When Alex first unboxed the Riden RD6006, he was impressed. It was a beast of a bench power supply—capable of 60 volts and 6 amps in a compact, sleek package. The vivid display and the intuitive rotary encoder made basic tasks a breeze. But Alex wasn't a basic user. He needed data logging, complex battery charging curves, and the ability to control his experiments from behind a computer screen.

He had heard whispers in online forums about "PC software." The manual, however, was typically sparse. It mentioned a "host computer connection" but provided no CD, no USB drive, and no clear link. The subject line of his search history read simply:

And that journey all started with a simple, five-word search.