Technical data

Calibration Procedures 1

Measurement Techniques

U8030A Series Service Guide 9

General measurement techniques

To achieve best results when measuring load regulation, peak

to peak voltage, and transient response time of the power

supply, measuring devices must be connected through the

hole in the neck of the binding post at (A) while the load

resistor is plugged into the front of the output terminals at

(B). A measurement made across the load includes the

impedance of the leads to the load. The impedance of the

load leads can easily be several orders of magnitude greater

than the power supply impedance and thus invalidate the

measurement. To avoid mutual coupling effects, each

measuring device must be connected directly to the output

terminals by separate pairs of leads.

Figure 1-5 Binding post side view

Electronic load

Many of the test procedures require the use of a variable

load resistor capable of dissipating the required power.

Using a variable load resistor requires that switches should

be used to connect, disconnect, and short the load resistor.

An electronic load, if available, can be used in place of a

variable load resistor and switches. The electronic load is

considerably easier to use than load resistors. It eliminates

the need for connecting resistors or rheostats in parallel to

handle power, it is much more stable than a carbon-pile

load, and it makes easy work of switching between load

conditions as is required for the load regulation and load

response tests. The substitution of the electronic load

requires minor changes to the test procedures in this

chapter.

Output terminal