[Planning and Draft] Kikusui Electronics
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your positive reviews of the first part of Haikawa!
I was concerned that this project might not be taken seriously and could receive negative comments.
The overwhelmingly positive feedback was a pleasant surprise, and the production team was thrilled to have completed this project.
After publishing the previous comic, we received numerous requests for a sequel. However, due to various circumstances, it was not easy to create one. Then the pandemic hit, and I retired, making it impossible to publish a sequel.
However, five years after the first part was published, the sales promotion manager contacted me enthusiastically, stating, “We want to respond to numerous requests for a sequel.“
I was a bit perplexed. The realization of the previous project was not an easy task, and in many aspects, we were lucky.
However, the manager would not back down (laughter). In the winter of 2023, I finally said, “If you insist, I’ll do my best.”
And now, finally, we are pleased to present “Haikawa Returns“!
This sequel features three types of products: withstanding voltage testers (hipot testers), electronic loads, and AC power supplies.
Compared to the previous comic, which focused on DC power supplies, topics covered in the second part are likely less familiar to readers, especially people without experience and young engineers. Furthermore, numerous technical details make explaining these products in a comic book format significantly more difficult.
Why did we deliberately choose three difficult-to-explain products? To paraphrase a famous quote, we climbed the mountain because it was there.
Our goal was not to focus on a single product but to provide a rough explanation for readers unfamiliar with the topic.
So, please don’t expect to be able to use the equipment after reading this manga.
We hope you will treat this comic not as an introduction but as a pre-introduction, a preparatory step before acquiring more in-depth knowledge.
The story is set at Zero One Robotics, the same robotics company featured in part one. It follows a confident and knowledgeable senior engineer (Utsugi) and an easygoing junior engineer (Kikunaga). Together, they explain the fundamentals of withstanding voltage testers (hipot testers), electronic loads, and AC power supplies. We hope you’ll enjoy their journey!
The title is a mouthful, so please feel free to call it “Haikawa Returns” or “Haikawa R” for short. Thank you!
Minami KikunagaMinami Kikunaga is a UI (User Interface) engineer in the Communication Robot Development Department. She has a background in information engineering and is skilled in programming, but her understanding of electrical and electronic engineering is limited. As a result, when it comes to product development, she often relies on the support of a senior employee, Utsugi. Kikunaga has a great personality, although she sometimes frustrates her senior colleague. She also has a cat named Dango.
Naoto UtsugiNaoto Utsugi is a firmware development engineer in the Functional Module Development Department with a background in hardware design. He often claims that, in recent years, he has become a “jack of all trades.” His junior colleague, Kikunaga, frequently turns to him for guidance because they used to work together. Although Utsugi appears cool and composed, he can be pretty sharp-tongued when talking with Kikunaga. His hobby is coffee roasting.
Minami KikunagaMinami Kikunaga is a UI (User Interface) engineer in the Communication Robot Development Department. She has a background in information engineering and is skilled in programming, but her understanding of electrical and electronic engineering is limited. As a result, when it comes to product development, she often relies on the support of a senior employee, Utsugi. Kikunaga has a great personality, although she sometimes frustrates her senior colleague. She also has a cat named Dango.
Naoto UtsugiNaoto Utsugi is a firmware development engineer in the Functional Module Development Department with a background in hardware design. He often claims that, in recent years, he has become a “jack of all trades.” His junior colleague, Kikunaga, frequently turns to him for guidance because they used to work together. Although Utsugi appears cool and composed, he can be pretty sharp-tongued when talking with Kikunaga. His hobby is coffee roasting.
Writing and Planning
Kikusui Electronics Corporation Sales Promotion Team
Translated
Polanski Adrianna
Comic Production
ad-manga.com
This comic is fact-based fiction.
Episode 4: Electronic Loads – Part 1
Devices That Consume Electricity
Episode 4 Column
Episodes 4–6 focus on electronic loads, whose primary function is to consume electricity. Just like the withstanding voltage testers mentioned earlier, electronic loads are not very common testing devices. It’s because most engineers in electronics-related fields are primarily focused on creating circuits that consume electricity, so they rarely have the opportunity to use an electronic load. Even within the electrical and electronics fields, engineers who use electronic loads in their daily work are a minority. For most people outside the field, those devices are probably completely unknown. You certainly won’t find one at your local electronics shop, and I myself had never even heard of them until I joined Kikusui Electronics.
Although nowadays electronic loads are finding their way into more applications, their use is still relatively limited. A good example is the development and manufacturing of DC power supplies. Considered a central component of electrical equipment, DC power supplies went through a significant technological breakthrough in the 1960s, when NASA developed the switching power supply. To meet the demand for compact, lightweight, and efficient electronic equipment for rockets (see “Introduction to DC Stabilized Power Supplies”), a new circuit design was developed. Since the 1970s, this design has been widely adopted in communication devices and home appliances. As a result, manufacturers specializing in developing and producing embedded power supplies prospered, and electronic loads became widely used for output testing of switching power supplies. Demand for electronic loads (production volume and price) increased, but until the 1990s, power supply manufacturers remained the main users. However, a major change came with the technological innovation of secondary batteries (rechargeable batteries).
Beginning in the late 1980s, the growing demand for mobile communications (cell phones), notebook computers, and portable audio devices led to the development of new types of secondary batteries. Compact, high-capacity, and high-performance nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion batteries replaced nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries. To evaluate the performance (discharge characteristic analysis) of these next-generation secondary batteries, a new type of equipment emerged: the electronic load. When testing secondary batteries, you need to account for many different types of load circuits (circuits that consume battery power). However, it’s simply impossible to gather and test every possible real-world scenario. Electronic loads are, therefore, valuable instruments for simulating these various conditions. Furthermore, unlike switching power supply testing, secondary battery testing is required not only by battery manufacturers but also by device manufacturers, which has likely contributed to the broader adoption of electronic loads.
In Episode 4, Minami wonders whether there’s a device that can drain electricity. Professionals in the electrical field might think this is common knowledge, but in reality, electronic loads are still not widely known. In the manga, there’s a scene where a robot wags its tail to drain a battery. You might think this is an incredibly inefficient method, but situations like this actually happen. Even at EV testing sites, known for their cutting-edge technology, people go through painstaking efforts to quickly discharge onboard batteries. They drive endlessly around a test track, leave the headlights on, or run the wipers overnight.
