"Martin Eastburn" wrote in message
...
I've used carbon piles to test very high current power supplies.
One needs to verify software. Set 800 amps at 5v and see what is
flowing. Set 1000 amps and see if the pile is smoking.

We actually smoked our pile once - man that was a fast race to
disconnect and start to float some co2 around it to cut off the air
and turn off the fire if any.

It was a bit more crunchy the next time we used it, inside it was
toast.

We had 2000 Watts across it and it was rated at 1500. Was to be
used
at max of 1000 by ourselves.

We never used them to ramp up/down since ours was a mechanical
'resistor'.

We had static voltages in hundreds of amps at fixed voltages
variable I fixed E.

We had IEEE 488 voltage programming with high current ability. The
boxes protected themselves by trimming the voltage back to limit
the
current.


I would think you could use that but not by turning knobs in real
time.
Set and switch & see. Set and switch & see. You might be watching
results of the 'machine' and not of the battery. Once you find
something specific, try to re-create or verify with another load.
Which then takes out the servo effect of the pile electronics and
heating... of electronics and pile. Hot pile, wrong results.

Martin


I haven't seen a really big carbon pile load since the 70's, at a GM
plant. When I tested electric vehicle batteries we used an electronic
load that dumped its heat into a barrel of water. I'm very happy that
the testing program was quiet and uneventful and didn't produce any
hair-raising tales to pass on here.
--jsw