Husnen Rupani:
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re trying to teach three-phase, but you haven’t got three-phase installed in the classroom? It’s happened to all of us, and that’s why we’ve come up with this product called Portaphase. Hi, I’m Hus, and in this video I will tell you about what is Portaphase and what it can do for you. Portaphase is a single to three-phase extra-low voltage power supply that takes 230 volts from the socket outlet and gives you 24 or 42 volts on the output. It’s capable of providing 10 amps per phase at 24 or 42 volts, depending on how you decide to connect it. Now let me tell you what it can do for you. So I’ll tell you three things, how it can provide you flexibility and scalability, how it can give you versatility and safety and how it can save you a lot of money.

So let’s start with the first one, flexibility and scalability. So how is it flexible? Well, you can wheel this main unit into any classroom where you have 230 volts socket outlet. So in this case, I have a 230 volts socket outlet connected via an IEC cable to the main unit, and if I turn that main unit on, I will be in business. But I can’t use this main unit by itself. I need a distribution box to go with it, which is what gives me more added flexibility and versatility, which I’ll tell you about in a minute. So let’s turn this on. So if I turn that on, turn the power on, you can hear the circuits clicking in. Press this button that turns the system on, but it will only turn on with the circuit breaker. So I turn that circuit breaker on. Now we’ve got power coming out of there.

Nothing is connected here, so nothing will come out. Let’s connect it. So I’ll turn this off to start with. The connection of the main unit to the distribution box is through this Portaphase cable, which is a special cable, which means that the students won’t be able to plug this into any place that it’s not intended for. So let’s connect that. There is a lock to it, which means that it can’t accidentally just unplug or even if someone tries to yank it, it won’t come apart. It has a good latch to it. In this distribution box, we connect this to the input side. Locked in. Now we have something coming here once I turn this on. So if I turn that on, now I will have some voltage. Let’s test it out. So right now I have my voltmeter connected to the blue phase and I can see how I’ve got 24.8 volts. I have circuit breakers and switches here, which then control the current that is coming out of the supply.

So if I turn that off, the voltage turns off and if I turn that on, then I’ve got the voltage, just that added layer of control. If I move that to white phase and turn that on as well, I’ve got 24 volts over there as well. If I go from face-to-face, so I do that, I’ve got 42.8 volts. What I also have here is a variable single phase output. So let me show you that. Now this single phase output, when I turn it on, right now it’s set to almost zero volts. That’s what it’s showing here. If I increase that, you can see how the voltage is increasing and goes all the way up to 25 volts, which means that you can use this not just for fixed three-phase, but you can also have a variable single phase. Now how is it scalable? The way it’s scalable is you don’t just have to use one unit with one box. You can daisy chain them and add more and more to it. This is the distribution box you will get. But the example that I’m going to show you is a prototype.

Now I have two of the distribution boxes getting powered up by this main unit. So if I try and measure voltage from that at the same time. So right now I’m measuring the line voltage from this distribution box and on this side I’m measuring the line voltage from the other distribution box. So I can use them both at the same time. So I’m not limited to two. I can actually add five of these distribution boxes to this main unit, which means that it can power up to five stations, and that will give us two amps per phase, because this one here is 10 amps. So two amps per phase per distribution box. So if you decide to put two students per station, then you’ve covered 10 students with just this. So that gives you flexibility. You can use this anywhere. It gives you scalability. You don’t just use it for one station, you can use it up to five stations.

So you can see how that covers about 10 students or even more in some cases, just with one unit. Now let me talk to you about versatility and safety. Safety, you can see how there is a lot of safety measures that we’ve taken here. First of all, there is a push button to get this whole unit started. So you’ve got that control and there is a main circuit breaker here for all of those five distribution boxes that you will connect to this main supply. Which means that if anything goes wrong in any of those, these things here will shut down first before it affects your circuit in the classroom, so that’s one level of safety. Second, these connectors are special, which means that you can’t have a student connecting things where they don’t belong and you will keep them safe in that way. So that’s second level of safety.

More levels of safeties. If you see there is a circuit breaker for each phase and for the single phase, which means that if you’re not using single phase, you turn that off and you use three-phase, or use one or the other. We recommend that you use either three-phase or single phase at any one time. You can also control all of those five stations from this circuit breaker, which means that if you’re not ready for the students to turn the power on, you don’t have to let them. They can do whatever they want with their circuit. You control it through this circuit breaker here. So let me show you how this setup is also versatile. So I have one distribution box here, which will power this circuit, and another distribution box here, which is going to power three-phase induction motor. So let me wire it up for you.

So right now I’ve connected the single-phase variable output of this distribution box to this lamp and the three-phase connected to that three-phase induction motor. So let’s power that up first. We can see how that motor is working. And this one here, I turned that on and I’ve got the lamp working as well. If I change the voltage, I can see how I’m getting the response from the load at the same time. Let’s leave that as three-phase, leave that connected. Let’s wire this up in three-phase. So now I’ve got these lamps connected in star and that one is also connected in star. So I turned them on. You can see all of them are turned on. Let me connect this in in delta. So that’s still connected in star. I’m going to connect this in delta. Okay, so now we’ve connected these lamps in delta. Let’s turn them on.

You can see the difference, right? The lamps, brightness is different. So right now we’ve got 42 volts across each of these lamps, and so not just the line voltage, but also the phase voltage. On this side we have the line voltages of 42 volts as well, but that system is connected in star. You can see how it’s versatile. You can use these to teach students in AC circuits G102, or you can use these to teach them AC machines, which is G006. Or you can use the setup to teach click-clack, G109, or even fault-finding, G108. So that makes this setup really versatile and you can see how we still maintain the safety of this overall setup. Now let me tell you how this Portaphase can save you a lot of money. If you’re planning to get three-phase in a classroom, let’s think about the cost involved in there, or at least the work involved in there.

So first you’ll have to get the three-phase into the classroom. That’s the first step. Second, you’ll have to add points. Now you’ll be adding at least five to 15 points of three-phase socket outlets in that classroom, which is obviously going to cost you a lot of money. But that’s not where it stops. You still need, so that voltage there is all low voltage. That’ll be 230 to 400 volts. What if you need to convert that to extra low voltage? That means that you need to get some three-phase transformers connected to each one of those points. So if you’ve got five to 15, then you’ve got five to 15 three-phase transformers. That’s still not where it stops, because you still need variable voltages. So you don’t just need those fixed three-phase transformers. You might also need some variable transformers or variacs connected to them. So if you add them all up, that cost will be easily over $30,000.

And that’s just one room, right? So this is a fixed installation, just one room, which means that if you’ve got multiple rooms where you’re trying to teach three-phase, you would have to install that in each one. So if you multiply that by three, let’s say, then you’ve got 30,000 times, that’s $90,000 or even $100,000 spent for fixed installation. Not to mention that three-phase in a classroom, which is not designed for a workshop will look really ugly. It’s not designed for that purpose. So in all of those cases, Portaphase will save you a lot of money. It will cost you less than half of whatever all of that will cost you while giving you a safe system, extra low voltage, enough current for the students to work per station with added level of security at every distribution box. I hope now you can see how Portaphase will be very useful for your trainers and your learners. If you need more information, please feel free to give me a call on this number or send me an email. Thank you for taking the time to watch this video.