Turnigy Mega 200w X2 compatibility

[Michele Branchini]

Hello folks,

great project here !

i've just uploaded the original B6 firmware to an "RCSystem Equilibrium 3.0" which is exactly the same as an imax b6 (i guess is an actual re-branded B6) and it's working flawlessly (after calibration, obviously).

i'm wondering if someone has tested the "MEGA 200w X2" (has a common display but i think it behave like a dual single charger, the double cpu give me an hint :D ).

in the "DOCS" folder i've found photos of that charger at work, but i was unable to find the right firmware in the hex folder.

can someone helps pointing me out ?

thanks and excuse my awful english ;)

Michele - ITALY

[Paweł Si]

2015-02-07 2:31 GMT+01:00 Michele Branchini <michele....@gmail.com>:

Hello folks,

great project here !

i've just uploaded the original B6 firmware to an "RCSystem Equilibrium 3.0" which is exactly the same as an imax b6 (i guess is an actual re-branded B6) and it's working flawlessly (after calibration, obviously).

i'm wondering if someone has tested the "MEGA 200w X2" (has a common display but i think it behave like a dual single charger, the double cpu give me an hint :D ).

in the "DOCS" folder i've found photos of that charger at work, but i was unable to find the right firmware in the hex folder.

I would try:

cheali-charger-Turnigy-A-6-10-200W

or

cheali-charger-GTPowerA6-10 

https://github.com/stawel/cheali-charger/tree/master/hex/unstable

they only differ in the default calibration.

Best Regards,

Paweł

[Michele Branchini]

looking at the photos of the inside of the Turnigy A6 200w of he Gt power A6. They seems very different from my board, there are different/other components.

i can still try ? i risk anything ?

thanks

[Michele Branchini]

Anyway... tried both firmware, the Turnigy A6 200w give me a Discharge calibration error (after calibration) when i try to charge or balance a battery. (if i don't calibrate the Charger works ok)

with the other firmware i have all kind of problems, resetted eeprom many times but everytime i came into calibration i was unable to "save" values. after a try. it shows me value very off from the actual values...

i think i have to wait a little more for this charger.

[Paweł Si]

2015-02-09 23:51 GMT+01:00 Michele Branchini <michele....@gmail.com>:

Anyway... tried both firmware, the Turnigy A6 200w give me a Discharge calibration error (after calibration) when i try to charge or balance a battery. (if i don't calibrate the Charger works ok)

Can you give me your discharge calibration values?

all that are displayed during calibration and ampmeter values.

[Michele Branchini]

So...

pre-calibration in discharge mode (turnigy A6 200w firmware)

100mA (default)

value : 280

iOut (charger) 65mA

ampmeter 100mA (was fine..)

(100mA range was left default as it was ok)

300mA (default)

value : 1472

iout : 306mA

real : 330mA

300ma (calibrated)

value : 1314

iout : 300mA

real : 300mA

as soon as i touch this value, the error shows up at every charging/discharging strategy selection.

then i was going back to calibration and resetted the value (only the value itself not the whole eeprom) at default 300mA 1472 value. but the error still shows up.

so it's not in the value itself (i think).

let me know what i have to test. i'm very happy to help it out !

thanks

[Paweł Si]

2015-02-10 23:20 GMT+01:00 Michele Branchini <michele....@gmail.com>:

So...

pre-calibration in discharge mode (turnigy A6 200w firmware)

100mA (default)

value : 280

iOut (charger) 65mA

ampmeter 100mA (was fine..)

(100mA range was left default as it was ok)

300mA (default)

value : 1472

iout : 306mA

real : 330mA

300ma (calibrated)

value : 1314

iout : 300mA

real : 300mA

as soon as i touch this value, the error shows up at every charging/discharging strategy selection.

then i was going back to calibration and resetted the value (only the value itself not the whole eeprom) at default 300mA 1472 value. but the error still shows up.

hm... strange, 

we assume that "value" is proportional to the output current, so

if you have 1314 for 300mA, you should have ~438 for 100mA

(we check if the "100mA value" is equal to 438 with a tolerance of +-25%)

could you do another test?

reset the charger to "default"

and  do measurements for output currents: 50mA,100mA,150mA,200mA,250mA,300mA,350mA,400mA,500mA,1A,1.5A,2A,

but don't save any of this calibration settings (don't press "start")

I'm would like to see how "value" and "Iout" changes over a bigger Interval (how linear it is)

 

[Michele Branchini]

got it !
of course i can test it. i'll do the test later.

thanks

[Michele Branchini]

test done

this is the graph. the data table is here : 

ma	value	iout
50	36	14
100	292	65
150	554	118
200	813	172
250	1064	224
300	1320	277
350	1592	330
400	1837	379
500	2351	482
1000	4970	1012
1500	7510	1527

thanks for all the support !

Michele

[Paweł Si]

ok, so it looks like your charger works like it should,

and my calibration check was too restrictive,

a new cheali-charger version is waiting for you in:

https://github.com/stawel/cheali-charger/tree/master/hex/unstable

please check if it's ok and if it is, could you download your eeprom

(after calibration) and send it to me?

Best Regards,

Paweł

[Michele Branchini]

Consider it done ! Keep you posted

[Michele Branchini]

this time worked ! the eeprom is attached. (raw binary format)

i was able to calibrated and charge discharge a battery correctly but.......

in charge mode... the current differ a little bit from the meter,

then i go back in calibration and i found some deviation...

same setup as calibration...  in charge the screen shows 7 amps but the meter show 7.1 100ma off..

i don't know if is normal or not..

and another thing. in "storage" / "discharge" mode, in the menu, wherre is the lipo cell area, i am seeing some strange characters in place of icons.. text works ok !

thanks again for all the great work !

M.

[Michele Branchini]

i also think i've broken the "discharge" hw capability of the second channel...

in  the meanwhile i was testing the discharge current, at some point, passed 1.5A (as you have seen i didn't reported the 2A range before) the current suddenly goes to zero, and since then i was unable to discarge trough the second channel of the charger..,. maybe i have to check closely for a fried components... so.. .maybe... keep an eye on that when you make tests...

M.

[Paweł Si]

2015-02-12 21:23 GMT+01:00 Michele Branchini <michele....@gmail.com>:

i also think i've broken the "discharge" hw capability of the second channel...

in  the meanwhile i was testing the discharge current, at some point, passed 1.5A (as you have seen i didn't reported the 2A range

Oj... I forgot to tell you not to exceed a 25W limit, sorry for that!

(in the calibration menu we don't do any limits checks)

before) the current suddenly goes to zero, and since then i was unable to discarge trough the second channel of the charger..,. maybe i have to check closely for a fried components... so..

You've burned the Q20 transistor and (or) R138 resistor, see schematic: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1RXXTatsA1cb1R5NHM3MEtsakE/edit

 

.maybe... keep an eye on that when you make tests...

M.

Il giorno giovedì 12 febbraio 2015 21:11:48 UTC+1, Michele Branchini ha scritto:

this time worked ! the eeprom is attached. (raw binary format)

i was able to calibrated and charge discharge a battery correctly but.......

in charge mode... the current differ a little bit from the meter,

then i go back in calibration and i found some deviation...

same setup as calibration...  in charge the screen shows 7 amps but the meter show 7.1 100ma off..

i don't know if is normal or not..

hm.. the "7 amps" is a the current measured by the charger (taking into account your calibration),

problem is that you are calibrating two points: 100mA, 1A, and if you make an error on the 1A point

it will be 7 times larger when a 7A current is flowing (something similar is true for the first calibration point)

There are to solution for that:

1. you could try to calibrate the charger so that the error is minimized on the whole 0A-7A spectrum

2. you could change the second calibration point for example to 5A, it's very easy but you would need to compile the code.

(and it's quite dangerous, since we don't have any limits checks in calibration mode).

and another thing. in "storage" / "discharge" mode, in the menu, wherre is the lipo cell area, i am seeing some strange characters in place of icons.. text works ok !

it's probably  because you have a common display, I've add a new hex file for you which display only text:

https://github.com/stawel/cheali-charger/blob/master/hex/unstable/cheali-charger-Turnigy-MEGA-200Wx2_0.99-20150212_atmega32.hex

thanks again for all the great work !

M.

Best Regards,

Paweł

 

[Michele Branchini]

a big thanks don't express enough my gratitude ! :D

your thinking make sense... my meter is not very accurate > 1A... so... 

as my working load is always > 5A , maybe shifting the second calibration point to 5A is the right choice.

i need to dig the compilation things...

about the Q20... i've already had the schematic and i've got some ideas about it was the culprit....

i'm going to disassemble everything and check carefully.

maybe you already know the part n. for the mosfet ? hope not to be a chinese clone of a clone of a clone :D

i also have a smaller issue when calibrating voltages on the Vp6 pin... the voltage seems to be always a lot smaller than the others and when i go for a calibration... after press the "OK" button, is shifts again, after 5 or 6 tries it goes in the right spot...

maybe something hardware related... ?

thanks

[Paweł Si]

2015-02-12 22:42 GMT+01:00 Michele Branchini <michele....@gmail.com>:

a big thanks don't express enough my gratitude ! :D

your thinking make sense... my meter is not very accurate > 1A... so... 

as my working load is always > 5A , maybe shifting the second calibration point to 5A is the right choice.

i need to dig the compilation things...

about the Q20... i've already had the schematic and i've got some ideas about it was the culprit....

i'm going to disassemble everything and check carefully.

maybe you already know the part n. for the mosfet ? hope not to be a chinese clone of a clone of a clone :D

I don't know what the original part is, but I'm using: irf3205

It should work with almost any high power N-channel enhancement-mode MOSFET

(but make sure that Vdss>40V)

i also have a smaller issue when calibrating voltages on the Vp6 pin... the voltage seems to be always a lot smaller than the others and when i go for a calibration... after press the "OK" button, is shifts again, after 5 or 6 tries it goes in the right spot...

maybe something hardware related... ?

I need some values, but if the differences are ~1mV you shouldn't bother

thanks

[Michele Branchini]

for the vb6 pin...

it is sometimes maybe more than 50mv off

and i can't get to digest the value i've entered.

i choose (for example) vb 6 = 3.800v ... press ok and it jumps back to 3.750v...

after 3 or 4 times i can nail to 3.8v

what do you think ?

[Paweł Si]

2015-02-12 23:06 GMT+01:00 Michele Branchini <michele....@gmail.com>:

for the vb6 pin...

it is sometimes maybe more than 50mv off

and i can't get to digest the value i've entered.

i choose (for example) vb 6 = 3.800v ... press ok and it jumps back to 3.750v...

after 3 or 4 times i can nail to 3.8v

what do you think ?

hm.... I would  need to see it,

can you make a short video?

[Michele Branchini]

of course... but right now the charger is cracked open...

i've already de-soldered the 0.05 res and the hy1001 n-mos (i've found the datasheed... check the attachments).

sure enough, both are gone... 

now i switch both channels with irf3205 but i'm having hard times finding out the 0.05 wirewound resistor (5w).

as soon as i put back together i will post a video.

[Michele Branchini]

ok... i've fixed everything. swapped mosfet and resistor and the charger returned back to full functions.

but.. a new problem appeared... after 5/6 minutes of 6s charging @ 7Amps it stops and says "battery disc" (like it was off the battery).

tried two different batteries and the problems came out either from the first and second port of the charger.

i've flashed latest 200w X2 "ONLY TEXT" firmware.

what do you think could be happened ?