18650 power bank

[bella-headlight]

Yes I have seen that John.
As I said earlier I have not been able to find one advertised that shows the charging ma although Lynx Arc has now linked to one on Aliexpress that does.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Yes I have seen that John.
As I said earlier I have not been able to find one advertised that shows the charging ma although Lynx Arc has now linked to one on Aliexpress that does.

The problem is that one says out of stock which doesn't help.

 

[kreisl]

i have Tomo V8-4 coming in, looks like a nice plasticky one with on/off switch. i can't recommend it yet, still need to test it.

I got mine today, on a Saturday :twothumbs
FYI it's the one with current/voltage display when connected to smartphone ("5.13V 0.79A"). My USB meter shows at the same time '4.97V 0.74A xxxxmAh'.
It is smaller than i had expected. The plastic feels cheap, well it is plastic lol. The pixelated LCD is pretty cool and my overall first impression is 'i like the product despite the el cheapo material'.

What i also like about it: it has 2 patent numbers on the back, not 'Patent pending'. And apparently the product has been evolved from years back.

I won't test it for the sake of testing, there are many technical and customer reviews on the www, blogs, forums, amazon, and youtube, but i'll use it a few times on the go in conjunction with my USB meter and USB charger(s), just to play with it. No serious or systematic testing. I am not that bored in life.

Protected 18650's. Unprotected 18650's are an easy, almost loose fit. I got a 69.10mm long Protected 18650 which fits soo, i wouldn't try to insert anything longer than that. All Protected Eagletac 18650's (blue label, red label, green label) for example fit, they are shorter than 69.1mm.

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

I am glad you got the version with the ma reading, though mine does not seem to be made of cheap plastic (good quality in my opinion) and does not have an patent number on the back either.

John.

 

[kreisl]

Here a photo ..

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

I have the white Soshine version, no label like that on mine.

John.

 

[bella-headlight]

Well the seller didn"t reply to me so I ordered one of the white Soshine E3"s anyway instead of the 2 I intended to get.
I will find out whether it has the digital ma readout when it arrives.

 

[bella-headlight]

Power bank arrived today & I loaded it up with 4 x 1800mah 18650 lap top pulls.
It shows the charging bars when the unit is being charged & voltage & mah when it is being used to charge an item.

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

Glad you got the ma version, what do you think of the build quality?

John.

Power bank arrived today & I loaded it up with 4 x 1800mah 18650 lap top pulls.
It shows the charging bars when the unit is being charged & voltage & mah when it is being used to charge an item.

 

[bella-headlight]

Glad you got the ma version, what do you think of the build quality?

John.

TBH considering it cost less than £9 delivered I think the build quality is pretty good.
I have compared some voltage readings on the power bank with my DMM readings & they are very close to what it shows & charge termination seems ok although according to my DMM it terminates at 4.17v & not 4.20v ( not that that is necessarily a bad thing) but it is not a problem as I do not intend to charge cells with it as I will use my D4 or Liitokala Engineer 500 for that.
All in all pretty pleased with it & at the money I think I will buy another as from my 18 laptop pull cells I have 12 that appear good so I can have 2 power banks loaded up with cells & carry 4 spare charged cells for trips away for charging phones & a tablet.

 

[PapaLumen]

What phone are you charging with it? Does it give charge at more than 0.5A when using it? ie it will say, "usb" (0.5A) and not "ac" (1A+) when you plug it in to most android phones, or you can check with current monitoring app. I have a powerbank that can do 2A but it wouldn't until I bridged the data pins on the usb connector.

 

[bella-headlight]

What phone are you charging with it? Does it give charge at more than 0.5A when using it? ie it will say, "usb" (0.5A) and not "ac" (1A+) when you plug it in to most android phones, or you can check with current monitoring app. I have a powerbank that can do 2A but it wouldn't until I bridged the data pins on the usb connector.

Yes it does.
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy A3 which came with a 1 amp wall charger so I am guessing that it only wants to draw a max of about 1 amp when charging ?
When charging the phone off either the 1 amp or 2 amp outlets it initially showed .98-.99 mah (checked with a KCX-017 inline tester/meter).
The phone was already 65% charged when I tried this & the mah slowly dropped from there down to .20 mah when the phone was fully charged up.
I tried charging a Samsung Tablet & the 2 amp outlet initially showed 1.60-1.61 mah, (the Tablet was already 85% charged when I did this) & again the amps slowly dropped from there as it charged.
I don"t know if it would have drawn more if the Tablet had been more depleted (guess it would ?) but I am guessing from this that the 2 amp outlet probably will give around 2 amps if the demand was put on it.
Hope this helps & I will try charging the tablet when it is about 30% (which is when I usually charge it) & see what amperage the power bank gives then & report back.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I bought a few cheap ebay power banks, a 1 cell and a 3 cell model and they seem ok, I like the single cell version I got as you can easily remove the cells by unscrewing the bottom and pulling out the plastic shell which has the guts in it.

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

I bought a 18650 flashlight (the beam is very tight), that is a power bank as well (0.5A) from AliExpress for $12 it`s a little tight for protected cells but mine just about fit.

John.

 

[PapaLumen]

Yes it does.
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy A3 which came with a 1 amp wall charger so I am guessing that it only wants to draw a max of about 1 amp when charging ?
When charging the phone off either the 1 amp or 2 amp outlets it initially showed .98-.99 mah (checked with a KCX-017 inline tester/meter).
The phone was already 65% charged when I tried this & the mah slowly dropped from there down to .20 mah when the phone was fully charged up.
I tried charging a Samsung Tablet & the 2 amp outlet initially showed 1.60-1.61 mah, (the Tablet was already 85% charged when I did this) & again the amps slowly dropped from there as it charged.
I don"t know if it would have drawn more if the Tablet had been more depleted (guess it would ?) but I am guessing from this that the 2 amp outlet probably will give around 2 amps if the demand was put on it.
Hope this helps & I will try charging the tablet when it is about 30% (which is when I usually charge it) & see what amperage the power bank gives then & report back.

Yep if it's quite charged already then the current will keep reducing. From 30% I would think the tablet would take the full 2A. I assume you mean .98A or 980ma (not mah) and 1.6-1.61A. I need to get me one of those inline current/voltage checkers. The one you have looks fancy..

 

[bella-headlight]

Yes sorry I meant ma & A"s oops.
I have now charged a depleted tablet (35%) with the Power bank using the 2A outlet & it initially showed 1.98A (again checked with a KCX-017) so that is close enough to 2A for me :twothumbs
The KCX-017 was bought after reading HKJ"s review of it http://lygte-info.dk/review/USBmeter KCX-017 UK.html
It only cost £3.70 delivered off ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151924189378?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
I have used it to check what some of my USB chargers are really putting out compared to what is claimed for them !

 

[bella-headlight]

Well 6 days on & I am not so happy with the Soshine E4 power bank.
A few hours after making the above post one of the bays stopped working.
I contacted the seller immediately who replied yesterday asking for photographs & details of the batteries I was using.
His site now says that he is away until 18th February but this morning I got a message from him saying that he is away till 6th March for the "Chinese Spring Festival" ?

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

That`s bad luck, but faults happen, my Maha C9000 developed a faulty channel so it happens to the best manufactures.

If you got it from china/hong-kong it would cost me twice as much to return it, royal mail so expensive so sellers have not asked for return after i tell them the cost and usually send me a replacement on seeing a video of it not working correctly.

Chinese holiday is messing with your replacement, 30+ day holiday :thinking: i wonder what eBay/PayPal think of that.

John.

 

[bella-headlight]

Yes don"t think I will have a problem getting a replacement (hopefully) as I have sent him what he has asked for, just a bit of pain that he is away for nearly 6 weeks ?

 

[bella-headlight]

Well still no contact from the seller despite me seeing that his shop was in fact back up & running over 3 weeks ago & not on the 6th of this month as he claimed & me sending him several more messages over the last 3 weeks so I have now involved paypal.
I first contacted the seller on January 27th & ebay contacted him on 2nd March so he has had more than enough time to at least contact me & tell me what is happening.