18650 power bank

[TinderBox (UK)]

Does fast charging your phone/tablet battery not decrease it`s cycle life? not a problem if it`s easy to replace the battery but most phones have the battery built in these days.

Most owners don't realise this and are most likely happy with the quick charge speed.

These quick chargers should offer a slow charging option for when you are not in a hurry, like a overnight charge.

Unless they are using some new type of fast charging battery?

John.

 

[recDNA]

I got lost in the physics somewhere.... Did we come up with the best solution for a single 18650 powerbank? I don't have room in my pocket for a charger bigger than a deck of cards along with my cell phone. If I can get 1500mAh out of the charger I can get an extra 2.5 hours of sot. That's all I care about. Well actually safety is my primary concern.

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

It`s the "Nitecore F1" for me, I put both securing bands black and yellow to make sure the 18650 does not move.

John.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Does fast charging your phone/tablet battery not decrease it`s cycle life? not a problem if it`s easy to replace the battery but most phones have the battery built in these days.

Most owners don't realise this and are most likely happy with the quick charge speed.

These quick chargers should offer a slow charging option for when you are not in a hurry, like a overnight charge.

Unless they are using some new type of fast charging battery?

John.

I think fast charging probably decreases battery life a little but in reality it may actually increase usable battery life as people will be getting a better charge on their battery that will last longer and have them charging less often partially. I've read about the quick charging and even if you have a power bank that supports it your device also needs to support it and your power cable too and I'm guessing the power bank probably needs to have higher amp output rating as the technology has charging at higher voltage than 5v with probably as much current.

 

[Gauss163]

I think fast charging probably decreases battery life a little but in reality it may actually increase usable battery life as people will be getting a better charge on their battery that will last longer and have them charging less often partially...

Not true. Fast charging is always less healthy (in extreme cases you can decrease lifetime by a factor of 10 or more). Further partial charge/discharge cycles are healthier too as long as they are not always restricted to very low or very high voltage ranges, i.e. the more they are balanced around the 50% point, and the smaller the capacity (dis)charged, the healthier it will be.

For example, if you only used the region between 45-55% capacity then you might get 10x the cumulative lifetime compared to normal usage. Of course that's just to illustrate a point, since that would be far too inconvenient in practice. But you will also gain significant lifetime by using only the region between 80-20%, or 90-10%, both of which are not too inconvenient, assuming you have enough control of the charger/device to restrict cell usage to those regions (e.g. "battery saver" software for laptops often expose such functionality to the user).

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Not true. Fast charging is always less healthy (in extreme cases you can decrease lifetime by a factor of 10 or more). Further partial charge/discharge cycles are healthier too as long as they are not always restricted to very low or very high voltage ranges, i.e. the more they are balanced around the 50% point, and the smaller the capacity (dis)charged, the healthier it will be.

For example, if you only used the region between 45-55% capacity then you might get 10x the cumulative lifetime compared to normal usage. Of course that's just to illustrate a point, since that would be far too inconvenient in practice. But you will also gain significant lifetime by using only the region between 80-20%, or 90-10%, both of which are not too inconvenient, assuming you have enough control of the charger/device to restrict cell usage to those regions (e.g. "battery saver" software for laptops often expose such functionality to the user).

This is an interesting article
http://insideevs.com/rapid-chargingdraining-lithium-ion-batteries-damaging-previously-thought/

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

Heat is the enemy of battery`s (that`s why Tesla and others controls the temperature of their battery`s) the only way the average user can avoid heat, is to do a normal slow charge and keep discharge currents as low as possible, so if you phone/tablet get`s hot while it`s charging the battery is getting damaged (as we know there are many other variables in battery health)

When rechargeable thulium battery are made, the manufacture can add several (highly secret) additives to the mix and this can considerably extend the cycle life of the cell, but we do not know how our battery`s were made in general and what additives were used.

So i would like to see fast chargers for (phone/tablets) have a slow charge option for when you are not in a hurry.

John.

 

[Gauss163]

This is an interesting article
http://insideevs.com/rapid-chargingdraining-lithium-ion-batteries-damaging-previously-thought/

It's about LiFePo4 coin cells so not clear how it applies (if at all). Many tests on 18650 Li-ion cells have shown much degradation at high charge rates.

There are various mult-stage fast charging algorithms that are devised to minimize health impact, but these aren't typically available in consumer-level chargers (yet)

 

[Lynx_Arc]

It's about LiFePo4 coin cells so not clear how it applies (if at all). Many tests on 18650 Li-ion cells have shown much degradation at high charge rates.

There are various mult-stage fast charging algorithms that are devised to minimize health impact, but these aren't typically available in consumer-level chargers (yet)

I think it will be interesting in that if you create fast chargers that degrade batteries a little faster then you can sell more phones when the non replaceable batteries wear out faster.

 

[IonicBond]

Picked up the latest version of the Tomo V8-4, along with the latest 3-cell version, but have some funny observations:

At first, I thought they were both broken. Of course, I threw the included little usb jumpers in the trash, and used some nice Anker charge cables. That lead to no more than 0.05A charge current! Say what?

Ok, pull the oem cables from the trash, and now the unit will charge my smaller devices at about 1.5A max on the 2A port. Small tablets, average android smartphone - all came originally with only 1A ac chargers anyway. I forgot where I saw it, but somewhere in the Tomo material online, they go on to state that the included cables are "not resistance decoded", whatever that means.

Ah, so a trip to the past. From what I can tell, the ports are influenced by the apple-like method of using/looking for resistance on the data lines, rather than a total short to signify a charge-only cable? I'm not a cable expert.

Get this - when I used my Abovetek inline usb volt and ammeter, it does not always agree with the display:

When using a beefy short Anker charge-only cable, the inline meter shows about 1.4A, but the Tomo display only shows 0.05A flowing! What?

Switch to the oem Tomo cables, and now the inline meter agrees with the display, at about 1.4A each - about max that I've observed with my stuff.

I've gotten spoiled with all the "smart port" usb outputs from Anker battery packs and the like, but the Tomo output seems fussy about the specific cabling, yielding wildly different results depending.

I'm having fun with the Tomo's but lack of a smart-port to automatically figure out the proper cabling was driving me nutty.

 

[cpfiul]

Hello
I own one power bank Soshine E4S without QC old model .
It was good but now is not working .

There is an IC which. came very hot but is not inscription on it .
Someone has an idea of the code for this IC ?
The one with 16 pins
I have to mention that power bank has LCD with charging/discharging progres bar, percentage of charging, voltage and current information .

 

[Dave_H]

I regularly open up devices like this to see what's inside and possibly identify key parts including ICs. It's fairly common for part numbers to be obliterated to help protect the design. Some others particularly smaller ICs have "psuedo" part numbers which can be difficult to trace, although they usually appear in chip vendors' data sheets.

I'm guessing the 16-pin SOIC is probably a custom microcontroller as it has LCD drive and other functions (6-pin connector is for LCD?). Its getting hot is not good sign. Getting a replacement (if the part is actually bad, could be a fault elsewhere in the circuit) in small quantity, even if you do identify it, could be difficult, especially a standard part with custom program (another way the design can be protected).

Distant possibility is another identical pack which has a different problem (say mechanical damage), which can be sacrificial, but having a good chip which can be transplanted.

The 8-pin chip marked Q12 appears to be a dual N-channel MOSFET, FDS9926A.


Dave

 

[cpfiul]

Thanks for advice !
I contact The " producer " or "seller " Soshine trough Aliex page but they decline the competence with the reason that the device is too old and there is no more info about !!!
I start to take a look about some other powerbank board with LCD display maybe I will observe some similitude with mine .
For EX .
It is an IC named 7511 AOK did not find use full reference on internet but for first view it has 16 pins is connected with LCD

 

[Dave_H]

Good image, but I can't quite read markings on he two smaller 8-pin ICs. One on left side is switching boost controller, IC on the right appears to be Li-ion charger

Marking on 16-pin IC might be part of the real part number, or a "pseudo" part number. It is similar to ones I have seen on small digital panel meters, which usually read out in volts; this one must be more specific to read out percentage charge of cell based on voltage. I recently obtained a pack with 2-digit LED which displays percentage (up to 99) of charge.

Dave.