Programmable Power Blog

Global energy production is moving inexorably toward renewable sources. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is ascendent right now. But wind could be poised for a rebound, and green hydrogen could play a significant role. In this blog post, we will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of renewable energy, highlighting the crucial role of flexible solutions, such as programmable power supplies, in shaping the future of renewable energy.

Rapid evolution in industries ranging from power and energy to automotive and transportation requires the utmost in efficient, reliable, and accurate test equipment, including programmable power products. A regenerative programmable DC power supply can be the ideal choice for testing products such as battery packs, solar panels, fuel cells, and electric powertrains—it feeds power generated during tests back to the grid instead of dissipating it as heat. Such a supply can also test conventional DC motors and devices ranging from high-power fuses to circuit breakers.

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If you are in the market for a programmable DC power supply for the first time in five or ten years, you will notice some significant improvements. Modern supplies offer higher power densities, helping you save rack space. In addition, modern supplies can provide considerable flexibility in power, current, and voltage ratings, helping you future-proof your test systems to meet changing requirements.

The power supply may be one of the least-considered components of an electronic system. After all, how hard can it be to find the right power source for your system? You figure out how much current you need at the voltage your system will operate at, find a model that can supply that voltage and current in a catalog or on a website, then make the purchase.

Choosing the right power supply for your test system or application is no small task. Defining the power requirements for your application comes first, but this is only the beginning. Once you know the voltages and currents, you need to figure out how to power and control your source. There are several decisions that will need to be made.

While today’s power supplies provide many advanced features, finding them and maximizing their capabilities can be challenging. That’s why when AMETEK Programmable Power designed the Sorensen™ SGX Series programmable DC power supplies, we paid a lot of attention to the user interface. The result? The SGX Series has an intuitive, easy-to-use front panel touchscreen display that allows you to quickly access output programming parameters, measurements, sequencing, and configuration and system settings.

One feature that makes the California Instruments™ Asterion® AC Series power sources an ideal choice for sophisticated test applications is their ability to manage test waveforms. In addition to providing the three standard waveforms — sine wave, square wave, and clipped sine wave — the Asterion AC Series has an arbitrary waveform generator that allows you to create up to 200 different custom waveforms and download them into the power source memory.

TheSorensen SGX Seriescombines onboard intelligent controls with the outstanding power electronics common to all SG family supplies. These controls enable sophisticated sequencing, constant power mode and save/recall of instrument settings. The ability to program sequences and loop through them makes the SGX ideal for repetitive testing.

One of the cool features of AMETEK Programmable Power's SGX Series of power supplies is that it supports an LXI Class C Ethernet interface. This allows you to connect the SGX Series to your network and control it remotely from any computer on the network.