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LXI compliance gets easier
January 30, 2007

Elgar Electronics (EEC) recently received certification of its third Sorensen branded programmable DC product line as being LXI compliant. As EEC and the LXI Consortium certify more products, the process has become easier. For example, EEC was able to reuse much of the code and Web pages, so the non-recurring engineering was much lower.

The Consortium has a test procedure spreadsheet available on its website. This is the same document that the Consortium uses to test to for certification at PlugFests. So, if you can pass the test procedure in-house, you will pass at a PlugFest demonstration. Finally, the Consortium has certified a third-party lab that enables you to perform tests between PlugFests at your own site.

Since Elgar's most recent product had a three-phase AC input, and three-phase power has not been available at the PlugFests, we used the third-party lab at our San Diego site for testing. We found the lab to be reasonably priced and easy to work with.

My recommendation for new companies to gain compliance follows:

• read the standard,
• test to the standard using the written procedure,
• test at one PlugFest to gain experience, and
• obtain compliance at the next PlugFest.

This process should take about six months and could be speeded up by using the third-party lab as an implementation consultant.--Peter Allen, Elgar Electronics

Posted by Rick Nelson on January 30, 2007 | Comments (0)