Pro tip: don't cheap out on those 'universal' power supply testers

I grabbed a $15 one online thinking it would save me time, but it gave me a false positive on a laptop board and I ended up ordering a good DC jack for nothing, costing me about $40 total. It turns out those cheap testers don't put any real load on the circuit, so they'll light up even with a weak power rail. What's a better, budget-friendly way to actually test a power supply under load?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily3948d ago

Just use a multimeter, man.

val4068d ago

Yeah, that "no real load" thing is exactly the problem. A buddy of mine who fixes phones had the same issue. He used a cheap tester on a power supply, it lit up green, but when he hooked up the actual phone board, nothing. He ended up just using an old car light bulb as a dummy load to check for real voltage drop.