Out in Front: April 25, 1996

According to Eltest, these components solve all of the difficult power-supply-test problems; the remaining items in a system are commodity products. Eltest says that, by using its products, you can get a system including a dedicated PC up and running for as little as $5000, and that, except for systems that simultaneously burn in many supplies, no system costs as much as $20,000. This price compares with $40,000 to $110,000 for fully assembled systems. Moreover, because Eltest writes its software in Visual Basic and supplies the source code, you can customize the software much more readily than you can customize the software for fully assembled systems.

The user interface of the Windows-based software is so intuitive that operator training is rarely necessary. Creating test programs for new power supply models is also simple. Although the software includes screens for test creation, most users create programs by editing existing programs' test conditions and limits. In contrast, one assembled-system manufacturer sends a system engineer to the purchaser's site to conduct three days of intensive training.

Besides the software, the main elements of Eltest's power-supply-test product family are a controller board for electronic loads, several load modules, and a measurement board built around a 14-bit ADC that takes approximately 1M samples/sec.—by Dan Strassberg

Eltest, Mansfield, MA. (508) 339-8210, fax (508) 337-4789, email 102142.3114@compuserve.com.