- Voltage range
- 0 to 5 V on B0102; 0 to 20 V on 906B; up to 60 V on the 906 variants
- Current range
- 0 to 2 A on B0102; 0 to 12 A on 906B; up to 30 A on the 906 variants
- Power range
- 0 to 10 W on B0102; 0 to 240 W on 906B; up to 500 W on the 906 variants
- Setting resolution
- 1 mV on voltage, 1 mA on current
- Voltage setting accuracy
- 0.05% + 2 mV
- Current readback resolution
- 1 µA below 10 mA; 1 mA at or above 10 mA
- Current readback accuracy
- 0.15% + 5 µA below 10 mA; 0.15% + 4 mA from 10 mA to 10 A
- Stored voltages
- Six presets, set at the touchscreen
- Ripple
- 100 mV peak to peak
- Display
- 3.5-inch touchscreen
A protection board is a switch with a memory of two limits. Testing it means pushing the cell it protects past both limits and watching the switch open. Doing that with a real cell is slow, hard to repeat and, on an over-charge test, not entirely safe. A simulator replaces the cell with something that can be driven to either limit on demand.
Product overview
The range is three families. B0102 is a single-cell simulator in a small body. 906B is a 20 V, 12 A model with programmable automatic testing. The 906 family covers the rest of the range in fixed variants from 20 V to 60 V and from 200 W to 500 W.
All of them work in two directions at the same terminals. Current flows out when the instrument sources, and in when it sinks, and the current reading carries a sign so that the direction is visible rather than assumed. That single arrangement is what allows a charge test and a discharge test to be run on one connection.
How the battery simulator works
The instrument regulates its terminals to a set voltage, then delivers or absorbs whatever current the device asks for, up to its limit. When the device under test stops drawing, the instrument sources; when the device pushes current back, the instrument sinks it and the reading goes negative. From the device’s point of view it is connected to a cell that never runs flat and never over-charges.
Protection testing uses that behaviour directly. For an over-charge test the voltage is raised until the board’s protection trips, and the point at which the current falls to zero marks the trip. For an over-discharge test the voltage is lowered until the board disconnects its output. Both are read on the same display, and both are repeatable in a way that a real cell is not.
The microamp resolution matters for a different test. A finished board in standby draws very little, and the readback resolution changes at 10 mA: below that figure it resolves 1 µA, above it 1 mA. That break is deliberate, because a bench checking standby current and a bench checking working current need different resolutions.
How to select the right battery simulator
The voltage range of the pack sets the family. A single cell is served by B0102; a 20 V product by 906B or the 20 V variant; a 48 V or 60 V pack needs the corresponding high-voltage variant. Choosing at the top of a range leaves nothing for a pack that charges above its nominal figure.
The current sets the variant within the family. The 906 range trades current against voltage, so a 36 V product that draws 20 A needs the 400 W variant rather than the 300 W one, and the difference is not an option on a single unit.
The third question is whether the test has to run itself. Programmable automatic testing is offered on 906B only, and it is what turns a sequence of voltage steps and trip checks into something an operator starts and walks away from. If the bench runs one product with a fixed sequence, that matters; if every test is set by hand, it does not.
Finally, decide how fine the current reading has to be at the low end. The resolution steps at 10 mA across the whole range, so a standby measurement and a working-current measurement are both covered, but the accuracy figures in the two bands are different and should be checked against the tolerance the test requires. Send the pack voltage, the trip current and the standby current, and a variant can be proposed.
Measurement limitations and selection considerations
The current reading accuracy is printed in two bands, and the upper band stops at 10 A. On the variants that deliver 12, 20 or 30 A, the accuracy above 10 A is not covered by the figure in the material and has to be confirmed before the instrument is used to characterise a load in that region.
The rear socket and the mains specification do not agree. The socket is marked for a single voltage and frequency while the parameter table gives a wide input range, so the marking on the unit supplied should be read before it is connected to a supply at either end of the range.
The dimension drawing and the parameter table give different figures for the smallest model, and one of the tables in the material has lost its column header. Neither can be resolved from the material, so the fixture and the bench space should be planned against the larger of the figures until the supplier confirms which is correct.
Finally, the six stored voltages are presets at the panel, not a test sequence. A test that has to move between voltages in a defined order and record the result at each point is a programmable sequence, which is a different model in this range.
Every value below is taken from source documentation. Where a parameter is not stated in the available material it is marked as information required rather than estimated.
