Knowing the voltage and current of electronic components is important when working on engineering projects. IV (current voltage) tracers are tools used to measure voltage and current levels through electronic components over time. They can be used to evaluate the condition of a solar panel. Most IV tracers are expensive, limiting their use.
This project created an inexpensive IV tracer that mounts over a Keysight measurement equipment. We divided the process of making this tool into hardware design and software development. The hardware design included many test designs, resulting in a final board design that created an IV circuit. The software focused on making it user-friendly and sending the necessary signals to all the devices connected to the computer.
In the end, we built a device that measures standard electronic parts. When connected to a Keysight measurement equipment and a computer, the device displays the IV curve measurement on an app. The device is compact, easy to use, and accurate. The app is simple and shows the measurement of the tested device. The app can adjust the graph horizontally and vertically, display measurements over a desired current or voltage, and show different plots.
Diego Abad, Charleston Andrews, Henry Degner, Daniel Corrar, Robert Bozeman, Oluwatomi Thomas
Uwe Meyer-Baese, Ph.D. and Daniel Isin – Keysight
Doug Baney – Keysight Director of Education
Spring