Affordable Cell Cycler?
- Thread starter rg12
- Start date
goatman
10 MW
im using this one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07G7Y3P58/ref=dp_olp_afts?ie=UTF8&condition=all
Thunderheart uses one also
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07G7Y3P58/ref=dp_olp_afts?ie=UTF8&condition=all
Thunderheart uses one also
goatman said:
Awesome, I know that unit, it's on Aliexpress for much cheaper with free shipping
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/400...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_
Pajda
10 kW
ZKETECH testers are maybe the best pick on the market for poor man.
I just warn you because you will start with single channel tester, then you find you need more channels and buy two more, but it is still not enough and you buy 8ch tester and it is still not enough...
So If you think it seriously with battery testing, then go for EBC-X0510 8ch tester http://www.zketech.com/pd.jsp?id=16#_pp=2_314. The limitation against EBC-A20 is only 10A discharge per channel but it is enough for 18650 and 21700.
And of course do not forget to buy true 4-wire cell fixtures, I can recomend BF-2A model https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32797482635.html
I just warn you because you will start with single channel tester, then you find you need more channels and buy two more, but it is still not enough and you buy 8ch tester and it is still not enough...
So If you think it seriously with battery testing, then go for EBC-X0510 8ch tester http://www.zketech.com/pd.jsp?id=16#_pp=2_314. The limitation against EBC-A20 is only 10A discharge per channel but it is enough for 18650 and 21700.
And of course do not forget to buy true 4-wire cell fixtures, I can recomend BF-2A model https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32797482635.html
Pajda said:ZKETECH testers are maybe the best pick on the market for poor man.
I just warn you because you will start with single channel tester, then you find you need more channels and buy two more, but it is still not enough and you buy 8ch tester and it is still not enough...
So If you think it seriously with battery testing, then go for EBC-X0510 8ch tester http://www.zketech.com/pd.jsp?id=16#_pp=2_314. The limitation against EBC-A20 is only 10A discharge per channel but it is enough for 18650 and 21700.
And of course do not forget to buy true 4-wire cell fixtures, I can recomend BF-2A model https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32797482635.html
Already got that exact same holder, it's so sexy that heavy aluminum unit
And will probably order the single channel and someday pay $700 (which is not alot) for the 8 channel which looks cool and industrial (like the $3000 units)
DogDipstick
100 kW
My Pl6 by Revolectrix is very good when it comes to it. You know. I can set it up and do a 100mAh cell ( x6, actually) through hundreds cycles or a 100Ah cell through hundreds of cycles. All on datalog and spreadsheet for export. Old, but good. Well known and accepted in the hobby community, and simple. You can have two PL8 and test 16 cell at once up to like a couple thousand watts.
Only lith and lead? nah. i can do Nimh Peak and hold, Nickel cad, lead, Sealed AGM, Lifepo, LTO, Lith, configure any charge or discharge voltage, do CC/CV discharge or not, balance on discharge, or charge, choose balance voltages, do a 10mAh-100,000Ah battery.. up to 1000w and 40A... up to hundred hour timeouts and 50+ safety timeouts and codes that stops or tells of problem. reverse polarity protect of course, too. Costs about 150$ if you can find one used. Good hobby grade multichemistry workstation. 1000Hz Ac IR. 16 bit resolution.
Only lith and lead? nah. i can do Nimh Peak and hold, Nickel cad, lead, Sealed AGM, Lifepo, LTO, Lith, configure any charge or discharge voltage, do CC/CV discharge or not, balance on discharge, or charge, choose balance voltages, do a 10mAh-100,000Ah battery.. up to 1000w and 40A... up to hundred hour timeouts and 50+ safety timeouts and codes that stops or tells of problem. reverse polarity protect of course, too. Costs about 150$ if you can find one used. Good hobby grade multichemistry workstation. 1000Hz Ac IR. 16 bit resolution.
Pajda
10 kW
Actually I was using PL6 and PL8 for some time but find many problems when used as batery tester/cycler. It leads to my definition: "universal battery charger is usually very bad tester/cycler" Most problems are related with the software. When you are running cycle life tests, you will certainly appreciate an automatic generation of two different log files.
First with the results of total capacity/energy/time value per one step(cycle). This data you find in ".run" file of EBx tester software. So you actually get only important data for generating graph of capacity fade. See the detail.
And the second ".dat" file with voltage and curents samples. Which is useful for comparison of DCIR fade when you compare first and last cycle curve.
First with the results of total capacity/energy/time value per one step(cycle). This data you find in ".run" file of EBx tester software. So you actually get only important data for generating graph of capacity fade. See the detail.
Code:
Device:EBC-X0510
Channel:3-2
----------www.zketech.com--------------
Cycle Step Mode Capacity(Ah) Energy(Wh) Time(S)
1 1 C-CV 2,168 8,703 01:09:55
1 2 Wait 0,000 0,000 00:10:00
1 3 D-CC 3,989 14,390 00:56:13
1 4 Wait 0,000 0,000 00:10:00
2 1 C-CV 4,014 15,280 02:02:07
2 2 Wait 0,000 0,000 00:10:00
2 3 D-CC 3,976 14,360 00:56:03
2 4 Wait 0,000 0,000 00:10:00
..And the second ".dat" file with voltage and curents samples. Which is useful for comparison of DCIR fade when you compare first and last cycle curve.
Code:
Device:EBC-X0510
Channel:3-2
Step:1 C-CV 02,10 04,20 00,10 240
Step:2 Wait 00,00 00,00 00,00 10
Step:3 D-CC 00,84 02,50 00,00 0
Step:4 Wait 00,00 00,00 00,00 10
----------www.zketech.com--------------
Time(S) Cur(A) Vol(V)
3 2,100 3,585
5 2,100 3,586
8 2,100 3,591
..DogDipstick
100 kW
Pajda said:
What problems? Might I ask, friend? ? What software did you use?
There are other soft wares for viewing the data ( than the OEM)...
Easily done with the Pl series. Data every 1 second. I can look at the first cycle IR, scroll down the file.. and see the 100th cycle IR. Time, date, ect. You would not be able to do that with the OEM software, but Excell and/or Wordpad.. yeah you can. Or put it through another program like the .cba format. All the logged data can be exported to delimited text.
The export to text is quite handy as you can easily import the data into Excel for more detailed comparison and data overlays. The chart is created this way using the charting in Excel. Very useful.
I got all of this. One sheet. Plus I get to recycle my energy. Matters when you have 100,000Wh throughput. 1000w. 6s. Regen. I test big cells, I dont play with those wimpy 18650 or 21700. Seriously, how do you plan to test a 25, 30, or 60Ah cell with 10A discharger? 30w? 2C on a typical 185650? Stress test much?? I guess, if your biggest cell is 10Ah, you could do 1C. 95% of the usefull-to-me cells in the world are much larger.
DateTime SlaveNum Cycle Mode SupplyVolts LSupplyVolts SupplyAmps PWM SecTimer AvgCellVolts MaxCellVolts AvgIR FallBackVolts CVStarted SlowAmps AvgAmps FastAmps SetAmps AhrIN AhrOUT PackVolts AvgPackVolts Fuel1 SumError Cell1Volts Cell2Volts Cell3Volts Cell4Volts Cell5Volts Cell6Volts Cell7Volts Cell8Volts Cell9Volts Cell10Volts Cell11Volts Cell12Volts Cell13Volts Cell14Volts Cell15Volts Cell16Volts Cell1IR Cell2IR Cell3IR Cell4IR Cell5IR Cell6IR Cell7IR Cell8IR Cell9IR Cell10IR Cell11IR Cell12IR Cell13IR Cell14IR Cell15IR Cell16IR BP1PWM BP2PWM BP3PWM BP4PWM BP5PWM BP6PWM BP7PWM BP8PWM BP9
Measurement accuracy:
Voltage resolution: 78uV (16 bit)
Voltage tolerance: +/- 6mV
Charge current: +/- 1%
Capacity added to pack: +/- 1%
Percent capacity (“Fuel”): +/- 5%
Heat sink: Internal 120W aluminum, thin finned
9 position LCD: 2 line, 16 character, light grey/blue backlit
Size: 5.70" x 5.57" x 3.40"
Specs say it has better resolution than the EBC-X0510 one?
Pajda
10 kW
DogDipstick said:
It was general statement that universal/modeller charger is usually not designed as battery tester/cycler. And so the control software does not have functions which are important/useful for cycle life tests. Also the charger control software is usualy not designed to run and log data 24/7 for months. So I am triyng to say If you think it seriously with battery testing, the control software is even more important than hardware itself.
My issues with PLx software was that there were no possibility to set any cycle count, there was only options 1,5,10,20 and infinite. Other issue was with the stability of very long logs, I lost data frequently. Also the PLx is logging all the available data and this is not needed for cycle test, for this you need to log only voltage and current or temperature if possible. So PLx software is generating giant files of useless data when used as cycler.
EBx testers and it software have also some bugs, but their engineers was inspired by the common battery tester/cycler software design and so the main functions are here present and working relatively well.
DogDipstick
100 kW
Pajda said:
Well, my powerlab has more cycle options than that. I dont consider it a "universal charge/tester", I consider it a "Battery workstation"...
Also, you can change the logging rate, to one log every 120sec( 30 logs per hour, 720/day.. if you left it on 1log/second.. that would be... 84,640 logs per day, silly. ) .. and you can enable/disable data compression.
You did all these things I suppose, thought....
I dont know why you only have four option for cycle, I have more.
Thankyou for your answer, friend. Always learning. I wish there ws something more suited to the powerful large cells I use.. I could never use a 10A testing machine, and yes the downfalls of the Powerlab are there like you say. . @ 10A, very weak and time consuming to test cells to fruition on a 10A machine for me. I need many many more amps personally.
For a small cell I could see how a purpose build single chemistry small machine may work better, for a life cycle test. I worry very little about "life cycle" honestly.
miro13car
100 kW
I use CBA electronic load to run discharge tests.
CBA- Computerized Battery Analizer
CBA- Computerized Battery Analizer
