Another week, another gizmo to analyze. This week, I’ve got a DPS6015A buck converter on my bench - and it is good! This is a much fancier unit than I normally deal with here - it’s about $70 on eBay. But, it will convert from an input voltage of 15V-80V to an output of up to 60V/15A/900W.
(Comments from Blogger)
2018-07-09 by Macdaddy
First congratulations on the new baby boy!
Great review as always, though not a product I’m currently in need of. Looking forward to your review of the ZKE EBD MO5 Battery analyzer. From my googlefoo, I believe your review will be the FIRST on this model. Depending on your thoughts, I might upgrade from my MO1.
2018-07-12 by Macdaddy
I was going to email you, but will post the info here, hope you see it? I know you test a lot of these devices, so I’m sure you are all setup with the USB-TTL software drivers for data logging. I have an early MO2 tester (not MO1). I’m a Mac user but own a tiny Winbook tablet running Windows 8.1, and thought I’d try running the EB tester software on it. Using the online Prolific drivers found with the EB Tester software version 1.8 beta (could not find 1.85 assuming it exists). No luck getting the driver to work until I read the article below, installed the 32bit driver and it’s WORKING! Thought this might be helpful for your readers if they ever have a driver issue.
Prolific USB-to-Serial Fix (Official Solution to 'Code 10 error') | Car OBD Diagnostics, ECU Chip Tuning & Auto Repair Support
2018-07-13 by Unknown
I think this will be a better fit for the project I’m building. I recently bought some of the Kobalt 80v yard equipment and got to thinking I could use it for a battery back up system I need to build. I picked up a used charger from ebay and I’m going to rip the guts out of it and put in a buck converter to output 12v.
I picked up one of these:
DC-DC Buck Voltage Converter Reducer Regulator 60V/72V/94V/120V to 12V 15A | eBay
But after opening it up to take a look inside, I’m a little hesitant to have it beside my bed running my cpap machine. Maybe I’ll send it to you if you’re interested and you can appraise it and maybe even blog about it.
Do you think the one you are reviewing here will be okay running at max input of 80v?
Have a great day. Love reading your blog.
2018-07-15 by Russell Graves
Good to know, but this particular device doesn’t have any onboard USB TTLs, so I just used one of my FTDI adapters to interface with it (and then wrote the Arduino library).
2018-07-15 by Russell Graves
I’ll certainly take gizmos to review…
What’s the maximum voltage on the Kobalt packs? I’d assume around 80V max, but without knowing details on that pack (I’ve never seen one), I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not. There should be some headroom past 80V on this unit, but I don’t know how much.
As long as the battery doesn’t exceed 80V, it should be fine. If it exceeds 80V by a tiny margin, I’d test it pretty hard first, but it will probably be fine.
Why not use some DeWalt 20V Max batteries, if you need standalone CPAP support? You can get an awful lot of amp-hours out of them for not a huge chunk of change, and you’d be nowhere near the voltage limits of this.
2018-07-15 by Macdaddy
It’s good to know as many of the included TTL cables with discharge capacity testers like my MO2, have been DISABLED by Prolific in subsequent driver updates, as they are counterfeit chips in them. If one does NOT disable their Windows auto update, they may have no idea why their meter software no longer connects to the meter.
Hi, there, old post but still relevant!!! One question, do you know of any partner that would deliver to Poland this device, or maybe you got tired of yours and have it in sell now 
I’m sorry, I don’t know of anyone selling those anymore or anything similar. Yet another casualty of Covid. I have two, but make regular use of both of them.
I made my search before and it turns out one can only have orders starting from 10 units, maybe you’re up for some business? 
I’ve considered it, but I really have enough going on in my life without adding an import business to it as well. If anyone was interested, and local to me, I would happily offer advice on it, but if I’m going to fight with supply chain issues, I’ll take something more profitable than flipping hardware on eBay.
I totally understand, it was not really meant to be all that serious. Thank you for taking the time to answer though, much appreciated.