USB battery packs

Does anyone here have a USB battery pack similar to this one

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I would welcome any comments, good or bad.

To be DIY I would need to homebrew it.

Reply to
Part Timer
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In message , Part Timer writes

0 Yes, I've got a couple, a Teknet one that came from Amazon - IIRC about 6 Ah, couple of USB outputs, one 2.A, one 1A and a small no name one from Ebay that lives in my bag as a handy phone boost occasionally.

The 2.1A output is useful for charger iPads etc.

Not much more to say really. We use ours quite a bit, camping, or when out and about a lot. Useful if we use the smartphones GPS function as that draisn the battery fast

Reply to
chris French

I've used some Energizer packs in prototypes.

Things to watch:

How does the 'off switch' work? In the Energizer pack it detects something being plugged into the output. That means if you leave it lying around with a cable plugged in it will go flat, even if there's nothing on the other end of the cable (in my case controlled by a mechanical switch).

What's the input charge current, and how long does it take to charge from empty?

When you charge the pack, what output current can you draw at the same time? The Energizer pack has a problem where the current in is less than the current out (being drawn by the load), hence you can leave it on the charger and it still goes flat.

Some of them have pathetically low output currents.

Getting battery status out of them is tricky (the LEDs on the top are OK but quite coarse grained, and there's no programmatic way to read them).

I have some Anker packs that are on the todo list to fit in the next version, but haven't got around to it yet. They still have 'soft' off switches so I'm unsure whether they fix the off switch problem.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

The Teknet one I have, like this:

Has a button you push to turn it on. If it doesn't sense anything charging it turns itself off after a few seconds. If you zoom in on the Amazon picture you can see the button near the little grey coloured strip on top (where the charge level LED's are)

Reply to
chris French

On Saturday 01 February 2014 23:45 Part Timer wrote in uk.d-i-y:

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Yes - full details on my blog, first item:

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In summary:

RAVPower RP-PB07 Power Bank (10.4Ah 1A/2A USB Outputs)

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It works, it charges a Samsumg Note 3 (2A charging) *quickly* and it has lots of capacity.

2 outputs (1x1A and 1x2A), similar price to yours.

HTH

Tim

Reply to
Tim Watts

On 01 Feb 2014, Part Timer grunted:

I don't know anything about that particular model; but over the years I've tried about 3 of these gadgets for my iPhone 3GS (the huge failing of that phone being its short charge life). Each battry pack has caused the iPhone to generate an error message about the charging device not being appropriate or something; eventually I gave up on the idea. May well be my phone that's the issue, but it's always worked fine in every other way and needless to say Apple aren't interested with any 3-party device problems.

Reply to
Lobster

Agreed - I got a 1300 mAH Anker one.

I would like a much more definite, physical on/off switch. Keep finding it on when it should be off and sometimes it seems to switch itself off when it should be on! I sometimes use it for GPS on a Nokia phone and find that it has switched itself off and allowed the phone to get critically low.

It does work with iPads as claimed.

Four LEDs is not an adequate display for charge.

It also strikes me that it would be so useful if they incorporated the ability to act as USB hubs and memory stick ports. Maybe even allow an SD or micro-SD to be inserted into them and act as a memory stick themselves? Should be possible with virtually no change in size or, I'd hope, cost!

Whatever you do, make sure your pack can itself charge from USB (e.g.micro-USB input as on my Anker). Ones that have their own external charger are complete PITA.

Reply to
polygonum

Also, be aware thay the mAh capacity quoted is often that of the internal Li battery, not the presented 5v output. Remember to account for the inverter efficiency and the step up (3.8-5v) current drop. Expect not much more than half the quoted mAh capacity at the 5v out.

Also, I've found with these that they don't always signal to the device correctly that more than 500mA is available (if it is) resulting in extended charge times. AFAIK, the means by which this achieved isn't well standardised. Shorting the data lines works for some but the battery packs do not always do this.

HTH

Chris K

Reply to
Chris K

Its an iphone, you can bet that apple detect the charger is not made by them and refuses to work. They do that with most of their stuff and manufacturers have to work around it and it stops working when apple decide to change it in a software update.

Reply to
dennis

I've not had a problem recently (using a 4S), although my old iphone 3GS used to complain. I was never quite sure if that was down to cable or charger though - nowadays I use tried/tested cables.

It is a nuisance how so much of apple stuff is locked down, though.

Reply to
RJH

My wife has a 3GS, and there is an old iPod around the house, they both will charge from various things, including my battery pack, different mains charger, laptops car charger etc. . and we don't anymore have a kosher apple cable or charger.

The iPhone in particular does complain sometimes, but have never been quite sure what exactly it was unhappy about. Sometimes it has been the lead, sometimes it complains and we unplug it from the charger and then plug i again and then it's happy etc. I think they are just a bit fussy about soething or other. But I've seen no evidence that it is locked down

Reply to
chris French

I'm pretty sure mine gives more than half, but no, not the full capacity out, but then I never expected it to.

Indeed, but seems to a problem with all sorts of usb charging things

Reply to
chris French

You can't turn mine off as such. plug something in and press the button and it starts charging. It turns itself off when you unplug the device. Turn it on with nothing attached and it turns off again after a short time

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Reply to
chris French

On Sunday 02 February 2014 17:24 dennis@home wrote in uk.d-i-y:

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I would not be surprised. I have a 12v 2A double USB car adaptor/charger (ciggie lighter plug format). One USB is marked iPhone, the other Samsung.

Oddly my Samsung Note 3 charges just as fast (AFAICT) in either.

Reply to
Tim Watts

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Reply to
zaax

I think Apple kit is notoriously fussy about needing genuine cables - more so with lightening cables. But they're also locked down in other ways.

Hardware - graphics cards, scanners, hard disks. Now, the iMacs are glued together.

Software - I'm not so bothered about the slight faff when using non-Apple software. It's more lack of native support for files I like to use (avi, say).

All of this may make the machines more reliable, better made/designed and easier to use - and expensive. But still.

Reply to
RJH

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