Luke, Tom is most likely (99%) correct. That sudden inrush of capacitor charging current not only sparks (fires, explosions, electrocutions), but can overwhelm unfused circuits within adjacent equipment. The common solution is to more slowly pre-charge the black box's internal components with a pinky sized 10 to 100 ohm resistor. In your case, hook a resistor to negative battery terminal, then touch power supply's negative to the other end of the resistor. Current will slowly (a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the resistor chosen) charge the power supply's capacitor(s). Put an 10 amp ammeter inline to see it happening. You can calculate ahead of time to estimate the length of time required to pre-charge, or just start with a 100 ohm resistor and measure how long it takes (by continuously measuring the voltage at the negative and positive cables of the power supply). Small-i-fy the resistor's ohms to speed up the process, but avoid exceeding any resistor's ability to shed heat (it's watt rating), and avoid the resistor's connection spark (or contain it within a sealed switch capable of the resisted initial contact current & voltage).
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