Any high bit resolution 20W PC-comm linear power supplies?

Hi people,

I’ve spent a few hours trying to preliminary put together a high bit resolution linear 20W power supply, for a niche application, because I was surprised at how few commercial sources I found online. Those that I did see were 100-200Watt, $500+ objects. 100-200Watt isn’t intrinsically bad, but it meant that a 16-bit variable supply was only about 13-bit in the 20Watt range I’m operating. Plus $500…:(!! Think of all the pololu toys that can buy.

I need/prefer a linear power supply, because there’s an additional 16bit voltage verification system that can only sample once or twice a second, so it could be inaccurate if I’m just PWM’ing (it’s a variable resistance heater, so I need the voltage and current going in as I can’t just rely on current and resistance.

I was wondering if anyone has found some open source or commercial product this kind of device. I’ve been surprised not to find one, so I assume I’m looking in the wrong places. But it could just be because few applications need high resolution, or those that have them in the power supply don’t have a good PC communications interface. So I’m basically taking a “break” on designing my own, in case someone with deep caverns of internet or general knowledge exposes some commercial solution that I didn’t realize was in existence. I would rather buy something so I can focus on the rest of the project.

I thought this might be one of the places people are familiar with esoteric equipment needs :stuck_out_tongue: