News Release from: Schaffner
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 19 March 2001

Low-cost load for stand-alone or ATE control

Available now from Schaffner EMC Ltd is a new low-cost electronic load designed for testing both 48 and 24V telecomms power systems and for battery discharge testing.

Note: A free brochure or catalogue is available from Schaffner on the products in this news release. Click here to request a copy.

Available now from Schaffner EMC Ltd is a new low-cost electronic load designed for testing both 48 and 24V telecomms power systems and for battery discharge testing. The PowTek load is rated at 4kW. It can either operate as a stand-alone unit with its own manual control panel or be integrated into a Schaffner ATE system under the PowerStar 5 test executive.

In construction and operation, the load is similar to conventional FET adjustable electronic loads, but the main difference is that it incorporates series power resistors, allowing a significant cost saving over a pure electronic load.

The one-off cost is just GBP2500, making it suitable for other general-purpose test applications.

The resistors are used in selecting the load's two operating ranges, with current control from 0 to 70A on 64V range, and from 0 to 135A on 32V range.

The standard model gives constant current control, with a differential 0-5V input for simple control systems, and can be paralleled for use in large systems.

Constant power, resistance and voltage modes are standard, as well as full remote control.

A standard D9 connector provides access to the analogue demand input, and all logic controllable functions and status lines.

For stand-alone operation, the power source under test is simply connected to the load's DC power connectors, and all load functions are accessible from the unit's remote control box.

The unit is fully protected, and an alarm bleeper is provided to indicate reversed DC input polarity, overvoltage on the DC input, or for an overtemperature conditions on the FET heatsink or on the internal power resistors.

The load is designed for rack mounting, and occupies only 4U of a standard 19in rack.

Two fans are situated at the front panel of the unit to provide forced air cooling.

With its choice of voltage ranges, simplicity of use and low cost, the PowTek load is suitable for a wide range of environments from research and development engineering, lab testing, burn-in and for simple go/no-go production testing.

For higher-power applications, multiple 4kW loads can be paralleled and mounted together in the same rack, controlled by a common 0-5V demand input signal.

Sharing occurs intrinsically, so that in constant-current mode, each load just draws as much current as the demand input requests. Request a free brochure from Schaffner....

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