Picking the Right Custom Power Supply
The power supply in any machine an under-appreciated component. We take it for granted and assume it will always be there. There is also a tendency to buy cheap power supplies for our requirement, just enough to keep the machine running. But is this enough?
The power supply transforms the 110V-120V of 60V into the proper voltage and AC power your machine needs. This is how is happens.
First, this power is transformed into DC power and then this DC power is converted into AC. You can convert the 60V power supply directly into AC but then you are going to need very large components.
There is also the matter of how many rails to use in the power supply. If you ask an embedded engineer about rails, he will tell you it is better to use multiple rails. The assumption is, multiple rails will protect your machine when they draw current in any single rail becomes too high for comfort. But is it true in all cases?
The next question is how much power you need for your machine. There are many power supply calculators but they can only give a baseline. There is no listing for every component. In such cases, the embedded engineer has to take an educated guess.
Another problem is, not all machine are made equal. The embedded engineer who designs the custom power supply should be very careful when he is making the designs.
