The project is poised for construction and operational use. However, ongoing development persists, addressing minor bug fixes and introducing new features. Stay tuned for updates!
Commercially available electronic loads often come with a hefty price tag, so I decided to build my own.
300 W power dissipation
up to 8A and 50V (obeying the 300W limit)
Remote voltage sensing option
Easy to input values: you can use an encoder as well as a keypad
5 modes of operation
Constant current mode
Constant power mode
Constant resistance mode
Transient response mode
Battery testing mode
Nice to look at: doesn't look like a poor DIY build
There are two PCBs:
The case for this project is made with 1mm thick bent sheet metal, with a 3D printed front panel.
The app is currently available for Windows only. To run it, simply double-click on
\desktop_app\release\windows-64bit\electronic_load_control_app.exe
add following code to the platformio.ini file
upload_protocol = custom
upload_port = usb
upload_flags =
-C
${platformio.packages_dir}/tool-avrdude/avrdude.conf
-p
$BOARD_MCU
-P
$UPLOAD_PORT
-c
usbasp
upload_command = avrdude $UPLOAD_FLAGS -U flash:w:$SOURCE:i
Uploading the code this way will reduce the boot up time.
Note: since this method removes the bootloader, in order to program the uC via UART next time, you have to burn the bootloader.
Special thanks to Eryk Możdzeń, who helped solving a software problem with a memory leak.