J
John Muchow
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
I have 3 Radio Shack 13.8V, 25A power supplies (model #22-510,
http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...y_name=CTLG_009_001_005_000&product_id=22-510
) which are working great.
But, I need to get up to 40A output though by hopefully paralleling
two or three of them. Can this be safely done using either or both of
the following methods?
- Series resisitance on the output of each unit to act as a ballast to
help balance the out puts (similar to what's done to help balance
current thru paralleled MOSFETs)?
- Series diode (probably paralleled 6A diodes) on the outut of each
supply to prevent the unit with a slightly higher voltage output from
causing unwanted current flow back into the slightly lower-voltage
unit? The voltage drop across these diodes wouldn't be too much of a
problem but I'd love to avoid it if I could.
I'm guessing that I'd need to adjust the output voltage of each power
supply to be as close to each other as possible and use short,
large-gauge, identical length connections from each supply.
I hesitate to start experimenting without knowing a bit more of what
the possible options are for paralleling these power supplies. IMHO,
I probably wouldn't have too many problems until I reached higher
current levels, but by then any problems would be pretty nasty and
probably happen too quickly for me to do anything about.
Thanks for any info you can offer!
John Muchow
-- remove SPAMMENOT for e-mail responses --
http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...y_name=CTLG_009_001_005_000&product_id=22-510
) which are working great.
But, I need to get up to 40A output though by hopefully paralleling
two or three of them. Can this be safely done using either or both of
the following methods?
- Series resisitance on the output of each unit to act as a ballast to
help balance the out puts (similar to what's done to help balance
current thru paralleled MOSFETs)?
- Series diode (probably paralleled 6A diodes) on the outut of each
supply to prevent the unit with a slightly higher voltage output from
causing unwanted current flow back into the slightly lower-voltage
unit? The voltage drop across these diodes wouldn't be too much of a
problem but I'd love to avoid it if I could.
I'm guessing that I'd need to adjust the output voltage of each power
supply to be as close to each other as possible and use short,
large-gauge, identical length connections from each supply.
I hesitate to start experimenting without knowing a bit more of what
the possible options are for paralleling these power supplies. IMHO,
I probably wouldn't have too many problems until I reached higher
current levels, but by then any problems would be pretty nasty and
probably happen too quickly for me to do anything about.
Thanks for any info you can offer!
John Muchow
-- remove SPAMMENOT for e-mail responses --