Review by SailorMoon

Recently, there are some new clips appearing on YouTube about a new Mini DC power supply. It is from the famous TS100 & ES121's manufacturer e-Design. e-Design always has something that can bring wows to the users, like their TS80, a small-sized QC soldering iron with powerful heating performance. This time, they launched a mini DC power supply which is described as "modules" and "stackable". What does that mean?

What is that module?

The new arrival is a Mini Digital Power Supply package called "MDP-XP". Inside this package, there is a monitor/display control unit MDP-M01 and a digital power supply MDP-P905, with some cables for data and output.

MDP stands for "Mini Digital Power System", and the whole system will include different devices (aka "modules") such as signal generator, electronic load, power charger, battery pack, etc., each of which will be one of the modules of this MDP.

How are they "Stackable"?

It really means they can be stacked up!

The two modules can be used separately or in combination. For the first time starting up, you’ll have to match the MDP-905 with the control module MDP-M01.

These modules communicate with each other via 2.4G nRF24l01 wireless connection. As the "host" of the whole stack, MDP-M01 can "enslave" up to 6 different modules, and allocates address to each of the module connected. Here is a picture of how it would look like when stacking up.

For a better stacking, the two modules adopt slots to fit physically, with magnets as a double-insurance. When using, the display module can be lightly stacked on top of the power supply module, and power supply module upon another one. The magnets provide a moderate attraction, enough for daily use, but not for solid stickiness as a whole.

What’s more, the stacking power supplies can be cascaded, and the MDP-M01 can be powered by MDP-P905 via Micro USB to 2.5mm cable.

The wow elements

Both stacking and modules of the MDP modules are only a gimmick, it takes more to tempt the users. Let's see what's inside this magic box.

The MDP-M01 and MDP-P905 are cased with CNC aluminum shells with frosted surface. Both bodies are small but solid and feel very good. The overall appearances of the modules are small and exquisite. The metal casing is designed for both good looking and zero-noise natural heat dissipation. Clever!

MDP-M01 can be understood as the central control platform of all sub-modules. The 2.8-inch TFT screen can display the status of the sub-modules, such as real-time display voltage and current waveform graphs, data statistics and storage, etc.

And MDP-P905 is a 4-digit power supply that can be used independently. With only 13mm's thickness, it can perform high-efficiency linear output with 0.25mV ripple, an extremely fast transient response (<4uS) and output up to 90W with fine tuning. With those specifications, it can almost be a rival to a professional DC power supply!

When the MDP-P905 is on, the wheel on the right side shows some nice color. There is a true color LED bead inside, whose color can be changed and will be consistent with the color block on the MDP-M01 screen. MDP-P905 has many safety measures to ensure the performances, protections such as input overvoltage, undervoltage, anti-reverse, anti-backflow, over-temperature, over-current, etc. Such a perfect protection mechanism is beneficial for your testing and operations in all applications.

Something quite interesting is that the power module supports DC (4.2V-30V) wide range voltage input, and once start up, the running voltage can be as low as 2.7V. It has both DC5525 and USB-C (QC3.0) socket for power sources. This means as well as wall plugs, users can choose quite a range of portable power sources to power the MDP, such as power banks, batteries like lipo, 18650, etc.

What if I need a higher output voltage than the input? That's possible too. Say you input a 19V 2.1A power into MDP-P905, and you would like to draw an output of 24V, MDP-P905 can guarantee that, but the total power will be restrained by the watt you input.

And if you are not content with the functions offered, do not forget this is a Miniware product from e-Design—all their products are open source! You can always find the source from their official forum and develop one of your own firmware for the product, or look for new updates from e-Design and other brain boxes in this field.

New toy for your workbench

A traditional programmable digital power supply is usually a large desktop device, a display screen for numbers wrapped in plastic casing, making noises of the cooling fan. Portability or good-looking are not their pursue. However, the MDP-XP modules tells you they are not only capable of presenting great portability and nice product design, but also give you quite satisfactory performances.

If you are looking for something new for your working bench, or you do have quite a lot of chances carrying a variable DC power supply on site, or even you just want to save some working space, MDP-XP can be one of the candidates in the list for the task. Especially when you consider the potential of the system's extension, MDP-XP can be the first modules of your own full function digital power system on your workbench, taking only a space of a purse and building up high.











