A while back in Voltlog #231 I took a look at a device called nitro obd2, it was this $2 OBD2 port dongle, which supposedly when plugged into your cars OBD2 port will enhance the performance by tuning the ECU. This was of-course a scam as I proved in the video by doing a teardown, the dongle did nothing but flash some LEDs. But there were still people who left some comments saying they we’re seeing performance improvements after using the $2 tuning gadget. Those are ofcourse false claims, maybe those people just don’t have a clue what’s going on, or maybe they’re the actual sellers offering these on ebay and aliexpress.
Tag: Power
Voltlog #231 – Nitro OBD2 Chip Tuning Scam
Welcome to a new Voltlog, today we’re going to be taking a look at this gadget the nitro OBD2 performance chip tuning box, notice this is specially designed for diesel cars and since it’s using the buzz word nitro, this sounds like it might just work. For sure some company has invested time & money into finding the secret sauce to put into this thing to make it work and boost performance. They claim it fits all cars built after 1996 and all you have to do is to plug this into the obd port, drive for 200km so the device can learn and adjust to your car and after that you will benefit from 35% more power and 25% more torque. It evens says here on the box that it will enable fuel saving. So this sound pretty much like the holy grail in car ECU tuning.
But ofcourse if you have any experience with electronics you can’t believe that this is going to save any fuel or boost any performance just by plugging into the OBD port. So that’s why I purchased this, so we can take a better look inside, and also because I needed an OBD2 connector + enclosure for a project of mine. I plan to do some can bus sniffing and do something with that data but I’ll talk abou that in a future video.
Voltlog #132 – 4 Digit LED Panel Meter Review
Do I recommend getting this module? Yes, the accuracy is good, the resolution is nice 10mV 1mA and you also have the option for adjusting it manually for both voltage and current.
The design is pretty simple, I believe the microcontroller is an STM8S so hacking it and rewriting the firmware should be pretty easy but it already does what it’s supposed to do so I don’t see a point to hacking this module. I think you would be better off designing a panel meter from scratch.
Buy this panel meter from here.
Someone asked on youtube how should a panel like this be wired up, so here is a wiring diagram that you can use. In this wiring diagram our goal is to monitor the voltage and current for charging a battery.
Example 1 shows the panel meter connected before the battery charging module, which means it will measure everything, even the power losses in the battery charging module.
Example 2 shows the panel meter connected after the battery charging module, which means it will only measure current flowing into the battery or whatever load you have on the output.
In both cases voltage sensing is done right at the output but that wire can be moved according to your needs. Also in both cases the panel meter gets power directly from the power supply because at that point the voltage is constant.
The main thing to remember here is that these panel meters are designed for low side current sensing, that means the ground of the logic board of the meter is connected with the input of the shunt resistor.
Voltlog #127 – 0-60V 0-10A 1mV 1mA Panel Meter Review
So I discovered this module a few months ago and it’s been sitting in a box since then, I almost forgot about it, until a few days ago when I decided it will be a good idea to do a video on the subject.
Let me give you a few details on the specs of this module and as usual it’s pretty difficult to find the information as it’s the case with every new module coming out of China. First of all we have an input range of 0-60V and 0-10A and a 5V rail is needed to power the module itself. It has a voltage measuring accuracy of ±0.2% + 0.2% full scale which sounds strange because these figures are usually given in a percentage plus or minus a number of least significant digits. The current measuring accuracy is ±0.4% + 0.3% full scale.
The meter is basically capable of measuring with a resolution of 1mv and 1mA (however the accuracy is quite bad, as shown in the video) which is quite nice and useful (not really useful with bad accuracy) for projects like DIY power supplies or DIY electronic loads. It can also display the power in watts with a resolution of 1mW as well as showing the load impedance.
Here are some links to this product:
Voltlog #63 – Panel Meter Special
Voltlog #54 – BQ24650 MPPT Charging Module
In this video I am taking a look at this compact BQ24650 Charging MPPT Module made by YZX Studio in China. You can use this module to improve the efficiency of your solar system while charging your battery.