User manual
watt.
Press the R-set button (you may have to press it twice). Set the resistance to 100 Ω. Press the
On/Off key. Verify that the current is approximately the displayed voltage in V divided by 100.
You can cycle between the four modes by pressing the I-set, V-set, P-set, and R-set buttons. Note
that the previously-set values are remembered.
If the instrument worked as explained above, you've demonstrated that the four operating modes of
the instrument are working. Please refer to the next section for detailed operation instructions.
Operational introduction
There are four operational modes of the instrument: constant current, constant voltage, constant
power, and constant resistance (we will abbreviate these as CC, CV, CW, and CR, respectively).
These are selected by the I-set, V-set, P-set, and R-set buttons, respectively. If you press a mode
button different than the currently set mode, the load will be set to OFF and the newly selected
mode's setting will be displayed for about 3 seconds. Pressing the same mode button again will
prompt for the new constant value for the selected mode.
There are three operational conditions for the instrument in these modes: steady state, transient,
and dynamic.
Condition Behavior
Steady state
The selected mode parameter is maintained at a constant value. For example,
if you selected constant current mode and set the current value to 1 A, the
instrument would maintain this current indefinitely when the load is ON.
Transient
There are two mode parameters and the load switches between these two
settings with user-specified timing. An example of a transient load in constant
resistance mode would be a load of 10 Ω for 1 second and 20 Ω for 3 seconds.
Dynamic
Similar to the transient condition, but capable of emulating more complex time-
dependent loads. The dynamic condition uses lists to specify the time-
dependent behavior.
Examples of the three conditions of operation are illustrated in the following diagram:
8500 DC Load Series Version: September 2, 2009 Page 28 of 76