Hello again group!
Firstly, I must say that this is by far the best community website I have come across for the subject of hobby electronics, and all of the posters here are great!
I will soon be ordering components (from Mouser) to put together a sturdy bench power supply to power my later experiments. Basically all I have now is a breadboard with some 78xx regulators and associated caps/protection diodes, so I am putting together something much nicer with an actual enclosure, adjustable voltage (LM723-based) and current limiting.
My question here is, I know this power supply will be used for a long time, and will need to be pretty reliable. I am confident in the design, but now I wonder if the manufacturer of the components I purchase will be a major factor in the reliability of the unit.
I will order some pretty large electrolytics for this thing, and having had very bad experiences with equipment in the past that blew caps, I am wondering if there is a particular brand or line of caps that are good quality?
I hear good things more or less about Nichicon and Panasonic, are there others? Am I worried about something that is a non-issue?
Similarly, there will be quite a few transistors etc in here (PN2222 mostly), these are made by many companies, Fairchild, ON Semi, etc, is there any brand difference there? Prices differ on the order of pennies or nickels.
Hopefully some of the old hands in here can shed some light on the subject for me.
Firstly, I must say that this is by far the best community website I have come across for the subject of hobby electronics, and all of the posters here are great!
I will soon be ordering components (from Mouser) to put together a sturdy bench power supply to power my later experiments. Basically all I have now is a breadboard with some 78xx regulators and associated caps/protection diodes, so I am putting together something much nicer with an actual enclosure, adjustable voltage (LM723-based) and current limiting.
My question here is, I know this power supply will be used for a long time, and will need to be pretty reliable. I am confident in the design, but now I wonder if the manufacturer of the components I purchase will be a major factor in the reliability of the unit.
I will order some pretty large electrolytics for this thing, and having had very bad experiences with equipment in the past that blew caps, I am wondering if there is a particular brand or line of caps that are good quality?
I hear good things more or less about Nichicon and Panasonic, are there others? Am I worried about something that is a non-issue?
Similarly, there will be quite a few transistors etc in here (PN2222 mostly), these are made by many companies, Fairchild, ON Semi, etc, is there any brand difference there? Prices differ on the order of pennies or nickels.
Hopefully some of the old hands in here can shed some light on the subject for me.