Winner, Name that Ware January 2026

The Ware for January 2026 is a FNIRSI DPS-150. Tim nailed it almost immediately; congrats, email me for your prize! The DPS-150 is a small, portable DC “benchtop” power supply that converts USB-C into a range of voltages and currents. samchin convinced me to get one of these as an impulse buy in the Shenzhen markets last month. I’ll have to say that overall I’m happy with it, but the UI has been challenging for me to wrap my head around. Definitely keep the user manual for this one – I’m still referring to it to figure out all the modes.

The main technical issue I’ve had with it is that the overcurrent protection trips when powering loads that have steep changes in current draw – for example, I can’t boot a Raspberry Pi 4 off of this supply, as it thinks the point at which the CPU goes into full frequency is an overcurrent event, and shuts down as a protection response. However, it’s perfect for simulating a small battery – the current graph over time is definitely handy feedback during embedded development – and it’s the “right amount of small”.

There’s an even smaller DC supply that I own (Sinilink XY3605 – I thought I name that wared it but apparently I didn’t) but it’s so small I have to carry around a remote control to program it, which is inconvenient enough that in practice I reach for this one instead, even though it’s slightly larger. Still, when I’m at my desk, nothing beats my Envox EEZ Bench Box 3. Love that thing!