A look at a red pepper USB power bank. 

Are you gonna have a competition for that Red Hot Chili Pepper power bank so you can give it away give it away give it way now?

That totally wouldn't be mistaken for a novelty sex toy if it were spotted in your backpack/handbag. Totally.

Is that a red pepper USB power bank in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me... :p I fear this could look quite dodgy under unfortunate circumstances.

Id love to see you break down some amazon basics electronics

If aliens landed at Clive's house in the wee hours of the morning, I can see him going to investigate the noise with his pepper light.

With the right cell, that would be a mighty strong pepper :D

Red, hot and USB power bank in one title. Sounds intriguing.

Thank you for making me smile about the pink and red hot chilli pepper. That's wonderful. I really would like to see more of this colored chinese plastic stuff. :-)

Speaking of interesting combinations with that light, it fits really well on the smaller cylinder 18650 power banks that you screw the end off to get to the battery in.

there must be a market for powerbanks shaped like.....you know....

That pepperlight is a real nice invention.

Oh please.Soon a cucumber hard drive,a melon desktop pc or a bean shoot usb stick? These things are the equivalent of the 70's kiss me quick hats in Blackpool.

It makes me wonder if they had the chili pepper plastic cases laying around and someone said "hey, an 18650 cell will fit in there, lets make it into a usb power bank!"

You should do a teardown video on TOMO powerbank. I picked one up from manufacturer (apparently there's a lot of counterfeit on aliexpress and ebay) It's a really nice unit that can hold up to 4 cells, but in any configuration you want. It charges and discharges each of them separately, so you can mix capacities, and also mix charged and discharged (unprotected) cells without problem.

I got one of those Poundworld powerbanks and used it once but when i touched the case where the chip is i felt a burning heat so quickly took it apart and removed the battery, and after seeing this I'm glad i did now.

The pepper with the flashlight on it reminds me of a Maniac Mansion tentacle

It's amazing how nature works, who'd have thought a chilli pepper would be ergonomically perfect for use as a USB torch... :P

I saw the thumbnail and thought, "Oh boy, Clive's found another one of THOSE..."

I think that is a prostate massager/usb charger. The chili form factor is for fun.

Love the videos! Keep them coming!

3:51 - "The first thing it did was it blew the fuse in the meter..." I'm sure BigClive™ let loose a string of expletives when that happened. :)

Another amazing device for the landfill

I was the one who sent you the link :P I bet the chip is the same one used in my 16in pink sausage powerbank. The lights seem to behave in the same way.

I have some complaints of the 8 pin "do everything" control chips in these chargers. They tend to have the cut-off threshold too low, and they don't latch so they will turn off the boost circuit at about 2.4V and then turn it back on as the cell creeps back up towards 2.8V or so. Some of them will also overcharge the cell quite a bit. I would definitely use a protected battery or bodge solder a DW01 protection board to the circuit to protect the cell if i was to use one of these powerbanks.

2 vids in 1 day wow productivity is up keep up the great work I love these technical videos I also love teh bible vid with the "bears"

For anyone else looking for these, searching "5v 1.2a 18650" on ebay made one of these show up as the first result. The seller shown at the beginning doesn't seem to have them up right now, so just an FYI.

I do have a 2600 mah powerbank. (Most likely 900 mah in total output with marketing as higher capacity it does have 6 months warranty from where i bought it from & its outside of that now.) Mine does charge at 540 - 570 mah checking. it does work to charge some bit more demanding stuff & mine does also shut down if theres a short or too high of an amp draw which is pretty neat (mine did cost 8£ though). Im guessing its recycled battery cells from laptops & manufacturers at times. Dud units that does take a charge but doesn't hold the charge too well or goes outside of specifications while under their benchmark load. Ive taken apart laptpo batteries that are pretty much detected as dead & gotten working cells out of them (usually small projects ive used them for (powering various small rc cars (130 sized motors in general) or a small bunch of led lamps from a 4.5v flashlight as a sort of working light.)

Is that a USB power bank in your pocket or are you an alien that is glad to see me?

Hey +bigclivedotcom, interesting video - as everytime. But I want to make one (I think) important addendum: You said one of the Poundland batteries was 0V and as such ''for the bin''. That's a common misunderstanding on RU-vid - but wrong. One schould know, that batteries ''never'' (mostly) go absolutely flat. If a LiIon battery schows 0V it ist a secured cell which is actually in it's lockout state. You can revert the lockout by charging it. Normal chargers would not start because they think there is no battery attached, but if You set a power supply to the maximum voltage 4.1V and the current to max. 1C (on 18650 1A will be fine for all) You will see that the battery will accept a charge and the voltage is rising (while in constant current mode because the battery is empty). Reaching 4.1V You can disconnect the power supply and put the battery back in the product. Other cases: If the power supply goes in CC mode but the output voltage is below 1V: disconnect the battery, it has a dead short and should be recycled (not thrown in the bin). If the power supply goes immediately to CV mode and shows no mentionable current: the battery lost it's live for good. Yes the battery will have suffered damage from undervoltage but I had some cells which had after this resurrection still above 2200mAh. THIS TIP IS FOR YOU AND THE ELECTRONICALLY EDUCATED PART OF YOUR AUDIENCE! ALL OTHERS I WANT TO MAKE AWARE THAT IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG IT WILL GO WRONG VERY HORRIBLY!

Could anyone give me a link to the usb flashlight head? I feel like that would be fantastically useful with not having to constantly have batteries for a regular flashlight.

is this thing safe to charge cell fones ? i have one, it uses fm9833E chip based board.

I could see someone walking down the street talking to a chili with a phone stuffed into it

Cheers for the heads up with the USB circuit lights, I was looking at them on eBay this week. They sell 10 for £1.87 or something stupid, I ended up ordering a pair of variable touch dimmer ones instead, I'll have to check to see if they can short out too.

Clive, have you had a look at bayonet cap LED bulbs at all? I was in Home Bargains and there were loads of them, all about half the price from elsewhere, but I am unsure of buying them. You must investigate if possible please.

Oh gee, Ultrafire.

This would be perfect for my kitchen. I have a chinese wooden LED clock there, clap activated. When putting eneloops in it drains them down to totally dead. With a protected cell based on NRC18650B (other cells don't come into my hand!) I can power it with 5 instead of 6 volts via the input jack and then it might actually run a month instead of two weeks. The pepper theme is also fitting in a kitchen. :D

Ok, does it have enough power to charge male hole warmer? Because if it does, we have the winning combo.

The Poundworld ones I got are different. The cell is tabbed in.

Can it also take a newer 20700-size cell? Is the space wide enough for that?

Clive i wonder, have you came across a good USB Powerbank where you can easily switch out the 18650? With easy i mean, open latch, put it in, close latch. With the red pepper one i think it will not survive switching the battery that often, already broke a plastic thingy on mine :( I got several 18650 and would love to have a Powerbank where i could utilize them.

So just like the banana it's proof of intelligent design! Praise be I have seen the light

going to buy it, pop that usb a jack out, and move the micro b to the end, put a few vibration motors in there and go to town.

How does it compare to the banana? Seems to be a similar concept

How do you know if your battery cell is protected? Other than the markings on it. What I guess I'm asking is actually the exact length of an unprotected cell.

hahaha that flashlight is a perfect EDC flashlight !

That mold wasn't intended for a power bank.

Wow you make the red hot chilli pepper i was expecting

What about LiFePo4 cells? Can you put them in as well?

I like it. Now if there was one that looked like a habanero pepper i would need to own one. I suppose if a 14500 cell were used i may just work......

I don't think that ultrafire have any protection, even if it claims it has

**californication intensifies**

Why would anybody want this? I mean, imagine some one pulling this out of their pocket or purse and people will be like "Why do you have a hot pepper in your pockets/purse?"

I love the look of this :)

Ive got a few of those poundworld type things at 3:21 from various places, both the single cell and double cell version. Theyre rubbish capacity as they come but I bought them to put my own cells in cos I got some high capacity 18650s from a couple of laptop battery packs I took apart. They vary a lot inside, chips can be mp3401a, mt4921e, fm9833e and theres even one with three 6pin chips instead of the one 8pin. Weirdly one of them had a higher capacity cell in it, I havent measured it but its the same weight as a cell I know to be 2400mAh, several grams heavier that the low capacity cells that were in the others. None of them have died or given problems yet, maybe I was lucky.

Clive hope you have time answering this and others are welcome to reply too ofcourse: I bought an AccuPower IQ328+ battery charger/analyzer (also for 18650's). I hope you know the device :) While testing Vapex branded 1.2v AA NIMH batteries that I found to be lasting long when used in appliances, the Accupower's test reported an mah number of ~1800 while the label said 2900. Should my Accupower tester be able to display the advertised capacity of a high quality cell like Eneloop or does the method of testing mean the displayed mah capacity number will always be considerably lower ? In that case I can only use these measurements to weed out my battery collection for best,average,mediocre,bad capacities (which is already handy)

clive, PLEASE get rid of those batteries with "fire" anywhere in the name, they are amazingly dangerous.

Don't think I'll be getting one like that, don't like peppers . Now if I find one that looks like a rack of ribs, yeah !

So you can charge your phone just with a microUSB and a 18650 battery I guess? connecting the wires properly and all that things

I know why you like this. It can be modified and converted into a hole warmer.

needs a vibrating option.. you know.. for letting you know when you get messages..

Red pepper USB power bank. This is why I subscribe and patreon. :D

I bought a non pepper shaped power bank that literally burned my mouth when I tried to use it.

Is that UltraFire one you have fake? Is it actually 2,400mAh?

stuff like this just makes me wonder why they chose to make it a pepper. its completely random. it seems like they had millions of pepper casings from some other failed toy or product and they just converted it into a "power bank" saving every last cent using the casings.

You enjoy reading all the comments late at night? Right Clive?

Kinda looks like a prostate massager.

Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?

That's hot

you should run 120 or 240 volts ac into one of those power banks

anyone have recommendations for decent lithium cells like that? hard to tell if cells are legit on ebay.

you shud film your videos in 1080p so we could see more details

sounded like you said pecker light lool

they should have stick in small vibrating motor

Where can I buy reliable 18650 lithium cells?

Whenever I see stuff that is shaped else than a standard power bank/flashlight/whatever I think "dis gon be exploding!" But the chinese manufacturers actually make progress, don't they? :D Oh and I always wanted a cheap crap (but safe) power bank in which I can put my own cells for use with DIY clocks and other things. Like "I can safely plug this in and it won't explode or melt down in the closet". Using my good 20Ah Anker power bank is no option for this, it must be something dedicated! But Aliexpress and eBay provide so many different empty banks, it's unbelievable. I went on both of those sites and spent all my free-2-use money in one god damn hour on 20 orders of combined bullshit like cables with 10 different plugs for 1,50€ which I just bought because it was 1,50€ and 15 other useless cables and electronics! (+some actual quality DIY kits \o/ ) xD What have you done to me Clive ;__;

Clive, if there was any way you could get hold of a Scientology E-Meter and take it to bits that would be amazing. Obviously your life would probably be null and void as a result but.............

Am I the only one that heard pecker every time he said pepper?

Slightly concerned at all the veg/fruit based chargers looking rather phallic....

Thermonuclear 18650! Weeeeee!

blow 1 up with the battery

could the chip you could not read a buck converter.

I buy a fuck load of stuff off eBay and Aliexpress, but this fucking Brexit pretty much guarantees I'll soon be getting a lot less Dollars for my Pound and might end up paying import taxes on some stuff.

That chilli powerbank is great for women ;) ;) if ya get my drift ;) :P

HAHAHAHhha

Heh heh heh dont get it wet ;)

another "plug"

anything for a buck.