Author Topic: R&S HMC8043 unreliable behaviour at very low current limits  (Read 1004 times)

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Offline glxTopic starter

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R&S HMC8043 unreliable behaviour at very low current limits
« on: October 15, 2023, 12:37:14 am »
Hello,

I have an HMC8043 power supply here, on which I noticed some weird behaviour when using very low current limits.
I was playing around with some solar-powered things that I wanted to power from the HMC8043 to take some measurements. I did set the current limit to the lowest possible value of 0.5mA, but it somehow doesn't respect that (reliably). I can pull up to around in 4.5mA in CV until the OCP triggers and it switches to CC mode. I could understand if the supply couldn't measure such small currents, but it shows the value, so it knows but doesn't care.
I couldn't find anything specific in the datasheet besides  "0.05% + 2 mA" readback accuracy, also it is pretty accurate and once the OCP is triggered it regulates pretty accurately to the 0.5mA but I have to go well over the set limit to make that happen.
Is this a normal behaviour? Probably a supply like the NGL/NGM/NGU series would be rather made for that job (at least they are specified to be more accurate at low currents) but those are quite expensive and I don't use these low limits (especially THAT low) often, also the HMC8043 pretends it can do it, but somehow doesn't.
It is the most recent firmware (01.400) installed on the supply.

I noticed that sometimes there are R&S-people around here, maybe someone there has some insights :).

I did shoot a short video to show the behaviour, for simplicity I did just measure two LEDs there (sorry for the messy desk):
 

Offline Darkover

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Re: R&S HMC8043 unreliable behaviour at very low current limits
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2023, 02:36:09 am »

> HMC8043 pretends it can do it, but somehow doesn't.

My guess, there is noise on the line and on the ADC. You expect a very high dynamik range from your power supply.
Perhaps it is better to develop your own powersupply with only an opamp that can deliver 0-10mA, but with
more accuracy?

Olaf
 

Offline EEngo

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Re: R&S HMC8043 unreliable behaviour at very low current limits
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2023, 09:08:50 am »
Hey,

I can confirm that with my unit (SW V1.303 (2016))
At very low currents below 5 mA, the current limitation (set to 0.5 mA) only becomes active when the current briefly increases above 3-5 mA or when the threshold is changed from 0.5 mA to 0.7 mA or 0.8 mA.* Then suddenly the current limitation kicks in.

EEngo.

*Edit: That seems to be not always true. Sometimes current is limited, sometimes not.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2023, 09:10:34 am by EEngo »
 

Offline alm

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Re: R&S HMC8043 unreliable behaviour at very low current limits
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2023, 09:31:49 am »
The programming accuracy is listed as 0.05% + 2 mA, so if you program it to 0.5 mA, it should technically source between - 1.5 mA and 2.5 mA. But I think it's unreasonable to expect that kind of dynamic range from a general purpose bench supply.

Offline glxTopic starter

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Re: R&S HMC8043 unreliable behaviour at very low current limits
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2023, 10:21:15 am »
[...] or when the threshold is changed from 0.5 mA to 0.7 mA or 0.8 mA.* Then suddenly the current limitation kicks in.
Oh yeah you are right, I haven't tried that before. It also seems to struggle a bit there to dial in a corresponding voltage since it sometimes shuts the channel down to 0V for a little moment before it settles to something.

*Edit: That seems to be not always true. Sometimes current is limited, sometimes not.
I did also observe that it sometimes triggers like the first event but doesn't trigger again for the same event after recovery, but I cannot reproduce that in a controlled manner, it seems like it randomly happens.

But I think it's unreasonable to expect that kind of dynamic range from a general purpose bench supply.
Yeah I kind of agree, I didn't even expect it to be able to set it to such low limits, but I somehow expect when there's a setting it acts accordingly and not just apparently ignore it  :-/O. But I agree, it's pretty much pushing it to the limits of a general purpose supply.

develop your own powersupply with only an opamp that can deliver 0-10mA, but with
more accuracy?
That's a nice idea for (another) side project actually ^-^.
 

Offline Wade2019

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Re: R&S HMC8043 unreliable behaviour at very low current limits
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2023, 03:05:50 pm »
Does your device require calibration?
 


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