Germany-headquartered EA Elektro-Automatik, a manufacturer of DC power supplies for development applications, has introduced its 10000 series, an enhanced and expanded line of EA-PS and EA-PSI programmable DC power supplies, EA-PSB bidirectional DC power supplies, and EA-ELR regenerative DC electronic loads.
According to the company, the 10000 series includes over 180 new models offering power ranges from 0-600W through to 0-30kW, with voltages from 0-10V through to 0-2,000V, capable of providing output currents as high as 1,000A.
All of the instruments operate on the same firmware and have the same touchscreen user interface. The physical layout is also the same, and all instruments have similar input and output characteristics. This commonality saves test development and setup time when building test systems that have requirements for multiple power instrumentation.
They also employ an autoranging output (input if used as an electronic load) characteristic. This enables the instrument to have a higher voltage capability at lower currents and a higher current capability at lower voltages than a power supply or load with a conventional rectangular output/input characteristic. Furthermore, an instrument with autoranging output/input can deliver/accept full power output over a significant portion of the instrument’s operating range. This is in contrast with an instrument with a rectangular output characteristic which has maximum power only at its maximum voltage and current.
The EA-PSI supplies, EA-PSB supplies and EA-ELR loads all have a built-in function generator to allow creation of complex signals riding on a DC bias and to simulate the characteristics of various devices such as solar cells, batteries and fuel cells. Special functions enable maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and LV123-, LV124- and LV148-standard based test sequences for testing of automotive components and systems.
All models also employ active power factor correction, typically 0.99, to minimize the power drawn from the power grid. Additionally, EA-PSB bidirectional power supplies and EA-ELR electronic loads employ regenerative circuitry to return energy back to the grid with up to greater than 96% efficiency. Regenerative circuitry saves operation costs and the expense of cooling requirements to dissipate the heat that a conventional electronic load generates.
The instruments can be programmed using SCPI or ModBus programming modes and feature an extensive set of interfaces. PC interfaces include Ethernet, USB, and RS-232, while PLC interfaces include CanBus, Profibus, ModBus, Profinet and EtherCat, among several other interface options.
Test engineers can parallel up to 64 of the power supplies and loads using the Master-Auxiliary bus to enable one instrument to control all instruments in the system. The system can consist of any combination of instrument power levels within the same EA-XXX family (EA-PSB, EA-PSI, EA-ELR, etc). A galvanically isolated Share-Bus interface in each instrument ensures that all the instruments safely share the load requirements so that the entire rack can operate with full performance.
