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Oldpirate
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 1:18 pm: | 
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Anyone know how to hook up 2 13.8 volt power supplies to maintain 13.8 volts but double the amperage delivered. ie 25 + 25=50amps |
Mr_Rf
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 4:19 pm: |
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1. You should fuse both power supplies on both the plus and minus leads...that's 4 fuses each 25 amp each.
2. Use equal lengths and gauge wire to hook everything up...say #8 or #10 gauge wire.
3. IMPORTANT: Use between 6 to 10 feet of wire on all four connections. Don't use less than 6 ft of wire...the purpose of the longer length of wire is so that the wire acts as a balancing resistor between the supplies so they don't fight each other when the characteristics of each vary a little under load.
4. IMPORTANT: Each power supply needs to be set so the output voltages match as close as possible. Hook up a small load (say a CB in receive mode) to each supply one at a time. Use a good voltmeter (digital preferred) and set the voltages of both to match each other (say 13.60 VDC). If your supply doesn't have voltage set knobs on the outside then usually there are controls inside most supplies for adjusting the output voltage.
Here's a drawing of how to do it. Remember use longer than usual, but equal lengths of wire and fuse between the supplies.
Good Luck
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0661
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 4:46 pm: |
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Take your 2 power supplies and hook positive on one to positive on the other, hook negative on one to negative on the other, then on to the equipment to be powered. |
Oldpirate
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 7:31 pm: |
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Thanks guys, I thought thats the way to do it. Blue smoke does get in your eyes and it doesn't do radio equipment any good either. |
Insider
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 8:52 pm: |
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I've heard that putting a diode rated for the amps of the power supply in series with the positive leads will help prevent cross regulation. |
Bigbob
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 9:28 pm: |
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I have found to do this in either way as suggested you will get inter-regulation between supplies,which can cause two 14 volt supplies to become one 16 volt supply,yikes,to solve this,connect 4-6amp rectifiers in parallel in one positive cable,adjust this supply to equal voltage of other supply at outer end of rectifiers,now attach a .1 mfd cap between the two ground terminals,then at the combined terminals attach a .1 mfd cap across + and -,these caps with the rectifiers help to or completely remove transients which cause the inter regulation and isolates one from the other,voila.Bigbob P.S.With this type of isolation you can goof as much as one volt difference between supplies and it will still work. |
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