Emanuel Lopes you can buy on ebay safely, these bogus scams you can just open a case and you will win. Most likely you have to return it, but if the seller doesn’t provide a shipping label or doesn’t respond it will literally be yours to keep for free.
Inconsistency between the product title and description is never a good sign of quality assurance. This is "the upsell" where if you click through to the description you suddenly end up getting a better product (spoiler: it's the same product)
When I see Chinese products advertised as [UPDATED] or [NEW VERSION] I always shudder. It makes me think that the previous version was crap and that is why they had to update or revise it! I would rarely ever buy one of those products, just because of the wording, even if the product was rated well.
I had for several years one EXACTLY the same apart from the marking; it was marked 5400 mAh. It served me well until one of the cells died. I took it apart and kept the good cells. Together with one other cell from another powerbank where the electronics failed I populated a powerbank from Banggood in which you can exchange cells and they have now a second life! So the cheap powerbank was a good investment after all!
Just take care and never use/charge the thing unsupervised because you should never mix and match Liion cells, especially not dodgy Chinese ones! They have differing capacities which will lead to one of them being deep discharged, which is bad news!! It's best to populate the powerbank with cells from quality brands like SONY, LG, Samsung or such, and always use brand new ones from the same production, i.e. they should never differ in age or remaining capacity. In other words, you "marry" new cells together for the intended use. Source: am a vaper and try not to incinerate myself ;)
When I was in Shenzhen two years ago, these were all over the markets. They cost around $1 USD with no cells. Strangely (though not unsurprisingly), even without cells they had 10400 mAh permanently written on the case. Put whatever cells in you want and through magic, it will be 10400 mAh!
That was in quantity one - most of the stuff in the Shenzhen markets are available in sample quantities; If you want more then you can strike a deal for cheaper prices. Well worth the visit, and TONS of LEDs!
I have the genuine Xiaomi version of this usb power bank. Xiaomi put out videos showing you how to verify that you have a genuine one, as well as there being a scratch panel on the packaging with an activation code you put into the Xiaomi website to verify your serial number is genuine and has not previously been activated/verified. The genuine one is superb quality, best power bank I have ever seen
The design of it - the aluminum case with rounded sides, the interface plate, even down to the layout of text on the spec plate - is a rip-off of a series of popular Xiaomi power banks. I have a number of the original ones and they're truly excellent - quality, high-density cells, efficient boost circuit, etc. The fact that they really are excellent is of course why there are so many lookalikes out there. Quite a few videos exist here on RU-vid about how to identify a fake versus an original Xiaomi. Xiaomi power banks actually tend to *understate* their capacity and list it as watt-hours as well, which is really nice. (They're not the only ones who do that, but they were the first power banks I encountered that do.)
And the Xiaomi is a blatant copy of the Aukey Quick Charge 2.0 10400mAh, one of which I've had for almost 3 years now. ;-) The Aukey is actually an awesome little power bank. It fully supports QC 2.0, which is perfect for my old QC 2.0 compatible phone, and it also supports it on its own charge port, meaning I can recharge it very quickly with the phone's original charger.
Furr Bear I like your comment, I have a spare battery like these that’s 8000mah. The model I have works well and was able to charge my tablet decently well. P.S. Why is the US flag in your profile pic upside down? According to the way it’s supposed to be handled, the flag hanging upside down means distress or emergency. I hope you aren’t trying to be disrespectful on purpose. Something you should know.
Sorry, you have that back to front; here's a review of the Xiaomi 10400 from *four* years ago: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-daKPjv_LaWU.html Another point in this is that Xiaomi is the one who had to start putting authentication codes on the packages of their power banks because of the clones; reputable companies like Aukey followed the Xiaomi's style cues because of their popularity. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-obYhTgzEVP8.html
I stand corrected, I did not know that (don't tell anyone that someone on the internet actual admitted to being wrong, it could end society as we know it!). I don't think I'd even heard of Xiaomi back then. Aukey's addition of QC 2.0 was the killer point for me though.
Steve Evans: Not surprising - Xiaomi has focused strongly on the Asian market from the beginning; most people outside the area hadn't even heard of them until the past couple of years despite the fact they're a top 5 smartphone maker globally. (They're huge in China and India, for example.) I discovered the brand because I'm fond of exploring China-based retailers like BangGood, Deal Extreme, GearBest and so on and I kept seeing "Xiaomi" all over the place and got curious. JetStream90: It is an expression of distress over the current vile occupant of our White House.
I worried about being scammed when I purchased my powerbank, so I just decided to buy an Anker 26k from Best Buy. Super happy and very impressed with the performance and quality. My opinion, just dig deep in your wallet, and purchase a well known bank from a reputable company. Can't go wrong with Anker from Best Buy. I'm loving it. Very interesting video. Thanks.
I want to get one of these but instead of charging it with 5 volts I'll use 120v wall current. That way I can get 24 times as many milliamps out of it. I bet it would power my house if we lost power in a storm. ;)
Francois Molinier you would have to keep changing polarity 50 times every second. Well at least it's not impossible. And you should go to the uk, 240v would be twice as many energies inside the battery!
Rule of thumb with any power bank: If it's completely unbranded, it's probably got something to hide. Though you may have some brand loyalty, I'd trust an Aukey, Anker, RavPower, etc long long long before one just advertised as "2000000mAh power bank".
I had this exact one a few years ago except I bought it from a store called marshals here in the US. It actually wasn’t too bad lol. Would charge my iPhone 6s + like 2 times
I bought the chassis of one of these on eBay (no cells = cheap) and put my own good cells into it. I noticed the strange charging too and luckily enough my one has spring terminals so the batteries slot in, so I charge the cells in a dedicated 4 way charger.. much faster and better for the cells too. The boost circuit works great so I keep it around still
Me too, bought 2, put cells in from a Ryobi drill battery that had a failed charge controller. 8400mA capacity, been used loads of times and traveled all over the world. Charging is a bit slow from empty but I'm not in a rush.
The empty packs are great value. I had a bunch of salvaged laptop 18650s and got a couple of these. The slow charge is a pain, but I usually leave it go over night. Good travel packs.
Me too. That's the way to go. I use batteries from disposed laptops. Typical capacity is 1800 mAh. Not great but at least I know what to expect from them. For my powerful flashlight I have expensive Li-ion batteries of great quality - $28 each (18650 protected)
I had 0 interest in this and don't know why I started but I've never been so interested in something so personally uninteresting before. You are a great talker and do very well with illustrating points you're making.
Thank you for the video! I was having trouble falling asleep each night, but not anymore. You have a calming voice that sould make you money reading bedtime stories.
Asus is a legit brand, I can guarantee at 99.99% accuracy that the cells are real. You might want to get one of those USB power meters. I did and it's super great for checking current draw and capacity. It even takes multiple inputs like micro USB and USB-C.
I wouldnt do that with shitty cells, unless your vape is high end and has voltage, current and temperature protection. Also for safety, is better to ahve less capacity and use safer LiFePO4 cells isntead of the regular LiPo cells.
You are a man after my heart, I take apart pretty much everything I get in. The main reason is to discover planned obselesce circuits. That same circuit is in a 20AH Black Friday pack I got on clearance from Menards except it delegates charging to a separate chip so it charges quicker.
Sadly, I've auctally bought this before, about two years ago in South Korea. They were selling it for $9 per power bank, and I thought that it was a pretty good deal and bought one because my Galaxy S5's battery life was really bad, and I didn't have one. Unfortunely, the whole thing wouldn't charge after about 15 times after use and it honestly became a paper weight after the battery wouldn't even turn on the LED's. Thanks for making the video, I've been wondering what the auctal hell was wrong with the battery bank, and 2 years later, I've finally realized that it was nothing but a scam. By the way, I now happily use a Samsung Battery back, at least 150 times better than the one I bought 2 years ago. ;)
evoGage Kodak also has a power bank similar to that, the shape is identical, it's also 10400 mAh but it has 2 USB ports and the power button is really similar too. I have the Kodak and it's great, but it wasn't cheap it was about 80-100$ I think. I have used it for 3 years now and it's still going strong.
Hah I skipped forward to 5:33, and that picture totally got me, I saw Clive's hand for scale and thought "Daaaamn, where did he find a USB socket the size of his hand? Why is that circuit board nearly a foot long", the shadow properly fooled my brain!
"Sand filled cells" 3:06. Please show us a sample of sand filled cells. Edit: I found this ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hu8aM1B3qgU.html
That capacitor marked CLX on the schematic seems really strange. It is right across the shunt switch and the flyback voltage. I wonder if it is really there?
It is a snubber, but is also the linch pin, it eventually fails and causes the chip to short out in the charging section. Saw this happen on one of my power supplies.
i have one of these from a major reputable chain store in Australia. It is stamped 8000mAh on the bottom and advertised as such, yet on when i ran a number of load tests, it only just goes past 5000mAh. Ripped em a new one and got it for free, and still reported them to the ACCC.
Agree with the above replies... however reputable shops selling consumer gear should be listing the Ah at the socket, not at the cells. A consumer doesn't care if it's got 4x18650 cells or a car battery. They just care how much 5v comes out.
I agree if this was adopted early . consumers are too derpy to care. Really what matter is WH out at the jack. with QC3 on USB-C at more then just 5v . you really cant going forward just assume 5V and state output AH. WH is more absolute and means the consumer just need to know how many watts a USB-C device is and how long it needs to run , the fun math is hidden. .;. EG a 5 WH batt in a tablet can be charged twice with a 10 WH power bank. ( remember this is worse case OUTPUT after the DC DC WH ) not the internal cells rating .
Ya these days "reputable" stores also buy directly from China and they really have no intention of testing what they get, they just rely on most people not noticing defects.
the shell is from a xiaomi powerbank, they are high grade chinese power bank,i have one with the advertised capacity but look like you have a unbranded one fake one
This is a knock off Xiaomi powerbank. The original ones are real capacity. The model i have (a bit slimmer and longer so probably not 18650s inside) support QC2.0 so its quite practical. You should take one of the real ones to bits but they are a bit pricey and hard to find originals.
they are 18650s . yeah 18650 are 3.7v. If hooked in parallelx4; at best would be 8000mah or less. If they arent high drains then it would really suck. Or, they are in parallel and series making it 4000mah or less at 7.4v regulated to 5v.
depends on capacity of the cells, there are NCRs up to 3400 mAh, but they are a little special and you have to drain them down to 2.5V to get all the juice (and they cost way more that the crappy 2000mAh ones). Also that capacity is at the rated 3.7V (when you output that to the phone, there are losses from the conversion 3.7 to 5V and then again loses at the phone to go again from 5V to 3-4.2V while it's being charged). Some xiaomi charger have that printed in the label, both capacities at 3.7V and 5V.
Thats why ï have an xiaomi MI power bank It's being sold as a 20.000mAh powerbank but it said that was the PACK power of the cells The true capacity (also stated again at the back) is 14000 given.. Although I measure around 14500 15000 what in my opinion is absolutely awesome! I can charge my phone around 9 times when not fully empty and 5 or 6 when full This thing is a beast... It's quite big, and heavy... But it's awesome! Totally recommend!
Only real downside.... It has a QC3 output... But it charges @5 volt 2A in the beginning... But 5V 1A when half full... Thats the only issue but totally fine when leaving it charging overnight.... And somewhat during the day 😂
That's not the fault of the charger. That is the phone behavior. The charger is ABLE to give 2A, if the phone requires. Lithium batteries are charged at CC/CV, when the CV regime kicks in, the current will always go down.
Hey! Thanks so much for featuring our product in this video for reference of how a true 10,400 mAh battery should operate. We really do appreciate the gesture and hope you are able to continue using and enjoy our POM Gear Powerhouse. It is unfortunate so many online manufacturers attempt to deceive customers and even offer product with health and safety concerns! We just want to give consumers Peace Of Mind, as that is what P.O.M. stands for. We definitely do not recommend opening power banks in general for safety reasons so we can not condone this video investigation but are sure you will find everything up to par inside our unit. Also please be advised that opening the power bank will void your 3 Year Hassle-free Warranty included for free with every POM Gear purchase. Happy Charging :)
Imediately I saw, those 18650 Samsung cells are rated at 2100mAH.. 4 in parrellel only 8.4Ah. What a rip off haha! Not to menton they are only 3.7v nominal so will also need a step up! How companies get away with this is beyond me :(
I'm terribly sorry, I don't quite understand what all of that info means, could you explain this in words that someone with no electricity knowledge whatsoever? 😞😖
lostskull7467 think of it as buying a gallon of petrol, but you only get two pints. Your still paying for the gallon and your can looks full but it not. You will only ever get two pints worth of miles.
Dang, I heard you say it was a photo and yet still my eyes were convinced it was a real giant sized pvb. BTW, that is one of the single best ideas I've seen on YT in quite a while. Subbed.
I have the original Xiaomi product of which this is a clone. Nice to know the Chinese are copying other Chinese designs now, instead of just the west's products.
Never mind the circuit is lousy so it isn't worth buying even for the case and the circuit board. I have really good ones that I buy that usually never drop below 5 volts until there is over two amps of draw.
Im quite sure that the circuit would hold the 5 volts if it didnt have so shitty cells that cant output enough current, but you never know without testing.
Its knockoff of the Xiaomi Power Bank 1... The original is excellent quality with LG 18650's and cell temperature monitoring and output short circuit protection... (Yes I have it since 2 yrs and I tore it down and it is still working fine..)
The best portable power bank that I have ever purchased was the PowerAdd Qualcomm 3.0 available on Amazon. It even has a digital screen to tell you the percentage of charge left. I charge it up one time and it can recharge my Galaxy Grand Prime about 7 full times from flat dead. It was about $40 if I remember correctly. A little over 20,000mAh and about 72Wh. Charges completely in about 8 hours. Oh, and no, I don't sell any of that stuff. Just a happy consumer. I've had mine for a long time and it is solid and genuine.
Clive i used the Dorking USB tester on my often underrated ELE power 1600 mAh battery , The battery tested out at 2,500mAh for 54min what a battery . Great tester
Lithium batteries are charged using different cycle. First, they are charged at a max rate(cells specs) until the voltage reaches the max voltage(again cells specs), then it maintains that voltage until the current drops to negligible at which time it is fully charged.
Interesting. I have a very similar (identical) looking model made by Intempo that I bought from B&M, it is rated at 8000mAh. Haven't tested it, but it does charge a large phone two or three times.
The last one I bought had an insanely high capacity claim but the ebay seller stated that it was the manufacturer's claim, not his. One dead give away is to look at the charge rate and time. If it says it charges fully in 8 hours at a 1A rate, there's no way it's over 8000mAH (2000mAH per cell) capacity. I've noticed that some will use the cells' capacity but then combine that and the 5v boosted output to calculate a higher output capacity claim, then (accidentally or intentionally) shift the decimal one more place to the right (giving something like 100000 rather than 10000mAH in my case when the actual combined cell rating was 8000mAH at 3.7v not 5v). Knowing my electronics, I still thought it was a good price for the actual capacity and solar charging (be careful also against a large panel made up of smaller segments spaced out to 1/4 or less coverage like I've seen on cheap solar walkway lights).
These "10400mah" battery bank cases are mass produced at a factory in China somewhere. I have 3-cell versions of the same design that say 10400mah on them despite coming with no batteries, I bought them empty off Aliexpress for $2 and stuck some spare 18650s in them.
This same mAH CLAIM problem has existed for a very long for just cells and batteries by themselves...never mind when in an active power-pack like this. Manufacturers have setup test conditions that favor their product and can thus make it look competitive with another brand even when it's not even close. Unless they stipulate an specific electrical standard with which they are complying, the rating they CLAIM can be just about ANYTHING they wish. All they have to do is setup a test that involves sufficiently low drain, and/or intermittent drain that allows some cell recovery, a self-selected cell test "cut-off" voltage, and they can CLAIM a very high mAH rating that has nothing to do with an real-life application. For example, they could use a test setup that applies a 10mA load for 5 seconds once every 10 minutes, and set their cut-off voltage to 1.0Volts (even though draining any of those 18650 cells to that voltage would compromise the future performance of the cell(s)) and if it tests to "10000 mAH" under THEIR conditions, then they can claim it...even if it's totally misleading in practice. If the mAH rating test conditions are not specified then you can't assume a CLAIMED mAH rating is meaningful for your application.
Brilliant! Thank you. I have a Sony CyberCycle and not sure if it is real or fake. But it charges my phone real quick - like 10 minutes. It does get hot though. Just happy it does its job real well. ;-)
I have one of those, i replaced the cells with 3400mah Tesla cells and use it to power a wireless battery meter for my solar system that I keep in the kitchen, it lasts about 3-4 days between charges
The USB power bank cells are optimized for a relatively low load, like charging a phone. When you use the LED lamp to drain the battery you're not only discharging at too high of a C rate, but you're probably also discharging to a dangerously low voltage. Now I'm not saying the advertised capacity is actually inside that hunk of plastic, but you do the battery no favors when you use it like this before testing the capacity, and are almost certainly damaging it to some degree.
Several years ago, I purchased 4 of those, they were, however "kits" with no cells. They were a bit longer and have the spring ends so you can insert your own 18650 batteries. I had a good supply from all the old laptop batteries i tore apart when disposing of "bad" laptop batteries. I found that usually there were one or two bad cells and the rest were quit servicable. I haven't used them now for some time, but when we took a trip to Yellowstone National Park a few years ago with my sister and her husband, we found that most of the places where we camped had no shore power so we had to rely on our generators for power I took along the little power banks, and gave one to my sis and one to her hubby, they kept their cell phones charged with them for 4 days I had a solar panel I could charge mine with when the sun shone but it was rare that week for much sun to poked through so I and my wife also used a couple of them. The other day I was building a calculator kit, and using a headlight that took tow 18650's. the cells petered out on my about half way through so I grabbed one of those old banks, the cells in it still had a good charge and they are still powering my headlight (well 2 of them are) The calculator kit (complete with LED/resistor function and resistor color code function is working great! What will they think of next!
Ok but when charging lithium batteries, it’s normal for the voltage to spike up. Those light indicators are simply based off of the total voltage of the battery. While charging, they will appear full. Just a little heads up
I bought exactly the same style one but it doesn't come with batteries, it's meant for 2 cells and spring contacts so you can just pop your own cells in. The chip has a different code on it and what I could translate off the chinese datasheet is a 1A charge/discharge current capability. I've tested this with an usb charge meter and it checks out, charges up at 1A and discharges at 1A while holding 5V too. Although when charging the power bank, it starts limiting current when the cells are about 4.13V and then lets it trickle up to 4.18V when fully charged so it's not quite CC/CV charging, even though that shouldn't do anything bad cause it doesn't go above 4.2V. Also it doesn't terminate the charging well, it goes down to 2mA and then shows full, so the last little bit takes forever as you can imagine.
The true problem with cheap power bank: They have the battery voltage (3.7 V) present at the output when they are off. The output is not filtered, there is a lot of noise, up to 1 Vpp. The rated output current is less than 1 Amp. The 18650 cells are 1000 mah each.
The voltage drop under load is due to the output diode. It's marked as a regular silicon diode on your schematic, which would have a forward voltage drop around 0.7v. A Schottky diode could be put in there instead to lower this to around 0.3v, but they have higher reverse leakage. In this application though I don't think it would make a difference. No excuse for advertising this as 10000mAh though...
The problem I have with all of these sorts of products I've tested is efficiency, which is typically in the 65% range -- You put in 10,000 mAh and you get out 6,500 when using it before it's drained. Still, they have their uses, I guess.
Those low capacity cells are probably used cells too. ~1500mah new, but worn down to 800mah from use. Probably only a couple hundred change-discharge cycles before they won't hold a charge at all.
I accidentally skipped ahead in the video when switching to wide screen and saw this GIANT circuit board and was very confused. It is indeed a printed picture. 😅
I saw the thumbnail and thought that looks just like one I have in the back of my drawer, looks identical except that you have to put your own cells in mine and as luck would have it I had 4 Panasonic NCR18650B 3.4 ah cells and an inline usb voltage and amperage meter, so I plugged in a few different items to charge, an iPhone 6, a Samsung s7 the maximum amperage output was only 0.42 but a constant 5.03v, I will give the cells a complete discharge and a full recharge and test again, unit only showing 3 LEDs, interesting video.
I noticed an error when pointing out the resistors on the circuit board when compared to the schematic. On the circuit board you point to R1 and R2 saying that they are 1k and 100k respectively, however on the schematic R1 is 229k and R2 is 75R (75 ohm). R3 is 100k and R4 is 1K both are located to the left of the chip as you look at it.
Also power banks often specify mah capacity at single-cell voltage, even though the voltage is being stepped up to the equivalent of 1.5 cells' worth of voltage, because all the cells are connected paralell (and the the voltage is increased to 5V by the board). So if you put in just under 4000mah at 5 volt for around 19 watt-hours, then the power bank is around 5130 mah, or 1280 mah per cell. THe cheapies run around 1500mah, so those cells are most certainly used.
Thank you Clive. Another superbly presented and informative video from you even though I've only just picked it up two years after you posted it! I'm always amazed how manufacturers tool up for such a great product presentation yet fall short of the mark with cheap components. It's the same with cheap workshop tools too. I have to smile though as all these power packs are rated in mAh rather than Ah. I suppose that stating 10400 mAh appears much more impressive than 10.4 Ah :-) I've only just subscribed to your channel, and it's my ambition to watch all your videos. My word, there are so many!
Mah is just a standard unit of measurement, even the batteries themselves use the same unit. It's like that for everything, phones, chargers, watch batteries, AA, AAA, etc... Most batteries are < 1Ah so it wouldn't make much sense to use it, that'd be like saying humans are .001 miles tall, just too big of a unit for most batteries. Mah is the most common so they're at least doing a good job keeping it consistent, besides that most people don't even know what the number means so measuring in amps instead of amps would just confuse them, they're expecting to see a number roughly 500-20000 so if you sell it as 10Ah, they're going to be confused and assume the capacity isn't listed for the specific product. You can blame it on the intelligence of the average consumer, not exactly the manufacturer's fault people don't know their metric prefixes...
And thanks to vaping (I picked it up trying to quit cigarettes in 2014) I learned quite a bit about 18650 Li Ion safety. It's crazy knowing that they can reach temperatures of up to 700°F if they're vented to the end of their means. Wild!
USB compliant devices are not allowed to draw over 100mA until the device has been enumerated by the host controller. After that point, the device is allowed to draw up to 500mA of current. A charging port may place a specific resistance across the differential data lines, which indicates that a device may draw up to 1.8A without being enumerated. Does this device have that termination resistance? Probably not. Your complaint that the power bank is dropping the voltage at 1A is probably unreasonable and is not in compliance with the USB specification.
They look very similar to the power banks they sold at B&M in the past, except I don’t recognise the packaging. They do work but doesn’t charge your phone as many times as stated.
I believe the reason for higher amp cells may be about eCigs, the ones I buy for my steamer are 2500-3000 mAh, capable of delivering something around 15A in >10 sec bursts. Once something starts to be interesting for end users, the end consumer, the price goes up.
Well. The main thing is the device seems to work. The batteries are 1,0000 mAH or 1AH. It is in parallel so volt is the same 3.7v and 4.2v fully charged. 4amp is because 4,000mAH or 4AH.
