Lead-acid battery health analyser comes to hand

The BITE 3 battery tester is billed as the first of its kind to measure both float and ripple current, in addition to impedance, cell voltage and intercell connection resistance.

The BITE 3 battery tester is billed as the first of its kind to measure both float and ripple current, in addition to impedance, cell voltage and intercell connection resistance.

Used in conjunction with Megger's ProActive database management software, this combination is now the market's most powerful lead-acid battery health analyser.

The BITE 3 (battery impedance test equipment) provides online testing with pass/warning/fail calculations.

Built with onboard data analysis, the intelligence of this small, light, handheld instrument enables comparisons with historical data through the recall of previous test results.

Ideal for large installations, the tester is fast, accurate and easy to use tester, eliminating downtime.

Applications include electrical power generation plants, substations, telecommunications facilities, UPS systems, railroad, aircraft power supplies, marine and military.

The BITE 3's accompanying ProActiv software is also the first of its kind, in that it organises and analyses battery data in an MS Access database.

The software enables test results to be organised according to the needs and convenience of the end user.

Together, BITE 3 and ProActive software offer the most comprehensive data analysis system to provide confident and reliable evaluation of batteries in the DC network.

The tester determines the condition of lead-acid cells up to 2kAh and also measures cell impedance, cell voltage and intercell connection resistance.

With built in spectrum analyser, the tester will even show the harmonic content of the ripple current.

Battery operated, BITE 3 and contains extensive memory for improved data analysis.

With more than 16Mbyte of memory, it uses a Windows CE operating system and can store more than 4000 sets of data in more than 1000 tests.

The tester is menu-driven and easy to navigate.

Its unique data analysis screens provide immediate feedback on the status of cell impedance.

"Unlike load cycle testing, which is expensive, nonpredictive and time-consuming, this tester offers rapid test time and the ability for the operator to easily, quickly and precisely measure cell and string parameters without taking the systems offline", commented Rick Lawrence, BITE 3 Product Manager at Megger.

"Moreover, the instrument takes battery measurements in as little as five keystrokes".

The BITE 3 is available with an optional printer, which allows the user to output reports to be left at the site as a record for future reference.

The tester supports multiple languages and its firmware is upgradeable.

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