Switching power supply for benchtop?

[risom]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a couple of fixed-voltage power supplies to add to my bench-top setup and I wanted to see if anyone had used any of the small switchers like the one in the link below for this purpose, and if so, what kind of results you've had. I'm mainly concerned about output ripple and noise (conducted or radiated) causing issues in the analog or digital circuits I might be working on. I'm looking to get 3.3V and 5V supplies so I won't have to use my adjustable supply to get those common voltages. Here is the 5V one I'm looking at:

https://www.jameco.com/z/RS-25-5-ME...ingle-Output-5-Volt-5-Amp-25-Watt_323282.html

These are pretty cheap, so I wonder if it would be worth the money to get or build linear supplies instead. Any thoughts?

 

[BradtheRad]

A lot of peripherals run on 5V so you might as well have a spare supply in case one conks out.

 

[dick_freebird]

I have four of the "Dr Meter" HY3005M power supplies
(30V, 5A) that you can find all over eBay (or could, at
the time). Digital panel, output on/off, and dead quiet
(surprisingly so for a switcher) according to my 'scope.
There's no way you could build one for the cost.

I now prefer them to the collection of old linears I have,
except when I need more than 5A.

 

[risom]

Thanks, I actually already have one of the Dr. Meter adjustable linear supplies that I really like. I was wondering about the small fixed-voltage switchers that you can get for $10-$15. They are enclosed, but I think they are made more to go into a larger enclosure as part of a system not really meant for a benchtop. I think they could be situated pretty easily as fixed-voltage, moderate current supplies, I just don't want to get something that's going to throw our enough hash to interfere with other stuff. It would be nice if you just need a quick 5V or 3.3V source to have something dedicated and not have to take up an output on my main PS or worry about accidentally turning the knob and frying the microcontroller I have connected to it.