EEVblog #1023 - Rigol DL3021 Electronic Load Teardown

Dave tears down the new Rigol DL3021 Electronic load and has a play around with it.

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[MitsumaYT]

22:00 Seeing how there is a green underline it feels like you can change the digit and then use the wheel to increment in those steps.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I wonder what happens if you put it in short mode with a supply capable of a huge current - e.g. car battery

[mikeselectricstuff]

Wh but no watts display in battery mode ?

[mikeselectricstuff]

No velocity control but you can probably move the cursor position for coarser adjust. Unexpected jumps due to velocity sensing can be be issue on power stuff, though more so on PSUs than loads, so cursor+know probably not too stupid.
Apart from the fonts, the different button shapes look pretty silly.
As regards regulator heat, maybe they only tested at 220v mains.

[DoRC]

The binding posts aren't 4mm standard because the 4mm ones aren't rated to handle the juice that this is capable of sinking. I think their choice was good as it forces people to use actual lugs for their wire

[convolvulaceae]

My company uses a Rigol DL3031 load. I took it apart and looked at it too. It is no different from Rigol DL3021. MOSFET quantity 10 pcs. The same IRFP250N. Maximum current limitation is performed by the program. These transistors are controlled by the MC33078 chip without marking. The shunt has a resistance of 0.0005 ohms. From this shunt amplifies the signal, the ADA4522-1 chip is unmarked. Still without marking, 3 chip OP27G. I haven't identified the DAC chip yet. If anyone knows what it's called, write.

[radarmusen]

I think that the little green cursor under the value can be moved to next digits so increments or decrement will go faster when using scroll wheel.

[rwbishop]

With all new 'Ransom Note' styling!

[ElmerFuddGun]

1:51 - No, the CR mode has the same ranges for the DL3021 and DL3021 *A* models. At least according to that graphic as there is no line separating the range values except to the DL30 *31* models and even they are the same.

[mikeselectricstuff]

GPIB on the menu, but no GPIB socket....

[phpn]

Pricing is not linearly proportional to the BOM. The cheaper device could be priced as a loss-leader, and the marging recuperated on the pricier items. You cost your engineering, manufacturing, inventory and support, SG/A, marketing and sales, and estimate the addressable market and the competition's prices. You then price items based on customer threshold points, not necessarily such that each item has the same margins. But granted, manufacturers have a tendency to unnecessarily multiply versions of their products, making purchasing choices that much more complicated.

[thenaimis]

"REVERSE ITALICS"
... c'mon Dave you're overreacting...
"LOOK AT ALL THESE FONTS"
ok maybe you're not overreacting...

[supernova]

The 'A' versions are the colorful ones...

[rot_studios]

"Innovation or nothing"

Seems the graphics designer took that slogan very seriously.

[hslim]

you can use the left right arrow button to change the digit the wheel control

[yaghiyahbrenner]

I was really looking forward to the ADC, DAC / Analog stuff but they rubbed of the markings. buggers! The IC's closet to the Mosfet's are just servo analog op-amps probably NE553N like the new BK electronic load.

[uzaiyaro]

I said this on one of Mike's videos as well, but one of the nice things about Chinese companies is that if they're serious about carving into the market, they do tend to listen to what people like you have to say. I can't quite remember the name of it but there is a very interesting documentary here on YouTube about companies based in Shenzhen, which is basically the hardware capital of the world now - it is to hardware what Silicon Valley is to software, more or less.

Either way, if you come to one of these companies with a problem, and offer them your feedback/advice/a solution, these Chinese companies have the unique ability to respin things very, very quickly, even if its a hardware change this can be implemented next week in some cases, Xiaomi is renowned for this. If Rigol is serious about their products, you might just find that if people like yourself find problems and offer up solutions, fixes may just be implemented, maybe even quicker than you think!

You did a teardown of a Siglent spectrum analyzer a while ago that I just watched before this, the way they designed that, is a prime example of this attitude in action that some of the larger Chinese companies have. They clearly designed that thing with modularity in mind so if problems are found, they can implement fixes more easily in the factory and the field.

Just my 2c, which is probably all it's worth.

[Boffin]

Not italic, but oblique (or slanted). To be a true italic font the characters are actually different (compare a lower case a in Times Roman with it's italic cousin to see what I mean)

[hlokkAus]

According to the specs, the difference between the standard and the A is 0-40A (vs 0-4A) CC, 0-150V (vs 0-15V) CV, 2-15k ohm (vs 0.08-15 ohm) in CR mode, up to 30kHz (vs 15kHz). The Readbacks are similar on both except for the resolution. But the constant loads seem to be 10 times the range! Although the non-A version seems to do a lot lower  constant resistance which is interesting

[Bushougoma]

31:57 maybe the stick wasn't formatted with the proper file system you'd be surprised how many devices still require FAT32.