Product Reviews

Panavision, Dallas, Texas

Thanks to the PCBA 5010-4 battery analyzer and its analytical versatility, the Panavision Dallas’ customer battery failure rate on set has been significantly reduced if not completely eliminated due to cell failure. Battery capacity testing has been a major issue for rental houses for decades now, and thanks to the PCBA 5010-4, I cannot recall the last time we had a battery failure on set. What we like most about its features is the history data, we can track a battery’s life from birth till death and use that data to estimate the expected lifespan of our inventory. The power needs of equipment are becoming more and more critical by the year and I believe the PCBA 5010-4 battery analyzer will become even more necessary as time goes by.

Lee Godwin
Manager, U.S. Regional Operations
www.panavision.com

Panavision, New York, New York

Our first PCBA 5010-4 battery analyzer has been working non-stop since the day we took delivery of it in May 2009. The build quality and feature set of this analyzer is far superior to any other battery analyzer I’ve used to date, having the ability to analyze all battery chemistries that we rent while logging and storing the results was a requirement of this unit. The unit does this and more. We have specifications stored for more than 15 different rental batteries that we use to make analyzing them a snap where certain batteries come right off a show set and go straight to the analyzer for testing, and aside from any physical repairs, the battery analyzer takes care of all our electrical testing needs. Testing starts with a gentle charge cycle until topped up, from there it begins a discharge cycle that mimics our most common wattage draw from our current digital cameras. After completing the discharge cycle the PCBA software stores all the data we need and fully charges the battery so that it’s ready to be rented again so long as it meets our capacity requirements from testing. What’s remarkable is that it does this process on all 4 channels at the same time. It’s common to be drawing 140 Watts from one battery while charging another battery simultaneously on another channel. No other analyzer I’ve looked at can do this and maintain the level of precision and accuracy with built in data logging.

Because of turnaround times we often push the limits of the analyzer by doing double duty, charging batteries on some channels while discharging batteries at full capacity on other channels, all at the same time. It has been a pleasure working with Randy at ESI for the purchase and support of our first analyzer and now with the most recent purchase of a second analyzer to increase our throughput in our battery service program. Randy is extremely knowledgeable about the product and has never hesitated to support us when we needed help. In a side by side comparison with all other battery analyzers I’ve looked at, none compare to the PCBA 5010-4 battery analyzer from ESI in terms of quality and value for the money, it’s simply the best.

Christopher Konash
Manager, HD Engineering & 3D Technologies
www.panavision.com

Telecom Services Group, USA

TSG provides battery testing services to a major VRLA battery manufacturer. We discharge test over 2000 VRLA samples per year at our facility in Georgia as well as on site testing. We test VRLA battery sizes from 1.2Ah to 3000Ah. With the introduction of FTTx (Fiber to the Home/Business) there is increasing demand for testing of 7-18Ah VRLA batteries. We have tried a number of manual and automated discharge test systems for the smaller size VRLA samples. We began using the PCBA 5010-4 about 2 years ago with outstanding results. We have improved productivity and find the 5010-4 to be reliable and accurate. The PCBA 5010-4 eliminates the need to carry along additional equipment when we are testing outside of our lab. We can discharge test and recharge the samples with the same piece of equipment. Our PCBA 5010-4 test sets have traveled thousands of miles with our technicians by air and automobile to provide remote testing services.

Kenneth Hurst
President, Telecom Services Group, LLC
www.tsg-us.com