ZKETech EBC-A40L Capacity Tester 0-5v 40a Charge/Discharge

These testers are awesome and a great tool to have for battery testing. They are brand new and we use this brand here to test all of our single cell prismatic batteries. We have a large testing cabinet with dozens of these. They all have been working flawlessly for years.

You can program this and connect it to your computer for full control and create charts. You can set this to charge, discharge, and recharge to properly test batteries. It will show you the capacity as well.

For example to test a lifepo4 3.2v battery you can program it to charge up to 3.65v at 20a until the amps reach a 0.2a cutoff, then have it automatically discharge at 25 amps down to 2.5v cutoff, then recharge up to 3.2v nominal voltage.

Note: you can charge and discharge from 0-5 volts and 0-40 amps.

Instructions:

To connect to your computer you need to download the driver (click here) then download the EB Tester software (click here). Note: if you have a windows computer in S-Mode you can disable that first. Go to microsoft store then search "switch out of s mode" then click "Get". S-mode is usually enabled for laptops with little memory so it doesn't allow you to download anything outside of the Microsoft store to save storage memory.

Next you can power on the tester and connect the USB adapter (included) from the tester to your computer.

Open the software then you will see Comm Setting. Select the Com Port of your USB and click connect. Com Ports will be a number between 3-9. If this is the only USB you have connected it will likely show up as Com3.

Now you are connected to the tester and Cycle test tab will appear on the top right. Click on Cycle Test. Then Setting on the bottom right of the screen (not the top setting tab). Now you can program the steps and parameters of your test. Keep in mind the range is 0-5v and 0-40a.

For this example we are testing a 3.2v 100ah lifepo4 battery.

Step 1 you will select Mode as C-CV (Constant Voltage). Current (amps) 20. Volt 3.65. Cutoff 0.2. This means the battery will fully charge at 20 amps until it reaches 3.65v then it will continue to charge until the amps drop to 0.2. This means a full charge. Then we selected Add.

Step 2 choose Mode as D-CC (Discharge constant current). We selected current to be 20a and voltage cutoff to be 2.5v. Then we selected Add.

Step 3 we want to recharge but only to nominal voltage. Mode is C-CV again. Cutoff 0.2a. Current 20a. Volt 3.2v. Then we selected Add.

Now that we are set up to the correct parameters select OK.

Now you will notice the parameter settings are loaded on the next screen. Connect your battery to the alligator clips. Click on Start.

The tester will fully charge to 3.65v at 20a until the amps drop to 0.2a. Then it will discharge at 20a until the voltage reaches 2.5v. Then it will recharge at 20a until the voltage reaches 3.2v and the amps drop to 0.2a for an exact full charge.

Note: the red and blue lines in the chart. The red line represents the amps and the blue line represents the voltage. When you hit start the amps in this example will increase to 20 and the voltage will climb over time to 3.65v, then you'll see the amps drop slowly until it reaches 0.2 amps for a full top charge. Then it will switch to discharge. You'll see in the middle of the chart the amps will go back up to 20 as the voltage drops until it reaches 2.5 volts. Then it will recharge back to 3.2v. The D-CC shows the capacity in amp hours and watt hours.  If you are testing a lithium ion battery you will notice the discharge curve is more angled compared to lifepo4 which tends to hold a steady curve near nominal voltage.

You can save test parameters as well then reopen it easily on that screen. Also if you want to change the title just click on Setting at the top tab and then Curve Title.

You should always test your batteries in a safe area. After all, this is for testing. You can also use this as just a charger. Note, lithium batteries are made to test at 0.2c rates. Meaning if you have a 40ah battery you should discharge at 8a (20%). A 100ah battery should be tested at 20a.

Note: The wires included are 10 gauge so they are rated for 30 amps. We recommend to only run these testers up to 30a if you are testing for a long period of time. Otherwise the 10 gauge wires will get hot and the heat could spread into the board and damage the unit.

For the English manual click here.

Note: ZKE notified us that their software does not currently work on Mac computers.