<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I have no personal experience with this type of failure, so I really have no comment other than to say that maybe an investment in a couple of the subject ceramic caps might be warranted.<div><br></div><div>Ron</div><div><br><div><div>On Jul 2, 2013, at 9:25 PM, Astropattern wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div dir="auto"><div>Ron, </div><div>Good article and info. One of the issues I would ask about and that I've heard has happened to others is how robust these power supplies are. I have purchased three of these in the last 18 months and all of them failed with a dramatic loud "gunshot" sound after a few months of use. Usually, they blow within a minute of plugging them in. Careful inspection of the internals reveals a vaporized ceramic cap (always the same one).</div><div><br></div><div>Would be great for someone who knows these well ( both the HP and the Dell versions) and can comment on how these should be operated. I imagine they are designed to be turned on once and left running for years...so plugging them in 4 times during a single weekend probably doesn't sit well. </div><div><br></div><div>Just curious. $20 a piece is hard to beat. </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks, </div><div><br></div><div>John</div><div><br>Sent from my iPad</div><div><br>On Jul 1, 2013, at 10:50 PM, Ronald Van Putte <<a href="mailto:vanputter@gmail.com">vanputter@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>A lot of electric-power pilots are building or buying charge boxes. Many of the charge boxes contain the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">HP DL380 G4 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">DPS-600PB 12V/</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">575W power supply. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Since they are so inexpensive to acquire and so simple to convert for our use, I'd like to provide some information about them.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">These are so called "hot swap" power supplies. They are really tough and were designed to be used in a computer server 24/7. Their output is 47 amperes at about 12.5 volts. You can use two in series to provide </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">47 amperes at about 25 volts.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">You can buy them at places like eBay for about $15 delivered if you shop around, particularly if you look for lots of two or three. These power supplies cost upwards of $300 when they were in active use, but the servers they were designed to work with have been retired, leaving a lot of these server power supplies as surplus. Consequently, you can get them pretty cheap. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">I usually show pilots with any measure of soldering skills how to convert them for our use. The conversion takes about 30 minutes. The rest, who can't solder or can't follow simple directions, I do the conversion for them.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">There is a great description how to do the conversion of the HP model DPS-600PB power supply here: <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/tjinguytech/my-projects/HP47A">https://sites.google.com/site/tjinguytech/my-projects/HP47A</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Any questions? E-Mail me offline.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">See you at the Nats.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Ron Van Putte</span></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>NSRCA-discussion mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org</a></span><br><span><a href="http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion">http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion</a></span></div></blockquote></div>_______________________________________________<br>NSRCA-discussion mailing list<br><a href="mailto:NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">NSRCA-discussion@lists.nsrca.org</a><br>http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion</blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>