Megger Bite5 Battery Impedance Analyzer Tester

Megger Bite5 Battery Impedance Analyzer Tester

The BITE5 and BITE5 Advanced battery testers let you perform simple tests to quickly evaluate the state of health of lead-acid (VLA and VRLA), NiCad, and lithium-ion batteries. Both instruments have an easy-to-use touch-screen interface and support impedance testing and discharge testing when used in conjunction with a load bank. The BITE5 Advanced allows you to monitor batteries and cells during recharging and test parallel strings without segmenting. With the BITE5, you can perform tests on modules up to 200 V and, with the BITE5 Advanced, on modules up to 500 V.

Measurement options provided by the BITE5 include cell impedance, cell voltage, ripple voltage, AC ripple current and DC float current. The BITE5 Advanced supports all of these tests and also has provision for accurately measuring inter-cell (strap) resistance. 

For impedance tests, you can set pass, warning, and fail limits for impedance and voltage. For discharge tests – and recharge tests with the BITE5 Advanced only – measurements are recorded throughout the full discharge or recharge period. Trends can be displayed on the instrument’s touch screen, and stored results can be downloaded via a USB cable or an SD card for further analysis and archiving. Wireless transfer of data to Megger’s PowerDB software suite is also supported.

Both the BITE5 and BITE5 Advanced support voltage measurement up to 1000 V DC and 600 V AC, which means you can use them to measure solar combiner boxes and check the input and output voltages of inverters used in renewable power systems. An additional feature of the BITE5 Advanced is an RFID tag reader, which allows the instrument to recognize assets without requiring manual data entry.

Battery impedance testing

The BITE5 will measure cell impedance, cell voltage, and temperature. The recorded data can be trended on the unit’s touch screen. View the trended data of each test or trend the data of each cell. Set pass, warning, and fail limits for voltage and impedance. Record the ripple voltage, ripple current, and float current and transfer the recorded data via USB or via an SD card to the PowerDB software, then create custom reports and automated analysis.

Battery discharge testing

The BITE5 will record voltage, DC current, impedance, and temperature of each cell throughout the entire discharge test. Measure the average impedance at the end of the commissioning test and use this as a limit for future impedance tests. Trend the recorded data on the BITE5 touch screen and view the trended data of each test, or trend the discharge of each cell. Transfer the recorded data via USB or via an SD card.