USB power meter/tester thread - YZXStudio, Power-Z, RDTech and more.

Hello there,

I love my ZYxxxx devices, also the bluetooth option, therefore I wrote a small app (now in a very early alpha stage) and would like to share you this pre-version. Comments are welcome.

Download here

Regards
Patrick

That looks very neat! None of my Win10 laptops with bluetooth connect to any of my ZY meters. They just say Try connecting your device again after entering the pin (1234). An Android phone connects just fine. I haven’t wired a USB-Serial adapter to them either so I can’t unfortunately test your software. Could you make it work with the ZL1100 load?

Hooked up a serial usb adapter to the 1271 and your software works fine. Gonna do some more testing after soldering the pins on the board.

Here’s a graph and a snippet of the log it automatically saves (very nice!). I’d like the graph to automatically span the whole test period and not just the last 41 seconds or so. But of course I can use any spreadsheet to do that from the log file.

13.10.2017 17:26:47;5,0182;0,9913
13.10.2017 17:26:48;5,0192;0,9913
13.10.2017 17:26:49;5,0173;0,9913
13.10.2017 17:26:50;5,0183;0,9913
13.10.2017 17:26:51;5,0172;0,9913
13.10.2017 17:26:52;5,0167;0,991
13.10.2017 17:26:53;5,0086;1,0831
13.10.2017 17:26:54;5,008;1,0903
13.10.2017 17:26:55;5,0081;1,0903
13.10.2017 17:26:56;5,0075;1,0903
13.10.2017 17:26:57;5,0003;1,1696
13.10.2017 17:26:58;4,9975;1,189
13.10.2017 17:26:59;4,9977;1,1888
13.10.2017 17:27:00;4,9984;1,1888
13.10.2017 17:27:01;4,9888;1,2874

edit: I noticed the FTDI serial-usb adapter causes a small error in the current measurement as can also be seen from the log above. It reads 0.99A at 1A and 1.98A at 2A. When I remove the connection to pc, it is good again.

Excuse the computer-ignorant question, but when I think serial port, this is what comes to mind:

Is it required to have a computer with a serial port, so that one can use a USB-serial adapter (pictured below)?

The laptop I would want to use for data logging does not have a serial port - how would I connect a device like the YZXstudio 1270/1271/1276 to it for data logging in that case? Is mcpat’s software only useful if the computer can accept input from a serial port?

Thank you for the feedback. I am planning to save the complete graph as png file. Also that you can specify the log file location.

I got it working at windows 10, you have to go to the extended bluetooth options. add an outgoing com connection. then go to this com in the device manager, change there at the “extended” the com port number from e.g. com1 to com4, then it will ask for the pin, and then the pin is working. other ways not working (does not accept the pin). sorry for my english, but I hope you can follow…

My app will get many more features, this is the alpha release…

regards
mcpat

PS ZL1100 I don’t have, how does this work, also with bluetooth or serial port?

Perfect, got it working after a couple tries with your instructions. Thanks a lot!

The ZL1100 uploads data via its micro usb port (which also powers the unit) with an inbuilt CH340G usb-serial converter. One of the unfortunate features of the load is that it updates at a ridiculously high rate. It would be handy if a software could limit the log writes to one sample per second for example.

Should work, I bought this Ebay

Perfect. I will implement a sampling rate of 1second (or variable in settings, Not finished)

Zl 1100 should work if it has a com Port?

Its output is a bit different from the meters, but I’ll send you a sample tonight.

Here’s what the ZL1100 outputs in one second.

050171,010000,0000000016,0000000079
050171,010000,0000000016,0000000080
050176,010000,0000000016,0000000081
050176,010000,0000000016,0000000083
050176,010000,0000000017,0000000084
050178,010000,0000000017,0000000085
050178,010000,0000000017,0000000086
050178,010000,0000000017,0000000088
050182,010000,0000000018,0000000089

9 lines per second and the columns are:
Voltage (V*10000),Current (A*10000),Capacity (Ah*10000),Energy (Wh*10000)

Baudrate: 115200
Data bits: 8
Parity: none
Stop bits: 1

Thx, on monday I will update the app.

Nice weekend, mcpat

Who knows which device the golden one in the top left corner is?
And where is it available to buy?

Recently i found out about the round shaped device in the lower right corner, It’s the POWER-Z wireless charging receiver board (BG001):

Much appreciated, thanks!

I found YZXStudi products on eBay from >14 different sellers.
About which seller are you talking?

Is there some table that lists all the options and which each product has? Hard to keep track of, especially in english.

Thank you for your data. Need one more day, but it already works here for the zl1100, but chart need one day for developing…

Yes, Franky Tong helped me translate!

Also check out the feature list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dt—1kYYWxLFXcx3aZOOw8ely4mi9wtXAj397A9XvdI/edit#gid=696514437

Ah, thank you thank you thank you!

I do believe the second link is broken though. Looks like the 1276 vs 1275 is a lesser model except for amp capacity