Quote:
Originally Posted by eq1
Although the superbrain does the basic job, I found it a little wanting. Some of the quirks make it less than optimal.
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I agree.
But ... nothing is perfect... so even though there are aspects I want different ... it still remains a fairly competitive unit for the price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eq1
I was looking into another option, something by Revolectrix called CellPro 8. It's like $250 but allows data logging and other stuff from your computer. I think you need to have/buy a power supply separate, and maybe some other options.
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I have one... the ( PL8) Power Lab 8 from Cell Pro.
It does some things the Super Brain does not ... but it is not perfect either , and it is more money... the job can be done with the simpler units.
As for the power supply ... the PL8 has 2 options:
#1> Connect it to a power supply you buy separately as you thought... although this can be a variety of power supplies within the specs range ... it is not a specific one... You can only get PL8 peak charging ability if you power supply can take it... your discharge ability is limited to the internal electricity to heat conversion.
#2> Connect it to a suitable battery ... in this setup it acts as a programmable bi-directional DC-DC converter... so when you do a discharge test the electrical energy is not all wasted as heat ... instead you are transferring it from battery A to battery B ... and when you do a charge you are doing the reverse transferring from battery B to Battery A ... the only energy lost is the less than 100% efficiency of the DC-DC Conversion ... This mode can do higher rates of charging and discharging ... but it can only do what both batteries can do ... When Charging Battery A you only have as much as Battery B can give ... and when discharging Battery A you can only take what Battery B can take.
In either mode ... it offers many of the features of the Super Brain plus you have more ability to tweak the charge and discharge profiles , and the whole connection to a PC , for logging and such ... it supports accessories for multiple cell individual monitoring and balancing ... and it is a network capable able device ... meaning you can network multiple PL8 devices together for more discharge or charge power or for more cells being individually monitored ... A bit of care must be taken with manual tweaking of profiles and such ... the PL8 protects itself, but it will let you do things that will hurt your battery if you ask it to ... so it is not as 'dummy proof' as the Super Brain... it offers 'dummy' profiles that are just as safe as the Super Brain profiles ... but it does let you change them if you want to... which may or may not be a good idea.
Pros and Cons no matter what you do.