Agilent Technologies AN 372-2 manual Battery Testing with Agilent Electronic Loads

Battery Testing with Agilent Electronic Loads

Agilent Technologies Electronic Loads are ideally suited for battery test applications. Their many features make the test system easy to config- ure and provide safe, reliable, and repeatable operation.

The Agilent 6060A Electronic Load and 6050A Electronic Load mainframe have the required constant-current modes as well as constant-resistance and constant-voltage modes. Built-in voltmeters and ammeters eliminate the need for external meters and pro- vide measurement accuracy which, in most cases, greatly exceeds the 0.5 to 1% that is typically required.

These electronic loads can be con- trolled from their front panel, from a computer via GPIB, or by a 0 to

10 volt analog signal. By varying the analog control input (up to 10 kHz), a battery’s effective internal impedance can be easily measured. The electronic load’s built-in GPIB interface makes it simple to connect any computer that supports GPIB. Agilent’s electronic loads are not limited to just being controlled over the bus. Measured current, voltage, power and complete status can also be read back over the

bus so that time consuming discharge tests can be attended automatically. Agilent’s electronic loads truly provide a “One Box” solution.

Testing cells down to an EODV of

0.9volts is easily done with the Agilent 6060A, 6063A, 60501A, 60502A, 60503A, or 60504A Electronic Loads. While the operating characteristics of these loads are guaranteed to meet all specifications above 3 volts, the DC operating characteristics extend below 3 volts (see Figure 8). This figure shows that at 0.9 volts the Agilent 6060A Electronic Load is capable of reliably drawing up to 27 amperes. That means an 80 Ah battery could be discharged to an EODV of 0.9 volts at a discharge rate of C/3. For appli- cations requiring V/I characteristics below the operating curve of Figure 8, Agilent offers a full family of DC power supplies to be used as an offset supply.

Agilent’s full featured Electronic Load Family offers quality and reliability backed with a three year warranty. Refer to the 1990/91 DC Power Supply Catalog with Electronic Loads (Part Number 5952-4203) for more informa- tion about Electronic Loads.

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5952-4191

Figure 8. Operating Characteristics of an Agilent Electronic Load