8620 B&K Precision DC Electronic Load

The 8620 programmable DC electronic load provides the performance of modular system DC electronic loads in a compact benchtop form factor. With fast transient operation speeds and high 16-bit measurement resolution, these standalone DC loads can be used for testing and evaluating a variety of DC sources such as DC power supplies, DC-DC converters, batteries, battery chargers, and photovoltaic arrays.

The DC loads can operate in constant current (CC), constant voltage (CV), constant resistance (CR), or constant power (CW) mode and be configured to provide a dynamically changing load to the DC source with fast load switching times. Versatile internal, external, and remote triggering options allow the dynamic load behavior to be synchronized with other events. Increase productivity by saving your test parameters into any one of the 100 memory areas for quick system recall. All load parameters such as voltage, current, slew rate, and width can be set via the front panel or programmed remotely. The 8600 Series provides standard USB (USBTMC-compliant), GPIB, or RS-232 serial interfaces for remote communication.

To ensure the reliability of your testing, the 8600 Series provides a power-on system self-test and numerous protection features: overtemperature (OTP), overvoltage (OVP), overcurrent (OCP), overpower (OPP), and local/remote reverse voltage (LRV/RRV) protection.

The 8600 Series provides a built-in battery test mode to measure the ampere-hour (Ah) characteristic of a battery and a unique CR-LED mode to simulate the loading behavior of a typical LED. Use the load's unique CR-LED operating mode to test LED drivers. This function allows users to configure the LED's operating resistance and forward voltage along with the voltage range (same as CR operation) to simulate the loading behavior of typical LEDs.

The 8600 Series provides standard GPIB, USB, and RS232 interfaces for remote communication. These interfaces offer SCPI and USBTMC standard communication protocols to control your electronic load from a PC. The built-in battery test function uses CC mode to calculate the battery capacity using a fixed current load discharge. Users can specify cut-off voltage level, capacity level, and time stop conditions.

In addition to front panel and remote interface control, current values can also be programmed with an analog control signal. The electronic loads can be externally controlled from zero to full scale with a 0-10 V input signal. A BNC output is available on the rear for monitoring the current with a 0-10 V output signal.

Control the input turn on state for the DC electronic load by configuring the Von latch function. This can be used to start and stop discharging of a battery or other power source at a specified voltage level. The numeric keys and rotary knob provide a convenient interface for setting the operating mode and desired current, voltage, and resistance levels quickly and precisely. List mode lets you generate more complex sequences of input changes with several different levels. Up to 7 groups of list files can be saved. Each list can contain up to 84 steps with a minimum width time of 20 µs per step.

Transient operation enables the module to periodically switch between two load levels. A power supply's regulation and transient characteristic can be evaluated by monitoring the supply's output voltage under varying combinations of load levels, frequency, duty cycle, and slew rate. Transient operation can simulate these conditions.

The 8600 Series can execute multiple test sequences in automatic test mode. Up to 100 different sequences can be linked to run steps of various operating modes and loading conditions. Each sequence can also be programmed with upper and lower limit Pass/Fall criteria. When applied in production testing, you can easily judge whether the test parameters of your devices are within the specification limits and adjust your process according to the Pass/Fail verdict.

PC software is provided for front panel emulation, generating and executing test sequences, or logging measurement data without the need to write source code. Additionally, this application software integrates with NI Data Dashboard for LabVIEW apps, which allows users to create a custom dashboard on a tablet computer or smartphone to remotely monitor 8600 Series DC loads via this PC software.

In CC mode, users can control the rate or slope of the change in current in a transient response test. Set the slew rate to as slow as 0.001 A/ms or as fast as 2.5 A/µs depending on the model and selected current range.

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