Ruideng RD6030 Adjustable Converter

Recently I announced a new product from RuiDeng: the RD6030 converter, with an output current of up to 30 A. It’s definitely an interesting new model, so I ordered one right away. Today I’m ready to take a closer look at it.

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Here’s a list of all the converters from this company that I’ve had a chance to try.
DPH5005
DPS8005
DPS5020
RD6006
RD6012
RD6018
RD6006P
RD6012P
RD6024
RK6006
Enclosure and power supply for the RK6006


The package arrived surprisingly quickly. The packaging is the usual setup: a large polystyrene box, with the converter itself in its own box and a tray made of expanded polyethylene.
One small thing I noticed right away: the packaging used to show a photo with the model number, for example RD6024, but apparently they got tired of that, so now the photo says RD60XX—in other words, it’s generic :)


Here’s everything that comes in the box. I ordered the converter with the maximum set of accessories, except, of course, for the enclosure and power supply.


1. The temperature sensor and WiFi module are no different from the ones included before.
2. There were also a couple of extra bags in the box.
3. Right-angle terminals. These came with the 6024 model, where the manufacturer decided to do away with the usual connectors. As with the 6024, they also included a couple of “fork” terminals, so you can connect power to the board in either of two ways: crimp or solder the fork terminals onto the wires, or use standard 6.3 mm terminals.
4. The fuse is clearly different. Not only is it now rated for 40 A, it’s also noticeably larger than the previous one.


Of course, I’ll include the specifications table for all the models they make.


The appearance hasn’t changed at all, which, as I often say, is great. Basically, it hasn’t changed since the 6006 model. The only difference is that the banana jacks here are rated for higher current, just like on the 6024.


The circuit board looks really solid, and the converter feels a little heavier than the 6024, which makes sense.


Here’s a photo of the 6024 board for comparison. A quick look shows that the 6030 has more capacitors, the heatsink for the reverse-polarity protection transistor is gone, the relay is rated for 40 A, and the output inductor is clearly wound with thicker wire—you can tell from how much of the core is filled. Incidentally, both models use a two-wire winding, and the cores look identical, but their power ratings aren’t all that different anyway: 1800 W versus 1440 W.


On the input side there’s a large inductor to reduce interference, as well as the power input terminals. To the left of the inductor is a small board, which was also present on the 6024. If I remember correctly, it provides protection against excessive input voltage.


The auxiliary converter section is unchanged.


The main PWM controller is unchanged too: still the same TL594.


The synchronous rectifier control section also looks unchanged.


1. On the input side, there are four 470 µF, 80 V capacitors.
2. The relay looks the same as the one on the 6024, but it’s now rated for 40 A. It’s needed to switch the battery charging circuit.
3. Interestingly, there’s just a fuse on the input side, and one on the output side too, but there’s an extra pad next to it, and no fuse holder. Presumably, you’re supposed to solder the fuse in when replacing it.
4. On the output side, there are also four 470 µF, 80 V capacitors. To the LED-powering crowd, I’ll say that this is a fairly “rough” converter, so this much output capacitance is justified. For tests where that matters, just use something from the 6006P or 6012P series.


As I’ve already mentioned, the output inductor is almost identical to the one in the 6024.


Naturally, I was curious to take it apart and see what was underneath—and it turned out I was right to do so.


By the way, removing the board is easy, but first you have to desolder the fairly hefty output terminals. I spotted a jumper next to them, which I initially mistook for a current-sense shunt and even thought, “Oh, that’s something new.”


But it turned out the manufacturer had used jumpers to reinforce the traces on the board. Nice work. Though, if I remember correctly, the 6024 had jumpers too, but with a noticeably smaller cross-section.


The components have changed, too. The input transistor and one of the converter transistors are now G022N10 instead of HY3210, and the third HY3210 has been replaced with a G035N10.
In short, the previous ones were rated at 100 V, 120 A, and 6.8 mΩ. The new ones:
G022N10 — 100 V, 249 A, and 2.2 mΩ
G035N10 — 100 V, 180 A, and 3.5 mΩ.

You could say this is definitely an interesting upgrade. You can also see the current-sense resistors here, with a combined resistance of 2.5 mΩ. At 30 A, that means 2.25 W dissipated as heat, which is perfectly fine across four resistors.


I didn’t notice any changes to the control board.



I put it back together, so now we can move on to checking out the firmware and running some tests.
The menu is essentially unchanged apart from the current and power limits, which makes sense.


First quick test: checking power consumption. The first three photos show input voltages of 24, 36, and 61 V; the fourth shows 61 V with the output enabled.


Test one: checking the input-voltage measurement accuracy. As usual, it’s fine. I applied 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 61 V. There’s a small difference, but nothing critical.


Test two: checking voltage setting and measurement accuracy. Overall, it’s good—excellent in places. I did notice that the built-in voltmeter reads 0.01–0.02 V low. Also, at very low voltages, setting 10 mV gives about 15 mV at the output, but that’s just nitpicking :)
In general, devices from this company are often very well calibrated. I actually use my RD6006P to calibrate electronic loads.


Test three: current setting and measurement accuracy.
The current readings are a little worse, but again, that’s in the lower part of the range; beyond that, they’re quite good. The error seems to increase at currents of 20–30 A, but I can easily blame that on the clamp meter.


Since I’ve got as far as measuring current, I should mention the new set of cables rated for up to 36 A — link
It turns out the first 100 buyers got a bonus along with the converter: a set of cables. Since they’re not cheap, that’s a pretty substantial bonus.


1. The alligator clips have a different design and are definitely more convenient than the previous ones. The clips on the 25 A cables are quite stiff; these are too, in a way, but the design itself is different, making them easier to use.
2. The total length is about 105 cm, with the wires themselves measuring 1 m.
3. The stated cross-section is 11 AWG, or 4.2 mm². They’re flexible, with silicone insulation—in short, everything you like.
4. The alligator clips are more convenient because they’re simply wider and don’t twist in your hands like ordinary ones. Anyone who’s used the 25 A cables will understand.


As you can imagine, banana plugs had to go at these currents. The connection is now made with clamping terminals. That gives you good contact, of course, but forget about quickly swapping cables—or use two sets at once.


After publishing the review, I found a little bag on my desk whose contents I’d forgotten to mention. The cable set includes three split lock washers, which is quite useful. And, by the way, the 6.3 mm terminals turned out to be non-magnetic, possibly tinned copper.


And of course, I measured the resistance, which also gives us an indirect indication of the cross-section.
1, 2. Voltage drop across one wire, excluding the alligator clip contact, at 10 and 30 A
3, 4. The same, but including all contacts and both wires.

So we get about 5 mΩ per meter of wire, including the contact at the power supply, and 10.7 mΩ total for both cables, including all contacts.
The stated resistance for 11 AWG cable is 5.9 mΩ per meter; we measured 5, and the voltage drop across the contacts is negligible, since it gets lost in the overall picture.
In short, these are excellent cables and worth buying.


Test four: output voltage versus load.
As before, I tested at 5 and 12 V, first measuring the voltage with no load and then at full load.
The voltage turned out to drop by about 45–50 mV. This is strange, by the way, because the 6024's voltage didn't change at all, even though the difference between 24 and 30 A isn't that large. I don't understand it.
Later, to double-check, I ran the same test with the same load I used to test the 6024, but got the same result: about 45–50 mV of voltage drop under load. The only difference is that I think I loaded it through banana plugs and measured at the terminals themselves, but I doubt that could make a difference.


Test five: minimum input/output voltage difference.
As before, I tested with input voltages of 24 and 40 V. In the first case, the load current was 12 and 24 A; in the second, only 20 A.
At 24 V input, the minimum difference was 2 and 2.25 V, depending on the current; at 40 V input, it was 3.4 V. I observed the same behavior in previous models: the difference increased along with the input voltage. In short, to get 61 V at the output, the power supply needs to be set to at least 67–68 V.

And, as with the 6024, I noticed a glitch: if the input voltage suddenly drops while the unit is operating under load (my source switched to CC mode), the converter blanks the display and cuts the output voltage, but the buttons stay lit.


Test six: ripple level. Measurements were taken at an output voltage of 12 V and load currents of 0, 10, 20, and 30 A.
The maximum ripple amplitude was at 30 A, measuring about 80 mV, excluding the spikes. Since the signal was measured directly at the output terminals, we can safely ignore those.


As usual, the second test was at maximum current and different output voltages.
The current was 30 A at output voltages of 5, 20, and 36 V, and 25 A at 48 V. Beyond that, I simply don't have enough power from either the source or the load.
Here, the maximum ripple amplitude was at an output voltage of 48 V and a current of 25 A. I'd call that poor: about 400 mV at most. But what we're probably seeing here isn't converter ripple, but the combined interference from the source (an RD6024 with a 1500 W power supply), the load's power supply, and the oscilloscope. The last two probably don't need to be taken into account, but the power supply could certainly have caused this mess, especially in combination with the converter.
In fact, the real maximum ripple is probably at 30 A and 36 V, and is about the same 80 mV as at 12 V and 30 A.


Test seven: transient response. I used the same method as always, so I'll just quote the text from the 6024 review.
1, 2. Applying and removing 5 V at the converter output with no load.
3, 4. Response to connecting/disconnecting a load. The output was set to 12 V, with a 30 Ω resistor connected continuously and a 3.3 Ω resistor connected in parallel with it (or disconnected). So this shows the response to a current step from 0.4 to 4 A and from 4 to 0.4 A.
5. Transition from CV to CC mode: voltage 15 V, load current 4.5 A, current limit set to 3 A.
6. Same load and settings, but in the opposite direction: transition from CC to CV.

Overall, everything seems fine, but there are two quirks:
1. There are some slightly odd steps when switching on.
2. When the load is removed, there's a very short spike of about 0.5–0.7 V. It's very brief, but I've seen it several times.


Test eight: converter efficiency.
This is only an estimate, since I simply don't have the equipment to measure accurately at these currents. But let's see if we can at least get some idea of what we're dealing with.
The output current was at its maximum, 30 A, in every test.

Output voltage — efficiency — power loss
5 V — 83.6% — 30 W
12 V — 91.3% — 234 W
24 V — 94.6% — 40.6 W
36 V — 95.7% — 47.80 W

For comparison, the efficiency of the 6024 model
Output voltage — efficiency — power loss
5 V — 80.8% — 28.58 W
12 V — 90.7% — 29.48 W
24 V — 95.0% — 29.72 W
36 V — 97.1% — 21.96 W

So it turns out the 6030 converter performs better at low currents and worse at high currents, which is a bit strange, since the 6030 is essentially an improved 6024. But I do have a small explanation: I tested the 6024 at 24 A in every mode except the last one, which was tested at 20.3 A. The 6030 was tested at 30 A at every output voltage.


Temperature rise.
For this test, I used the same power supply based on the 6024 module and the same load. The test was run at an output voltage of 40 V and a load current of about 30 A, so the power was nearly 1200 W, or 2/3 of the maximum.


Of course, 1200 W is pretty good, but unfortunately it's not 1800 W. There was no overheating anywhere in this mode, and the hottest component was the output fuse at a mere 84 degrees, even though it was operating at 100% of its rated current.
The input section stayed completely cool; one diode reached 66 degrees, and that was it.


There wasn't much else to test, so I decided to replace my 6024 with the new 6030 right away, at least until the 6036 possibly comes out.
While I was at it, I took a photo of both modules: the 6024 is on the left and the 6030 on the right.


It installs in exactly the same way. The only thing I noticed was that the new converter's case seems slightly larger, perhaps by 0.3–0.5 mm. I noticed this when fitting it back in: it just barely fit through the opening. Also, the screws on the new module's power terminals have slightly larger heads.
Then I set the power limit to 1440 W, as it was on the 6024, and left it at that.


Since I don't use the software, I downloaded the latest version just in case. But as far as I can tell, not much has changed, if anything at all. I haven't tried connecting over WiFi; honestly, going through all the setup steps is such a chore, especially since I'd end up with the same software and the same features anyway.
What I don't like, and what they still haven't implemented, is the ability to control the device simultaneously from the software and its front panel. I really miss that feature.
The screenshots show an RS485 connection option. I have a review of their adapter that may be useful.


And now, the conclusions.
Overall, this is a higher-power version of the 6024. The changes aren't that extensive: the transistors have been replaced with more efficient ones, more capacitors have been added, the inductor is wound with thicker wire, and the relay and fuses are rated for 40 A. Taken together, these changes make it possible to raise the current to 30 A and the power to 1800 W.
One oddity is that the output voltage drops by about 45–50 mV at full current. The 6024's voltage stayed rock steady.
I liked it, and I wasn't wrong to recommend it. One of my readers has already written to me after buying and receiving this converter model. When I posted the promotion, I didn't know that the first 100 buyers would also get a cable set as a gift.
Speaking of the cables, that's definitely a plus. They're well made and fully match the description: flexible, with good alligator clips and terminals, and the actual wire gauge is as advertised. Five stars overall.

The seller provided a promo code for this review: B7SXAR18CHAC. Combined with the automatic discount, it brings the price down to $90 for the model without WiFi and $95 for the WiFi model.
The promo code is valid from May 27 to 30. The seller also said there will be discounts from June 1 to 7, so you can buy it then too, though the price is not yet known.

That's all for now. I hope this was useful, and as always, I'd be glad to hear your comments.