Gamry Instruments EIS Box, Operator'S Manual, Page: 15 / 52

Introduction
15
Chapter 2: Introduction
About this Manual
This manual covers the installation, safety, and use of the Gamry Instruments EIS Box instrument with Revision
7 (and later revisions) of the Gamry Framework software. It is equally useful when setting up a newly-purchased
instrument or modifying the setup of an older instrument for use with new software. Technical material such as
specifications and connector pin-outs is in the Appendices.
This manual discusses software installation and software operation in some detail. The installation is written
assuming installation using Revision 7 of
Gamry’s Framework software. Installation is also described in Gamry
Instruments ’ s Quick-Start Installation Guide.
Software support for the EIS Box is described in the Gamry Help system.
All Gamry Instruments applications running under the Gamry Framework control the EIS Box via a PSTAT
object.
See the Framework’s Help for information concerning PSTAT objects and their functions.
About the EIS Box
The EIS Box (pronounced “ice box”) is a value-oriented, research-grade electrochemical instrument packaged in
a small case. It is designed to for battery-testing via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy up to eight cells.
The EIS Box excels at electrochemical impedance testing of small- to medium-sized single-cell energy-storage
and power-conversion devices. Such devices include batteries, electrical double-layer capacitors, fuel cells, and
photovoltaic cells. The EIS Box can apply and measure currents from 5 A to ~0.05 µA.
Features of the EIS Box include:
•
Six-decade current auto-ranging for large and small batteries,
• Electrical isolation from earth ground, and
• Both analog and digital filtering.
A sine-wave generator on the EIS Box allows the instrument to make accurate impedance measurements at
frequencies up to 100 kHz. EIS performance is good for low-impedance systems (such as low-ESR electrical
double-layer capacitors).
A unique DSP (Digital Signal Processing) data-acquisition mode allows the EIS Box to reject noise, from the
instrument itself, from the electrochemical cell, and from the lab environment. In many cases where other
instruments require a cell in a Faraday shield to make quiet measurements, the EIS Box can be used with the
cell exposed on a bench top.
The EIS Box, like all of our instruments, requires a computer for its use. The EIS Box connects to this computer
through an Ethernet or USB connection (see photograph below of rear panel).