On Sep 24, 2004, at 3:28 PM, Peter Johansson wrote:

> Yes, a benchtop power supply with multiple fixed and variable
> voltages, adjustable current limiting, and current/voltage readout on
> every channel sure would be nice, but something like that is *way* out
> of my price range... or would it?
>
> The biggest cost here would be the meters, but I'd be willing to bet
> that I could use a PIC for all the voltage and current monitoring and
> then send the output via serial to a PC.

Or a cheap surplus LCD.  I've been contemplating a project like this;
but it's unlikely that it'll creep up on my to-do list - I already
have  a lab power supply.

What IS your budget?  Cheap VOMs are well under $10, so a wall-wart 
(free)
a couple 317s (cheap) and two dedicated meters would run you well under
$50.  But then, commercial units start around $60

     http://www.mpja.com/productview.asp?product=14600+PS

I like your idea of using the PC as a display.  I can see converting an
old (ie free or near free) PC into a whole electronics experimentor's
dream.  Power supply  (0-12V) mounted and accessible from a drive bay,
sound card used as a scope and signal generator, parallel port based
logic analyzer, and of course device programmers "everywhere", plus
assorted IDEs and layout SW.  Most of this already exists; putting
it together into an extensible package wouldn't be TOO hard (sorta
the "winavr" of hardware?)  Hmm...

BillW

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