Insights
Written for engineers specifying test systems. Every piece cites the clause or datasheet its figures come from, and says where it stops.
42 pieces · 42 carrying five or more cited figures or clauses
Aviation & 400 Hz
Aircraft and shipboard buses — what a source has to reproduce, clause by clause.
28 VDC Aircraft Bus Testing: The Second Programme Inside MIL-STD-704F
The 28 V and 270 V clauses of MIL-STD-704F are a second test programme: the Table IV windows, the Figure 13 envelope, and why the DC budget surfaces late.
5 min · 37 cited facts
DO-160 Section 17: The Spike Your Section 16 Source Cannot Make
Category A and B spike levels, the 50 Ω waveform, the 50-spike application counts — and why the programmable source holds the bus while a dedicated generator makes the spike.
3 min · 21 cited facts
DO-160 vs MIL-STD-704: Where Civil and Military Aircraft Power Standards Split
Where MIL-STD-704F and DO-160 §16 ask for the same thing, where their limits and durations diverge, and what a programme held to both actually has to buy.
6 min · 67 cited facts
Sizing a 400 Hz Source for Inrush: kVA Is the Last Number to Pick
How to size a 400 Hz source once inrush, crest factor and rectifier-fed avionics loads are in the picture.
5 min · 33 cited facts
Solid-State 400 Hz Sources vs Motor-Generator Sets: What Actually Changes
Distortion, maintenance, footprint and control differences between rotary 400 Hz conversion and a programmable solid-state source — and when the swap is worth it.
3 min · 12 cited facts
400 Hz AC Source Buyer's Checklist: Sizing for Inrush, Crest Factor and Nonlinear Loads
How to size a 400 Hz source properly — why RMS headroom misleads, what unbalanced and motor-type loads demand.
3 min · 9 cited facts
DO-160 Section 16: Every Power Input Condition Your Source Has to Generate
The categories, steady-state points, modulation envelopes, interruptions and surges DO-160 Section 16 defines — and what each demands of a test source.
3 min · 36 cited facts
MIL-STD-704F for Test Engineers: The Conditions Your AC Source Must Actually Reproduce
The voltage, frequency, transient and abnormal conditions MIL-STD-704F defines — and what each one demands of the source you test with.
4 min · 45 cited facts
Standards & compliance
Test procedures as they are actually written, including the parts a programmable source cannot run.
IEC 61000-4-13: Synthesising Distortion on Command — and the Tables We Do Not Reprint
What harmonics and interharmonics immunity asks of an AC source, why an own-output THD figure answers a different question.
4 min · 20 cited facts
IEC 61000-4-29 Edition 2.0: One DC Supply as the Whole Generator
Edition 2.0, published 30 July 2026, and the Annex A conditions under which a single programmable DC supply covers the whole test — edge rate, inrush drive, current margin.
4 min · 39 cited facts
MIL-STD-1399 Testing: Your Contract May Cite a Cancelled Revision
MIL-STD-1399-300B was cancelled in 2018 and superseded by 300-1. What that means for a contract, the three shipboard power types.
4 min · 23 cited facts
MIL-STD-461G CS101: Ripple Injection on Power Leads, Step by Step
The CS101 limit curves and the precalibrated 80 W route, the 50 µH LISN feed, the series injection chain — and the four CS tests a programmable source cannot run.
3 min · 16 cited facts
IEC 61000-4-11: The Inrush Requirement That Disqualifies Most AC Sources
Dip levels, edge timing, phase-of-dip control — and the 500 A peak inrush drive specification that quietly rules out most programmable sources.
3 min · 21 cited facts
Grid & inverters
Interconnection conformance, ride-through and which document your certificate will name.
Ride-Through Testing: What the Grid Simulator Has to Do, Not Just Reach
Driving an IEEE 1547 ride-through profile takes a sequencer, sub-cycle timing and a source that absorbs what the inverter exports — the instrument side of conformance.
4 min · 24 cited facts
UL 1741 SB vs IEEE 1547.1: The Document Your Certificate Actually Names
How UL 1741 SB, IEEE 1547-2018 and IEEE 1547.1-2020 relate, the four test classes, what California Rule 21 adds, and the envelopes the bench has to hold.
3 min · 12 cited facts
IEEE 1547.1 Conformance: The Envelopes a Grid Simulator Has to Drive
Trip settings, ride-through bands, ROCOF and the islanding fixture — what conformance testing demands of the source, and why timing is the whole test.
3 min · 10 cited facts
EV & automotive
Traction buses, module qualification and where the guideline and the device disagree.
AQG 324 and SiC Modules: When the Named Guideline Does Not Cover Your Device
AQG 324 was released for silicon modules. What the SiC annex asks for, the LV 123 bus classes a drive-inverter module sees.
3 min · 18 cited facts
ISO 16750-2: The Code Letter Is the Specification, Not the Voltage
The supply-voltage code system of Tables 3 and 4, what the code letter fixes downstream, and why this standard governs the 12 V and 24 V board net — not the traction bus.
4 min · 55 cited facts
48 V and 800 V Answer to Different Documents, Not Just Different Voltages
LV 148 governs the 48 V bus, LV 123 the traction side, ISO 16750-2 the 12/24 V control supply — a programme that says 'automotive' has named none of them.
5 min · 56 cited facts
LV 123 and LV 148: Testing Across the Voltage Window, Not Just at Nominal
The HV voltage classes, the 48 V board net bands, the slew limits — and why a drive that regenerates eliminates most bench supplies before any other spec matters.
3 min · 22 cited facts
Battery test
Cyclers, channel architecture and the boundary between electrical test and abuse test.
The Battery Tester Voltage Window: Bought for 1500 V, Caught Out at 36 V
A 1500 V battery tester answers the top of the window. Deep discharge, cell-level work and second-life grading live at the bottom.
5 min · 29 cited facts
High-Current Battery Testing: The Joint Fails Before the 8,000A Supply
At battery-test currents the instrument stops being the limit — busbar section, joint design, contact resistance and sense-lead placement decide what your measurement means.
5 min · 15 cited facts
Sizing a Battery Test Rack: Bench Unit to 480 kW Test Floor
How a lot size and a sequence duration turn into a rack configuration — 15 kW building blocks, chassis sizes, facility feed — and when a bench instrument is the honest answer.
5 min · 18 cited facts
Battery Test Systems Are Bought on Power and Constrained by Channels
Why channel count sets your qualification calendar, what per-channel current really has to cover, and where high-current pack testing goes wrong mechanically.
4 min · 17 cited facts
Power semiconductors
SiC and IGBT reliability stress — held for the full duration, monitored per device.
H3TRB Testing: What Biased Humidity Asks of the Rig That Dry Heat Does Not
85 °C, 85% RH, reverse bias held for 1000 hours — why the humid stress is a chamber problem and a measurement problem before it is a power problem.
4 min · 13 cited facts
JEDEC SiC Qualification by Document Number: The JC-70.2 Set
The published JC-70.2 guidelines by number — JEP183A to JEP204 — the gap where a SiC JESD47 should be, and why qualification plans are assembled rather than run.
3 min · 25 cited facts
HTRB Testing Explained: Bias, Temperature, Leakage and What the Rig Has to Guarantee
High-temperature reverse bias for SiC and IGBT devices — conditions, duration, leakage monitoring.
3 min · 11 cited facts
Medical equipment
IEC 60601 power-input clauses, and which of them are not a source test at all.
IEC 60601-1-2 Edition 4.1: Voltage Dips Are Now a Two-Voltage Test
Edition 4.1 runs the dip and interruption profile at both minimum and maximum rated input — two full runs for a 100 to 240 V supply.
3 min · 29 cited facts
Assembling a Medical Power-Input Bench: The Generator Is the Specification
The generator numbers behind a 60601-1-2 power-input bench, the instrument class that meets part of them, and the tests that are not ours to quote.
4 min · 34 cited facts
Replacing an instrument
Discontinued platforms, what the replacement has to match, and what it does not.
Replacing a Test System: Match the Channel Architecture, Not the Kilowatts
Why replacements chosen on total kilowatts fail at commissioning on channel architecture, and the per-channel numbers to demand in writing before a swap.
4 min · 20 cited facts
Replacing a Discontinued Instrument Without Requalifying the Whole Rack
A framework for substituting a sunset load or source — what actually forces requalification, what does not, and the order to check things in.
3 min · 10 cited facts
What Happened to NH Research — and What It Means If You Still Run a 9300
NH Research was absorbed by NI and then Emerson. The model pages are gone. What that means for labs still running 9300, 9200 and 4700 racks.
3 min · 12 cited facts
NH Research 9300 Replacement: What to Match Before You Match the Power
Replacing a 9300 battery test system after the NI and Emerson transitions — channel architecture, per-channel current.
4 min · 20 cited facts
Cost & justification
Payback, running cost and the arithmetic a capital request has to survive.
What Regeneration Actually Returns: Reading the Efficiency Figure as Written
What the regeneration percentage on a datasheet actually claims — how the qualifiers differ across the catalogue, and the fraction of every test you still buy.
4 min · 7 cited facts
Calculating Regenerative Payback: The Formula, the Inputs, and Where It Breaks Down
A worked method for deciding whether a regenerative load pays for itself — with the inputs that matter, the ones that don't, and the conditions where the answer is no.
3 min · 6 cited facts
The True Cost of a Resistor Bank: The Line Items That Never Make the Purchase Order
Energy, cooling load, demand charges, floor space and maintenance — how to build a defensible cost comparison between a dissipative load bank and a regenerative one.
4 min · 7 cited facts
Test system integration
Racks, executives and the decision to build or to buy.
Turnkey ATE or Integrate It Yourself: A Framework That Survives Contact With a Budget
Where in-house integration genuinely wins, where it quietly costs more, and the three questions that decide it before any quote is compared.
3 min · 11 cited facts
Configuring a High-Power Rack: The Vega Decision, Module by Module
Choosing what goes into a Vega rack — the three printed variants, why 15 kW module granularity matters more than headline power, and where a fixed system wins.
5 min · 21 cited facts
Open Architecture ATE: The Test Program Should Outlive the Instrument
Why a test system built on VXI, PXI, LXI, CAN, Ethernet, GPIB and Serial outlives the instruments inside it — and the integration work that openness hands back to you.
4 min · 9 cited facts
Defence procurement
Buying test equipment against a federal contract — registrations, flow-downs and what a prime's vetting actually checks.
CAGE, UEI and NAICS: What a Prime's Supplier-Vetting Search Actually Resolves
The three identifiers behind a SAM.gov supplier search — who issues each, what each one proves, and what none of them tell you. With a real supplier as the worked example.
5 min · 8 cited facts
DFARS 252.204-7012 for Test-Equipment Suppliers: The 72-Hour Report and the Media You Must Not Wipe
What the safeguarding clause obliges a test-equipment supplier to do: NIST SP 800-171 security, the 72-hour DIBNet report, and the 90-day media-preservation duty.
6 min · 5 cited facts
Specifying Test Equipment in a Federal Contract: Name the Method, Freeze the Revision, Agree What Pass Means
Why 'tested to MIL-STD-704F' specifies nothing, how a cancelled MIL-STD-1399 revision gets into new contracts, and what an acceptance section has to pin down.
5 min · 25 cited facts