Atorch DL24EW Electronic Load

About a month ago, I posted an announcement about a new version of Atorch's electronic load. I had already reviewed a couple of their devices, and since then they had updated it a couple of times, but I never got around to testing and reviewing the new versions. Now I finally have their latest model, the DL24EW, in my hands.

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Before I start the review, I'd like to thank everyone who supports me on Patreon. Your donations helped me buy this kit, and in return I'll do my best to make this review as thorough and honest as always. I hope you'll find it useful.



As I mentioned in the announcement, I originally wanted the DL24MP, mainly because its display and control module is separate from the main board. But the manufacturer offered me a good price on the new model for the review and assured me this was the very latest version and much more interesting. I couldn't resist, so I ordered the “top configuration”—although it turned out that it might actually be possible to upgrade it to the “super-top” version :)

Some time later, I picked up a fairly large box from the post office. Inside were the power modules, a board for installing batteries, and a box containing the electronic load itself and the rest of the accessories.


The package included:
1. Main electronic load module
2. Power supply
3. Power supply adapter
4. Battery holder board
5. Board for testing devices with a USB output
6. A pair of cables with alligator clips
7. Temperature sensor
8. UART-to-USB converter
9. Quick-start manual
10. Module for connecting a charger (an optional extra in the extended version).

I'd say that's a pretty decent package.


The included manual, though, is pretty much a token effort. And if you think you can download something more informative, I'm afraid not: I had to figure most things out by experimenting and studying the product photos on the sales page.


The power supply is rated at 12 V and 3 A, but as usual, the inside is pretty dismal, so I'd recommend replacing it—especially if you plan to use the load in its full configuration, with all three additional power modules.


In one review (thanks to the author, by the way), I saw a mention of my comment about the quality of the included power supplies. That reviewer got a decent one, but I took apart the original power supply from the very first load for comparison and found the same cheap board inside. They even saved money on the Y capacitor here.


A separate bag contained a bunch of small accessories.


The cables are pretty good overall, with a decent wire gauge, and I like the alligator clips too. But the cables are short and stiff.
The temperature sensor and USB connector board are the same as before, so there's not much to add.


I really like the UART-to-USB adapter. It's well made, though it's a shame they skimped on galvanic isolation. Overall, it looks good, and I had no issues using it. The kit includes a cable and a pin header, as well as a jumper between RX and TX that I can't figure out the purpose of—perhaps it's used for testing.


I hadn't had a battery holder board before, but I can say it's a good thing I didn't, because I wasn't impressed with this one.
First, the labeling is confusing, with the cell sizes all mixed up.
Second, the holders are very tight.
Third, it doesn't provide a proper four-wire connection.
Fourth, the 26650 holder is actually closer in length to a 26700 holder. A 26650 cell doesn't fit very securely, while an 18650 fits so tightly that it's hard to insert—and even harder to remove without damaging it.
And fifth, if you're using the power modules, you won't be able to install this board.

So my advice is: if you plan to test batteries, buy this or this holder and save yourself the hassle.


The charger connection module is a genuine new feature, and I was really interested in it. Unfortunately, things didn't quite go as I expected, but I'll get to that later. Besides the module, they also included screws for attaching it to the main board—and even threw in a couple of spares :)
The module itself is very simple: the board has an IRFP264 power transistor on a heatsink, a small DC-DC converter to drive the transistor, a pair of terminals, a DC jack wired in parallel with them, and a 25 A fuse.

The principle is extremely simple: power is supplied from the main board to the DC-DC module, then appears at its output and turns on the transistor.
The transistor is on the negative rail, so I don't quite understand why they stuck a DC-DC module in here.
The terminals are really inconvenient. First, they don't have holes for clamping the wires; second, their threads are very short. And as a bonus, once you screw the module onto the main board, it will lift the board off the table.

Buying the kit with the module adds $6 to the price, but if you need one, it's a better deal than buying it separately for $10.



The main module is built as a single board with the power stage, display, and controls all on it. As I mentioned, I prefer designs where the module is split into two parts—the analog and digital sections—as that makes it easier to install in an enclosure.


The display is the same as in all the previous versions. On the left is the terminal block for connecting the source under test; on the right are the board's power connector, encoder, and button.
The heatsink is made up of four small sections. The fan is genuinely powerful: 12 V, 0.3 A. That's why, when using additional modules, you need a power supply that can handle them properly.


1. The terminal block is large, but I have some doubts about the claimed 40 A current rating. So if you're installing the board in an enclosure, I'd recommend soldering the wires directly to the board. Unlike the previous versions, the protection diode here is connected in parallel with the input, not in series, and there's a 50 A fuse for protection.
2. The buzzer and UART header are also on the right side. By the way, there's a second UART on the board too, with an unpopulated header—probably a provision for something.
3. Everything is controlled by a CH573F 32-bit RISC processor. A small op-amp is visible on the left, positioned so badly that it has almost been knocked off the board already. Be careful!
4. Above the display is a cluster of op-amps and a couple of measurement chips, HLW8110. I was going to call them ADCs, but it's actually a bit more complicated: each chip has a pair of measurement inputs inside, one differential and one single-ended, and they're specifically designed to measure voltage and current. There's also an unidentified chip nearby marked .43; I don't know what it is yet.


There are a lot of components on the board, but most of them are op-amps that balance the current between the power transistors.
There's also a jumper for setting the load's maximum power. It's set to 150 W by default, which is the power rating of the main module. The other settings are 300, 450, 600, and even 1200 W. The last one apparently requires a larger number of power modules. The intended setup is a main board plus 3 modules rated at 150 W each, for a total of 600 W, but it should be possible to connect another 4 power modules since they're wired in parallel.
On the left is the main current-sense shunt, made up of two 2 mΩ resistors in parallel. The load is rated for a maximum current of 40 A, which presents a problem: with a shunt resistance of 1 mΩ, it will dissipate up to 1.6 W, or 0.8 W per shunt. That's a lot for the resistors installed here. You know how 1, 2, and 3 W resistors differ in appearance, right? I suspect the design relies on airflow over the board, but I'm not sure that will work if the board is used as a controller.




The current-sense resistors for the current-balancing circuit are installed on the sides. There's something odd here: the resistors on the left are 0.25 Ω, while those on the right are 0.22 Ω. I assume they used whatever they had on hand. I wouldn't say the difference is critical, but still.
Speaking of the resistance value, it's very high. I'll explain these details and the consequences later.


The underside has only the WiFi module and power transistors.


There's also a spot on the underside for a connector, apparently for an external display, though I can't say for sure. I'll check when I install all this in an enclosure.
The power transistors are IRFP264. These are ordinary transistors without a DC mode, but since there are so many of them, each one handles no more than 37 W, so using them this way is perfectly safe.
At this point, I got the feeling that Atorch’s engineers read my reviews. More on that later.


The power modules are sold separately and cost about $13 each - link. I ordered three, but since they’re all identical, I’ll talk about just one from here on.
Besides the module, the package included mounting hardware, screws and nuts, but honestly, it’s not great. It’s hard to get the screws started by hand, so I had to hold them with pliers.


It looks a lot like a stripped-down copy of the load itself, but here the contacts are brought out on all four sides. Contacts with the same name are connected, so you can combine the modules in different configurations, including simply in parallel. The current-sense shunts here are all the same, at 0.22 Ω each.


The underside also has four IRFP264 transistors.


There are four heatsinks, just like on the main module, but these are noticeably shorter. That’s odd, since they aren’t that much cheaper, and their cooling performance is clearly worse.


The circuit isn’t just familiar—I actually drew it up in my review of the first version of their four-wire load. They later used it in the next version, but with a slight change: the main board had the circuit, while the transistors were on add-on boards.

This time, though, it’s an exact copy of my power stage. The only difference is that my board had a dual op-amp and two channels (though I’ve already got a four-channel version using a quad op-amp ready), while this one has four channels and four op-amps. It even has a TL431 to generate the bias voltage. There’s also an extra transistor below, but it has nothing to do with the balancing itself; it just switches on the fan.


There is one important difference between my circuit (though, strictly speaking, it wasn’t originally mine either) and the one here. I use low-resistance shunt resistors with a combined resistance of around 10–20 mΩ. This is necessary to reduce the heat they dissipate.
The trade-off is this: a lower resistance is better for reducing heat, while a higher one makes operation more stable.
I partly worked around this by adding a voltage divider at the input, so the control signal needs to be high-voltage. That doesn’t solve every problem, but it helps. Atorch’s engineers went with shunts ten times higher in resistance, at 0.22 Ω. That’s good for stability, but the heat...
The manufacturer specifies a current of 25 A for the main module. It’s easy to calculate that at this current (6.25 A per shunt and transistor, since there are four of each), the voltage drop across a 0.22 Ω resistor will be 1.375 V. Multiply that by 6.25 and you get 8.6 W. I’ll actually check this a little later. That’s A LOT, especially since the resistors aren’t cooled by airflow.
The solution is to reduce the resistance by at least half, preferably by a factor of 3–4.


All right, let’s apply 12 V and see what happens.
We get the familiar Atorch display, which fades in the flash. There’ll be various photos below, some of them not very good, so apologies in advance.


1. The load starts up, runs a self-test, and turns on the fan for 3 seconds in the process.
2. Next, the WiFi connection screen appears. If the connection hasn’t been configured, a green bar will keep moving. To continue, press and hold the Start button. If the connection is configured, the load will move on automatically once it connects successfully.
3. After all that, we reach the main screen. It looks a lot like the screen on the previous version of the load, but with a few additions: BAT symbols in the lower left, and a battery icon in battery test mode.
4. If you hold down the encoder button before switching the unit on, you’ll get the maximum power setting menu. This is needed if you have additional modules.
So, to increase the power, you need to:
have the module itself
move the jumper on the board
change the setting in this menu (hold down the encoder button and wait; the options will cycle)
set the power and current in the load settings menu, though usually everything there automatically goes to the maximum.


To open the settings menu, hold down the power button for a couple of seconds. The controls aren’t very convenient: pressing the encoder moves between items, while turning it changes the setting. So if you accidentally press it one time too many, you have to press it another 18 times to get back to where you need to be. The encoder also “slips,” so you can’t turn it too quickly; you need to find the right speed.
Overall, it’s not great—maybe a C.

Here’s what we have in the settings:
1. Numeric or graphical display, English or Chinese.
2. Display brightness in the main mode
3. Brightness in dim mode.
4. Time before switching to dim mode.
5. Ammeter and current-setting display resolution: 10 or 1 mA, as well as "Auto" mode. I recommend Auto.
6. External temperature sensor calibration
7. Load operating time limit. It says "Discharge"; in reality, this isn't always a discharge, but apparently that was easier for them.
8. Voltage drop threshold at which the load shuts off. Useful for battery tests.
9. Upper threshold at which the load shuts off. This menu also sets the charge termination voltage!
10. Maximum current limit
11. External temperature sensor limit
12. Maximum power limit
13. Board temperature limit (there's a catch here: the board has two temperature sensors, and this presumably refers to the one near the transistors)
14. Fan turn-on temperature. Unfortunately, there's no smooth speed control. The fan always turns off when the temperature drops 10 degrees below the turn-on temperature. Personally, I'd recommend setting up at least two speeds: low speed through a resistor and high speed using the stock circuit, or low speed using the stock circuit and high speed through a thermal switch on the heatsinks. Otherwise, the noise will drive you crazy.
15. Zero-current calibration with no load. I had to use this when I added my own external modules; normally, it's not needed.
16. Reset WiFi connection settings
17. Reset accumulated data (capacity in Ah and Wh)
18. Restore default settings
19. Exit the menu. You can also exit at any time by pressing and holding the Start button.



A few tests.
First, let's check voltage measurement accuracy.
I'd say it's excellent, if not for one "but": the load starts measuring at 0.8 V. So it can accurately display 0.81, 0.93, or 11.32, for example, but it won't show 0.79. I wouldn't call this critical; I've never needed to set the load to such a low voltage, for instance, but still.


While I was at it, I also checked CV mode. As a reminder, this is the mode where the load regulates voltage, essentially acting like a high-power zener diode.
And I immediately found a problem: when I tried to regulate 0.8 V, the voltage started oscillating and the power supply switched to CC mode.

I'd seen the same problem before. It's because this mode is implemented in software, not hardware. Why the manufacturer skimped on one op-amp and stubbornly refuses to implement a hardware mode, like the one in Sousim loads, I have no idea.
Or they could at least ask me; I could tell them how to do it right.


As the voltage increased, this mode became more stable. But I noticed something interesting: when I powered it from the RD6006P, the voltage oscillated even at higher voltages. When I connected the RD6024, it worked noticeably better.


I tried adding a capacitor at the input. At 0.8 V, though, it made almost no difference—maybe the oscillation was a little smaller.


At higher voltages, though, the load worked much better, if not quite as it should. Keep that in mind.


CC mode and current-setting accuracy.
Overall, it's reasonably good. The error is larger at the lowest settings and decreases as the current increases. But overall, I consider the results satisfactory.
Below are photos with the load current set to 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 mA, and 1, 2, and 5 A.


The next test was trickier, because I was comparing it with a unit based on the RD6024.
There were no issues here either, more or less. I tested at 10, 20, and 24 A, but the problem I mentioned earlier showed up. Barely ten seconds into the test at 24 A, smoke started coming from the load, and the current-balancing resistors began overheating. That's exactly what I was talking about. I managed to take just one photo before I had to lower the current.


CP mode, or constant-power mode. Unfortunately, the red color is almost invisible in these already poor photos, but I can say that regulation accuracy isn't a problem. However, since this mode is also implemented in software (all modes here except CC are software-based), there's a caveat: if you set, say, 100 W and then suddenly increase the input voltage, the power will jump as well. In other words, the response is slow.


CR mode also works quite well, but it's software-based too.

Loads are often built with hardware CC; sometimes, as with Sousim, they also have hardware CV. That's not difficult. Hardware CR is a little more complicated, and hardware CP is considered the most difficult to implement, although there's even a dedicated chip for it. The challenge with implementing CP mode in hardware is that it has to operate over a wider range than in CC or CV mode, since power equals current multiplied by voltage.


Just out of curiosity, I checked the temperature at 100 and 150 W. I took the readings after the temperature shown by the built-in sensor had stopped changing.
At 100 W, I got about 44 degrees; at 150 W, about 56–58 degrees. You could say that’s great, if not for one catch: the sensor measures the temperature of the board near the transistors.
In reality, the temperature is noticeably higher. The photo on the left is at 100 W, and the one on the right is at 150 W—compare them. But I’ll admit that, in this setup, the cooling does its job: 85 degrees is perfectly normal. The sensor just doesn’t show the actual temperature.
You can also see that the power balance between the transistors isn’t great, which is odd—I expected better. The load current does affect it, though: the higher the current, the better the balance. The load is rated for up to 25 A; I tested it at 5 A.




The battery testing function is the killer feature added in this version of the load. It requires a separate module.
I put together everything needed for the test, but I’ll say this: I cursed the whole thing while trying to figure out how it worked. Once I got the hang of it, I realized I’d been spoiled by ZKEtech battery testers, where everything is simple, clear, and logical.



After a few experiments, I can explain how the testing process works.
First, a quick explanation: there are two modes here, CDC and CDCDC. They work the same way and differ only in the number of cycles. The first is charge-discharge-charge; the second is charge-discharge-charge-discharge-charge. So I’ll explain only the first one.

1. Take a charger or adjustable power supply and set the charging voltage and current.
2. Select CDC or CDCDC mode and set the cycle to start from. At the very bottom left, you’ll see 1, 2, or 3 next to a battery symbol. For a full cycle, select 1. Set the discharge current, then the time if needed, and then the cutoff voltage (select each setting by pressing the encoder).
3. After you confirm, a message appears: connect the charger.
4. Go into the settings and set the charge termination voltage. This is the overvoltage protection setting, so for lithium batteries, set it to 4.2 V.
5. Exit the menu and press Start. You’ll be warned that all data will be reset; you can cancel for a few seconds.
6. That’s it—the test starts.


Here’s how the process works:
First, the battery charges to the set voltage. And here’s the problem—a huge problem: there’s no CV stage, which defeats the whole point of the test. The CV phase accounts for about 20% of the charge, so we simply don’t measure it.
Then comes the discharge, with no current from the charger, of course.
Finally, the battery charges again. When that’s finished, the load displays the test results on screen.


If the “digital” display mode is enabled, the results for each stage are shown in turn.
If graph mode is enabled, you’ll see a graph. But if you have “digital” mode enabled, you can go into the settings and switch to the graph view.


To illustrate the problem, I highlighted on the graph what you lose when charging with a voltage cutoff. That’s a significant amount, in my opinion.


One of my readers wrote to me about another problem: you can’t set the charging current to 10 A with LiFePO4 batteries, and the transistor also gets too hot.
Let’s take a battery and a charger and check.


The battery was discharged before the test. And here we found a problem: these batteries need to be charged to 3.65 V, but the settings let you change the voltage only in 0.1 V increments. Also, I must have fiddled with something, because now the last digit in the settings isn’t even 0—it’s 9. In principle, you can set all of this precisely in the app—or rather, in the PC software—but I’d like to be able to configure it from the menu.
There’s another problem, too: if you need to change the voltage in the settings from 4 to 200 V, get ready to spend a couple of minutes turning the encoder....


First, I set the charge termination voltage on the power supply to 3.7 V, but the current was only 6 A at most.
Then I raised the voltage to 4.5 V and got 10 A, but the current dropped to 8–9 A pretty quickly.
Toward the end of the charge, I had to raise the voltage to 4.8–5.0 V.

While preparing the photos for the review, I noticed something odd: for some reason, the load was reading low on current. Strange—I hadn’t noticed this effect before or since.


Of course, I charged the battery, but I got curious about how much voltage drops across the load while charging at 10 A. Here’s what I got:
1. About 0.1 V on the negative side
2. About 0.85 V on the positive side.

That’s almost 1 V of total voltage drop! Considering there’s no CV phase, the whole thing looks pretty badly designed.

Atorch engineers, get in touch and I’ll explain how to make a proper battery tester!!!


Since the transistor has fairly high resistance, it gets insanely hot.
1. Overall view
2. The voltage regulator on the load board heating up
3. The charging-current switching transistor heating up—and this wasn’t even a full test, just 7–8 minutes.


What can you do? Well, if you’ve decided to use this feature anyway, you can replace the transistor with one that has lower resistance. But the right choice depends on the voltage of the batteries you’ll be testing, so use that as your starting point when selecting a transistor.


BT mode—or, simply put, measuring the internal resistance of batteries.
For the most accurate results, I used a good-quality four-wire holder. The menu offers two options: “small” and “large” battery. When you start the test, you can see that the first option tests at 1.8 A, while the second uses 18 A. Keep that in mind—not every battery will take kindly to 18 A.

The results show two values: one for DC and one calculated for AC. That’s because the load tests in DC mode; the other value is just a calculation.




I tested four batteries that I’ve already reviewed.
Vapcell T39 - review - 3.3 mΩ AC
Vapcell LG-INR21700H40B - review - 8 mΩ AC
INR21700M52V - review - 13.5 mΩ AC
EVE INR18650-25P 2500mAh - review - 12.4 mΩ AC

I ran each test several times. The results can vary a little, although sometimes consecutive measurements gave the same result.
Overall, it’s acceptable, but I wouldn’t rely on the calculated AC results. You’re better off buying a dedicated instrument.


The USB cable testing feature. The idea is that you simply plug the cable into a USB power supply and start the test.
I turned it on, started the test, and got about 88 mΩ. I opened the review of this cable and checked the results there: 200 mΩ...
So, yeah... And what if the power supply can increase its voltage as the load increases?


Okay, let’s use a more powerful power supply and a thicker cable from this review. This result is much closer to reality: the combined resistance of the two wires was about 37 mΩ, and there are short cables here too, so 44 mΩ is quite plausible.


The power supply testing feature. Essentially, it’s a test that automatically increases the load current in steps while monitoring the voltage at the power supply’s output.
Okay, let’s take a power supply, set it to 30 V, and set the current limit to 15 A.


At the end of the test, I got a load of 155 W. Then a message popped up saying the power limit had been exceeded, and the test stopped.
But that wasn’t what bothered me most. That part was my own mistake: I set the power supply output higher than the load could handle. But the test took almost... half an hour. Come on, guys...

By the way, how is it that the power supply has such a bright, beautiful screen that doesn’t wash out under the camera flash, while the Atorch has something so vague and barely visible?


Okay, I set a higher voltage and lower current, then ran the test again. This was of course faster, and it gave the results at the end: maximum power 48 W, recommended 43 W. I suspect the recommended value is simply the maximum minus 10%.

In principle, this test would be decent if it ran faster—about 10 times faster.


Additional power modules. Overall, these are pretty good, but there were a few “quirks” here too.
First, the connection layout. The manufacturer suggests arranging them as shown in the first photo, but then you can't install either the charging module or the additional boards.
You can arrange them as shown in the second photo, and all the modules fit without any problems, but I think this will put more strain on the board connection terminals.


I went with something of a compromise, which lets me use the battery charging module. By the way, the charging module can only be installed on the right, which isn't very convenient. For example, I'd have preferred to put it at the top left; then the expansion boards and power modules would fit too.


The rest is simple.
1. Move the jumper
2, 3. Change the maximum power setting. By the way, there's even a 3000 W mode here.
4. Check in the settings that the maximum power and current have changed. If not, change them manually.


For testing, connect a powerful power supply—at least one capable of delivering the 600 W we need.


We load it at 12 A and 50 V. The actual current was closer to 12.1 A, but that doesn't really matter here.
The board warmed up very quickly: in just 1 minute 20 seconds, its temperature rose from 42 to 58 degrees. Keep in mind, though, that the fans turn on at 52 degrees.
Even so, this whole setup not only sounded like a quadcopter taking off at full throttle, it also got pretty hot. You could easily use it as a space heater.


Naturally, I wanted to check the temperatures and see how the power was balanced across the modules. Unfortunately, it was so awkward to do that I didn't notice I'd somehow pressed the encoder and stopped the test, so these are the only readings I got.
But you can already see that the balance isn't ideal. Strangely, the main board ran the coolest; it's at the bottom right in the first photo and at the top right in the second. I put the fact that the board diagonally opposite the main module runs cooler down to the higher resistance of the traces leading to it and the small number of screws connecting it to the other boards, though it's still odd.


I added a couple of screws along the power paths; they were left over from the charging module. But this made no difference to the balance. At least I was able to check again after a longer run. Well, longer—just a few minutes of operation, and some transistors had reached 107 degrees, even though the test was brief... The built-in thermometer, of course, showed something more optimistic, around 60–65 degrees.


You can also control the device from a computer, and I can say it's much more convenient than using the device's own control panel.
Download the program from the link on the product page or here.

Then connect a UART-to-USB converter; you just need to move the jumper to the 3.3 V position. Once the program connects successfully, a PC connection symbol appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. The good thing is that this doesn't disable control from the device itself.


The program doesn't need to be installed, which is convenient in its own way. It starts in Chinese, but there's a menu at the top where you can easily switch to English, even if you can't read the rest. To save you the trouble, I'll mention one issue right away: unfortunately, the program doesn't remember your previous settings.


You can change the color scheme and line width, so I set them up the way I'm used to right away. But again, unfortunately, the software doesn't remember the settings :(


There's a large settings menu on the right, where you can select the test parameters and operating mode. The response is very fast.


It works and plots graphs, but you can display only two arbitrary parameters on the screen. ZKEtech lets you display three, which is of course more convenient.
Still, it's not bad as it is. The settings can be changed on the fly.


You can also open the additional settings menu on the right. Changing the settings here is definitely more convenient than turning the encoder, and you can adjust the finer increments too.


At the top are additional software settings, along with the option to save the graph as a PNG and update the device firmware.


The second killer feature is integrating the device with Tuya.

Setting up the WiFi connection isn't much more complicated. Scan the QR code, download the app, link your device to it, and from then on it will connect to WiFi automatically.
There is one catch. Before, you had to press the Start button to dismiss the QR code screen. You won't need to do that now, but if you also connect a USB adapter, the load will still wait and you'll have to press Start. The USB adapter takes priority.

Once setup is complete, the connection screen will be displayed for a few seconds, then the load will switch to its normal operating mode by itself. The WiFi connection symbol will appear on the right side of the screen.

For ease of connection, I give it 5 points—especially when I think of how “convenient” this process is with RuiDeng devices.



From here, it's all very simple: download the app, enter your email and create a password. Once you launch the app, it immediately finds the electronic load automatically. For the first connection, select your router, enter the password, and that's it.
It did offer to update the firmware. I tapped OK, but didn't notice anything change.


Once everything is set up, just tap the picture of our module to access the settings and graphs.
I can't say I liked everything here. The menu and mode selection layout, as well as the way the graph is displayed, aren't intuitive.


You can also configure all the settings and view the graph and statistics, but there are some rough edges. For example, the graph shows a full day's data....
Still, you get the same thing as on a PC, although the response here is much slower and sometimes got annoying.

I assume they'll keep improving it, since the feature is new.


Before I wrap up, here's a related question: has anyone come across electronic loads like these? I spotted one in a video and asked the person about it, but got no reply. They seem to handle up to 40–50 A, and the power rating looks pretty substantial too.


I also wanted to mention that while preparing this review, I was browsing AliExpress for links and came across a listing in the same store selling the power module for 1 cent. Of course I bought one. But then I thought it was probably meant for people who had bought this load, or a similar one, from that store. The link is no longer valid, but try going to “All products,” then selecting “Sort by newest.” This listing was the newest one for me, at the top left—maybe you'll get lucky too.
You should land on a page for this module, with a quantity of 1.

Almost forgot: you can simply buy the power module, attach a small voltage regulator and a potentiometer, and power it with a 12 V power supply to get a “dumb” 150 W electronic load. I haven't tested this, but knowing how it's built, I don't see any problem with it.




And now for the conclusions.
Well, there's definitely been progress—that's a fact. But the new key features are still pretty rough around the edges.
1. The battery charging function isn't usable yet. Actually, it does work, but it can't test batteries properly because it can't stop charging when the current drops. Also, there's a very large voltage drop across the transistor. In short, it's still rough, but promising.
2. The Tuya connection has no glaring issues: it's easy to set up and works, but the ergonomics could be better. On top of that, the response is very slow—we're working through the cloud, after all, rather than directly over USB.

By the way, when it comes to USB, it's better to use adapters with galvanic isolation. Just a friendly tip.

What would I do if I were the developers? Well, first I'd get in touch with me on Skype or by email and ask, “Kirich, how do we make a good device?”
Then I'd tweak the board layout so the charging module could be installed in the upper left. I completely redesigned the charging module—or, better yet, added a proper charging function, even if that makes it more expensive.
I changed the values of the current-balancing resistors, reducing them by a factor of 3–5.
I made the power-module heatsinks the same as the main unit's.
The main current-sense shunts should be more powerful than the ones currently installed, because without airflow they'll overheat at currents of 35–40 A.
I got rid of the battery connection board and included a standard four-wire holder instead. It would have cost the same, but would be far better in terms of convenience and quality.
I did something about the encoder polling rate. If you turn it quickly, it skips steps—and since sometimes you have to turn it... a lot, that was really annoying.
I made the control module detachable, like on the DL24MP.
I added an op-amp and finally implemented a hardware CV mode instead of this software workaround. By the way, if you use CP mode, its software-based implementation means that changes in the input voltage can cause dips or spikes in the current.

So, something along those lines. Even so, I wouldn't say the load is "complete crap." No, I can clearly see improvements over previous versions, and it's also clear that the developers are reading my reviews, since they're implementing the things I've recommended.
I really like the PC software. Of course, it's not perfect, and the ergonomics could use some work, but it's clearly improved and is now perfectly usable.
The load itself is also perfectly functional. Maybe my expectations are simply higher than those of most users.

Would I recommend buying it? Well, why not? It performs most of its functions, and its accuracy is decent. If you mainly use CC mode, you probably won't even notice some of the shortcomings.

That's all for today. I hope you found this useful, and as always, I'll be glad to hear your questions and comments—especially since I'm sure there's something I forgot to test.