JAMECO RELIAPRO 20626 Dual-Output Adjustable Linear Regulated Power Supply Kit

For under thirty dollars this is a fantastic power supply for many bi-polar needs. The regulation is consistent from hour to hour and day to day. The filtered linear design is absolutely dead quiet. It's easy to build and takes about 30 minutes to complete. Comes with power cord and pilot light. Recommended for any project.

I bought this as an inexpensive +/- power supply to operate some audio circuits I designed and built. I thought it would be hard to beat the price of this kit, compared to buying the parts and designing/building the thing myself -- but found a number of problems that made it less of a "deal" than I thought it would be.For starters, the board was missing one through-drilled hole for one of the rectifier diodes. Not a huge deal, I flipped the board over and soldered the diode to the traces. But this omission would make it difficult for a beginner to figure out.Second, while the design uses a center-tapped transformer it only uses two diodes -- one for the positive side and one for the negative side. That means the design uses half-wave rectifiers. A full-wave bridge would use two more and perhaps add ten cents to the cost of the board -- and improve the ripple performance of the supply by quite a bit. Another negative.Third, the instructions for installing the transformer don't match the color code of the secondary wires on the transformer in my kit. Again, for someone experienced in the field of electronics, not hard to figure out -- but for a beginner... not so much. They certainly would need a DVM that can measure AC to make sure the transformer is properly connected.Fourth, the filter capacitors that came with the kit are axials, where the pins are on one end of the capacitor, but the instructions refer to tubular types.Fifth, the smaller capacitors on the output sides of the regulators have very short pins. They have to be carefully straightened and bent so they fit OK through the PCB holes. I actually soldered them to the underside of the board because it was easier to make sure they were properly soldered down.Sixth, the pins on the variable resistors also are formed in a pattern that doesn't match the holes on the board. They have to be straightened/bent so they go into the holes.Seventh, Figure 1 that is used to aid in properly inserting components, did not show the polarity for the LED that's used to indicate when the power supply is turned on. Easy for me to figure out but, again, possibly not for a beginner.In sum, this kit is _barely_ worth the price I paid for it; and if you count the extra work needed to make sure it's assembled correctly, it's a wash. I regret buying it, but, having many years of experience in the electronics field, can make it right for my needs. Less-experienced folks may have more trouble with it.

I bought this kit well over a year ago when I first began my electronics studies. Since then I have used it almost daily to power up my breadboard experiments. It is a simple charge pump that does not use a full bridge rectifier, but is able to squeeze the most out of the 12v6 transformer. The rails will sag a bit over time, but that is a minor drawback for me (might not be for you). This kit run off mains voltage, so I purchased a safe enclosure for it and added a switch and nicer binding posts (still thinking about adding a fuse but have not needed it so far). Shortly after that, I added two digital voltage meters that just read the positive and negative rails. All in all maybe an additional $30 in modifications. If you know you are going to be seriously pursuing electronics then perhaps a proper bench supply would be better in the long run, but if you are like me this was a great way to start from the ground up. For me the trickiest part was making sure the leads on the transformers were what I thought they were. Also pay attention to the LED polarity, it feeds off the negative rail. follow the directions not your notions. ;)

after assembly, I connected the circuit to power and the LM317 voltage regulator started smoking. Rechecked all of my wiring and finding nothing wrong, I replaced the LM317 and smoke again. So I removed and individually checked each component on that side of the power supply and found a ceramic (tantalum) capacitor had a high but measurable resistance. It should have been unreadably high. I replaced the LM317 and tried it again with the capacitor removed and no smoke. So I replaced the capacitor with a good one and the circuit works fine. Components fail out of the box sometimes and its not a Jameco problem. Good, simple linear split supply for not much money.

Jameco has never disappointed. I've not yet assembled the kit. Quality of parts look fine. PCB looks okay, and it came well packed. Think it's a low-cost wy to gain dual voltages for experiment ing and prototyping. Note it's for LIGHT DUTY; not for rugged environment or sustained high load.

Easy to follow instructions Worked perfectly for the preamp power supply I was building.

Works great, easy to assemble.

Purchased from company based on list of items from class instructor. Power-supply kit arrived in one piece and ahead of schedule (initially thought that it was going to arrive after the class started). It does come in kit format, with individual pieces. The PCB is wrapped with the instructions, so don't discard if you plan on affixing to the board as shown in the picture. The components were mostly bundled into individual plastic bags (non-resealable), with smaller components being grouped together. Class is still ongoing, so we haven't finished constructing the power supply.