The RK6006-BT power supply

I had a DPS3003 power supply, and I’ve always found the device difficult to use. There are only 4 buttons and a knob, and the manual was difficult to parse. I noticed a similar power supply that have both USB and Bluetooth. the RK6006-BT! There were several listings on Aliexpress and the price ranged from $27 to $37. I used a new user account and purchased one for $25. The interface looked very similar to the DPS3003. Okay!

I received it quickly, and was surprised there was no documentation with it.

Where is the software?

I expected a download link for the software. I checked the vendor page and nothing was listed. Hmm. I looked at other vendors and found a reference to a link on a Google drive. I finally downloaded the software, (which required unpacking an encrypted RAR, and installing a driver) and when I tried running it on the PC, it said “No support this product model”

I tried installing the Android software from the Google play Store and it says my phone isn’t compatible. A copy of the manual says only Android OS 5.0 through 12.0 was supported, and I have 14.0, with the latest being 15.0. So I searched for new firmware.

Finding alternative software

I found a link on the EEVBlog that mentioned the UniSoft software for the RD6006. Truthfully I was confused about the product because the AliExpress described it as the RD/RK6006 and sometimes they list different names for different models. So I thought it was worth a try. But first, I wanted to make sure I could restore the device to the proper firmware. I found the vendor firmware and noticed the latest was v1.09, which matched what my device had (w/bootloader v1.04). I also noticed they described it as model 60066.

I then tried an open source firmware uploader. At first it didn’t work because it wasn’t a recognized model. So I changed the line

supported_models = [60062, 60065, 60121, 60125, 60181, 60241]

to

supported_models = [60062, 60065, 60066, 60121, 60125, 60181, 60241]

And it worked!

I then tried to upload the UniSoft firmware. No such luck. No software for me! It’s a different device. The front panel was probably the biggest difference to the software. But I had hoped.

However I kept searching. I found Voidstarsec‘s blog on power supply and read about the rd6006 python library.

I needed to set up a virtual python environment first

cd ; python -m venv env –system-sitre-packages

activate ~/env/bin/activate

I next needed to install a modbus library as I found out

pip install minimalmodbus

Now get the rd6006 library. I store my git copies in ~/Git

cd ~/Git
gh repo clone Baldanos/rd6006
cd rd6006
python setup.py install –user

I then tested the python code in a file called test.py

from rd6006 import RD6006
r=RD6006(‘/dev/ttyUSB0’)
r.enable=0
r.voltage=3.3
r.enable=1
r.status

I called “python test.py” and the output was

RD6006 or other detected
== Device
Model : 6006.6
SN : 00012522
Firmware: 1.09
Input : 12.17V
Temp : 27°C
TempProb: -73°C
== Output
Voltage : 2.83V
Current : 0.002A
Energy : 0.0Ah
Power : 0.0W
== Settings
Voltage : 3.3V
Current : 6.1A
== Protection
Voltage : 62.0V
Current : 6.2A
== Battery
Capacity: 0.0Ah
Energy : 0.0Wh
== Memories
M0: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M1: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M2: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M3: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M4: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M5: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M6: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M7: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M8: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A
M9: 5.0V, 6.100A, OVP:62.0V, OCP:6.200A

I don’t have WiFi or BlueTooth, but I was able to get the functionality of a $80 power supply working with a $25 device. And I can control it on my Linux box. Success!