Add this Short Circuit Protection to Your Power Supply

A power supply unit is an indispensable unit for every electronic enthusiast and engineers working in the relevant field. Though today all of us use hi-tech power supply units having built-in protection, there are folks who still rely on ordinary types of power supply units with no protection facility.

The biggest enemy of all power supply units is a possible short circuit that might occur at its output terminals due to an accidental connection or due to the fault with the connected load. There are various electronic circuits that might be employed with a power supply unit for checking this problem, however these circuits sometimes themselves are at risk of getting damaged due to the limitations with many electrical parameters. A very innovative way of rectifying this problem has been shown in this article. A single relay is used for sensing as well as tripping the output from the involved malfunction. Referring the circuit diagram, we see that a relay is connected directly to the output of the power supply DC output, however the connection is made through the N/O contacts of the relay. These contacts are also terminated as the output of the unit. N/O means normally open, that means the contacts are open initially, which in turn keeps the output disconnected from the positive of the power supply. Now when the shown push button is momentarily pushed, the N/O contacts are bypassed allowing the current to flow across the relay coil. The relay coil energizes, closing the N/O contacts, which in turn latches and sticks to the position even after the push button is released. The relay latch maintains this latched position as long as the output is used under normal conditions, but when a short is made or happens across the output terminals of the supply, voltage drops rapidly across the relay coil and it immediately trips, cutting OFF the supply to the output and in the course switches OFF the latch preventing the short hazard conditions.