If you’re an engineer and you’re reading this, you probably have experience with taking things apart or repairing them. I remember taking apart my prized toy train as a young boy. One time I even dismantled my father’s radio, only to get in trouble when my father found out. I was eventually put in charge of fixing gadgets around the house when they broke, which only caused my penchant for dismantling things to escalate even further. In my teens I was sometimes even asked to repair hi-tech devices like televisions, microwaves and VCRs, despite having no hope of success. All I remember is that I really enjoyed taking things apart. I loved the feeling of suspense when taking the cover off a device to find out what was inside. (Readers are warned that removing the cover of an appliance will generally void the warranty.)

In this column I will share some of my experiences with product design. But first, a quiz: what do Rose’s Lime Juice, stir-fry seasoning and 2-in-1 shampoo have in common?

In this article I will discuss applications for the PBZ series bipolar power supply. One question I get asked a lot about the PBZ series is whether multiple units can be linked in series. The engineer in me is ashamed to have to tell my clients, “unfortunately, no”. However, while referred to as “power supplies”, the PBZ series are effectively a range of power amplifiers. I tried to come up with an elegant solution for boosting their power output. (Readers who are familiar with audio equipment might be able to tell where I’m going with this.)

This is the third instalment in a series covering fun facts and applications for electronic loads.

We refer to regulated AC power supplies as being “CFCV”, or “constant voltage, constant frequency”. Unlike most devices in their class, which operate on a fixed volts-per-hertz ratio, Kikusui’s regulated AC power supplies for device testing allow output parameters to be varied at will.

Welcome to the second instalment of “DC Power Supply Secrets”, a series in which I share engineering hacks and fun facts about DC power supplies.

In this column, I’ll explain what causes transformers to produce current spikes, and how to configure testing equipment to prevent such spikes from arising.

This feature offers some tips and tricks on using DC power supplies within the scope of ensuring safe use, although they are not mentioned in the Operation Manuals.

When you discover an error in your design, what do you do? The reasonable response is to first inform your boss. However, while it would be nice if apologizing for the mistake was all you needed to do in these situations to make things right again, in reality, the job doesn’t end there─you will always be required to implement some kind of solution, or otherwise deal with the aftermath of your mistake. If you are able to debate the issue with your superiors or the more experienced engineers on your team, they should come up with the best way to solve the problem, or at least the solution most acceptable to those concerned.

The Inconvenient Truth about Electronic Loads The main modes of operation available on Kikusui electronic loads are set forth in Figure 1. * Generally, the user selects the mode best suited to the device under test or the object of testing. *Some models also offer a constant current and voltage mode (CC+CV) and a constant…

Using a DC Regulated Power Supply to Perform Constant Current Discharge Testing The standard procedure for performing discharge testing on batteries is to use an electronic load. However, when performing constant-current discharge at high current levels, your electronic load needs to have a commensurately high input rating. If, for example, you want to discharge a…

How to Achieve Variable Internal Resistance Functionality Easily Using PBZ Series High-speed Bipolar Power Supplies The stabilized DC power supplies sold by Kikusui Electronics are often compared with batteries. In the sense that direct current can be drawn from both, in terms of purely voltage or current, they are the same, but in fact there…

Reproducing High-Voltage Three-Phase AC Waveforms Observed Onsite On-site equipment malfunction is a common occurrence. Malfunctions have a variety of causes, including common mode or differential (normal) mode noise across power supply lines and power fluctuation. When equipment does malfunction, the first response should be to log the output waveforms of the power supply lines on…

Three Lessons for Effective Projects What qualities do you think are important in an engineer? Technical expertise? Knowledge and research skills? Creativity? The stamina to go without sleep for days at a time? While there is something to be said for all of these, I believe the ability to run effective client meetings is as…

DC Power Supply: Basic Wiring to Load and Action against Unstable Output Many of our DC power supply products are equipped with a parallel operation function that allows the output capacity to easily increase by connecting DC power supply units of the same model in parallel. Master-slave parallel operation is highly rated and the front…

Probe calibration is an essential part of using an oscilloscope. In this article we revisit the basics of calibration When the Waveform Does Not Mach the Calibration Chart I mainly work with surge testers used in the testing of automotive device. Sometimes a customer will say, “We recently installed a Kikusui instrument. We purchased a…

Bias power supply An electronic load is one of the forms of direct current power supply called a shunt regulator, as shown below. Normally, electronic load have the minimum operating voltage predefined. This is because the Vce of a transistor does not work at 0V. Therefore, when you want to perform a “reverse-polarity test of…

Traps for first-time software engineers This story is from early in my career, back when I had little experience with software development. It concerns a blunder I made on a firmware development project. The device I was writing firmware for was designed so that the input and output (I/O) signals could be switched remotely. We…

Four points to try In a situation when you are busy with your work every day, if an error message is issued from a test instrument or equipment you are using or it does not work properly, it is very easy to feel rushed or frustrated. In that situation, how do you solve the problem?In…

Why measurements of the electrical properties of a device connected to a regulated AC power supply differ from those made when the device is connected to mains power It is customary to express the power consumption of industrial devices in Volt-Amps (VA) because they tend to consume a lot of power. Some devices lack a…