RE: B&K BA6010 RoadTest in Depth - Ch1: Market Survey

three-phase — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 21:03:42 GMT

Impressive review of the systems available on the market [mention:ef601b47037147bfb9b0b4a3ab63026a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05].

I do find it a little confusing to find the maximum impedance / resistance reading for the meters from the data. This is one of the factors that determines what battery technology the units can be used with. We use the Bite2 and the Hioki BT3553 (Predecessor to the BT3554) that have a 1Ohm and 3.3Ohm maximum resistance capability respectively.

This makes them ideal for station / traction batteries and other high amperage solutions, but they cannot be used on low capacity battery types that may have a higher resistance, as I found out testing backup batteries in protection relays that have a circa 10Ohm internal resistance, within the capability of the BA6010 and not the instruments we have.

The Bite units are also a completely different system, made specifically for the station / traction battery market and have the required protection built in to allow us to work safely on these systems that can deliver thousands of amps. It also comes with the software to allow us to trend these test readings over the lifetime of the cells. For a system that can cost circa £250k to replace the cells, the cost of the Bite system is relatively small, if it allows us to maximise the life of the cells.

I am not sure I would fancy using something like the BA6010 on such a system, especially after [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] pointed out that one of the connections on the BA6010 is earthed, which would likely interfere with the earth monitoring on the battery cells.

Kind regards

RE: B&K BA6010 RoadTest in Depth - Ch1: Market Survey

genebren — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 17:05:27 GMT

Very through marketing research. I appreciate your warnings on buying instruments from vendors that are unknown to you and concerning the variable nature of the specs from various vendors. Well done!

Gene

RE: B&K BA6010 RoadTest in Depth - Ch1: Market Survey

fmilburn — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 16:35:16 GMT

Thanks - a really nice review which benefits from the introductory information on how testing is done. I am also impressed with the subsequent posts on using the instrument and testing. First class RoadTest for sure.