Active Resistance + Microchannel Water Cooling

Utilizing Magna-Power’s new patent pending Active Resistance Technology in combination with the company’s internally manufactured microchannel water-cooled heatsinks, the WRx Series addresses high power DC applications where exhaust heat control is essential. The WRx Series greatly increases power density compared air-cooled alternatives. An integrated solenoid controls the flow of water to avoid condensation. Full power can be achieved using conventional water, with water inlet temperatures up to 25 °C.

Magna-Power's Active Resistance heat dissipation technology utilizes a switched binary matrix of resistances and MOSFET network, combined with Magna-Power's new MagnaLINK™ distributed DSP architecture, the WRx Series delivers the same features and performance as traditional electronic loads, at a fraction of the price. Beyond voltage, current, resistance, and power control modes, the WRx Series also provides a rheostat control mode, allowing direct control of the product's internal resistance network.

Resources

Key Features

MagnaLINK™ Distributed DSP Architecture

Magna-Power’s MagnaLINK™ technology provides distributed Texas Instrument DSP control across power processing stages inside the MagnaLOAD DC electronic load. This technology follows a significant internal development cycle from Magna-Power to provide a unified digital control platform across its electronic loads and power supplies, featuring fully digital control loops, adjustable control gains, programmable slew rates, function generation, and many new advanced control technologies.

Many Control Modes Including Rheostat Mode

To accommodate a variety of DC sources, all WRx Series MagnaLOADs come with several distinct control modes, including: Voltage Mode, Current Mode, Power Mode, Resistance Mode, Shunt Regulator Mode, and Rheostat Mode. Preference for DC regulation is given to the parameter in the selected mode within the programmed set-points. Using the MagnaLOAD's set-points and trip settings, the product can configured to either trip with a fault when a limit is exceeded or to cross-over into a different regulation state.

Shunt Regulator Mode turns the MagnaLOAD into a high-speed smart braking resistor, engaging the DC input only when a specified voltage is exceeded by a user-defined percentage, while limiting the shunt current to a programmed set-point.

Rheostat Mode, unique to the ARx and WRx Series, bypasses the digital controls to provide direct control of the MagnaLOAD's internal resistor network. Using this mode, true resistance step load response can be achieved without the traditional bandwidth limitations. While the standard operating modes offer 16-bit programming resolution, Rheostat Mode provides 31 different resistor states.

Digital Master-Slaving: Expandibility Without Compromise

This is a planned feature that will be available via a future firmware update.

All MagnaLOADs come standard with a MagnaLINK™ Input and a MagnaLINK™ Output port, which provides plug and play digital master-slaving. Simply connect the master's MagnaLINK™ Output to the slave's MagnaLINK™ Input and the MagnaLOADs will automatically configure themselves for master-slave operation based on the populated ports. Buffered digital MagnaLINK™ connections means many MagnaLOADs can be daisy-chained in master-slave operation.

The internal MagnaLINK™ protocol was developed with expandability at the forefront. When configured for master-slave operation, the master controller takes control of all the slave's digital "targets." With this digital master-slaving strategy, it is completely transparent whether the unit is operating as a stand-alone product or in master-slave.

Extensive Programming Support

All WRx Series MagnaLOADs come with a dedicated National Instruments LabVIEW™ driver, Interchangeable Virtual Instrument (IVI) driver, and support for a wide range of Standard Commands for Programmable Instrumentation (SCPI). These programming interfaces support full control, measurement, and monitoring of the MagnaLOAD. All of the MagnaLOAD's available communication interfaces are supported by these drivers and command sets, including: USB, RS485, LXI TCP/IP Ethernet, and IEEE-488 GPIB.

Showcased in the following basic code examples, SCPI commands provide the simplest form of communication by using plain ASCII text and parameters sent over a basic socket connection. Over 50 commands are provided, with detailed documentation in the WRx Series User Manual.

Configurable External User I/O

Beyond the front panel and computer controls, all MagnaLOADs come standard with a 25-pin D-Sub connector designated as the External User I/O. This connector provides :

• 8 Digital Outputs
• 4 Digital Inputs
• 4 Analog Outputs
• 4 Analog Inputs

All the analog-digital I/O ports are configurable, allowing the user to select which parameters they want to control and monitor. This configurable I/O scheme reduces complexity, eases PLC integration and allows control parameters from various interfaces simultaneously.

The MagnaLOAD's configurable analog inputs provide 0-10V programming from PLCs and external D/A converters.

Integrated Arbitrary Waveform Generation

This is a planned feature that will be available via a future firmware update.

All MagnaLOADs provide four user programmable arbitrary waveforms. Each arbitrary waveform can consists of up to 1024 points, each point with the following settings:

• Voltage, Current, Power, and Resistance Set Points
• Time Period
• Rise and Fall Slew Rates
• Stop, Loop, or Jump-to-Point Setting

With the integrated arbitrary waveform generation, the MagnaLOAD can easily be used to provide a wide range of user-generated waveforms including step load transitions or pulsed DC loading.

MagnaWEB Software Interface

Magna-Power's next generation software interface, MagnaWEB, provides intuitive and user-friendly web-browser based controls for programming and measurement read-back of the MagnaLOAD's activity. Virtually all of the MagnaLOAD's available functions can be controlled and monitored from the MagnaWEB software over any of product's installed communication interfaces.

MagnaWEB uses a server-client software model to provide access to the MagnaLOAD from nearly any device and operating system. Install and run the MagnaWEB software locally on Windows, OSX or Linux and, using a web browser, access the server connected to the MagnaLOAD from a variety of devices including other desktops, tablets or smart-phones.