CBA II - What do you think about it?

[Turak]

I have seen Tom/Silverfox mention his a few times.

Looking for a bit more information....basically the goods/bads. Any odd quirks or shortcomings?

It appears that you can run various discharges and overlay the graphs for comparing discharge curves, etc.

What else can it do that's useful?

 

[Turak]

So what.... no one else has one of these?

http://www.westmountainradio.com/CBA.htm

Well....

I went ahead and ordered one, figure I'll add it to my pile of battery testing gadgets...hehe.

So...Tom,

What are some of the short comings that you have experienced with the unit?

Also, what are some of the areas that you feel it excels in?

As to competitors....seems nothing comes close (function-wise) except a Cadex 7400ER and it really doesn't when you consider the price (i.e $3500). Even a Competition Electronics Turbo Matcher runs $1000, which is some serious coin for a battery tester.

 

[ViReN]

Have you seen Vencon UBA5? two channels... can perform both charge and discharge analysis, the Visual Analysis Designer is one of it's strong points. Only thing is that the current rating is limited to 2 Amp per channel (not a disadvantage, you can use a channel combiner to use single channel at 4 amp) and higher in cost though, but you cant get anything better at this cost, not even close.


CBA II is also nice, but it can only perform discharge analysis. simple to use and lower in cost.

 

[N162E]

So what.... no one else has one of these?

http://www.westmountainradio.com/CBA.htm

Well....

I went ahead and ordered one, figure I'll add it to my pile of battery testing gadgets...hehe.

So...Tom,

What are some of the short comings that you have experienced with the unit?

Also, what are some of the areas that you feel it excels in?

As to competitors....seems nothing comes close (function-wise) except a Cadex 7400ER and it really doesn't when you consider the price (i.e $3500). Even a Competition Electronics Turbo Matcher runs $1000, which is some serious coin for a battery tester.

A LOT of us have the CBA. The Cba is an excellent unit that does exactly what it is supposed to do. Applies a selective load to a battery or pack, measures the time to a cutoff voltage and gives you the results. That is all it does, nothing less nothing more. I have never heard of anyone who bought it that did not like it.

Make sure you get the thermal probe. For a few extra bucks it add an additional layer of safety and data.

Radio Shack is a great source for battery holders.:thumbsup:

 

[FatTony]

I use mine for matching cells when building battery packs and at the moment it is running through the massive selection of 18650's harvested from dead laptop packs and weeding out the duds.

I think it's a great tool.

 

[cheetokhan]

I just got a CBA II a few weeks ago and used it to compare a bunch of different batteries.
A few things I've learned:
The cheaper Tenergy brand 5000 mAh NiMH C cells from Battery junction have a noticeably higher capacity than the more expensive Titanium 6000 mAh cells.
Nobody makes a RCR123 cell anywhere close to the advertised capacity; the best I've measured is around 500mAh.
The cheapo WF brand CR123 cells form DX are garbage.
Of the CR123 cells I've tested, Battery Station brand has the highest capacity at a 1 Amp discharge rate.
The cheap Trustfire 18650 cells from DX really are close to 2400mAh.
I like my CBA II.

 

[Brlux]

I have one and agree it does exactly as advertised. The only down side is it limits power to 100W so when testing 12V lead acid batteries the most it can only do about an 8A discharge. I think there are some conditions that will limit to to 50W I think it was a higher ambient room temperature or something. I guess if you need more capacity then you need to get the CBA amplifier.

Some features I would like to see in future releases or software is a constant power load so you could set it to say 3W and measure battery capacity while current is changing dynamically with respect to battery voltage in order to maintain the constant 3W load. I think a constant power versed current load better approximates the battery powered loads that we use with switching power supplies in them. The hardware capabilities are their it just needs the software revised. I would also like to be able to graph and compare watt-hours in addition to the already available amp-hour graphs without having to import it to an excel spread sheet.

Did I forget to mention that I love my CBA-II and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for affordable battery analysis test equipment.

 

[ViReN]

Nobody makes a RCR123 cell anywhere close to the advertised capacity; the best I've measured is around 500mAh.

Very true for RCR123. The best I have seen are AW RCR123 (Black Label) cells at 550 mAH @ 0.5 C

BAR File

Results File

 

[ViReN]

The Old AWRCR123 (Blue Label) cells tested at around 620+ mAH. These are slightly higher in diameter and height. Some lights wont accept these cells.

Here is the CBA II Test that I did a few weeks ago.

West Mountain Radio - CBA
AW RCR 123 Old 01 (09/22/08)
1Li-ion @ 0.7A
StartV: 4.0 EndV: 2.8
Tested Capacity: 0.65 Ah

West Mountain Radio - CBA
AW RCR 123 Old 02 (09/22/08)
1Li-ion @ 0.7A
StartV: 4.0 EndV: 2.8
Tested Capacity: 0.62 Ah

 

[thekobk]

I also own and love my cba II but wish west mountain radio would add a couple of features to this thing. I have emailed the company with these suggestions but was told they have no plans to add my suggestions.:mecry:

1. Windows Vista 64bit drivers. This thing will not work on my laptop.
2. Temperate logging, Or at lest some record of the peak temp during discharge.

 

[Turak]

THANK YOU everyone......GREAT information.

Looks like I didn't go wrong and I did get the optional temp probe with it.

I did take a look at the Vencon unit, but it too was a bit pricy for me. Looks like a great unit though, especially the way you can build quite a variety of test routines.

How close do the discharge capacities measured with the CBA II compare to the values from a BC-900 or a MH-C9000 charger or even the Vencon unit?

 

[ViReN]

How close do the discharge capacities measured with the CBA II compare to the values from a BC-900 or a MH-C9000 charger or even the Vencon unit?

Congrats on your purchase of CBA II, it offers the best of it's capabilities at a very economical price. Very simple to use interface and very straight forward. You can do discharge analysis upwards of 10 A on some batteries. Temperature Probe is a very good add-on.

I just wished they could enable temperature logging or at least open up the source code so that community can take it on further for development.

Vencon can go only up to 4A at max for charging and 6A for discharging with the channel combiner.

I have checked capacity of Sanyo Eneloop for the comparison. BC-900 reports higher capacity than actual .Probably, because there is no cool down time, it starts testing battery immediately after charge is terminated. Both Vencon UBA5 and CBA II report near identical values. Don't have MH-C9000, so not sure.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Turak,

Once you get the CBA II properly set up and calibrated, it should give you very good performance.

The main "issue" is that while it is rated at 100 watts, it doesn't seem to have good enough heat dissapation to handle the 100 watts. Several people have had their units burn up, or stop working when trying to run the unit at 100 watts.

The main concern has to do with connections. If you have poor connections, you will introduce voltage drop and get faulty data. At high currents on single cells, you have to factor in the effects of the leadwire resistance to get accurate results.

Once you have everything dialed in and get the hang of running tests, you should be able to get repeatable test results.

I have found that compared to the CBA, both the BC900 and C9000 give results that are opptimistic. The C9000 is close, but still a bit opptimistic.

Tom

 

[mdocod]

i clicked on the link and the first thought that came to mind was:

"why is there a CPU heat-sink being discussed on CPF?"

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At $120, I really should own one of these someday.

 

[Tronic]

The main "issue" is that while it is rated at 100 watts, it doesn't seem to have good enough heat dissapation to handle the 100 watts. Several people have had their units burn up, or stop working when trying to run the unit at 100 watts.

I have used mine many times at 100W to test lead acid batteries. Maybe I should be more carefully.

The only issues are intermittent negative voltage spikes and a rippled voltage curve at high currents.
But that are minor issues that I can live with.
It's a great product overall and I'm very happy with it.

 

[Probedude]

I've bought 2 of them used for a bit less than half the price. They were CBA units and I sent them back to get the upgrade to CBAII's. One I keep at work for co-workers to use, the other I have at home.

In any case, check the RCGroups for sale section often as they come up there used.

Great inexpensive unit.