A “Stackable” Miniware Linear DC Power Supply? That’s Schmick!

SailorMoon

        Recently, there are somenew clips appearing on YouTube about a new Mini DC power supply. It is from thefamous TS100 & ES121’s manufacturer e-Design. e-Design always has somethingthat can bring wows to the users, like their TS80, a small-sized QC solderingiron with powerful heating performance. This time, they launched a mini DCpower supply which is described as “modules” and “stackable”. What does thatmean?

Whatis that module?

    Thenew arrival is a Mini Digital Power Supply package called “MDP-XP”. Inside thispackage, there is a monitor/display control MDP-M01 and a digital power supplyMDP-P905, with some cables for data and output.

MDP stands for “Mini Digital Power System”, and thewhole system will include different devices (aka “modules”) such as signalgenerator, electronic load, power charger, battery pack, etc., each of whichwill be one of the modules of this MDP.

Howare they “Stackable”?

    It really means they canbe stacked up!

The two modules can beused separately or in combination. For the first time starting up, you’ll haveto match the MDP-905 with the control module MDP-M01.

    These modules communicate with each other via 2.4G nRF24l01 wireless connection. As the “host” of the whole stack, MDP-M01 can “enslave” up to 6 different modules, and allocates address to each of the module connected. Here is a picture of how it would look like when stacking up.

    For a better stacking, thetwo modules adopt slots to fit physically, with magnets as a double-insurance.When using, the display module can be lightly stacked on top of the power supplymodule, and power supply module upon another one. The magnets provide amoderate attraction, enough for daily use, but not for solid stickiness as awhole.

What’smore, the stacking power supplies can be cascaded, and the MDP-M01 can bepowered by MDP-P905 via MicroUSB to 2.5mm cable.

The wow elements

    Both stacking andmodules of the MDP modules are only a gimmick, it takes more to tempt theusers. Let’s see what’s inside this magic box.

The MDP-M01 and MDP-P905 are cased with CNC aluminumshells with frosted surface. Both bodies are small but solid and feel verygood. The overall appearances of the modules are small and exquisite. The metalcasing is designed for both good looking and zero-noise natural heatdissipation.

    MDP-M01 can beunderstood as the central control platform of all sub-modules. The 2.8-inch TFTscreen can display the status of the sub-modules, such as real-time displayvoltage and current waveform graphs, data statistics and storage, etc.

And MDP-P905 is a4-digit power supply that can be used independently. With only 13mm’sthickness, it can perform high-efficiency linear output with 0.25mV ripple, anextremely fast transient response (<4uS) and output up to 90W with finetuning. With those specifications, it can almost be a rival to a professionalDC power supply!

     When the MDP-P905 is on,the wheel on the right side shows some nice color. There is a true color LEDbead inside, whose color can be changed and will be consistent with the colorblock on the MDP-M01 screen. MDP-P905 has many safety measures to ensure the performances, protectionssuch as input overvoltage, undervoltage, anti-reverse, anti-backflow,over-temperature, over-current, etc. Such a  perfect protection mechanism is beneficial foryour testing and operations in all applications.

      Somethingquite interesting is that the power module supports DC (4.2V-30V) wide range voltageinput, and once start up, the running voltage can be as low as 2.7V. It hasboth DC5525 and USB-C (QC3.0) socket for power sources. This means as well aswall plugs, users can choose quite a range of portable power sources to powerthe MDP, such as power banks, batteries like lipo, 18650, etc.

What if I need a higheroutput voltage than the input? That’s possible too. Say you input a 19V 2.1Apower into MDP-P905, and you would like to draw an output of 24V, MDP-P905 can guaranteethat, but the total power will be restrained by the watt you input.

      And if you are notcontent with the functions offered, do not forget this is a Miniware productfrom e-Design—all their products are open source! You can always find thesource from their official forum and develop one of your own firmware for theproduct, or look for new updates from e-Design and other brain boxes in thisfield.

Newtoy for your workbench

      A traditional programmabledigital power supply is usually a large desktop device, a display screen fornumbers wrapped in plastic casing, making noises of the cooling fan. Portabilityor good-looking are not their pursue. However, the MDP-XP modules tells youthey are not only capable of presenting great portability and nice productdesign, but also give you quite satisfactory performances.

      If you are looking forsomething new for your working bench, or you do have quite a lot of chancescarrying a variable DC power supply on site, or even you just want to save someworking space, MDP-XP can be one of the candidates in the list for the task. Especiallywhen you consider the potential of the system’s extension, MDP-XP can be thefirst modules of your own full function digital power system on your workbench,taking only a space of a purse and building up high.