operate-itech-it8813-load

Operate the ITECH IT8813 DC Electronic Load

The MCP tools tell you what the instrument can be asked to do. They cannot tell you how to combine them without damaging the result or tripping protection. Every rule below comes from a real bench incident on this instrument; each one names the symptom it prevents.

For the full command-by-command manual comparison (Chinese), see docs/itech/IT8813.md. A worked example with the circuit arithmetic and measured values is in references/worked-example.md. Five instrument behaviours that contradict the manual or the obvious reading are collected in references/verified-behaviour.md — read it before planning a reset, a short, or a List run.

0. Start with what this class of instrument can and cannot do

Read references/load-fundamentals.md before the first experiment: it covers DC electronic loads in general, with manual page references. The short version, because every rule below is a consequence of one of these:

• A load only absorbs current. It cannot source current and cannot raise a voltage — so a CV setting above the source voltage can never be satisfied, and the load simply stops conducting.
• CC / CR / CW pair with a constant-voltage supply; CV pairs with a current source. Load CV facing a CV supply makes two voltage sources fight across the cable resistance (§2).
• Hardware protection clamps; software protection trips. POWer:CONFig is the hardware power clamp — it limits every mode without any error — while software OCP/OPP switch the input off and latch it (manual print p25–p26, §3 and §6 below).
• Any tripped protection latches the input off; clear it before continuing.
• The load reports the voltage and current at its own terminals, so its numbers differ from the supply's by the drop along the cables.
• Global registers persist between experiments: an earlier stage can silently change what a later one does (§3).