While setting up my bench variable current/voltage power supply to put a equalization charge on a flooded lead acid, i stupidly forgot to turn the coarse current dial down before powering up the supply. As i turned the voltage up, i quickly knew something was up as the amps were ~3 at 14v. Before i could turn off the supply, or turn the current dial down, two electrolytic caps in the device blew, smoke came out of the device, and i immediately pulled the ac supply, turned the device off, and disconnected the lead acid battery.
I have done this before with the same battery/supply, but at currents below 1a. The purpose was to gas the battery, and attempt a bit of desulfation/overcharge on a heavily discharged battery. I think the high resistance of the battery was the issue here, as its not in great shape, but isn't dead either. I did not have a chance to check the wattage draw on my killawatt before the caps blew, but before, it was pulling ~20-30w when equalizing this lead acid at ~1a 15v.
I took the casing off, and saw two caps had blown open, one connected across the output terminals, (50v 470uf), and one on the regulation board above the multitap transformer (35v 470uf). No other visual damage was noticed, other than a short/broken trace next to the blown cap on the regulation board. I assume there was an ark there.
Is this something easily fixed by repairing the trace with a solder/wire joint, epoxying it to prevent future shorts, and replacing the caps?
Or did i just destroy my week old, semi-expensive bench supply beyond repair?
I know this isn't too specific as far as the details, but its a generic brand supply purchased off ebay.
Any ideas as to how this happened, or if i should attempt to replace the caps, and fix the broken trace? Any ways to test to see if that is the only damage done?
I really dont want to trash this supply, and i know its not returnable due to the sellers policy, but don't want to put myself at risk trying to fix it.
Any advice here is welcome, even if its what i don't want to hear (don't try and fix it yourself for saftey reasons).
Thanks-
Edit- heres the link to the supply in question-
Can't find any kind of pdf schematic/datasheet, and all the info in the manual is pretty basic. Very hard to find info on this, makes me think i purchased a cheap POS knockoff, and a google search of the caps that blew turned up a few posts saying they were really terrible caps to begin with, JWCO brand. Might be ones from those bad batches made with stolen electrolyte formulas notorious for being of piss-poor quality, and having high failure rates. Badcap, the website has guides for replacing these as far as pc mobo/power supply blown caps, but this is a bit of a different situation.