Programmable load
 | This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008) |
A programmable load is a type of test equipment or instrument which emulates DC resistance loads normally required to perform functional tests of batteries, power supplies or solar cells. By virtue of being programmable, tests like load regulation, battery discharge curve measurement and transient tests can be fully automated and load changes for these tests can be made without introducing switching transient that might change the measurement or operation of the power source under test.
Implementation
A programmable load is simply a programmable power supply that applies a voltage but sinks current rather than sourcing it. By changing the current direction, the programmable load electrically "looks like" a programmable resistor rather than a programmable (Thévenin) voltage source.
