3152256-000E MDX-II Product Overview:
- CONSTANT CURRENT POWER SUPPLY MEASUREMENTS
- For the most part the instruments, methods, and precautions necessary for the proper measurement of constant current power supply characteristics are identical to those already described for the measurement of constant voltage power supplies. As Figure 79 shows, there are only two major differences which distinguish the constant current measurement setup from the constant voltage measurement setup.
- 1. The load switch is connected in parallel rather than in series with the power supply load, since the power supply performance will be checked between short circuit and full load rather than open circuit and full load.
- 2. A current monitoring resistor is inserted between the output of the power supply and the load. To simplify grounding problems, one end of this monitoring resistor should be connected to the same output terminal of the power supply which will be shorted to ground. All constant current measurements are made in terms of the change in voltage across this resistor; the current performance is calculated by dividing these voltage changes by the ohmic value of RM.
- Many of the precautions listed for the previous constant voltage measurement setup are equally applicable to a constant current setup. In addition, other precautions peculiar to a constant current measurement setup are listed on the following pages.
