Thread: Has anyone heard of/used this dc/dc regulator?

It looks a bit pricey too. I think building your own regulator would be ideal, it's not too hard.

I stumbled onto that site a couple of days ago while browsing for surge protection since I have a winch on my 4Runner and don't want high voltage transients from that zapping my gps navigation equipment (or any of the OEM stuff either).

As far as I can tell its not really a 12v power supply. It has provisions for a battery to supply voltage if the input drops to low for a short time (like during starting), but I can't see anywhere that it says it will actually keep the output at 12v if the input is something higher for a long time. (On their site they talk about overvoltage being more than 15V.) One of their illustrations of the "fill in" for low voltage during starting shows the output going up to 14V as the main supply voltage recovers. It seems to be designed to protect things like radios, gps units, etc. that can tolerate typical automobile input voltage ranges, but need extra protection from short duration high voltage spikes, and to avoid the hickups that happen because of the low voltage when starting. The 15A unit is in a 2"x2"x1.2" box, that doesn't sound nearly big enough for a real regulated power supply.

I found another company making a thing called the "anti-zap" for my surge protection requirement, but might keep this in mind for even more protection plus the low-voltage fill-in at some later time.

Alan

www.matson-usa.com

Looks like they are behind the times--their online ordering system is broken. Prices seem to be about $66 for the surge protector. Don't know if that's retail--assume so.

Looks like dieter has already provided the link to their site. They are an Australian company, but are somehow connected with Goodall in the US.

I called Goodall at a number on their site (see the Distributors selection). They gave me two numbers in the Seattle area where I live and I struck out on both. Neither place seemed to have ever heard of anything called an anti-zap and both mumbled something to the effect that they had carried something made by Goodall once upon a time. I guess I could have called the Goodall number again to get some more numbers but I didn't. As dieter noted their on-line order page doesn't work. Makes you wonder - its been that way for several weeks that I know of, so direct orders must not be a big part of their business.

I ended up getting one of their jumper-cable protection devices and a clip-on surge protector intended for shops to hook up to battery terminals when they do things like welding on a car (couldn't find one without listed anywhere on-line). I figure I'll cut the battery clips off when I get around to hooking it up. The surge protector (MA2012) cost $30.23 plus some shipping from tool paradise ,but I can't manage to find the thing on their site now. I got there through a Google search and I think it was another site associated with Tool Paradise some way.

I wish I could tell you whether it really works, but I don't know. All I have to go on is what I've seen on the web and I haven't seen anything with before and after oscilloscope traces or similar real data.

Alan