Huge Price Reduction on Madhacker and SoloTool battery testers!

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My original OP was to announce that the Madhacker tester was reduced in price. Soon after the announcement Palmar reduced the price of his SoloTool as well.

So now you have a choice. I suggest that any considering the purchase of a battery tester visit both sites and become aware of their capabilities and purchase the one that best meets your needs.

Flying Solo on 2015 packs can be challenging. The battery tester will provide valuable data to help determine a packs condition. Additionally, the tester is very helpful when performing a battery mod. As an alternative battery data can be gained in MP and Solex.

Madhacker Battery Tester

Solotool.org
 
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I was just about to get one for $50 hard-cased... But for $35? Worth it. I think I've got three bad packs :C
 
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This probably belongs in the classified section but I'm not selling, Andre is. I must confess I do have a more than casual interest in his tester. I was one of his first customers and that case is my (I'm Purplemon in my Maker world) design. If you read through the description you will discover there are several excellent enhancements over the origional version. At this price me thinks I will grab me another one!

Madhacker Battery Tester
Can we share the link of the tester for what it is exactly that you guys are speaking of? Since it does sound very interesting and I don't find any link that leads me to the tester that you are speaking of. Thank you!
 
Clicking on the link should open the site to the Madhacker tester. (madhacker.org)

Additionally I just learned that the other tester (solotool.org) has also been reduced in price as well!
 
Can we share the link of the tester for what it is exactly that you guys are speaking of? Since it does sound very interesting and I don't find any link that leads me to the tester that you are speaking of. Thank you!
Thanks much for the quick reply. For some reason, it did not work in my side. I'll check it out!
 
I think this is what you are looking for.
No, that doesn't appear to be the FTDI header, unless that view is from the "back" side.

If you look on the madhacker site under the Firmware Update section, he has photos of the header and a pin/cable harness for flashing. Ideally, I'd like those exposed for easy firmware flashing and serial data reading without having to decase it.

FTDI Harness
1543860220305.png
VG-Variant header
1543860238520.png
GV-Variant header
1543860260780.png
 
Yeah, those are it along the top edge. I know I could decase it, but the point/value of having the case is to have it, well, in the case. A pass-through would be awesome to access that pin header.
 
Not sure why it would need to be modified as the header is easily accessible but you are very welcome to do so. My drawing is in the Fusion 360 cloud but I have no idea how to download it or point you to it. I run on the hobby version for free so I'm not sure that is even possible.
 
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I currently own both the Madhacker and the SoloTool and the one thing I like about the SoloTool is that it shows Battery Life % at the very beginning. They are both very Good tools for checking our batteries, just wish I can find a case for the SoloTool seeing I don’t have a 3D printer....
 
I promised Palmar I would design a case for his V3 tool. There are already cases available for V1 and V2.

If you have the V2 tool then you can purchase a case on soloflies.com it's under 3DR Solo Parts.
 
Well my luck being, I have version 3 but that’s OK, still gives me the information I need.
 
If you could pick only 1 of these tools, which one would you pick? I can see the value of having one or the other, but personally I don't need both, since they seem pretty similar in function.
 
If you could pick only 1 of these tools, which one would you pick? I can see the value of having one or the other, but personally I don't need both, since they seem pretty similar in function.
They are very similar indeed. I purchased the madhacker tool before the Solotool was made available. One advantage to the Madhacker tool is with a FDDI cable you can flash to subsequent FW upgrades. One advantage of the Solotool is there is no cable connection between the monitor and plug as the tool resides on one pcb That's what prompted me to design a case for the Madhacker.
 
Does everyone seen this ?
"Good news everybody ! : I am researching methods to reprogram the BMS to allow higher capacity cells – This would be a worthy firmware update !

Updated .xml file for dataexplorer."
What do you think ?
 
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Personally I like the SoloTool even though I don’t have a case for it. I’m not one for messing with Battery mods so “I” don’t see see any benefits for the firmware update function unless it meant adding the Battery Life% to it that the SoloTool has, all the other data seems to be the same. One of the reasons I bought a Solo besides the way it Fly’s is the way it “Look’s” especially with the HERE mast mounted GPS on it so putting some Funky looking batty mod on it isn’t for me. As I mentioned before, I have both and they both give you Great information “But” I use the SoloTool the most because I like knowing what my Battery Life% is.
 
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