You do the best reviews. Not only is it a review, it's a full instructional video on how to use the item. Also not many people do good reviews on the lower price stuff - they treat it as a joke -, and it is this stuff that part-time hobbyists will be buying when they start because they don't want to commit large sums of money into something that might be just a pastime..
Yes, and it's a point the EEVblog crowd fail to realise because they only think of high level electronics. They expect everyone to spend $thousands when the majority are only small time hobbyists. I'm only building 1 project, a car EFI, so how can I justify a $1000 scope for one use.
Agree with the previous commenter: Not just a great review, but very helpful instructions on use of this tool. Well done! I really like that you walked through how the adjustments to the presets are done. I could not find that anywhere else, not even in the instructions that came with it. I'm subscribing! Your channel is going to save me tons of time and money.
I came across this dummy load device and wanted to buy but first i wanted to check if anyone had made a review. Am happy i found this video. Thanks for the this VoltLog
Hi, Good video. I believe you can go directly to the cut off voltage or over voltage settings etc. by pressing the button once while you are actually measuring and the display is active. At least you can on the newer green pcb one, please test. Bob UK
In many ways that is not a perfect dummy load, but I do like that graphical display. Everything visible all the time vs. cycling through the values like in the 60W load.
Thanks again for the great video. I guess I'm not very smart. I tried the calibration procedure and ended up blowing the mosfet. Would you happen to know the part number? It was at about 7 amperes and 30 V for a very short period of time. Of course 7 amperes at 30 V exceeds the power limit of the load. Don't understand why the calibration values exceed the limits of the device. New info. It is a IRFP2064.
Mine had been working very well until recently even at 58V power source. One week ago I tried to test a 58V battery pack and there were huge sparks at the input terminal and smokes at FET as soon as I tried to connect the battery . I replaced FET with new one with higher spec than original one and it worked well under 15V. However when I applied 58V battery , same thing happened again and the FET was blown out.
Hi can you please help with this unit that I bought to verify A imported lithium battery, the specifications are 36 V and 60,000 mA is what the battery says and I would like to confirm that and was wondering if you could guide me better through that
Hello friend I buy 1 if that, last night I empty 5 pcs 14v lifepo4 battery pack, works very well, but when I plug it out and thus morning plug it again, device will turn on but when I connect any cell or battery, shows voltage of it but not work volume controls and current not change from zero and also cooling fan not work, do you know what's problem of it?
Mosfets do not always decrease current with increase temperature, especially in the linear region with low Vgs. You can only really say that mosfets are definitely PTC when they are at Vgs saturation. In a constant current dummy load, they are not at saturation. If it was ONLY the Rds which determined currently flow, then yes they would be PTC, but you must also account the temperature effect on Vgs References: www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/AND8199-D.PDF www.infineon.com/dgdl/Infineon-ApplicationNote_Linear_Mode_Operation_Safe_Operation_Diagram_MOSFETs-AN-v01_00-EN.pdf?fileId=db3a30433e30e4bf013e3646e9381200 (especially page 10)
By far this is the best video that I've watched about this load which is still being sold in late 2020. It DOES have low voltage cut off but after 4 second it starts again and keeps cycling, thats why the price is so cheap compared to "full featured" Electronic Load. One could use that 3V trigger voltage to permanently keep the device disabled with a simple latching circuit. 73 N8AUM
14:50 Not sure, but don't you just need 10A for the amp calibration, no matter the voltage. And just 30V for the voltage calibration, no matter the current? Otherwise you're at 300W which is double the rated power... But not a very great load :(
Although I do not understand much, its subtitle language helps to understand and they are very well analyzed, of all the loads that you check in your videos, I could advise the purchase of one of them that you would buy more complete and reliable
Something I made a long time ago comes in handy for things like this: an opto-reflective sensor that looks for fan motion by detecting a small dot of "White-out"(tm) I put on one of the fan blades. It's a small and simple circuit and if it doesn't detect a reasonably fast stream of pulses coming from the sensor (fan has stopped or is moving too slow to be useful) the circuit removes current from a relay..which I generally use to cut-off power to the device. I designed it as sort of a dead-man switch too...so if the protection circuit itself failed then the relay would automaticlly drop out and also thus turn off the device. It can be used with just about anything that relies on a fan for proper cooling. I made it as a non-contact device so I don't have to mess wtih putting thermocouples on a device I'm testing or prototyping. One could also consider building a circuit using an IR sensor but that's more complicated to build and not as straight-forward to use.
Analog circuit and shut resistor also heated up, then this cause current changes! When you want, you can with air spray cool down all analog circuit, then you can see, current is also changed. This is not provided by FET internal resistance, this is provided by analog circuit.
Did anyone check if you can change the USB-C voltages when testing a USB-C power source that supports different voltage levels? As you might know USB-C has voltage levels of 5/9/12/15/20V and the load sets the voltage. So I am wondering if this load can demand different voltages on USB-C
Is there a link to an online copy of the user manual/pamphlet you can point us to to help clarify the following issue to prevent over-discharging battery under test? My entire reason for getting something like this product is to be able to automatically test batteries without having to worry about over-discharging them during tests. Some Specific Questions Regarding Your Video 15:17 TEXT ON SCREEN: "It acts more like a voltage alarm, if at any time , voltage at the input is lower than this preset, it will stop and sound the alarm." 18:10 TEXT ON SCREEN: "-no easy adjustment of cut-off voltage" So...it's not "easy" to adjust it to a minimum cut-off voltage but it can be done? For example, if the input voltage drops below my Min Voltage setpoint of 3.00V it will cut-off and sound the alarm? Does it then STAY cut-off so it completely stops drawing power from the connected power source under test (like a battery so it won't over-discharge the battery under test)? Or...Does it automatically cycle back on as the test battery's voltage self-recovers a bit and then the product cuts-off again when the voltage drops again below my setpoint? At 17:15 you said, "When a fault appears...3 volt high signal at that (2-pin) connector...can be used for something else." This suggests IF NECESSARY a person could use this 2-pin connector to control a simple latch-off circuit that disconnects a battery under test completely from the circuit and then KEEPS it disconnected, after any alarm condition (including voltage below the Minimum Voltage setpoint) and even if the alarm occurs just once. This would be a lot easier than adding the "special circuit" implemented by KainkaLabs in his video (his special circuit provides only 3 discrete voltage disconnect setpoints), and using this 2-pin connector would allow much more versatility in using the voltage, current, and wattage "Minimum" setpoints. BACKGROUND INFO: Low-Voltage cut-off issue? KainkaLabs in the video at ruclips.net/video/KcGBHZEOt5s/видео.html claims there is NO Minimum Voltage Cut-off and he had to add a custom circuit to what appears to be the same product in order to get the device to stop drawing power from for instance a battery when the battery's voltage dropped below a specific value. He claims this is to keep the device from draining the battery once it dropped below a voltage he sets on his special added circuit (his circuit provides 3 discrete cut-off choices at 1V, 2V, and 10V). But, you seem to say that the device already has a minimum voltage setpoint function and will stop draining a connected battery when it falls below your entered minimum voltage trip-point...but that it is "no easy adjustment".
i like this unit. its my first load tester so maybe i dont know better, it suits my needs and i needed to do a quick 20 second test at 215 watts and was able to set it to do so thanks to this video. i know its at my own risk
Great video, thank you very much. At my item the display is down. I want to change it but I can't find one anywhere. I do not really know what I should searching for. Does anyone know what display it is? Thanks.
Has anyone found how to actually calibrate this? Applying 10A doesn't calibrate it, it must be something else. Mine has x4 offset. When the load is 1A the unit is showing 4A. :(
just had to rewatch this video to see how to get around that dang menue again. anyways i use the low voltage cut off and alarm to help me test watt hour capacity tests for my lead acid batteries. i fully charge the battery, find the ah rating, make the load tester match it, then set the low voltage to 10.5v and away we go. when the testing starts beeping i know the test is done and can use the watt hour reading on the tester display to find the real capacity of my battery. the test takes about 20 hours so i set it up and forget about it. it doesnt start back up once the alarm is triggered, even after a few minutes which is nice. for some reason my display always shows .01 amps which bothers me. i do have a 30 v 10 amp psu i could calibrate it with i guess, but im not too worried with such a small amount of error.
I got one of these recently from Amazon and have been using it to test some batteries. Occasionally it trips (stops) and displays the message "Tips!". This is not mentioned anywhere in the 1 sheet "manual". Pushing the button starts it again without resetting the accumulated amp-hours or watt-hours. It happens on some large 12V batteries I'm discharging at 5A ~60W) *and* with some small portable li-ion power packs that I was discharging at only 1A (5W). The "T" suggests an overtemp condition but this seems unlikely since I'm well under the 150W limit and the measured load temperature is kept quite low by the fan. Anybody else see this?
Finally got one. The 180W version first ordered with vertical fan never came. So I got the one you review. Found current showing around 8% higher, but not instruction how to calibrate. It actually came programmed to switch off at 180W. Great for checking capacity of small batteries. But when connected to a Yaesu FP757GX a 18.8V 20 A supply I very carefully did current tests but at 13A it blew up! Very poor fine control, I know it is cheap but sorry way too poor of a craftsmanship.
For the calibration of Amps, maybe you can set the voltage to 10V and then it is only doing 100W, if it's only looking at Amps then voltage doesn't matter, after that step you can put the voltage up to calibrate that.
I have a version that is almost perfect, the unit works great except the cut-off Voltage/Warning function, it shuts off the load but as soon as the voltage increases a little the load turns back on, if only it stayed off until the button was pressed :( Almost all batteries have a recover voltage so this is an annoying problem, the manufacture has almost got it right, maybe some clever person will work out a simple modification to fix this problem. Maybe some kind of electronic latch connected to white socket located to the right of the current adjustment pots. Apparently this socket is a warning output.
I bought this dummy load, to use for discharge my 48V ebike battery, but when I got it up to 100W load, it short-circuited my battery and after a few times the MOSFET on the dummy load was shorted between drain and gate. I ordered new VISHAY IRFP264 MOSFET. I got to 130W before it also short-circuited. Is it the "high voltage" that kills it? Maby you also can try it with a higher voltage VoltLog?
I don't think it's the voltage that kills your mosfets. It's probably too much power, the mosfet overheats and it fails.. sometimes they fail as a short circuit. I would suggest getting the mosfets from a known distributor, not from ebay(they could be fake if you got them from ebay).
probably reached the second breakdown of the MOSFET due to being too hot. If we aim to keep the die temperature below 100C to maintain reliability we can work out approximately how much power we can dissipate. A TO247 die-to-case resistance is about 0.5C/Watt. The heatsink in the video can probably do 0.5C/Watt to ambient. Assuming 25C ambient, the maximum continuous power we can dissipate safely is P = (100-25)/(0.5+0.5) = 75Watt. Worth noting that the die-to-case resistance of the FET will be significantly worse if the heatsink is mounted to the plastic side of the FET package instead of the metal side. They really should have used two or maybe even three MOSFETs in this design.
Lucky for me I ordered 2 spare MOSFETs, so now I changed to the second spare I had. This time I tested with a 12V PSU, and placed a temperature probe in the MOSFET hole on the backside, to monitor the temperature. Now I got up to approximately 150W load and the temperature probe measured 80ºC! I ordered the MOSFETs from diy-audio4you on eBay, a German company, so I hoped it was genuine parts. Should it work with the 48V ebike battery now, or could the voltage be a problem? Edit: Picture of the setup from my OneDrive: 1drv.ms/i/s!Arb68ycFMJxLtGgtSCLGGUrlrUq8
I could not resist, so I tried out with the 48V battery, and now it went just fine! : D I suspect that the cooling paste I used on the first MOSFET was too old, and therefore it became too hot. I also now used a separate 12V supply for the fan to run it on max speed. Thanks for the good answers :) Picture of the 48V setup: 1drv.ms/i/s!Arb68ycFMJxLtXUVl-bIfTPlFhwZ
I think it would be quite easy to turn this into an arduino controlled dummy load with data logging capability. I guess the potiometers are simply used to feed a control voltage into an opamp in a current control loop. Then, it would be easy to replace the pots with a dac controlled by an arduino. There must also be some circuity already present to measure current, voltage and temperature with a microcontroller for the lcd display. It should be possible to reroute these to the analog inputs of an arduino. All the rest is a matter of software. Could you take a closer look at the circuit, please? This would be an interesting project! Thank you very much for your great videos!
What you are saying is not far from designing a dummy load based on Arduino from scratch. Unfortunately I do not have the time to do that. There is a good dummy load design based on Arduino checkout Scullcom Hobby Electronics #45 - Electronic DC Load
I totally understand that. I wasn’t asking you to design the thing, of course. I just wanted to put the idea out there for others to pick up. Maybe I’ll try myself. One thing would be very interesting to know though: Is my assumption about how the pots work correct? And is the control voltage something that an arduino could handle (
@@Utube2Itube No, unfortunatly not. I switched to this project: www.scullcom.uk/category/projects/dc-load/ I have the pcb and most of the parts, but some are still missing and hard to come by here in Germany. I have to find the time...
Rdson of the MOSFET rises with temperature. Obviously either the current measurement and/or the current control has a temperature drift. Great idea to test disconnecting the fan. This is dangerous indeed.
As did I, but the cons are similar. Crap firmware, buggy as hell. Still can't figure out how I got the cutoff voltage to the right number! A vid on how to adjust one would be great... It does log data on the screen, until you re-set it. Another big problem is when it reaches the cutoff voltage, it stops, then tries to re-start. Continuously! You cannot leave this alone, you have to be there to shut it off, and to get your readings. Good try, but no cigar!
just one, haven't checked but I assume mosfet plus two dual diodes (I would assume for protection) or maybe a diode and a temperature sensor in a rather large TO220 package.
can you post a link of one that is digitally controlled with Windows software control? (or do you mean something like the EBD-USB+ but is limited to 35 watts max)
CPU heat sink of PC is adopted in this dummy load. So there are people out there who step up the heat dissipation capability by using more powerful CPU heat sink.
there is another dc load with the same capabilities, but with different screen that HAS 4 wire measurement. i think the pcb is almost the same, so maybe you can make a mod to this to make it 4wire. i think many will like that mod.
I bought one of these and the fan is a knockoff for sure, don't know about the rest. Everything looks identical, but my fan's label just says "Cooler" in the top half of the logo, empty space where it should say "Master." The brand was "Makerhawk" on Amazon, paid $45.99. There were a couple of places selling identical ones for like $38-40, but I paid the extra 5 hoping to get the best knockoff. About to test it out. edit: about the pots, would it be good to swap them for some 5-10 turn precision pots? I got a few of those for cheap, 10KΩ and 50KΩ, maybe I"ll try it out if the existing Ω are close.
I guess is nice to have digital control, but the effect is the same. The load do vary in both digital and analog circuits because the problem is heat @ measure shunts, not digital or analog control. Said that, I would like to have digital control but bought it anyway
Nice video from our dummy load officionado (as Dave would say). Unfortunately the load is in my opinion not usable. So we all have to wait until "the ultimative load" is available as said in the video.
Thanks. For me this product, with all its strengths is close - but still not worth buying. I'm holding out until a better version appears. I'd like to see rotary encoders, digital control, proper temp management, easier setting of parameters like cutoff voltage, 4W measurement and easy re-calibration with decent accuracy. Desireable features would be other modes like CV, CP, CR and a USB PC interface. I'd be happy to pay a little extra for these features.
You've pretty much given the definition for a good dummy load, but so far I haven't seen any that will do all that and cost under $200. Closest are the Maynuo/Itech loads from aliexpress.
While it's kind of implied by the "no overtemperature protection" I think that "No fan failure protection" or "No fan failure auto-shutdown" is a critical CON and deserves its own listing. One might even list something like "No malfunction auto-shutoff" as other things might fail with similarly dangerous results. It should also be kept in mind that with low-voltage auto-cutoff being so difficult to set many people will skip it and it can potentially cause lithium batteries to fail explosively and cause a fire. That is a LOT more serious a CON than just listing the "no easy adjustment of cut-off voltage" In fact, in future reviews you provide, it might be a good idea to add a third category for dangerous things so you have, "Pros", "Cons", and "WARNINGS"
Mate you have not been able to kill it? I think it should come with a bag of FET's as it has no proper feedback. I had 2 thermal runaways already with under 150 watts!
Good review. This is the best ready solution for today. I like the big display. Where can I download the detailed manual from the manufacturer of this device?
I want warn the user of this device! Please be careful if you connect your energy source to this electronic load, be sure that you turn down both load control potentiometer while you are connecting your source to this load! I was not so careful and as a result my LiFePO batterypack burned down the power transistor. It seems that the load dont shut off the load at the boot time! Can some one help me and write which type of power transistor is using this load?
from own experience a ">150V!"- overvoltage indication caused a freeze of the display, with just this message, on my 150W electronic load from Chinese production, which looks quite similar. I have not been able to create a RESET of this message with the one button on the board. The adjustable load itself still works, only the display constantly shows ">150V!" It's a mystery to me how the overvoltage message appeared, because I only tested USB Power-Bank's. Maybe a burst spark...no idea (?) In the case of the more frequent, and also understandable, operating case of the undervoltage message, this can be reset by applying a voltage above this setting value to the measuring input. With the key on the board, as far as I know, only the measuring value memory can be reset. The error or message memory is excluded from this. If someone has a TIP to reset this overvoltage message I would be very grateful ! - Greetings Michael/germany
Did you also do an accuracy test of current and voltage measurement? To my experience the current sensing is often way off the specs over the whole range from 0.2 - 10 Amps. This is not the fake load, is it? Ah accuracy measurement was coming later - seems fine here :-) Its really funny that this piece doesn't have temperature control and a temp. regulated fan - as the cheap products and even the fake product has it?? Also the 4-wire sensing is missing, which would be cheap to accomplish. Must have been an earlier built i guess - hope future versions will be more improved. Any hints on that?
thanks for the answer. What exactly do you mean by not a good model either? The measurement seems to be quite accurate but some features like temp. sensing and fan speed control are missing. But the most important for me is stability and reliability in measurement. And if it does real 150W - than that is o.k. for the price. Do you have a model in this power range that you can recommend with a similar price? :-)
the 60W model that I reviewed I consider the best because it's reliable and has an easy to use interface. This 150W model has some issues with setting the current, the adjustment is kinda coarse and it wasn't able to sustain 150W, it should all be in the video and I don't remember the other issues because I reviewed it a year ago.
I think there is very poor debounce in the button press. After lots of trial and error I've re-enabled the cut off voltage. Sometimes holding the button increases the threshold, other times it reduces it.
Thank you for this video, very informative. Wanted to use this to test a 50v li-ion pack but 150w is not enough of a load. Prevented a potential return, thanks!
Seeing the fan, you can already tell that this is not an original design. This type of heatsink/fan is meant for CPU processors. And if I recall well, this type of Cooler Master design isn't in current (OEM) catalogue anymore.
And what is the problem? There are different products like this that use CPU coolers to cool MOSFETs and that do a very good job. I have a similar electronic load that had a small CPU cooler and exchanged it against a bigger CPU cooler (Alpenfön) and it works really fine with this: goo.gl/1JEoUQ
MrCanidi , never said CPU fans are wrong. They are indeed very handy to use and have a good performance. The only thing I am saying is that's not a standard professional solution.
IF your gonna review for us novice's then tell us what it can do and clean up please. does it charge batteries, does it discharge batteries, types of discharge and charging inputs/outputs, capacity testing, display info etc!
I bought the current version of this load from Ebay. The load, as best as I can figure it out is quite nice. The overwhelmingly bad part of this load is the one small sheet of mechanically translated chinglish instructions. I've had it for two days and have yet to figure out how to set the low voltage cut-off. The reviewer is wrong. The "
You do the best reviews. Not only is it a review, it's a full instructional video on how to use the item. Also not many people do good reviews on the lower price stuff - they treat it as a joke -, and it is this stuff that part-time hobbyists will be buying when they start because they don't want to commit large sums of money into something that might be just a pastime..
thank you, I agree, hobbyists will buy the cheap stuff first so they need good reviews to make the right choice.
Yes, and it's a point the EEVblog crowd fail to realise because they only think of high level electronics. They expect everyone to spend $thousands when the majority are only small time hobbyists. I'm only building 1 project, a car EFI, so how can I justify a $1000 scope for one use.
SidneyCritic ComedyHound your opinion is very true
@@voltlog Right
instablaster.
Agree with the previous commenter: Not just a great review, but very helpful instructions on use of this tool. Well done! I really like that you walked through how the adjustments to the presets are done. I could not find that anywhere else, not even in the instructions that came with it. I'm subscribing! Your channel is going to save me tons of time and money.
Glad it was helpful!
I came across this dummy load device and wanted to buy but first i wanted to check if anyone had made a review. Am happy i found this video. Thanks for the this VoltLog
Hi, Good video. I believe you can go directly to the cut off voltage or over voltage settings etc. by pressing the button once while you are actually measuring and the display is active. At least you can on the newer green pcb one, please test. Bob UK
In many ways that is not a perfect dummy load, but I do like that graphical display. Everything visible all the time vs. cycling through the values like in the 60W load.
Thanks again for the great video. I guess I'm not very smart. I tried the calibration procedure and ended up blowing the mosfet. Would you happen to know the part number? It was at about 7 amperes and 30 V for a very short period of time. Of course 7 amperes at 30 V exceeds the power limit of the load. Don't understand why the calibration values exceed the limits of the device. New info. It is a IRFP2064.
I have a later version it seems, with a green PCB and the Cut off Voltage Warning also shuts off the load.
You COULD have a counterfeit. Sometimes a counterfeit is better than the original in some ways.
Mine had been working very well until recently even at 58V power source. One week ago I tried to test a 58V battery pack and there were huge sparks at the input terminal and smokes at FET as soon as I tried to connect the battery .
I replaced FET with new one with higher spec than original one and it worked well under 15V. However when I applied 58V battery , same thing happened again and the FET was blown out.
So is are the 2 cables with alligator clips connected to a load or your power supply (battery)? You said power supply in the video.
Can I program a discharge on a 18650 battery up to the limit of 2.55V for example?
Yes.
Hi can you please help with this unit that I bought to verify
A imported lithium battery, the specifications are 36 V and 60,000 mA is what the battery says and I would like to confirm that and was wondering if you could guide me better through that
Could you make a detailed review of the product from Bangood "150W Tuya WiFi Smart Power Electronic Load Tester"
Great review / instructional. Much more informative than the limited instruction sheet that comes with the device. Thank you, sir!
Hello friend I buy 1 if that, last night I empty 5 pcs 14v lifepo4 battery pack, works very well, but when I plug it out and thus morning plug it again, device will turn on but when I connect any cell or battery, shows voltage of it but not work volume controls and current not change from zero and also cooling fan not work, do you know what's problem of it?
I turned off the backlight and can't get it to turn on again. Edit: factory resetting it got the light back on.
mosfets have a positive temperature coefficient so the current should decrease when it heats up. Maybe its a BJT?
Mosfets do not always decrease current with increase temperature, especially in the linear region with low Vgs. You can only really say that mosfets are definitely PTC when they are at Vgs saturation. In a constant current dummy load, they are not at saturation. If it was ONLY the Rds which determined currently flow, then yes they would be PTC, but you must also account the temperature effect on Vgs
References: www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/AND8199-D.PDF
www.infineon.com/dgdl/Infineon-ApplicationNote_Linear_Mode_Operation_Safe_Operation_Diagram_MOSFETs-AN-v01_00-EN.pdf?fileId=db3a30433e30e4bf013e3646e9381200 (especially page 10)
ok cool
By far this is the best video that I've watched about this load which is still being sold in late 2020. It DOES have low voltage cut off but after 4 second it starts again and keeps cycling, thats why the price is so cheap compared to "full featured" Electronic Load. One could use that 3V trigger voltage to permanently keep the device disabled with a simple latching circuit. 73 N8AUM
How could you set the low battery voltage while checking battery capacity ? Say End Testing at 3.00V for lithium cells ?
14:50 Not sure, but don't you just need 10A for the amp calibration, no matter the voltage. And just 30V for the voltage calibration, no matter the current? Otherwise you're at 300W which is double the rated power...
But not a very great load :(
yes, you are right, you can do the two separately but even so I don't have a 10A capable PSU :-(
When adjusting the power limit in the config menu. How high does it let you go?
Although I do not understand much, its subtitle language helps to understand and they are very well analyzed, of all the loads that you check in your videos, I could advise the purchase of one of them that you would buy more complete and reliable
Something I made a long time ago comes in handy for things like this: an opto-reflective sensor that looks for fan motion by detecting a small dot of "White-out"(tm) I put on one of the fan blades. It's a small and simple circuit and if it doesn't detect a reasonably fast stream of pulses coming from the sensor (fan has stopped or is moving too slow to be useful) the circuit removes current from a relay..which I generally use to cut-off power to the device. I designed it as sort of a dead-man switch too...so if the protection circuit itself failed then the relay would automaticlly drop out and also thus turn off the device.
It can be used with just about anything that relies on a fan for proper cooling.
I made it as a non-contact device so I don't have to mess wtih putting thermocouples on a device I'm testing or prototyping.
One could also consider building a circuit using an IR sensor but that's more complicated to build and not as straight-forward to use.
Hi, if its using MOSFET then am i right to assume this is a DC load and NOT an AC load ?
Correct this is a DC load.
Analog circuit and shut resistor also heated up, then this cause current changes! When you want, you can with air spray cool down all analog circuit, then you can see, current is also changed. This is not provided by FET internal resistance, this is provided by analog circuit.
Did anyone check if you can change the USB-C voltages when testing a USB-C power source that supports different voltage levels? As you might know USB-C has voltage levels of 5/9/12/15/20V and the load sets the voltage. So I am wondering if this load can demand different voltages on USB-C
Is this compatiblenfor 18650 batteries for discharge capacity testing? Thanks
Is there a link to an online copy of the user manual/pamphlet you can point us to to help clarify the following issue to prevent over-discharging battery under test?
My entire reason for getting something like this product is to be able to automatically test batteries without having to worry about over-discharging them during tests.
Some Specific Questions Regarding Your Video
15:17 TEXT ON SCREEN: "It acts more like a voltage alarm, if at any time , voltage at the input is lower than this preset, it will stop and sound the alarm."
18:10 TEXT ON SCREEN: "-no easy adjustment of cut-off voltage"
So...it's not "easy" to adjust it to a minimum cut-off voltage but it can be done? For example, if the input voltage drops below my Min Voltage setpoint of 3.00V it will cut-off and sound the alarm?
Does it then STAY cut-off so it completely stops drawing power from the connected power source under test (like a battery so it won't over-discharge the battery under test)?
Or...Does it automatically cycle back on as the test battery's voltage self-recovers a bit and then the product cuts-off again when the voltage drops again below my setpoint?
At 17:15 you said, "When a fault appears...3 volt high signal at that (2-pin) connector...can be used for something else."
This suggests IF NECESSARY a person could use this 2-pin connector to control a simple latch-off circuit that disconnects a battery under test completely from the circuit and then KEEPS it disconnected, after any alarm condition (including voltage below the Minimum Voltage setpoint) and even if the alarm occurs just once. This would be a lot easier than adding the "special circuit" implemented by KainkaLabs in his video (his special circuit provides only 3 discrete voltage disconnect setpoints), and using this 2-pin connector would allow much more versatility in using the voltage, current, and wattage "Minimum" setpoints.
BACKGROUND INFO:
Low-Voltage cut-off issue?
KainkaLabs in the video at ruclips.net/video/KcGBHZEOt5s/видео.html claims there is NO Minimum Voltage Cut-off and he had to add a custom circuit to what appears to be the same product in order to get the device to stop drawing power from for instance a battery when the battery's voltage dropped below a specific value. He claims this is to keep the device from draining the battery once it dropped below a voltage he sets on his special added circuit (his circuit provides 3 discrete cut-off choices at 1V, 2V, and 10V).
But, you seem to say that the device already has a minimum voltage setpoint function and will stop draining a connected battery when it falls below your entered minimum voltage trip-point...but that it is "no easy adjustment".
Can somebody post a link to the manual? I bought one but got only the Chinese version (much prefer English).
i like this unit. its my first load tester so maybe i dont know better, it suits my needs and i needed to do a quick 20 second test at 215 watts and was able to set it to do so thanks to this video. i know its at my own risk
Do you find out what CTL connection do?
how accurate is the internal resistance measurements if you have one of those meters to compare it to
Great video, thank you very much. At my item the display is down. I want to change it but I can't find one anywhere. I do not really know what I should searching for. Does anyone know what display it is? Thanks.
Has anyone found how to actually calibrate this? Applying 10A doesn't calibrate it, it must be something else. Mine has x4 offset. When the load is 1A the unit is showing 4A. :(
No analog feedback to keep the current at the setpoint? That seems a bit poor.
not sure, I haven't reversed engineered the schematic but it does vary a bit as we saw in the video.
There is definitely a feedback circuit controlling the set current. The 10A voltage drop on the shunt resistors is likely 100mV.
just had to rewatch this video to see how to get around that dang menue again. anyways i use the low voltage cut off and alarm to help me test watt hour capacity tests for my lead acid batteries. i fully charge the battery, find the ah rating, make the load tester match it, then set the low voltage to 10.5v and away we go. when the testing starts beeping i know the test is done and can use the watt hour reading on the tester display to find the real capacity of my battery. the test takes about 20 hours so i set it up and forget about it. it doesnt start back up once the alarm is triggered, even after a few minutes which is nice. for some reason my display always shows .01 amps which bothers me. i do have a 30 v 10 amp psu i could calibrate it with i guess, but im not too worried with such a small amount of error.
I got one of these recently from Amazon and have been using it to test some batteries. Occasionally it trips (stops) and displays the message "Tips!". This is not mentioned anywhere in the 1 sheet "manual". Pushing the button starts it again without resetting the accumulated amp-hours or watt-hours. It happens on some large 12V batteries I'm discharging at 5A ~60W) *and* with some small portable li-ion power packs that I was discharging at only 1A (5W). The "T" suggests an overtemp condition but this seems unlikely since I'm well under the 150W limit and the measured load temperature is kept quite low by the fan. Anybody else see this?
Tks, i need One for My experiment on laboratory,.
Good review, how do you determine the capacity of the battery/pwr supply, Ahr? whr?
Finally got one. The 180W version first ordered with vertical fan never came. So I got the one you review. Found current showing around 8% higher, but not instruction how to calibrate. It actually came programmed to switch off at 180W. Great for checking capacity of small batteries. But when connected to a Yaesu FP757GX a 18.8V 20 A supply I very carefully did current tests but at 13A it blew up! Very poor fine control, I know it is cheap but sorry way too poor of a craftsmanship.
For the calibration of Amps, maybe you can set the voltage to 10V and then it is only doing 100W, if it's only looking at Amps then voltage doesn't matter, after that step you can put the voltage up to calibrate that.
+TheDefpom good point! I need to try that.
Do you know the FET's part #? I'm very curious if they're using something suitable or not.
I have a version that is almost perfect, the unit works great except the cut-off Voltage/Warning function, it shuts off the load but as soon as the voltage increases a little the load turns back on, if only it stayed off until the button was pressed :( Almost all batteries have a recover voltage so this is an annoying problem, the manufacture has almost got it right, maybe some clever person will work out a simple modification to fix this problem. Maybe some kind of electronic latch connected to white socket located to the right of the current adjustment pots. Apparently this socket is a warning output.
Also bought one based on this review. Looking forward to trying it out. Thanks!
What is the two wire white connector for on the right side of the unit close to the buzzer?
just a logical output, it's mentioned in the video.
Thought it was a drone at first. Nice stuff.
I bought this dummy load, to use for discharge my 48V ebike battery, but when I got it up to 100W load, it short-circuited my battery and after a few times the MOSFET on the dummy load was shorted between drain and gate. I ordered new VISHAY IRFP264 MOSFET. I got to 130W before it also short-circuited. Is it the "high voltage" that kills it? Maby you also can try it with a higher voltage VoltLog?
I don't think it's the voltage that kills your mosfets. It's probably too much power, the mosfet overheats and it fails.. sometimes they fail as a short circuit. I would suggest getting the mosfets from a known distributor, not from ebay(they could be fake if you got them from ebay).
probably reached the second breakdown of the MOSFET due to being too hot. If we aim to keep the die temperature below 100C to maintain reliability we can work out approximately how much power we can dissipate. A TO247 die-to-case resistance is about 0.5C/Watt. The heatsink in the video can probably do 0.5C/Watt to ambient. Assuming 25C ambient, the maximum continuous power we can dissipate safely is P = (100-25)/(0.5+0.5) = 75Watt. Worth noting that the die-to-case resistance of the FET will be significantly worse if the heatsink is mounted to the plastic side of the FET package instead of the metal side. They really should have used two or maybe even three MOSFETs in this design.
Lucky for me I ordered 2 spare MOSFETs, so now I changed to the second spare I had. This time I tested with a 12V PSU, and placed a temperature probe in the MOSFET hole on the backside, to monitor the temperature. Now I got up to approximately 150W load and the temperature probe measured 80ºC! I ordered the MOSFETs from diy-audio4you on eBay, a German company, so I hoped it was genuine parts. Should it work with the 48V ebike battery now, or could the voltage be a problem?
Edit: Picture of the setup from my OneDrive: 1drv.ms/i/s!Arb68ycFMJxLtGgtSCLGGUrlrUq8
I could not resist, so I tried out with the 48V battery, and now it went just fine! : D I suspect that the cooling paste I used on the first MOSFET was too old, and therefore it became too hot. I also now used a separate 12V supply for the fan to run it on max speed. Thanks for the good answers :)
Picture of the 48V setup: 1drv.ms/i/s!Arb68ycFMJxLtXUVl-bIfTPlFhwZ
Got the same problem with mine
I watched your video and bought myself one of these. Cool device.
I think it would be quite easy to turn this into an arduino controlled dummy load with data
logging capability. I guess the potiometers are simply used to feed a control voltage into an opamp in a current control loop. Then, it would be easy to replace the pots with a dac controlled by an arduino.
There must also be some circuity already present to measure current, voltage and temperature with a microcontroller for the lcd display. It should be possible to reroute these to the analog inputs of an arduino. All the rest is a matter of software.
Could you take a closer look at the circuit, please? This would be an interesting
project!
Thank you very much for your great videos!
What you are saying is not far from designing a dummy load based on Arduino from scratch. Unfortunately I do not have the time to do that. There is a good dummy load design based on Arduino checkout Scullcom Hobby Electronics #45 - Electronic DC Load
I totally understand that. I wasn’t asking you to design the thing, of course. I just wanted to put the idea out there for others to pick up. Maybe I’ll try myself.
One thing would be very interesting to know though: Is my assumption about how the pots work correct? And is the control voltage something that an arduino could handle (
Hey, did you end up trying to develop the arduino data logger for this e-load? That something I would really like to have.
@@Utube2Itube No, unfortunatly not. I switched to this project: www.scullcom.uk/category/projects/dc-load/
I have the pcb and most of the parts, but some are still missing and hard to come by here in Germany. I have to find the time...
Rdson of the MOSFET rises with temperature. Obviously either the current measurement and/or the current control has a temperature drift.
Great idea to test disconnecting the fan. This is dangerous indeed.
Thanks for the review. I've bought one. The analogue knobs will be good for testing my solar panels.
thanks!
nice review +++ . I bought the same 180w LOAD .
As did I, but the cons are similar. Crap firmware, buggy as hell. Still can't figure out how I got the cutoff voltage to the right number! A vid on how to adjust one would be great... It does log data on the screen, until you re-set it. Another big problem is when it reaches the cutoff voltage, it stops, then tries to re-start. Continuously! You cannot leave this alone, you have to be there to shut it off, and to get your readings. Good try, but no cigar!
Nice, could you try to get one of the bk-precision rip off ? M9710 or M9711
can we test a pc power supply with this...?
Which and how many power semiconductors are hide under the heatsink?
just one, haven't checked but I assume mosfet plus two dual diodes (I would assume for protection) or maybe a diode and a temperature sensor in a rather large TO220 package.
i wonder how hard it would be to hack it and control it with arduino(or something else) controller
can you post a link of one that is digitally controlled with Windows software control? (or do you mean something like the EBD-USB+ but is limited to 35 watts max)
Wait, it has a mounting system for a bigger heatsink? Seems like I could put a Cooler Master Hyper 212 on it for max power!
CPU heat sink of PC is adopted in this dummy load. So there are people out there who step up the heat dissipation capability by using more powerful CPU heat sink.
there is another dc load with the same capabilities, but with different screen that HAS 4 wire measurement. i think the pcb is almost the same, so maybe you can make a mod to this to make it 4wire. i think many will like that mod.
I bought one of these and the fan is a knockoff for sure, don't know about the rest. Everything looks identical, but my fan's label just says "Cooler" in the top half of the logo, empty space where it should say "Master." The brand was "Makerhawk" on Amazon, paid $45.99.
There were a couple of places selling identical ones for like $38-40, but I paid the extra 5 hoping to get the best knockoff. About to test it out.
edit: about the pots, would it be good to swap them for some 5-10 turn precision pots? I got a few of those for cheap, 10KΩ and 50KΩ, maybe I"ll try it out if the existing Ω are close.
Man I had high hopes for this. It's really nice but not being digitally controlled kills it for me.
yup, got the same feeling :(
VoltLog it's be cool to design one and do a Kickstarter to sell it. I don't kniw if enough people would be interested to make it viable though.
I live in Romania, not possible to do a KS.
I guess is nice to have digital control, but the effect is the same. The load do vary in both digital and analog circuits because the problem is heat @ measure shunts, not digital or analog control. Said that, I would like to have digital control but bought it anyway
@@voltlog there's Indiegogo, which is international.
Nice video from our dummy load officionado (as Dave would say). Unfortunately the load is in my opinion not usable. So we all have to wait until "the ultimative load" is available as said in the video.
Are the knobs rotary encoders or just regular pots?
regular analog pots
Thanks. For me this product, with all its strengths is close - but still not worth buying. I'm holding out until a better version appears. I'd like to see rotary encoders, digital control, proper temp management, easier setting of parameters like cutoff voltage, 4W measurement and easy re-calibration with decent accuracy. Desireable features would be other modes like CV, CP, CR and a USB PC interface. I'd be happy to pay a little extra for these features.
You've pretty much given the definition for a good dummy load, but so far I haven't seen any that will do all that and cost under $200. Closest are the Maynuo/Itech loads from aliexpress.
While it's kind of implied by the "no overtemperature protection" I think that "No fan failure protection" or "No fan failure auto-shutdown" is a critical CON and deserves its own listing. One might even list something like "No malfunction auto-shutoff" as other things might fail with similarly dangerous results.
It should also be kept in mind that with low-voltage auto-cutoff being so difficult to set many people will skip it and it can potentially cause lithium batteries to fail explosively and cause a fire. That is a LOT more serious a CON than just listing the "no easy adjustment of cut-off voltage"
In fact, in future reviews you provide, it might be a good idea to add a third category for dangerous things so you have, "Pros", "Cons", and "WARNINGS"
wonder how accurate is it?
First video without disassembling the hardware?, but very helpfully to take a a purchase decision. Thanks !!!!
thank you!
Mate you have not been able to kill it? I think it should come with a bag of FET's as it has no proper feedback. I had 2 thermal runaways already with under 150 watts!
Thank you for your time and the good demonstration.
Good review.
This is the best ready solution for today. I like the big display.
Where can I download the detailed manual from the manufacturer of this device?
I don't think a manual exists.
Can I use this device as a charge tester too? - Without electronic load, to count only the charge going to the battery.
For that purpose a better choice would be this one ruclips.net/video/U1pO7WlpM6c/видео.htmlm58s
Is this a four wire capable load or just two wire.
Didn't you see the complete video? It's only 2-wire.
two wire.
I want warn the user of this device! Please be careful if you connect your energy source to this electronic load, be sure that you turn down both load control potentiometer while you are connecting your source to this load!
I was not so careful and as a result my LiFePO batterypack burned down the power transistor. It seems that the load dont shut off the load at the boot time!
Can some one help me and write which type of power transistor is using this load?
I found the answer in the other comments, it`s a IRFP264. I have ordered some at ebay for repair.
be careful as the ebay ones might be fakes which will easily fail under a bit of stress.
Hi, what brand is this device? HiDANCE or ATORCH?
I believe those are just the shops where you get them from. They should be the same device. I got mine from ATORCH
It's nice they used a computer heatsink thats makes it replaceable but the analog controls make it not an ideal solution...
from own experience
a ">150V!"- overvoltage indication caused a freeze of the display, with just this message, on my 150W electronic load from Chinese production, which looks quite similar. I have not been able to create a RESET of this message with the one button on the board.
The adjustable load itself still works, only the display constantly shows ">150V!" It's a mystery to me how the overvoltage message appeared, because I only tested USB Power-Bank's. Maybe a burst spark...no idea (?)
In the case of the more frequent, and also understandable, operating case of the undervoltage message, this can be reset by applying a voltage above this setting value to the measuring input. With the key on the board, as far as I know, only the measuring value memory can be reset. The error or message memory is excluded from this.
If someone has a TIP to reset this overvoltage message I would be very grateful ! - Greetings Michael/germany
Die Taste zum reset 7 Mal drücken
Did you also do an accuracy test of current and voltage measurement? To my experience the current sensing is often way off the specs over the whole range from 0.2 - 10 Amps.
This is not the fake load, is it? Ah accuracy measurement was coming later - seems fine here :-) Its really funny that this piece doesn't have temperature control and a temp. regulated fan - as the cheap products and even the fake product has it?? Also the 4-wire sensing is missing, which would be cheap to accomplish. Must have been an earlier built i guess - hope future versions will be more improved. Any hints on that?
this is not a fake model, but not a good model either. I don't know if there is any follow-up version of this model, I haven't seen any.
thanks for the answer. What exactly do you mean by not a good model either? The measurement seems to be quite accurate but some features like temp. sensing and fan speed control are missing. But the most important for me is stability and reliability in measurement. And if it does real 150W - than that is o.k. for the price.
Do you have a model in this power range that you can recommend with a similar price? :-)
the 60W model that I reviewed I consider the best because it's reliable and has an easy to use interface. This 150W model has some issues with setting the current, the adjustment is kinda coarse and it wasn't able to sustain 150W, it should all be in the video and I don't remember the other issues because I reviewed it a year ago.
Jst conectors are for 4 wire measurement.... 👍 as in all dummy load that type..... D
No PC logging, no safety shut off = FAIL :) Thanks for the review.
I just bought one of these and had it working in low voltage alarm mode by using the
I think there is very poor debounce in the button press. After lots of trial and error I've re-enabled the cut off voltage. Sometimes holding the button increases the threshold, other times it reduces it.
You should also check the button itself, maybe it's low quality and got damaged.
Needs a few more buttons, providing just one button to navigate menus is just silly!
Good review, thanks.
yup, could use a button or two extra.
Wonderful explanation. Thanks for this video.
searching for "150w load" reveals more offers for this product.
cool, haven't tried that because i thought it would bring up lots of results from the old "fake" model
Thank you for this video, very informative.
Wanted to use this to test a 50v li-ion pack but 150w is not enough of a load. Prevented a potential return, thanks!
The display voltage is not accurate
Good review
Thank you. Subscribed.
Seeing the fan, you can already tell that this is not an original design. This type of heatsink/fan is meant for CPU processors. And if I recall well, this type of Cooler Master design isn't in current (OEM) catalogue anymore.
And what is the problem? There are different products like this that use CPU coolers to cool MOSFETs and that do a very good job. I have a similar electronic load that had a small CPU cooler and exchanged it against a bigger CPU cooler (Alpenfön) and it works really fine with this: goo.gl/1JEoUQ
The fan is not a good indication
MrCanidi , never said CPU fans are wrong. They are indeed very handy to use and have a good performance. The only thing I am saying is that's not a standard professional solution.
should have 4-wire measurement!
Good video
Good video. Thanks.
great review but substandard product.
My feybret youtober one Up The Sleeve Customs has this bad Boy 🙂. Greetings from Slovenia
Thanks for sharing :-)
IF your gonna review for us novice's then tell us what it can do and clean up please. does it charge batteries, does it discharge batteries, types of discharge and charging inputs/outputs, capacity testing, display info etc!
Nice video. Thumbs up....PEACE
Mm
Looked promising, complete garbage.
They just slabbed display and power cutoff to this dumb load xD
I bought the current version of this load from Ebay. The load, as best as I can figure it out is quite nice. The overwhelmingly bad part of this load is the one small sheet of mechanically translated chinglish instructions. I've had it for two days and have yet to figure out how to set the low voltage cut-off. The reviewer is wrong. The "
complete fail