Stacking DC Power supplies ?

[Moleculo]

I see noone's tackled this, so I'll give it a shot.



The problem that you have with this is that the two different power supplies have different current ratings. You can't just hook them up in parallel and expect to get a 100 amp total supply. I think it would be possible to put a resistor in parallel on the 60 amp circuit to drop the current down to 40 amps. However, in order for that to work you would need to calculate the resistance of the device you're attaching to the supply. If it's a radio or amp, the resistance will be constantly changing because the current draw is always changing. That means the resistor you would put in parallel would have to constantly change also. So I think the answer would be to have the 60 amp supply charge a battery or large capacitor that was capable of delivering 40 amps. I'm not even sure that would work for long. Maybe somebody else can chime in.



In short, it would be easier to just get two power supplies of the same rating.


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[Moleculo]

I see noone's tackled this, so I'll give it a shot.



The problem that you have with this is that the two different power supplies have different current ratings. You can't just hook them up in parallel and expect to get a 100 amp total supply. I think it would be possible to put a resistor in parallel on the 60 amp circuit to drop the current down to 40 amps. However, in order for that to work you would need to calculate the resistance of the device you're attaching to the supply. If it's a radio or amp, the resistance will be constantly changing because the current draw is always changing. That means the resistor you would put in parallel would have to constantly change also. So I think the answer would be to have the 60 amp supply charge a battery or large capacitor that was capable of delivering 40 amps. I'm not even sure that would work for long. Maybe somebody else can chime in.



In short, it would be easier to just get two power supplies of the same rating.


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[Moleculo]

The angle I was coming at it from was that if you try to draw more current (amps) than the smaller supply is able to provide, then you have a problem. I think it's possible to buffer the current draw, but it seems unreliable to me. That's a different issue than voltage differences.


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[Moleculo]

The angle I was coming at it from was that if you try to draw more current (amps) than the smaller supply is able to provide, then you have a problem. I think it's possible to buffer the current draw, but it seems unreliable to me. That's a different issue than voltage differences.


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[Desert Rat04]

I am thinking of stacking or combining a 60 amp and a 40 amp dc power supply. Question ? Is there a certain pair of diodes I need between these so they will not fight each other and a diagram on how to properly hook them up please !!



<img src=http://www.wwdx.org/smilies/posticon60.gif ALT=":60">


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[Desert Rat04]

I am thinking of stacking or combining a 60 amp and a 40 amp dc power supply. Question ? Is there a certain pair of diodes I need between these so they will not fight each other and a diagram on how to properly hook them up please !!



<img src=http://www.wwdx.org/smilies/posticon60.gif ALT=":60">


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