How to Test Battery Capacity without Special Equipment

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[@TLamparter]

Puts "without Special Equipment" in title, proceeds to test batteries with special home-made tool.

[@LairdJ56]

That special equipment is a dummy load, which he did say, so you can put anything on as long as it draws a constant current, measure the load and do the maths

[@a7dfj8aerj]

it is not special thou because you can make it from cheap electronics

[@User33423]

@@LairdJ56 the problem is that you need to adjust the voltage to keep drawing the same amount od current. As the voltage of the battery drops you need to lower the resistance

[@michaeltucker4090]

Yes seems to be a theme in here oO

[@galarlag5743]

Hahaha no special equipment.

[@MrCreepermax16]

The second i saw a breadboard I knew special equipment was needed hahahaha

[@dagr8kerek]

Legit 🤣🤣

[@yuyenbruh]

PCB* but fr, the title was hella misleading

[@bro_leo]

Yeah, still need a phone as a stopwatch, when the phone price far more expensive than buying a battery charger that have capacity test feature, that will run automatically without manually press the stopwatch and look at it.

[@Shadow_of_STLKR]

In short. Li-ion cells with weight above 40g have capacity more than 2500mAh 40 to 30g usually has 2700-1500mAh and less than 30g 2100-300mAh All type of cells should be measured by discharging it with stable current and stop when voltage hits min safe Voltage specific to type of cell (li-ion 2,9V, li-po 3,1V, ni-mh and ni-cd 1V)

[@dv3444]

Why should you stop discharging it when it hits a specific minimum voltage? I genuinely don't know. I am currently charging a Samsung 18650 battery rated for 3.7 volts, and the current voltage shows 1.7 volts. Is it dangerous somehow?

[@Shadow_of_STLKR]

@@dv3444 Yap its damaging battery. Below 2.5V voltage drop really qick chemistry its start reacting in untraversable way. For sure it decrease capacity. Sometimes it can brick your whole battery. If you are lucky, you just charge it slowly and battery can be 100% usable. Also from 3.0V to 2.5V and less (dep on bat) voltage drops really quickly and give you maybe 50mA capacity more, but overcharging is more dangerous and damaging.

[@mohamedbellator9121]

simple and easy to understand, thank you

[@priyankparikh434]

great video. clarifies the basic concepts. thanks a lot

[@aquarius9909]

Great video. Keep up your good work. Nominal discharge capacity is linked to discharge current & discharge cut off voltage. Discharging a battery with higher or lower discharge current will result in lower respective higher capacity. If discharging a 2000 mAh rated battery with 1000 mA will last 2hrs , discharging the same battery with only 500 mA will last longer than 4 hours.

[@offgrid2010]

Definitely helpful! So you confirm discharge to 2,5 to rate capacity and the formula's make the process ez to understand. Thank you!

[@ddistrbd1]

Well done ,I learned so much watching this video. thank you.

[@viktorguminiuc3267]

Useful. Thank you.

[@90FF1]

Good presentation. Thank you.

[@Nassirabdullah0]

very easily explained thank you

[@BillJutz]

They were only off by 1 Zero, if it said 880 it might have been close to reality.

[@paullelys161]

But a zero is equal to nothing so it wouldn't make a difference if you can believe the Chinese manufacturer's logic. Very deceptive and needs to be stopped because millions of people are buying these batteries from Amazon and eBay type stores and getting duped by crazy over stated battery capacities. Be very wary of anything over 3,000 mAh.

[@mukesh4984]

Very simple to understand

[@eddyane67]

Buenísimo! Gracias

[@balmesspot5065]

Very useful,, thank you for sharing

[@CM-xr9oq]

Thank you. Very useful, indeed.

[@ludicscience]

👌

[@syaduinotech3681]

thanks for the idea sir, is there any video that you create mention using mechanism to record it beside manual (just curious, maybe using arduino or else). Tq sir in advance

[@nattsurfaren]

Can you determine the capacity just by measure the time it takes to recharge, the amp and voltage you recharge with? How long time did it take to recharge the fake battery vs the samsung?

[@guestchannel3080]

Interesting question.

[@boonedockjourneyman7979]

Look at charge/discharge curves. Everything in this video is a first order approximation. Basically, just measure the mass. That’s about all these methods are good for. See: batterymooch

[@nasser8155]

@@guestchannel3080 @@@

[@__-hh3gt]

Dramatically fantastic. You are exceptional expert. Greetings from Saudi Arabia.

[@salmalmiry792]

watch workshop101 Saudi channel

[@__-hh3gt]

@@salmalmiry792 Explain please, I couldn’t understand.

[@offgrid2010]

Is it possible to discharge a 18650 at .5 amp down 500 mah and extrapolate the full capacity from that? I have over 100 battery's in my e-bike individual cradle system. Also can you use the same procedure for the entire battery pack?

[@frv6610]

I post same questions under this video also since I didn't get answers under the other video. Why is not Wh (battery capacity?) calculated with max full charged voltage? For example if an electric kickbike's (Sealup Q8) battery (38km range on a good day) is rated as 48V21Ah (48x21=1008Wh) but it's full charge voltage is 54.6, so why not calculate it as 54.6V x 21Ah = 1147 Wh? I have a kickbike Q8 battery (Samsung cells purportedly) rated as 48v21ah but it soaks only 877Wh according to power outlet meter. Should it be soaking 1008Wh or 1147Wh, or is 877Wh correct? I also have another battery from (Aliexpress) Liitokala (tested 27km range) rated as 48V20Ah (48x20=960Wh or 54.6x20=1092Wh) but it soaks only 698Wh (it's more like 15 or 17Ah?). So am I scammed or it is normal? I complained to Aliexpress about it LiitoKala battery, that it should be at least 835Wh in it if it is 20Ah but they ask for more proof. I already showed with power outlet meter how much it soaks, it is 698Wh and showed my other battery soaks 877Wh (for comparison). Aliexpress supports vendors lying about real capacity of battery. Idk how I can prove to them that LiitoKala is not 20Ah battery (more like 16Ah). I also bought on Aliexpress a 48v24ah battery called Aimjin but it only charged to 53v (not 54.6v) and from empty to full only soaked 340Wh which indicates its capacity is 7Ah. It also became warm when I used it which indicates it is an old tired battery. But I paid for it near same price as for new battery. Scammed.

[@warwar4876]

Thanks a lot Sir.

[@roncooke2188]

Superb video

[@MrOner07]

perfect explanation.i love it... subscribed!

[@jaiprakashn9686]

L:S :- Once again super duper presentation on Lithium ion battery capacity test in simplest way, 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿

[@princewillwp]

What about the life cycle, how can I calculate that?

[@aayush_789]

Life cycle cannot be tested. If your cell capacity is less than 80% than its already useless as charge retention will decrease and internal resistance will increase

[@andrewkhchan]

Great 👍🏼 video.......Can you measure the capacity of normal AA and AAA batteries rated 1.5V ?

[@centeguahan3760]

It's basically the same process just divide the nominal total by {№‰±xª=___} & simplify it by its common denominator to find the quotient value, so (X×{____}÷a=(axb)+___%

[@frankfirst6863]

Subscribed. Thanks 👍

[@mirceaatat1852]

For all the guys who tslm about the "epecial equipment"》 i hope you've learned something today. And you can do the same thing with any load that you know exactly the consumption/hour

[@Philjj61]

Fun fact 18650 stands for 18 mm wide and 65 mm long, button batteries 2032 stands for 20 mm wide and 3.2 mm thick and so on and so forth.

[@depopa1033]

"2 dollars only" * 30 bucks shipping* i love it

[@Albanez39]

That's the norm when you buy products from Amazon, or even the US in general. Pair of bike pedals: $18 - Shipping: $74. You only see this in the final check out page, after they advertised Free Shipping and Prime on every previous page. Total Scam!!!

[@LairdJ56]

It is a dummy load, as long as the current draw is constant you can use anything, measure the load and do the maths with that. £0 shipping fees lots of stuff around the house, torch (flash light) etc etc

[@macgyver2417]

Interesting. Thanks

[@syedharoon2854]

Absolutely explain, Nice briefing, thanks for knowledge

[@syedharoon2854]

Thanks

[@boonedockjourneyman7979]

It’s only 10% of the story. No kinetics = no reality. Sorry. It’s crap.

[@syedharoon2854]

@@boonedockjourneyman7979 I agree with you,but without practical we don't have conclusion. Do You have any reality without crap.

[@Soothsayer210]

Thx. for the video. Can you explain the following please? may i know why you said the batteries would discharged completely when it reached 2.5 volts? How do i for 1.5 volt batteries. Please correct me if i am wrong, i was thinking the voltage will be completely depleted to 0 volt? when i buy batteries from a shop what should i be checking to see the capacity? I have a small model plane and i find different batteries provide different flying times. Is it because of the * different wind conditions causing it to draw different currents * is the the acceleration that is causing it to draw more power Let me know your thoughts please?

[@ludicscience]

These batteries can not be discharged below 2.5 volts because they will be damaged. The capacity of a battery pack is given by the mAh, the higher the number, the more capacity.

[@Soothsayer210]

@@ludicscience Thx. for the reply. So you are saying that the displayed mAh by the company on the battery can be fudged. Only a test like above shows the real capacity.

[@realchristopher4334]

Is it possible to test the amperage or capacity of a constant power supply such as a common 5VDC wall/phone charger? Too many chargers these days claim to have QC 3 with a total power of 18W or 20W or more Watts. How can I know that a charger is really delivering 5VDC at 3A as claimed?

[@ludicscience]

yes you can, maybe i will make a video about that

[@realchristopher4334]

@@ludicscience I hope not using huge resistors and USB tester/meter/monitor, because these are the common duo to test USB power sources (power bank and wall charger). They are not really good for us on many levels, I think. First disadvantage - USB testers rob some power to power itself. This is what not many people know and the company/maker does not tell. So, the result will not be accurate on top of the already inaccuracy of the tester. Second disadvantage - Resistor in the resistive load gets hot. Temperature can affect result. Adds to the inaccuracy of the USB tester. Adding insult to injury. The "best way", I think, seems to be using the electronic/current load such as what you have and show in this video. The price for a read-made one with a fan is....whoa, too expensive! The USB tester is already stupid expensive! I mean, the better quality one such as those UM series by RUIDENG. I could buy 2 reasonably priced quality digital multimeter with that combined price! Not to mention there are too many sellers selling the same things of the same names that very likely are fakes, they do not even have brick & mortar for me to walk in to know they are not fly by night businesses! With your simple and inexpensive DIY electronic load + regular digital multimeter = probably results in the cheapest and the best result and stuff. (Theoretically there is no such thing as "cheapest AND best". In actuality prices are determined and fixed by humans, not forgetting those middle people/resellers also want to profit by marking up prices) I hope what I mentioned are correct. That is a little of my rant there. Hahahahah! Oh well, I am not a KZbinr getting money from KZbin like Bigclive who can afford to buy things and wreck.

[@emitowww]

This is very well explained. Theres some misleading information about this. A lot of people think that measuring the voltage is enough to check battery

[@eilizezila4650]

because they confuse the charge level in the battery and the battery capacity in the same way , the internal resistance is not the battery capacity but the increase of the first can follow and sometime lead to the degradation of the second

[@bobmundeke5480]

Merci beaucoup

[@the.reel.mccoy.]

Technically, aren't you not supposed to draw more than 20 percent of the nominal voltage? For instance, a 3.7V shouldn't go below 3V to maintain battery life?

[@jamesallen6007]

Thanks.

[@rob3125]

Here is the simple formula for for Chinese batteries: 😀 C tot / 12 = Cx 8800 / 12 = 700 mA 12 is constant

[@ludicscience]

🤣

[@StrsAmbrg]

LoL.

[@92000]

i'm bad at this - what is this? :p

[@eone2345]

@@92000 it means don't trust chinese battery capacity label

[@Fomites]

Thanks for the good video. Is it a standard practice to use 2.5 V as the end point in capacity determinations? And Samsung makes many batteries in China (although perhaps not 18650s presently). In fact most most things are made in China including high-quality items. I once imported from China as a business and all levels of quality are available depending on how much one is willing to pay. It's the unethical distributor who organises the misleading labelling, not 'China' :-)

[@ro-jayno-yay3185]

so you are saying that its not Chinas fault for the unethical distributors? LOL. Its a virus in China. The deceit makes money. Until you dont trust Chinese imports anymore. It will take some time but you cannot function in reality like this. You will be left behind acting like this.

[@oddjobbob8742]

I wish I could give this KZbin 100 thumbs up!

[@precisiont5188]

Hi, can someone help me with something? I have a positive and negative wire going to the back of my van. This wire was used to power a wheelchair lift. I gave the lift away and now I have the cut wires. How can I figure out how many amps it can provide? I know hoe to test volts but how do I test those two wires, positive and negative, to know how many watts are coming out? Thank you.

[@KaylaJoyGunn]

Sorry, but you can't measure amps in that way. Amps are determined by the load. If the load is too great, there can be damage. For example. Let's say I remove my starter, which normally draws 200amps, and replace it with a 12w RC motor that draws one Amp. Because the load determines the amps, that circuit only produces one amp, and because it is designed to handle 200amps, no damage is done. Now let's say I hook up a bulldozer starter that takes 400amps. Because the load determines the amps, it attempts to draw 400amps, but the wires and relays melt. Damage is done. So, best to find out how many watts that motor used to be, then stick with those watts or lower.

[@danx7143]

Find the markings on the cable sheath that tell you the wire gauge or the cross-sectional area if you can find either and use these to look up the current-carrying capacity, or if not, you can measure the thickness if the conductor. Half that is your radius, Squaring the radius and then multiplying by 3.14 will give you cross-sectional area and you can look at a table online with the current-carrying capacity of cable sizes. You could also look at the rating on the fuse that should be at the battery end of the positive and use that as your maximum.

[@nigel-matthews]

Where do you recommend buying the Samsung batteries?

[@universaltipsnas4652]

What is Aaaooo ??? Or Aoo

[@davisiepmann597]

not only you need this "special equipment" that you've made, but also, you need another special equipment to set first special equipment to the 500mAh

[@mirceaatat1852]

Or you can buy IMAX SMART CHARGER that do all the work and calculation for you. And its a cheap device.

[@quadriibrahimabiodun2096]

@@mirceaatat1852 how can I get it?

[@Aromanottingham]

You deserve thousands of like

[@21thTek]

Great !💫⭐️

[@ketanmorajker]

Super useful video 👌

[@reddysoft]

" without Special Equipment" - seriously? Never mind the custom made circuit to hold the draw at exactly 500mA. I'd call that "special equipment"

[@centeguahan3760]

I stopped the video as soon as he busted that out🤨

[@raulramirez5965]

Habrá algún modo aún más simple ? Sé que suena demasiado sofisticado pero hice la misma comparación usando una linterna .

[@kendrajones984]

or you could just buy a Opus BT - C3100 or similar, charges, refrehes, and test capacity.

[@Shadow_of_STLKR]

I would call this setup special equipment too. It has all what have special eq beside mA counter and auto stop when discharged. Just use light bulb. Measure current with connected to fully charged battery, and fully discharged battery, take avg, add about 10-15% and measure time discharging with lightbulb from full battery to empty.

[@boonedockjourneyman7979]

Shadow_of_STLKR - The “equipment” demonstrates the creators actual understanding. In other words, zippo. Kinetics are the key. The video is blind, stupid and misleading. All that said, just measure the mass. Forget this bogus video.

[@davidstonier-gibson5852]

@@boonedockjourneyman7979 Hey, why don't you put up or shut up? Criticising a perfectly valid measurement method with talk of "kinetics". In 50 years as an EE I have never heard that term used in conjunction with batteries. .... OK, so I googled it. It appears the term kinetics is used in conjunction with mathematically modelling the internal processes. Very important for the backroom guy and gals designing battery systems. I cannot see any relevance to a user wanting to test the batteries in his torch, model car or vape thingy. I have only two comments on the validity of @Ludic Science's method: * A more typical cutoff voltage for Li-ion is around 3V. My LED torches get flakey at 3.1V - 3.2V * Capacity can vary with discharge rate. Different batteries are designed for different duty cycles. But as a good general purpose ad hoc method, it's a good way to compare batteries. Oh, enjoy you two subscribers.

[@rustyandrews8375]

@@boonedockjourneyman7979 in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is the king!

[@NawtieBoy96]

ok but apart from ch fake one , why did the Samsung battery showed more capacity than as it was mentioned in the spec sheet. isnt this weird ?

[@danx7143]

Not really, they may have used a slightly different voltage cut-off for the testing which would affect the numbers, but the batteries are not individually perfect at the rating, they're rated into groups, say for the sake of argument a manufacturer only has an 1800mAh product, a 2200mAh product and a 2500mAh product, a battery that tests to less than 1800 would be a dud, one that tests at 1800 or say 1973 would be rated as an 1800mAh battery, one that tests at maybe 2399 would be rated 2200, one that test at 2560 or 3005or whatever would be rated 2500. as long as it's over what it says at the time of manufacture it's all good.

[@user-vu1ht7gt3x]

For example if the battery doesnt have the amp hour written how can I find the battery amp hours

[@danx7143]

If you have a model number there might be specs online from the manufacturer or distributor.

[@mevk1]

Nice video but don't have your special equipment.

[@ludicscience]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@rayyanharahap291]

I hope you have tested this two batteries are at it's brand new condition from it's packaged, before you do this comparison, anyway good video experiment, but still say how would you assure the viewers that you are using a set of two brand new batteries, because they're still at their own maximum life cycle conditions and max health too, isn't it right.......?

[@dpi168]

you should compare the batteries of the same price range too, China makes very good high-capacity batteries at a higher price.

[@ludicscience]

True

[@piad2102]

without Special Equipment ?

[@dluuc]

Ha- Ha!!! :-)

[@saibhakt1465]

nice 👍

[@idiedlastmonth]

He said "without special equipment". Has an entire lab on the table. :)

[@ynohnazenb6683]

Gud ting nah cheep Orr cheep ting nah gud 👍

[@BinManSays87]

Shouldn't you only discharge these to 3.3v as the amps fall off there on most cells

[@Sekir80]

Depends. If you don't care about longevity you can discharge them as deep as you want. If you cut off at 3.3, 3.2V, that's better for cycles, yes. But really answering your question: every cell that has a datasheet states the discharge cut-off voltage. If you want to test according to those datasheets you must set up a constant current load and a cut-off voltage. This method will confirm how close your cell is to the specification. But most of us don't need these precise measurements, cycling through old, harvested cells from laptops and such we just need a ballpark estimate, a ZB2L3 only uses a resistor, hence varying load, but accumulates the Ah as it discharges the battery. That's a fair enough measurement. Special equipment, haha. For a couple dollars I think it's okay.

[@wiggyb854]

Is your test rig not special equipment???

[@topgun2249]

That's not a simple thing to do eh, most people hate Math. I think my opinion is to buy a charger that can read mAh while it's charging. Thanks

[@Sekir80]

Buy a ZB2L3. Cheap and accurate if calibrated. I have 20 of them and the worst one has 2% measurement error.

[@FknNefFy]

3500 is like max possible so claiming 8800 is just labeling it FAKE

[@yuyenbruh]

milliAmpere-hours* Amp-hours too

[@ferdinandlopez1964]

He uses special equipment.. I myself cant make an equipment like he did I don't even know where to buy that PCB he uses and that alone makes it special.

[@marcos.1771]

He doesn’t use a PCB, but what is called a breadboard. Any electronics store will sell you one of those.

[@lukask7445]

@@marcos.1771 Anyway it requires some electronics skills. Using a multimeter could be treated as maximum equipment.

[@marcos.1771]

@@lukask7445 The title of this video clip here is totally misleading.

[@danx7143]

@@lukask7445 The multimeter is the only equipment you need, you can use a lightglobe or anything else as the load as long as you know the current draw, which you can determine using a multimeter. He's just using the dummy load because he has it and has set it to run at a convenient draw.

[@hamobilelgv3227]

Nevertheless good idea.

[@robertkattner1997]

Some of the chinese battery packs have one of the cells filled with sand!

[@boonedockjourneyman7979]

BS. Show an example.

[@masaratech]

@@boonedockjourneyman7979 diodegonewild

[@Allin7days]

Truth: Anything over 3000mAH for 18650 battery is a lie.

[@dspartan007]

"without Special Equipment"

[@user-mp5dc7ps2q]

who believes a capacity of 8800mah 😅

[@ip3728]

Without special equipment 🤔

[@indranilkundu1759]

8800 mah bro real he?🤨

[@artackmusic350]

how is this not " Special Equipment" ?!? lol

[@electromagic3111]

Like

[@Nazubal]

Where can I find legit Samsung cells?

[@sr-de5nz]

8000mah X cheap$ ÷less weight= fake...

[@electrogeorge6269]

Prueba con esta kzbin.info/www/bejne/ooKVhHmCgrWZm9k

[@jhellvie]

I choose Samsung battery can last...

[@PlatinumPC]

Rip Chinese battery 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@randycollens2681]

Wrong right off the bat. That Samsung battery capacity is 2500mAh, not 2000. You also mention nothing about internal resistance. If old and has a build up of internal resistance, it’s junk, so use ohms law to calculate it!

[@danx7143]

He said it was 2500 and showed the datasheet and read out from it that it was 2500.

[@mariusgrigore9014]

Bad calculation! 1 hour and 41 min does not mean 1.41 hours. Correct its 1.67 hours. So the result is verry wrong!

[@paullelys161]

It was 1hr 24minutes and he put it down as 1.5 hours which is close enough for this test.

[@sufiyanhamisu7964]

You are right

[@canberrafinest]

dude I am watching you at 150% speed

[@ludicscience]

Cool!