Backup power systems provide crucial emergency power to critical components whenever there’s a failure in a facility’s main power supply. These backup systems are indispensable at facilities involved in essential life-saving services, automated manufacturing of expensive product, and other critical operations where they help protect vital equipment and prevent expensive downtime, data loss, and time-consuming…
Current transformers and voltage taps in the context of interface electronics
Current transformers or CTs are indispensable anywhere high currents are measured and processed. These instrument transformers effectively diminish high-voltage current flows for a convenient way to securely evaluate and monitor real electrical current through an ac transmission wire relying on a conventional ammeter. CTs perform this task by generating alternating current in a secondary winding…
Overvoltage protection in the control cabinets of industrial automation
Automated facilities commanded by industrial control cabinets rely on the components in those cabinets to work reliably even in the face of power variations. These components include local power supplies, PLCs, data loggers, networking and other communication equipment, and IO — which are all vulnerable to the detrimental effects of voltage surge. Also known as…
Optocoupler modules in interface electronics
Industrial electronics operate in electrically noisy and mechanically challenging environments. The problem is that automation, control, and instrumentation components rely on accurate signals sans electrical interference or distortion to properly operate. So optocoupler modules are often employed by engineers as signal-protecting intermediaries between signal sources as well as power sources and industrial controls and other…
Signal conditioner basics
A top challenge in industrial electronics is the integration of sensing and feedback — in part because their disparate outputs require clean and safe transmission to the installation’s PLC or other primary controller. For these connections, system integrators rely on signal conditioners and isolation amplifiers. While both devices serve as an intermediary point in power…
Integrating uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs)
An uninterruptible power supply or UPS is an electrical device that provides supplementary emergency power to the connected load when there’s a loss in the main power supply. It supplies power via a backup battery until the main power is restored. UPSs install between that regular power source and the load, with the supplied power…
Understanding battery terminology
When discussing batteries, a lot of technical terms are used. If you’re not familiar with these terms, it can be challenging to understand a discussion of battery technology. This page lists some of the most important battery-related terms: Conventional Current: Electricity is conventionally considered to flow from positive to negative. However, because electrons are negatively…
What is a battery?
A battery comprises several voltaic cells – electrochemical cells that generate electrical energy from chemical reactions. The cells in a battery have their own self-contained source of chemical energy, unlike a fuel cell which is powered by an external supply of chemicals. Electricity is the flow of electrons, and the chemical reactions in batteries involve…
Active cell balancing basics
Resistors, capacitors, inductors, and dc/dc converters can all be used in various topologies to provide cell balancing for battery packs. Cell balancing is needed to obtain the maximum performance since performance is limited by the weakest cell in the pack. Once the weakest cell is depleted, the pack stops delivering energy. The various cell balancing…
Running robots on ambient energy
The first FAQs in this series have identified specific use cases and applications where robots can use batteries, fuel cells, and even supercapacitors as their prime power source. Are there applications for robots that can benefit from using energy harvesting and ambient energy as their prime power source? Yes. For example, small nanorobots can use…