2014/02/21

MightyWatt Arduino Electronic Load

Update: Improved version now available on Tindie


Every now and then I was testing some batteries and power supplies. Usually by loading them by a BJT attached on heatsink and controlling the current by potentiometer. I read the current and voltage on two multimeters and estimated the load characteristics. But because I am naturally a lazy person, I decided to build something more automatic. An electronic load. I call it MightyWatt :-)

The basic idea is pretty simple. I connect the device under test to a FET and shunt resistor to measure current. The gate of the FET is driven by an op-amp that maintains either constant voltage across the load or constant current through it. It all attaches to Arduino Uno R3 as a shield. Simple as that. And now for some details:

FET
The main transistor is IXYS L2 series FET that is tailored for linear applications such as this. I use TO-247 package but any through-hole version will do. IXTH75N10L2 has 21 mOhms Rds on and IXTH110N10L2 has 18 mOhms but is also more expensive.

Heatsink
I chose 50x50 mm BGA-style heatsink with 5V fan because it suits the Arduino's outline. It can easily sink 70 Watts. The transistor is mounted on the board upside down so the heatsink can be attached from the top. To get a good thermal contact, the transistor sits on a 1mm silicone pad compressed to about 0.8 mm. There is also Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease, which, at these heat fluxes, is very important.

Measuring the temperature
Underneath the transistor, there is a tiny 0402 thermistor. I cut out a window in the silicone pad for the thermistor and filled it with electrically non-conductive thermal grease. In this way, I get fast response and I don't have to glue anything on the transistor. The measured temperature is, however, lower than the junction temperature so a healthy safety margin is necessary. See the thermal image at the end…

Voltmeter
A simple resistor divider between the inputs is used for voltage measurement. Its output is buffered by an op-amp before being measured with Arduino. There is also a selectable 5.7x gain for low-voltage inputs, accomplished by an analog switch. The full-scale is 30 V but the FET can actually handle 100 V.

Ammeter
Current is measured by voltage-drop method across a 4 milliohm power resistor. INA214 current shunt monitor amplifies the signal 100x for a 10 A range. The load would easily handle 20 A and probably could be extended to 30 A if needed.

DAC
To set the desired current or voltage, a 12-bit DAC is used. I chose MCP4276 from Microchip. It is cheap and reasonably accurate.

Modes of operation
The load can be operated at constant current (CC) or constant voltage (CV). At CC, the signal from ammeter goes to the inverting input and the DAC signal to the non-inverting input. At CV, the signals are switched so the DAC goes to the inverting input and voltmeter signal goes to the non-inverting input. The signals are switched using an analog DPDT switch. The same style as the voltage gain is controlled.
Because the FET's gate voltage needs to be larger than the 5 V supplied by Arduino, there is a switched capacitor voltage doubler which powers the op-amp.

Other stuff
The load also has some protection against ground loops (PTC) and voltage spikes (TVS). There is a reference voltage of 2.495 V and a single red LED that can be used for whatever is needed but it was thought as an overheat indicator. However, with good software, overheat is very unlikely.

Specifications
The load as very variable but my version has these specifications:
  • 70 W
  • 10 A
  • 30 V / 5.25 V
  • 25 milliOhms minimum resistance
  • Constant current and constant voltage modes in hardware
  • Constant power and constant resistance in software
Schematic
So here goes the schematic:



Assembled
This is the (hand) assembled PCB:

  • Top: DAC.
  • Top right: Voltage reference.
  • Bottom right: Fan connector, red LED.
  • Bottom middle: Screw-clamp terminal, PTC fuse.
  • Bottom left: Current shunt monitor.
  • Left: Switched capacitor voltage doubler.
  • Top left: Op-amp for gate driving and voltmeter buffering. Two analog switches for voltmeter gain and CC/CV switching.
  • Centre: The main FET lying on a 1mm silicone pad with thermistor underneath. Between the FET and the terminal is a 1.5kW transient voltage suppressor.

Nothing much on the bottom except the current measuring resistor and pinheads to connect the load to Arduino. The pinout is for UNO R3, the connection for I2C is different from earlier Arduino versions and it was convenient for me to put the I2C pins to the new location.

And the whole unit with heatsink & fan running:


Software
The sketch I programmed uses serial communication to send status and receive commands. The Arduino's ADC is oversampled to 12 bits for voltage and current. Temperature was left 10-bit. The ADC sampling takes the most time from all the processing.
Voltmeter, ammeter and DAC all need calibration because of some offsets and part tolerances. But a simple linear calibration curve is sufficient.
CC and CV modes are hardware so the control loop is only measuring. But there are also constant power and constant resistance modes, which are software and performed at constant current hardware mode.
There is a watchdog in case commands stop arriving, the load resets itself in few seconds. That means there has to be a constant stream of communication, which brings me to the PC side of the program:
The Windows application was made using C#. It maintains a constant monitoring of voltage, current and temperature and can send commands to set the load. It has also some datalogging capabilities. The only trick was to make it in two threads so that one is constantly communicating with the load and the other is for GUI.
If you were so brave to read up to here, you can have all the source files from my public Google Drive folder.

Some measured data
Two fresh Ikea Alkalisk AA batteries connected in series and measured with increasing current over approximately 30 second:


Single GP ReCyko+ AA accumulator discharged at 1 A. Freshly charged but been in service for 3 years. Still, it had some 80 % of its rated capacity.


The heat of the battle
I run the load at 70 Watts for 30 minutes and tried to find the hottest spot on the case. The ambient temperature was 22 °C and the thermistor reported 92 °C. The case temperature on the sides is quite close to the junction temperature so at 105 °C there is still a healthy safety margin. If the junction temperature was 10 °C higher than the case temperature, it would mean a thermal resistance of 1.33 °C/W. The maximum power dissipation at 25 °C ambient temperature would then be 94 W with the junction temperature at its maximum – 150 °C. But I wouldn't go there for a long amount of time.


13 comments:

  1. Will you release the design as open hardware ?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, you can download schematic and board from my Google Drive. It is the first time I am using it as a public shared folder so let me know if it doesn't work. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7G3xJXZNLUpWElUZUFneFNENTg&usp=drive_web

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    2. Maybe github (or similar) would be a better place to store it. That way you get a public record of the project's history if you do further refinements to the design or code.

      Great work, btw. :)

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    3. You're right. I set up a git but then didn't have the time to learn it so I winded up with the Google Drive. But it is on my "to do" list.

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  2. Sell it on Tindie ! I'll buy one :)

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    Replies
    1. Good idea! But I probably won't be able to get below 100 USD including VAT and shipping. I am not sure if that wouldn't be too much. But I will seriously think about it.

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  3. A good and useful project like this will probably sell a lot, expecially considering how much are expensive electronic loads...

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  4. Do you think I could use this as a current control? I need to control power to a filament from a 5v @ 400A power supply. Needless to say I will use external mosfets and I plan on using a LEM HAL 400S hall effect sensor for current monitoring.

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    Replies
    1. Hi macona,

      the load works as a very good current controller. In fact, I used it just yesterday for this purpose. I needed a current ramp and it did very well.

      The current signal range should match the DAC range, which in turn is governed by the voltage reference (2.495 Volts). Also, it is two-terminal and especially for the voltmeter it is important to have a good ground connection. The ammeter is differential (and hall sensor will probably be too) so there can be some common-mode voltage but the voltmeter is not.
      Just consider that most mosfets do not perform very well in the linear mode. That is why the MightyWatt uses IXYS L2 series mosfets, which are made for linear applications.

      So yes, I think that with some additional wiring, the load can be used to control external mosfet array and accept remote current signal.

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  5. Hi Jakub, I can have your email address? Best regards. Stefano

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  6. Improved version of electronic parts must have the advantages like in process or size or etc.,

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  7. May I know what is R14 and X1-1 connected to?

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    Replies
    1. The resistor R14 goes between the main FET's source and terminal X1. Its sense leads go to ammeter IC2. The terminal X1 is connected to your DUT. But don't bother with this schematic, use the new version: http://kaktuscircuits.blogspot.cz/2017/03/mightywatt-revision-3-brand-new-and.html

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