A Guide to Electrical Lab Equipment for Power Electronics Experiments
An electrical lab for power electronics experiments is built around equipment that can source, switch, measure and safely dissipate electrical power at levels far above those used in a basic electronics lab. The electrical experiment equipment in this lab ranges from a Variac and a regulated DC supply to thyristor trainer kits, rheostat loads and isolated measuring instruments. Each item exists because a converter, chopper or inverter experiment makes a specific demand on the bench. Power electronics is the study of converting electrical power from one form to another using semiconductor switches such as diodes, SCRs, TRIACs, MOSFETs and IGBTs. Rectifiers convert AC to DC, choppers convert one DC level to another, inverters convert DC to AC, and AC voltage controllers vary the RMS value of an AC supply. Every one of these conversions can be demonstrated on a bench, but only if the lab electrical equipment around the circuit is chosen correctly. This guide covers what each categ...