PSU Load tester

Some of u might know i have been building a PSU Load tester.

This post is just the taste of the whole article


The stuff i have
Now to do this u are going to need some spare parts, eg old psu's with modular connectors and stuff like that.

these pictures are of the mod currently

Please post comments

 

that's cool! I have never even heard of a psu load tester, but it makes perfect sense! where did you get the schematic?... or are you just using your super human skillbilities?

 

just my super human skillz, and some help from teh master, big al

 

Large update... a parcel arrived today on a nice day like friday!

although i had work so i was a little pissed.

i got ...:
1x 6-50A shunt (50mV)
100x 120ohm 5watt wire wound resistors
20x 10ohm 5watt wire wound resistors
20x 3.3ohm 5watt wire wound resistors
5x 100amp terminal blocks.. yes thats right 100amp per joint!

and this i what it looks like

http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/1.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/2.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/3.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/4.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/5.jpg

 

little bit of an update. finished mounting all 140 resistors. now to wire this thingy up

http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/6.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/7.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/8.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/9.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/10.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/11.jpg
http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/12.jpg

If you want to know how i mount 2 Per Terminal. I simpally Doubled them up and twisted the wires with Pliers but only near the end so the actual Resist is not moved from its place . Placed it in the terminal block and screwed it down...

I will be releasing a How to when i have completed the working model

 

Here is a diagram for the general idea of the Load tester.

http://unholystudios.com/pictures/psutester/loadtestdiagram.png

The diagram shows how i was orginally going to make the Tester, but due to the price of Switchs i am unable to do it this way 5 bucks AU a switch is quite expensive when ya need 1 million

 

Looking good Unholy. You'll be an electrical engineer before you know it.

 

lol that sorta thing requires like a - OP to get into lol

at the moment i am just cutting cabling to loop up all the resistors

 

Was this project ever completed. I know this thread is well over a year old but I'm interested in this idea. Don't know why you went with so many resistors when you could have focused on more exacting resistors. You could have used only 7 resistors and 7 switches to give you between 1A and 31A on the +12v rail. Don't know what your total cost of everything is but the one I'm working on will be about $400 US. Here are my plans.

http://www.xcpus.com/forums/mods/4586-building-psu-dummy-load-test-bed.html

I do not have a degree of any kind and only minimal electronics knowledge but its not hard to figure out an simple Parallel circuit. Though it took a while to get all the math down to figure out the best resistors for the job. Not to mention the hours of searching for the bes prices among other complications. But you can read all about it in the link above. But i would be interested to know how and if this one worked out for you. Personally i would be worried about the heat produced from the whole thing and how it would affect those screw down connectors.

 

I'm in the prosses of building a dummy load of my own and was wondering how this one turned out. Seams as though the job was never completed here.

 

For those interested I'm working on 2 different designs trying to find the most cost effective and accurate rout.

Load Resistor Design:
http://www.xcpus.com/forums/mods/4586-building-psu-dummy-load-test-bed.html

Transistor Load Design:
http://www.xcpus.com/forums/mods/5438-designing-psu-load-tester.html

 

Unholy's been working on the PSU tester, but I think he has focused his attention to posting updates at this site: http://www.themodnation-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=333

Last update was in September 2007. I suggest you send him a PM at both sites and start up a dialog.

Remember that you are working with large currents and lots of heat when testing PSU's. Safety is your most important goal, as you don't want something bursting into flames. Incorporate safety margins in your design and provide adequate ventilation - meaning lots of fans to blow air over those poor load banks.

Lastly, using a heavy duty power strip with built-in circuit protector and on/off switch gives you the ability to quickly drop the load should things start smoking!

 

plus my comments

that's cool! I have never even heard of a psu load tester, but it makes perfect sense! where did you get the schematic?...