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Today at Atelier Kaz - ex-Honda R&D, F1, Indy/CART engineer

Battery Tester 02 – Topdon BT200

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by
Kaz-kzukNA1
, 23-05-2023 at 11:40 AM (1885 Views)






Just like many tools, I have been using several battery testers for years and got this one last year.

Topdon BT200.


It’s not like the ones from super expensive Snap-on, etc but for my purpose and the battery type, provided me with good reference point.

The absolute figure is not that important and I don’t think it’s accurate but by monitoring the changes in reading over many months/years, you will get good idea on the state of your battery.


You can test the battery while installed on the car and for the classic car like our NSX, it just works fine.

However, with the modern cars with sophisticated charging/starting/start-stop system, I don’t think it will provide you with the accurate info.
And for similar reason, although it states that it can handle the modern battery type such as the EFB, not sure it will provide accurate enough info especially if tested while installed on the car. You just need to try it.

It can also test the charging and the starter circuit but I just keep eye on the ripple and we already have volt gauge on the dash so keep eye on it while cranking as you should be above 10V with healthy battery. Again, it may not provide useful info for the modern cars.

There are much cheaper option available from Topdon and other manufactures and if you are not testing the battery for other people, just get the very basic one.











The test itself is very simple.


It will take much more time to find out the actual spec of your existing battery.

You could look up the spec over the web but the battery technology advances every time that even with the same battery model, the spec could be different.

For example, my Yuasa YBX5005 was rated at 550A (EN) for the cold cranking performance in 2019 but the latest one is now at 580A (EN).










Some of the examples from my NSX with 4 years old ordinary lead acid flooded battery.
The battery was tested while installed on the car.

Keep eye on the changes of internal resistance and the drop of CCA over the years.


I also tested some AGM and ordinary lead acid ones but all of them were removed from the car and from what I saw, all data were sufficient enough for my purpose.
You will see some of the deeply discharged lead acid ones can be rescued to a certain level by using the de-sulphation/recondition mode on some of the battery conditioners. It proactively encourage the chemical reaction to phisically remove the surface layer from the flooded cell.

Please do not use this mode on AGM. It's completely different structure from the lead acid one.


Most likely not for everyone but for some, useful tool.


Kaz







Categories
Personal View/Self Talk , Electronics

Comments

  1. Kaz-kzukNA1's Avatar
    Another data point and good example of fully charged doesn’t mean healthy battery.

    While working on the NSX, another rescue call received.
    The car was fairly modern model with start-stop feature and smart charging technology.
    It had the EFB battery.

    The owner told me that after driving the car over 100 miles, he couldn’t even crank the engine.
    When tried starting, lots of clicking noise and the dash display randomly disappearing.
    Typical lack of voltage juice so the first thought would be the battery or both the battery and the charging system.

    The battery voltage was only 11.4V so quite low despite driving 100miles and apparently already 10 years old.
    So even if the battery may have some life left, time to get another EFB one because most likely, it lost the original full capacity.

    So, ordered the same size EFB battery from Tayna and since it was next day delivery, had some time for checking the existing battery.

    Connected CTEK battery conditioner like half day and when came back, it was already showing green light at Step 7 so fully charged.



    However, from what the owner told me, already knew that there would be some issue with it so connected the battery tester and got this.

    Although 100% charged and voltage at 12.7V, the internal resistance was huge that there was almost no cranking power left with this battery.
    For the clarification, it's not just the internal resistance that decides the health status.
    The AC/DC impedance, etc involved but for a quick and basic review, internal resistance becomes handy.

    With the basic battery conditioner like CTEK MXS 5.0, it couldn’t detect this failure mode.

    And as expected, when tried starting, the same result.
    Lots of clicking noise and dash went out randomly.

    Following day, new battery arrived and didn’t have time topping it up using the CTEK so just straight into the car.

    Because of the modern make/model, didn’t want going through all sorts of reset/re-learn sequences or the anti-theft code thingy so used my ancient jump starter as the backup battery to prevent losing the power while taking the old battery out.

    For the smart charging system, normally you would need telling the system about the spec of the battery bur since it’s almost exactly the same spec, just left it.

    And the engine just fired up with ease and once idled enough, stopped the engine and re-started.
    Asked the owner to when he has some time, go out for steady cruising driving for at least 15min to charge the battery further and that’s it.
    No warning on the charging system so for now, just dead battery but told the owner to be careful with really old battery because it could damage the charging system as well.

    EFB is far better than the ordinary wet lead acid one but still lose its capacity over many years so best replacing after certain age even if it may still work fine.

    Another car saved.


    Kaz
    Updated 17-06-2023 at 02:27 PM by Kaz-kzukNA1 (extra info)