That’s also what I noticed… I need to place the ZL1100 on some sort of stand (maybe a wooden wedge or something) that will hold the tester, so as not to obstruct the fan flow ventilation…
As for the ZY1276, this is one of the meters with a nice large display (the other being the Power-Z FL001, which may be slightly inferior to the ZY1276 [haven’t seen any comparison reviews other than from the YZXStudio official store in China’s Taobao site). I think the Kotomi Pro, aka Power-Z KT001 also has a big display. The new meters right now (see the “USB power devices request for review message thread” for more info) have smaller displays, like the Power-Z KM001 or the ZY1275 (these devices I’ve not seen in non-Chinese webpages yet though… being released just a few months ago)
I’m just wondering, the ZL1100 can be connected to the PC via the micro-USB to USB port to output data.
Could it perhaps be supported by the free DataExplorer software for graphing purpose?
The ZL1100 load tester requires an independent power source for it to function, maybe it’s possible to put 3x1.5v (=4.5v) LR44 (or similar like CR2025) cells in series in a battery holder (preferably also with an on/off switch) and convert output to micro-USB to serve as independent power source for the ZL1100 — anyone has did such a mod?
The range can get confusing, especially when the translation isn’t the best when it comes to specs and reviews.
There are new meters hitting the market, yet they tend to all look similar and have similar functionality. I guess not much you can do about that.
I wonder where to from here, good times ahead for us techies.
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.
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?
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.
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.