Zketech EBC-A20 software frozen

[didix]

Dear all,
following my precedent test results to operate EBC-A20 on windows and Ubuntu. I shortly report that now I have it working on a raspberry pi 400. The only tricks, at least for me, was how to connect the serial link of the Pi400. In fact beyond all the command line already explained for ubuntu, it needs first to put in the pi400 parameter list, the external serial link ON. That'all. I have not encountered special issue with Raspbian.

Then after, I have made some test and discover that the EBC software operation is not always stable, firstly due to the current regulation mode it seems, when the setting is too close to the low limit of current of 0.1 A for example. So for my use of test of electro-chemical cell, it may be a problem but not when testing bigger cells or battery which do not have strange erratic behaviour as may have a laboratory electro-chemical cell. The other issue for me is more on the analysis work to do on the csv data file, but this is another problem, out of this discussion of initiating and controlling a proper operation of the EBC A20 by the serial link. For me, for now it's sufficient, except that I'm not able to create a batch command to automatize the initialization procedure of the serial line on Ubuntu. but this is not critical at all.
Hope it helps the group of DIY solar power systems at human level
Which a nice following and success in your project for this,

Didier

 

[astroinfidel]

I have the same piece of junk A20 tester with the same problem. It disconnects after several hours, losing the curve and wasting your time. This is actually my second A20. The first one was bought on Amazon, and stopped working after 6 months. It also had a fan that sounded worn out when brand new. It also had a habit of disconnecting for no reason, losing the curve.
When it stopped working completely I contacted the manufacturer in China. They had me send them a photo of the label, and they told me it was counterfeit and they didn't make it. The seller was no longer on Amazon. And Amazon told me to basically get lost..it was not their problem. So I was out the money.
So I stupidly bought a second one on Amazon. This one has a much quieter motor, but the software just wasted 8 hours of my time by disconnecting in the middle of the night, shutting down, and losing the curve, and I am not very happy about it. I do have the power setting such that Windows will not try to make the computer sleep..just the screen.
So now what do I do? Waste the next week with the same issue? I have 3 - 300 AH batteries to test. Each one takes 60+ hours to discharge and test. And now this piece of junk software makes that maddening to even think about, and threatens to end a test after close to 60 hours and lose everything. Junk..don't buy.

edit: Well I just tried to return the tester I bought on Amazon in Feburary of 2024. Once again, the seller has left Amazon, Amazon tells me the tester is too old for a refund, and I am out the money..again. What an absolute piece of junk and Amazon scam this "tester" is.
Dean

 

[Ferdous Irtiaz Khan]

Dear all,
having also spent time to be able to operate EBC-A20 tester, I would you thank a lot for the help that you share,
And in my turn, let me share with you some additional information to get EBtester running better on windows and on linux ubuntu :

****** On my portable ASUSpro with Windows 10-11 :
I lost time with low cost serial adapter. With prolific chip, it needs to force to last old 2012 driver which requires disabling auto update from windows as it is set by default. Then the link was established by looking in device parameter setting to find the assigned com port number (and eventualy force it between 1-9 (as required by the EB soft), but anyway, the operation was not stable and cycling test never can go longer than 1 h before the link is lost and soft is frozen. At least I learned from this first trial that we only need 3 wires : gnd, Rx, Tx. No need of +5V.

The solution was to buy for about 15-20€ a good isolated serial adapter as one built around the valuable FTDI FT232RL IC. In my case, it is from DSD TECH the SH-U09C3 (found on Amazon.fr). No issue of driver on windows. The test was possible with comtools for example with looping jumperof Rx with Tx. Just note that pins location are printed on the back face of the printed circuit. That will avoid you losing some more time to search for paper or web doc and maybe not find as for me.

Then note that the eb tester soft is very sensitive to the syntax to set the test parameters (step, U, I, mn, etc...). A mistake between decimal "." and "," can crash or froze it, and you lose your work, but when you know and stay careful with this, it's ok.

******* On Ubuntu 20.4 with wine, (or winehq)
It was a little bit more difficult at first to operate the serial link, even if before I've got the same issue with the picaxe AXE027. But when you don't die in the previous fights, that gives the force to keep on when again and again it is the SOS (Same Old Sh...t) ;-)))
Fortunately, I found useful information pieces on different web site (github.com/joga/ebc, wiki ubuntu, malekal, ask ubuntu, EEweb, ...)
First important thing, an incredible one !!! remove the forced braille interface if you are not blind, as it will force assignment of tty :
$ sudo apt remove brltty
then plug the USB interface and make
$ lsusb
Normaly, now you will find the ftdi USB. It is probable that the ftdi driver is automatically installed by ubuntu, if not installe, you can get it from the ftdi site for ubuntu, and there is an autoinstall file to double click on.
Then check the assigned USB number by :
$ dmesg | grep "ttyUSB"
linux will probably provide tty USB0
then give you all right for futher step by :
$ sudo chmod 777 /dev/ttyUSB0
Now, you can use comtools under wine (or an equivalent for ubuntu) to test the serial link with the feedback Rx-Tx jumper

The as there is no ZKE eb tester software, you need to install it on ***** wine, which include also the driver for ftdi adapter
You can find on web eb tester 1.8.5 in a compressed .rar file
I was upset to discover that unrar, was not by default on may ubuntu distribution, so if same for you as it is a recurrent bug of gnome, just do :
$ sudo apt-get install unrar
then in the decompressed directory obtained with unrar (for me in download directory), you have an eb installer file, run it
then normally, you should find in your applications : ebtester, and it should open the tester windows. But you have something more to do to assign a COM port in wine for the windows.
Note also that for me, a simple assignment was not working because already used and again there was an issue of user right permission. So there is a solution which is to force it anyway, by adding a "f" in the command line :
$ sudo ln -sf /dev/ttyUSB0 com2
You may need to create a new rules to give access to all, which includes your wine program and user
$ cd etc/udev/rules.d
$ sudo nano 10-usbserial.rules
This open the "nano" editor. You can use another such as "vim" if you prefer. You need to write the content :
KERNEL=="ttyUSB0", GROUP=="dialout",MODE="0666"
Then save. You may verify it with :
$ ls and then double click on it (exit by exc) - for me there was a mistake, as has appeared a .rules.save file. In that case, rename it
$ sudo rn <file name> <renamed file>
Then to check rights are ok :
$ sudo udevadm control --reload rules
I think better to redo:
$ sudo ln -sf /dev/ttyUSB0 com2
check with
$ ls -al/dev
and also :
$ ls -lh

In case you are on an old version of wine, better to update, so check by
$ wine --version
if not version 8.x :
$ sudo apt --install.recommends winehq.stable
recheck at the end the wine version

At that time, I know, this is not perfect as it seems there are some rights conflict when I shutdown the PC or not all the time when it goes in sleep mode, so I just redo the 3 commands :
$ sudo chmod 777 /dev/ttyUSB0
$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
$ sudo ln -sf /dev/ttyUSB0 com2
and I check com2 is attached to USB0 with :
$ ls -lh
Normaly it should work at once but redo in case

My next step would be to check if I can use a raspberry and linked the EBtester to it. The intent is not to allocate my general purpose PC to one tester as trial can last for long time ;-)))

Regards, cordialement
Didier

Hi Didier thanks for your detailed comment, can you elaborate a bit about the connection with windows 11, the USB serial adapter you mentioned(SH-U09C3) where should I connect it, by opening the box of the EBC-a20? Currently I have a micro USB to USB connector which does not show any device in my PC.