PC Controlled Voltage and Current Source
See PC Controlled Voltage or Current Sourcefor a desciption of the function and circuit of this device. Following are pictures of my particular construction which, in hindsight, is a bit crammed.
Below you see the voltage and current source with drive transistors at each end and bannana plug connections on the top. The soldering of wires directly to the veroboard is a major source of faults and a big handicap to repairs and I'd strongly advise using larger boards with plug and socket connections. The right half of the veroboard with IC2 is actually a seperate board with the battery measurement circuit described in PC Battery Cell Measurement and is not neccessary if you are not battery charging or you are not measuring individual cells and your PC Analogue interface can copy with the full battery pack voltage.
Below is the front face of the votage current source which is hopefull self explanitory. The knobs at the top are only functional when the PC Interface is not attached. You can see better the dongle 25pin plug attached at the bottom which would be replaced with a plug going to indiviual cells. My el-cheapo face is just paper laquered onto the aluminium (I'm not a perfectionist, just a functionalist).
Below you see the complete ungainly setup with ancillary equipment (clockwise from left) current meter (necessary to watch for bugs in the program and for calibration), 16/32V unregulated DC supply, PC Interface (note the bannana plug and 25pin DIN plugs for connection to such devices as the Voltage and Current Source), 8086 Laptop, 350mAhr 7cell pack for slowflyer and 1700mAhr 6cell pack for 2meter glider.
PC Controlled Voltage or Current Source
Modifications to Parallel Port Interface