Congratulations! You have come back from your (tens of) gigahertz frequencies... In fact occasionally even below the power line 50 or 60 Hz, as shown by the Keithley sourcemeter putting out DC. Joking aside, I liked your presentation at this end of the frequency spectrum.
It was the increased harmonics being radiated that he was talking about when he lowered the dimmer. Real life example of what nasty power waveforms do. 😀
I believe you're missing an "I" in the model name in the video title and description. It should be IT9121. I've seen ITECH products before - was always curious about value and build quality. Very good all around, a nice surprise. Thanks a lot for the review!
The best part is that the app allows you to exit to AOL! (starting around 37:00) AOL . . . LOL. Fantastic review as always. As soon as you panned to the Wall O' Keithley™, I blew coffee out my nose. Actually, I had to go brew a cup, but still . . .
Maybe similar. We had problems with the CH340 IC on cheap Arduinos dropping out with the Win driver, switched to the manufactures CH340 driver and it's fine. Maybe there is a better chip driver.
Excellent review. I suspect there's a Kelvin connection to the current sense resistors so the relay contact resistance is irrelevant. I have a Voltech PM100 which is excellent but now seems obsolete compared the this instrument.
I was very curious about itech products, I seen the new PSU, especially the ac ones and I was interested to know the quality in general, so very appreciated!
Itech is the OEM for a lot of BK Precision's and Keithley's power supplies and electronics load. So I think quality for Itech products are generally pretty good.
Thank you very much for this review. I am considering this instrument for Ultrasonic Transducer Power measurements. The data sheet claims 100 kHz bandwidth. I need to measure power for 18kHz to 45kHz signals. Voltage is 100 to 300 Vac and the power is around 10 watts. I want Apparent Power and Power Factor corrected values. The wave forms can be quite distorted as we drive a square wave through a step up output transformer then into a Piezo . We are operating the Piezo well outside its resonant frequency and I want accurate power measurements of this signal. Any recommendation for an instrument that will do this?
I can't say much to the power meter, but I really like what looks like a super-cap buffered coin cell, so you wouldn't even lose date if the coin cell is being replaced :)
The LED lamp was a good thing to look at with real world applications, but could have also done an a good/bad ATX power supply (80+ versus 80+ Gold) or even a piece of equipment in the lab (CW source, VNA, SA).
A power factor of .6 is fairly "decent", though I have been wondering how effectively we could clean it up with just an AC 50/60 Hz band-/low-pass filter. Ideally, a power supply should have as close to 1 as possible as its power factor, even if this can be costly to implement.
"AC 50/60 Hz band-/low-pass filter." This is essentially what passive power factor correction does, however if your PFC does not change much with load you can just cancel the reactive component with a passive of the opposite value. For higher power systems, Active PFC has become the norm, which has driven cost of active PFC down considerably in the last 10 years.
@@samfedorka5629 My question weren't though if it works, but rather how much impact it has. I know Active PFC costs only a dollar or three in production as is for "moderate" power loads. (like the low of hundred watts.) I have though been somewhat surprised that there isn't a simple single chip solution for it yet... After all, half decent active PFC isn't actually hard to implement. (I have seen plenty of controllers, but I would love to see a TO-220 with controller, inductor and switching transistor all in one package. Or a TO-92 for lower power applications.) (Active PFC is practically a boost converter that is primarily controlling its PWM as a function of the rectified mains input voltage, and then has offset governed by a box car average of our output voltage during the last couple of cycles. Then we just have our main's filter cap between our PFC and our main SMPS converter. To prevent over volting our output we will let the average of the control offset increase a bit faster than it decreases. Of course our output cap should also not be operated at it's peak voltage, we should have a decent margin. And yes, a PCF like this will output the same output voltage regardless of input voltage. Something that is nice in SMPS designs.)
I didn’t like that voltage wire draping over the heat sink. They could have made it a bit longer. Maybe that heat sink doesn’t get that hot to worry about melting through eventually 🤔
Otherwise really good looking GUI, but in quite a few places the smaller numbers right side is being clipped by pixel or two. Nothing major but noticeable in big screen.
I'd like to see a Voltech PM-300. I know you have a PM-3000A but the PM-300 is more capable and it has a full graphic LCD for displaying plots and graphs.
I have an IT8512A+ load, once contacted the ITECH engineers to upgrade its software, you can also contact them. As far as I know, their software of load has several updates in recent years.
The price of this is very similar to a Keithley DMM6500. As I already bought one, a few months back, based on Shahriar channel, it sounds to me that a second Keithley with a bit of software will be better value for money, not to mention all the additional things I can do with 2 keithleys. Even with my single DMM6500 and a few software add-ons and an external amp meter probe, you can measure most of this. I guess my point is that the Keithley DMM6500 is very good value for money. This ITech look like "ok value for money" compared.
btw, that Keithly is running 24/7 a analog temp sensor, and it's amaizing what you can learn from a 6.5 digit temp measure (if you plot it over time). It picks up when I enter the room. I use something like this: www.dfrobot.com/product-164.html HF is cool, but hi-res is also in a same way very satisfying. with nano amps you can create ECG by just holding the 2 probes (one in mouth and other on stomach give better results :))
I doubt the relay contacts are part of the current measurement path - you'd normally measure it differentially across the sense resistor itself.
Yes, I agree. Thanks Mike.
Mic noise pick-up increase at 35:40 is a nice addition to the demonstration :)
Congratulations! You have come back from your (tens of) gigahertz frequencies... In fact occasionally even below the power line 50 or 60 Hz, as shown by the Keithley sourcemeter putting out DC. Joking aside, I liked your presentation at this end of the frequency spectrum.
You could really hear the interference around 36 minutes. Not sure if that was intended, but was very clear on headphones. Also it says srcoll :D
Yeah what is he doing messing around with this? Its not the usual high end instrument he heads for.
@@TheFool2cool Because I need something like this for my repairs.
Yeah I think he's picking up the 60Hz noise from touching the dimmer. The noise travels probably through his body and into the mic preamp.
It was the increased harmonics being radiated that he was talking about when he lowered the dimmer. Real life example of what nasty power waveforms do. 😀
I believe you're missing an "I" in the model name in the video title and description. It should be IT9121. I've seen ITECH products before - was always curious about value and build quality. Very good all around, a nice surprise. Thanks a lot for the review!
Thanks for letting me know.
30:00 - the phase shift is likely calculated based direct of the power factor that in turn is calculated as W/VA.
These are really useful and enjoyable to watch.
Hope your lectures show up on YT or somewhere when you start teaching ☺
The best part is that the app allows you to exit to AOL! (starting around 37:00)
AOL . . . LOL. Fantastic review as always. As soon as you panned to the Wall O' Keithley™, I blew coffee out my nose. Actually, I had to go brew a cup, but still . . .
We have used this analyzer to test inverter appliances like air conditioners and it is very useful
Maybe similar. We had problems with the CH340 IC on cheap Arduinos dropping out with the Win driver, switched to the manufactures CH340 driver and it's fine. Maybe there is a better chip driver.
A Signal Path video working in the Hz region? Who are you and what have you done to Shahriar.
Hehe... We will be back to multi-GHz next.
Excellent review.
I suspect there's a Kelvin connection to the current sense resistors so the relay contact resistance is irrelevant. I have a Voltech PM100 which is excellent but now seems obsolete compared the this instrument.
Contact resistance in relays are for sure irrelevant, just as the user cables going to/from the current input
Thanks for the great review, Shahriar. One day I'll get something like this on my bench. 😀
I'm concerned that if you attach a GPIB cable the power input will be blocked or the cable will conflict with the side of the case.
I was very curious about itech products, I seen the new PSU, especially the ac ones and I was interested to know the quality in general, so very appreciated!
Itech is the OEM for a lot of BK Precision's and Keithley's power supplies and electronics load. So I think quality for Itech products are generally pretty good.
@@wadehsu2347 thanks!
As I said , I seen they're new products (DC load, ac load and PSU) and all these seems good enough, now I know the reason.
Meh, 15A? We have 16A in Europe. Also: Is there a single fuse in that meter, especially in the current path?
Its a 20A instrument. Or up to 50A for the other models.
@@Thesignalpath sorry, I was talking about the mains adaptor box.
And even that's too much for the inlet power connector - the IEC 60320 C13/14 connectors are only rated to 10A.
Thank you very much for this review. I am considering this instrument for Ultrasonic Transducer Power measurements. The data sheet claims 100 kHz bandwidth. I need to measure power for 18kHz to 45kHz signals. Voltage is 100 to 300 Vac and the power is around 10 watts. I want Apparent Power and Power Factor corrected values. The wave forms can be quite distorted as we drive a square wave through a step up output transformer then into a Piezo . We are operating the Piezo well outside its resonant frequency and I want accurate power measurements of this signal. Any recommendation for an instrument that will do this?
Great demo- good use of practical devices
I can't say much to the power meter, but I really like what looks like a super-cap buffered coin cell, so you wouldn't even lose date if the coin cell is being replaced :)
18:39 just how many SMUs do you have in your lab???
The LED lamp was a good thing to look at with real world applications, but could have also done an a good/bad ATX power supply (80+ versus 80+ Gold) or even a piece of equipment in the lab (CW source, VNA, SA).
I just want to take a minute and appreciate that beautiful shelf full of keithleys at 18:40 😁
We didn't even see the end of it - could be infinite Keithleys! Shahriar, could you pan across the rack at some point in a future video?
It is Keithleys all the way around! :)
Keithley collector ?
@@thomasw6169 a keithley connoisseur
@@taylorlindley5578 note to myself: I'm not envious. Who needs a SMU anyway ? 😀
@ 16:33 "You can get all the information you want".
Does it also show the buoyancy of your cat?
I love this. I'm buying one. So many uses.
it is possible to set the radio frequency(FM) with a digital circuit such as
MCU, I mean digitally change the variables of LC parameters
A power factor of .6 is fairly "decent", though I have been wondering how effectively we could clean it up with just an AC 50/60 Hz band-/low-pass filter.
Ideally, a power supply should have as close to 1 as possible as its power factor, even if this can be costly to implement.
"AC 50/60 Hz band-/low-pass filter." This is essentially what passive power factor correction does, however if your PFC does not change much with load you can just cancel the reactive component with a passive of the opposite value. For higher power systems, Active PFC has become the norm, which has driven cost of active PFC down considerably in the last 10 years.
@@samfedorka5629 My question weren't though if it works, but rather how much impact it has.
I know Active PFC costs only a dollar or three in production as is for "moderate" power loads. (like the low of hundred watts.)
I have though been somewhat surprised that there isn't a simple single chip solution for it yet... After all, half decent active PFC isn't actually hard to implement. (I have seen plenty of controllers, but I would love to see a TO-220 with controller, inductor and switching transistor all in one package. Or a TO-92 for lower power applications.)
(Active PFC is practically a boost converter that is primarily controlling its PWM as a function of the rectified mains input voltage, and then has offset governed by a box car average of our output voltage during the last couple of cycles. Then we just have our main's filter cap between our PFC and our main SMPS converter. To prevent over volting our output we will let the average of the control offset increase a bit faster than it decreases. Of course our output cap should also not be operated at it's peak voltage, we should have a decent margin. And yes, a PCF like this will output the same output voltage regardless of input voltage. Something that is nice in SMPS designs.)
I didn’t like that voltage wire draping over the heat sink. They could have made it a bit longer. Maybe that heat sink doesn’t get that hot to worry about melting through eventually 🤔
The voltage wire had a protective sleeve, but it is also silicone and won’t melt. I don’t think this will not be an issue.
How do you think this compares to the R&S HMC8015?
That is a good question! If I ever get one, I will compare them.
Very useful information!!
Might have to upgrade my Voltech PM100.
Otherwise really good looking GUI, but in quite a few places the smaller numbers right side is being clipped by pixel or two. Nothing major but noticeable in big screen.
I'd like to see a Voltech PM-300. I know you have a PM-3000A but the PM-300 is more capable and it has a full graphic LCD for displaying plots and graphs.
I wish they had a 3 phases AC current supply.
I've used ITECH DC loads back in 2012-2014, and I see they still have poor software quality even today :) Otherwise quite cost effective instruments!
Yes, the software itself would be good if it worked and maintained the connection.
I have an IT8512A+ load, once contacted the ITECH engineers to upgrade its software, you can also contact them. As far as I know, their software of load has several updates in recent years.
Now the free PV9000 software can be downloaded, since 2015, they upgraded all softwares, it's much better GUI
A+++ content right here.
The price of this is very similar to a Keithley DMM6500. As I already bought one, a few months back, based on Shahriar channel, it sounds to me that a second Keithley with a bit of software will be better value for money, not to mention all the additional things I can do with 2 keithleys. Even with my single DMM6500 and a few software add-ons and an external amp meter probe, you can measure most of this. I guess my point is that the Keithley DMM6500 is very good value for money. This ITech look like "ok value for money" compared.
btw, that Keithly is running 24/7 a analog temp sensor, and it's amaizing what you can learn from a 6.5 digit temp measure (if you plot it over time). It picks up when I enter the room. I use something like this: www.dfrobot.com/product-164.html
HF is cool, but hi-res is also in a same way very satisfying. with nano amps you can create ECG by just holding the 2 probes (one in mouth and other on stomach give better results :))
Excellent review! Thank you
nice job as usual!
Current traces in blue and voltage traces in red? I call that insanity! :D
Otherwise, pretty cool power meter =)
Good and cool device!
Don't buy expensive ITECH equipment unless you do not care for basically non-existing customer support outside of Asia.
Hi ,
the first ones here I am