Modification done to a EBC-A40L 5volts Battery Capacity Tester 40A for less noise when charging / discharging cycles

[sam_sam_sam]

When I first turned this battery testing machine the fan for the switching power supply was a little bit noisy but once I recapped the switching power supply board it quiet down considerably then I put a temperature controlled fan that does the mosfets control board was really noisy but now that it is cooled with temperature controlled fan that sensor was moved from the fan to the heat sink so now that the fan is controlled this way the fan runs according to the temperature of the heat sink

This switching power supply was really fun to recap the quality of the board was very good and easily replaced the capacitors the only capacitors that did not get replaced was the three capacitors near the output and the one near the fan power pins was not replaced because I did not have the right diameter size and not the right voltage either so I will take my chances with this part

I was surprised that it had some many 4.7uf @ 50 volts in the area around the controller ic chip and two 47uf @ 50 volts as well and one 1uf @ 50 volts and surprisingly enough they tested good with a ESR meter so I am a little confused to why the cooling fan was quieter after I replaced those capacitors but they were not brand names that I recognized so who knows what what was causing the fan noisier

I ran a test at 4 amps on a battery cell that I have not wanted to test this way because the there was only two mosfets on the 20 amp version and the 40 amp version has two sections with 2 mosfets in each section that I also have and it also does not have a temperature controlled fan either but fan that I have that is temperature controlled is in two different sizes and of course I do not have a fan that will fit but I might have found some that might fit I have see when I have some time if this version that I had misplaced and found them again while I was looking for something else

I have another 40 amp battery tester on it way and will modify this one as well and on this one I will post some pictures of the modifications that was done

I also modified the main alligator clips to a smaller version because of the type of battery cells that I will be testing because the original alligator clips were way to big the other battery tester I will probably not modify the alligator clips on this particular set of cables but make them removable so I can use both sets of alligator clips

[sam_sam_sam]

This switching power supply is a Chinese made brand that I have not seen before but it seems to be very well made it has aluminum heat sink bars that mount to metal enclosure with two screws and one that goes through the heat sink and the metal enclosure the only thing missing is a heat sink on the bridge rectifier but unfortunately the one that was used does not have a screw hole on so if I decide to do this modification I will have to replace it with one that does have this screw hole on it

It also uses thermal pads with thermal grease on the thermal pads and on the components as well the input / output terminals block which most of this type of switching power supplies also this switching power supply use a lot of green color square that looks like CHICLE GUM squares I have not seen a switching power supply with so many of them used for this purpose

[sam_sam_sam]

The fan that I found dose fit it this is the ones that are temperature controlled and it is the same size square but it is a little wider than the one that was originally used
I finally finished the enclosure for the 5 volt @ 12 amp Mean-Well switching power supply that I bought recently that were in a piece of new equipment but was disconnected and being sold New Open Box but the description said what the reason it was marked as New Opened Box sale 20 of @ $40.00 plus shipping cost $28.00 for a very big box that has some weight to it I have only replaced one capacitor and that was because of the brand that was used Capcon or something like that and when I see them if I have them in my parts bin they get replaced

They do look very new so this time I got what I paid for

Here is the listing for these Mean-Well switching power supplies

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134805362494

These one above is out of stock but dose have a lot of 10 - available but the price is higher

https://www.ebay.com/itm/13475644249...0AAOSwciZh1xo~


Now I have to make the testing jig for battery packs with BMS protection boards and the testing machines that have been modified for this purpose and I still have to setup the computers for this purpose as well but money is a slight issue at the moment I ran out project spending money so I have to wait a couple of weeks before I can buy the rest of the stuff that is still needed for this project

Buying these switching power supplies was not in the budget for this project just yet but because it was available and I forgot that I bought the last listing for 20 of them which I am glad that I took advantage of because it was a good deal for the brand that these power supplies are from I would not have done this if they were just a Chinese company that made them I would have only bought maybe two of but I would not paid very much for them either

Well the other new battery testing machine show up and now I have to recap this one as well but I am having a dilemma

I could just recap the switching power supply that is in there originally which I know will work but I do not necessarily want to have such a big switching power supply when I just want to test small amp hour battery packs

I could maybe resolve this issue with a 5 volt @ 12 amp switching power supply that I just bought and not exceed 10 amp when charging what I do not know just yet if this is going to cause any issues with the charging controller I am thinking that it should not matter as long as I do not exceed the switching power supply maximum power supply rating I am going to try this and see if there any issues with this education guess or not

Dose anyone have any ideas on this subject that would enlighten me on what I might expect to see and is there anything else that I should be aware of before trying this

[sam_sam_sam]

I decided to use this switching power supply instead of one that is in there now

https://www.ebay.com/itm/110969777814

and remove the boost converter which is set to 12 volts yes it is only 12 amps on the 5 volt section instead 50 amp but the charging current is maximum is 40 amps plus I only want to have a maximum of 10 amps on the charging current in the first place for how I going to setup this battery testing machine

The second one I will leave it way it comes originally except for recapping it and having where I can use the original battery alligator clips and smaller version of the alligator clips but this one is mainly going to be used for high current and high amp hour battery packs
I finally found the same type of aviation cables plugs was used on this machine so it will look professional and not a modification like someone did not know what they were doing

I will post some pictures of it when I am finished with my modifications to the second unit I will also post pictures of the first one after I get the switching power supply and have recapped it and move indicator light on the switching power supply board to the front panel

What is interesting about the mosfets board is that there are two separate pairs of mosfets and two separate relays but are wired in parallel to each other this is on the charging circuit and two separate single mosfets for the discharge circuit which is interesting how different this one is made compared to the other EBCA10H version is made now the question is will it last longer because of the different in the way it is made

[sam_sam_sam]

I have some batteries for sale on eBay and now all of sudden I have an order for 5 of them and a order for 30 of them ( the same buyer might want to get another 30 of them from me as well ) it is a good thing that I have a 8 channel battery testing machine from the same company and this testing machine has been a good one so far because I tested a lot of battery cells with it

When a while back I was putting new battery cells in Milwaukee battery packs for my battery operated tools not the ones that I have for sale but I bought the same battery cells that are used in the Milwaukee battery packs

The battery cells that I have for sale right now are 21700 batteries that I mentioned in another post a while back
The reason I have not offered rebuilding battery packs for power tools is because I still do not have my battery testing machine up and running for testing BMS protection boards for functionality which I guess sense I have had two orders in one week I need to get busy and get this testing machine up and running so can do this service as well

Now the ones that I do have for sale which I am not selling all of them I going to build some 4 amp hours which only have one row of battery cells for light weight battery packs I bought them from EBay and Aliexpress about a year ago but just have not had the time and it is not a very high priority right now because I have the High capacity battery packs working again so I am not in a hurry for them right now

I have a bunch 18650 but most of them are not rated for power tools so I have not been selling any of right now but I will probably offer them in a couple of weeks if I can get my tab removal tool build and up and running I and offer to build battery packs to order but I have not decided how much to charge for this service yet so we will see how this plays out

I have one more robotic battery pack that has been slightly damaged by me because of not being very careful with a broken power supply terminal block connector but I had repaired it for a project that I changed my mind about using this battery pack for I still have another one that I have not done anything yet with the battery connector is still in one piece if I remember correctly and I will use this one for this project and sell the battery cells out of the one that the corner cell got damaged but I replaced it with another battery cell

Now I also have some battery cells that came out of the Milwaukee battery packs that some of the battery cells are at the end of there life but some of them were still working fine but the amp hours were about 50 to 70 percent life still available and this is just a guess on my part because of testing at 5000 milliamperes hours they are testing out at about 3300 amp hours and use them for in a low current devices so I post something when I figure out how I am going to try this

[sam_sam_sam]

I am still waiting for the dual voltage switching power supply that has 12 volts and 5 volts it will get recapped and possibly a cooling fan installed if dose not have one
and remove the 12 volt boost converter because I just bought some Lipo 4 batteries that the full charge voltage is 3.50 @ 75 amp each battery cell the description of these battery cells is that they were used electric vehicles so I going to build a battery pack for one of my vehicles and see how well it works but there are some issues that I have to work through before I actually put it into service on a daily basis and if I not completely satisfied with the results from doing some torcher testing and see how well they hold up

Battery Hookup
New LEV60F 3.2v 74ah Lifepo4 Power Cells

https://batteryhookup.com/products/n...rismatic-cells

These battery cells are ones that I going to test at 40 amps and see what kind-a current voltage curves because apparently you could load test them at a maximum of 180 amp continuously these battery cells are not light in weight when I start testing them I will post some pictures of this post with the graphics of the voltage current during charge and discharge cycles

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I am still waiting for this switching power supply to show up it is showing that it has cleared custom so hopefully it comes sometime this week
Because I want to test these battery cells with the new switching power supply that has dual voltages and do way with the 12 volt boost converter and see how much better it works because I want use some temperature controlled cooling fans because unfortunately this switching power supply does not have a cooling fan I going to add one to it

I also have modify the battery terminal cables so that I easily remove them from the battery holder that I am using and I also have to finish the SkyRc battery testing machine that has a major failure with Bluetooth module and or the controller but I going to use it for the battery testing machine battery holder because it temperature wells and modify the temperature sensor for the SkyRc B6 battery testing machine so I can monitor 4 battery cells at one time so I do not have strap the temperature sensor on the battery cells each time I want to test battery cells that I do not know the history of the

The SkyRc B6 I normally use when I do not know the history of them but I also going to put temperature sensor controller to this battery holder SkyRc MC30000 enclosure I will show some pictures of it when I get this setup the way that I want to use it

[sam_sam_sam]

Update the switching power supply is suppose to be here sometime tomorrow afternoon depending on what time it gets here I might have time to recap it before I install

Correction on the temperature control on the SkyRc MC3000 it only monitor the temperature the SkyRc iB6 is one that has the temperature controller feature

[sam_sam_sam]

Unfortunately the USPS is playing games with this package I think it might have been misdirected and now they say maybe sometime Monday late afternoon so I worked on another project that I have had in the works and got a lot done with it and I still have a lot to do on it before it is ready for prime time and it's day view

[sam_sam_sam]

One correction on the SkyRc MC3000 it does have a temperature sensor controller but it is only activated when you write a charging/discharging cycle that you save as programmed cycle with it not available when just doing charging or discharging one time event

[sam_sam_sam]

Well finally the package arrived late this afternoon today so if I have time over the weekend I will try to work on it

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I only worked half a day today so I have had some time to recap the dual 5 and 12 volt switching power supply
I running a test on it right now and I had it up to 20 amps and everything went well even though it is only rated for 15 amps on the 5 volts side and 5 amps on the 12 volt side the only thing that the 12 volt side does as far as I know is it runs two relays and a cooling fan

I still have to drill one hole to hold the switching power supply and I still have to make the little board for the 12 volt power supply rail and put the battery testing machine back together the cover and screws and after all of that then do some battery testing on high current battery cells and see how they hold up to being torched tested

Add a small cooling fan that will be mounted just in front of the switching power supply to keep it running cooler this is the reason for the 12 volt power supply rail board

[sam_sam_sam]

I have this on another post but I going to add more to this thread

There was an issue with the switching power supply yesterday when I was testing it at 5 amps and higher that the display was getting a little bit brighter when the 5 volt rail was loaded more than the 12 volt supply rail this would be an issue over long period of time this is the reason why this was not used and a boost converter was used because of this issue which I now understand why it was done this way

I want to put another cooling fan on the controller board that controls the display back light and the function buttons because I noticed that after running for a while the board was getting a little warm the load cooling fan only comes on when the charge/discharge functions are used but I will probably use a small 24 volt cooling fan with the 12 volt power supply rail which would make the fan run at a slower speed

One note the temperature controlled cooling fan with the temperature sensor mounted on top of heat sink works really well with it loaded at 4.2 amp the temperature of the heat sink was very cool to the touch just what I was looking for

The switching power supply that I was going to use for this project is going to be used in another project where the loading of the two power supply rails are not going to be an issue too deal with because they will not be in an application that requires it to be turned on and off repeatedly

Added —> below—>

I have to figure out how to mount the small 12 volt @ 3 amp switching power supply and wire up power input side of the power outlet supply and then I have to wire up the 12 volt output side of the switching power supply

One thought is to use some threaded rivets with spacer to keep the screws from getting into the other switching power supply board because there is not enough room at the bottom of the enclosure and would also restrict airflow circulation which is not wanting to do this

OR

Use regular rivets and just join them together that way which might be similar to do in the long run

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I got done putting the original switching power supply back in and the 12 volt 3 amp switching power supply in as well and rewired both switching power supplies together and tested it to make sure everything worked correctly now I have to torch test at 20 amps to charge and discharge a battery cell and make sure everything is working properly and I can start testing some battery cells for a project that I have in the works I already have the battery cells I just have to test them and get the buss bars for them and put them in a battery case that was meant for marine use I have the BMS balancing protection board already it just having the time to devote to it and get it done

One note I did share the negative terminals on each power supply and are tied together I not sure if this is needed but the boost converter is not a isolated converter as far as I know

One other note I used some very good double sided tape to join the 12 volt 3 amp switching power supply metal enclosure to 18 volt 20 amp switching power supply now the two switching power supplies are together and hopefully stay that way

One final note the 12 volt 3 amp switching power supply is the smallest one that has a metal enclosure

If I decide to put a small cooling fan for the 12 volt 3 amp switching power supply I will take some pictures of it so you can see what it looks like

[sam_sam_sam]

I have ran it for last several hours in the idle position so that the capacitors in the 12 volt 3 amp switching power supply can reform and in the morning I switch off until I have more time to fix up the testing cables that I mentioned earlier in another post about what I am going to do

Now I have to finish up the electrical wiring on the wall that going to have some of the computers that are going to be used with the battery testing machine that I have been working on for last couple of months now

What I have left is to put in the electrical outlet in the electrical outlet boxes and the face plates and hook up the battery backup system and get it up and running again the rough in work is done this weekend what was left to finish up that I did not have enough last weekend

[sam_sam_sam]

Well yesterday I made up my mind about the computer/battery testing machine/soldering station wall about weather or not to run two different circuits for this wall I decided to run two separate circuits in the underground plastic conduit on wall and up to the ceiling and down the other wall on the other side of the shed to the electrical panel box on the wall but I used underground romex wire but removed the outside covering so that 4 wires plus one ground wire otherwise not all the wires would fit in a 1/2” conduit

The battery backup is going to be on a power strip to hook up the computers and monitors not necessary all computers and monitors will be on all the time but I might have to use two different battery backups one for the computer/monitor for each set but I have not decided yet on this setup yet

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I finally finished 90% of the wiring of the outlets and now I have to find a metal double switch face plate but Home Depot was out of stock when I went last weekend I going tomorrow and see if they have them back in stock or not

Plus I going to mount my incandescent light bulb socket on the wall with a wall switch so I do not break the light bulbs because they are getting very hard to find now

I going to have a 100 , 200 , 300 watt light bulbs on the wall for testing purposes instead of fuse when troubleshooting switching power supplies and other devices

So now its time to move more of my battery testing machines to my new shed and set them up and get them ready for battery testing