🔌 MakerHawk USB Load Tester: 150W 200V 20A Resistor, Adjustable Constant Current Battery Capacity Module. Intelligent Discharge Resistance Power Tester Review

Let's start with the good. It can withstand 150W. It gets quite hot, so it's recommended not to use it for more than 20 minutes at these power levels. For the money it's great. I also compared current and voltage measurements against calibrated devices and surprisingly they turned out to be fairly accurate. Now for the bad. There is a list: - the current setting has no feedback and changes as the temperature changes - only 1 single button to solve all problems. (actually this makes setting it…

Supplied in a vacuum formed plastic sleeve in a well protected carton. I use the packaging to store it when not in use as it is a bare PCB with no case and the cooling fins are very fragile. The Last is relatively easy to use, but the interface is cumbersome with everything being controlled by a single button. . The actual load current is adjusted with analog potentiometers, and the digital display is only for controlling the current, not for controlling, so the adjustment is very sensitive…

It was packaged very well. It was in a box, in a pimply bag, in a box. It is also vacuum packed. Save it to save in it. I like that everything is on one screen. You can choose the layout you like the most. There are so many different ways to power and charge this tester that I'm sure I'll have a hard time finding something that I can't use it for. My daughter and I will have fun finding ways to use this. This will be a staple in my ham shack/shop. The cooling fins are very thin. Be careful when

What it is for - I thought it was worth the money. It copes well with the role of electronic load. I was able to set up a DC load to test some SLA batteries. The user interface is a bit cumbersome, but usable. You have to scroll through the menu with only 2 buttons. Double-click for one function, triple-click for another, etc. But once you've got it set up, you can do some basic testing. I liked how usage statistics are saved when the device is turned off. The timers and counters were saved…

Love this cable and battery tester. It has all kinds of USB adapters and a port to plug whatever you want. Has a slight learning curve as everything is controlled by a single push button switch. The current Course and Fine controls are too sensitive and do nothing for the first 25%. I can also say that this "new" block I bought had to be built when it was first available because the thermal paste had dried and cured. Still good value for money once you get used to the menus and one-knob…

I bought this load tester to test the built in 5V switching regulator circuits on PCBs I build. The regulator on my board is only 1-1.25A and its current limit is around 1.3A so this tester is over the top but about $15 more than a 35W unit and I figured it would be nice to have a more versatile device. I have tested the device with a power supply of 12V, 32A up to 12A (144W) and it works fine. The fan is almost always on when there is power. However, the fan is very quiet, so that's not a…

Made a laser cut acrylic case for this device and added a cheap low voltage disconnect device. I really like this unit. Yesterday I checked several battery packs and measured all without errors. A few notes: - The 20A advertisement is somewhat misleading. The spec you want to stick to with this device is the power rating. With this design and heatsink it is rated at 150 watts. So you have to divide the power by the voltage of your batteries to get the peak discharge you should be aiming for…

UPDATE 02/06/21 I have had this unit for about 9 months. At that time I used it to test small lead-acid batteries in the 3-9Ah range. I thought things were going well. Today it started to fail and work unstably, and the power consumption fluctuated wildly. I've found that if you drop the current below 0.05A, the timer and measurements don't update, and you can't set it in increments greater than 0.02A. I stabilized it and set it to 0.05A. I let it run for 10 hours. This should correspond to a…