to $80-100 for crypto mining.

@kchoudri 3 жыл бұрын

why is always BOB IS YOUR UNCLE??? isn't there a better way to say that this will work for you.

@forgetyourlife 4 жыл бұрын

eeew, the default colors on the 7300 waterfall are so bad...Blue on blue on more blue.

@N0SSC 4 жыл бұрын

forget_your_life that’s just the default. What do you suggest?

@forgetyourlife 4 жыл бұрын

N0SSC I suggest going into the deeper long press menu and changing waveform type to Fill+Line, then changing waveform (line) color to something not blue, then waveform (max hold) to something also NOT blue.