To meet the demanding requirements of high voltage test sites, Protronix needed to design a high power AC injector that was not only simple to use but had highly reliable electronic components.
Mitton Instruments leveraged, Protronix engineers many years of electronics design experience at leading engineering companies, to develop both a digitally based LCD user interface controller and a power electronics module.
Protronix understands with their many years of experience that remaining cost effective is important in order to achieve this Protronix developed a number of cost effective component blocks with components which could be sourced from multiple supplies, this not only reduced single source procurement risk but also reduced bill of materials costs.
The solution
Power Electronics Inverter Module
- 4 High power MOSFET high bridge
- Protection against, over current, over temperature and output disconnection during testing.
- Programmable frequency between 45-65Hz, in 1Hz increments.
- Modified sine wave output
LCD controller
The LCD controller provided the interface between the user and the power inverter module, key technologies included;
- NXP LPC1788 ARM based microcontroller
- Digital filtering algorithm.
- Colour LCD 4.3″
- Analogue filtering and signal per-conditioning.
- Digital control interface to power electronics module.
Future developments
The development of next generation products is important to Mitton Instruments. Protronix’s involvement with this company is ongoing. Recently they are working with Mitton Instruments to develop a next generation tower testing instrument. This design which use a high frequency test signal to enable testing of overhead transmission lines in service without the time consuming need to climb the transmission tower to disconnect the overhead earth wire.
- Location
- New Zealand
- Year
- 2017
- Services Provided
- PCB Design, Hardware Design, Embedded software development
- Industry
- High voltage test equipment