@@j.cheeverloophole9029 Then you better check your laptop, Phone, Tablet, etc. because those batteries were created in the same country! Yeah, I know your comment was sarcasm. It does make you think how really safe any of these batteries actually are!
Great review! These are available as kits from Ali, and I've bought a bag full of those power bank cases. We then recycled "dead" laptop batteries, took out the working cells, and made power banks for the workshop's students :-) They are good enough to charge your phone if no other options are available, or power some small Arduino robots :-)
Perfect second life for old laptop batteries. I’ve got a large collection myself, and they’re definitely perfect for those sorts of applications. [Some of them don’t do well for things like charging phones because the voltage drops heavily at high current, and most 5V output boards I’ve used will cut it off and leave a fair amount of power left when the voltage rebounds]
I love these devices as they are a great way to get free power banks. You buy them off eBay (the ones that are very obviously fake), measure the true capacity, complain to the seller that they sold you a fake item, and the seller gives you a refund so you don't spoil the nice scheme they have going. I've gotten a number of free power banks this way, and because they are coming from scammers I don't feel the least bit guilty! Same applies to 18650 cells and the like. I've often wondered how far you could push the scheme before they give up and start labelling the capacity honestly...like could you build your own DIY powerwall entirely from free scam batteries? Hmm...
We got a good supplier who tried to push us some 1500mAh 18650s as 8000mAh we had never gotten batterys from before but good LEDs,COBs,project boards etc from, not knowing we test all cells on intake & test capacity before DIY/usage (never selling unless genuine samsungs) & they gave us 50pcs of fake marked/wrapped cells so we ended up with a few 1500mAh for torches/projects etc with a full refund (it helps if you can show fakes & they cant argue with pictures/data shown 0-100% charge capacity 🙈🙊)
While I don't have much of a problem with this concept *now*, this line of thinking has made things much harder for consumers. Years ago it was super easy to spot fakes, as they'd always have an absurd capacity rating of >4000mAh (eg those terrible "9900mAh" 18650s that are actually about 500mAh). While this was a problem for complete strangers to electronics, I was actually quite happy with the situation. Scammer vendors will always exist, you arent going to dispute them all into oblivion, but it meant that anyone who knew anything about the batteries used, could very easily know if a device was fake, with a simple rule (if its under 3500mAh, its probably real, if its over 3500mAh, its definitely fake). However people buying all the obvious fakes then demanding a refund due to them not meeting the physically impossible capacity rating, even though they knew full well it was fake before buying it, has led such vendors to give their units less absurd fake ratings, like these with 2600mAh. Now it's impossible to distinguish the real ones from the fakes since they'll both have a reasonable sounding capacity, and its only if you actually test them (which far fewer people will do) that you can know if you got duped. So congrats, you and people like you have helped make the market an absolute shitfest, where you can never know if powerbanks or batteries are fake or not until you receive them and test them yourself. Thanks.
What a wonderful birthday gift, a video by Big Clive! I turned 68 yesterday, spent the whole day watching various videos on RU-vid but I failed to check Big Clive, so this morning I see a great video to watch, even though it is a day late, still a wonderful gift for an aging man (I had a birthday call from mom, who is 93 now and living up town in the Nursing Home, she tells me that I am not to consider myself "old" until I turn 70! My good wife of 60 years turned "old" last August!)
I bought one of these a while ago from a pound store - when I took it apart it had a spring holder and the 18650 wasn't soldered - meaning I could remove the cell and use the bank as a charger. Sadly when I went back to buy some more they all had the cell soldered in place. Yes they can be bought online, but the pound store ones where a cheaper option.
How hilariously bad Engrish is written at East Asian companies: Manager: "Hey, you! You said you know English (or went to conversation lessons), go write the copy for the English manual and packaging. What? Hire a native speaker? Do you have any idea how much that would cost compared to you doing it for free? Wait, did I say that out loud?" Japanese guy: OMG OMG I have no idea what I'm doing wait I'll just slap some English words together... (note: this is also how random English words end up in Japanese songs) Chinese guy: Eh, I'll run it through this translation site I found on Baidu. No one's gonna know the difference.
I was given a couple of those. They came from Poundland. One had about 10% of the claimed output capacity, and the other had about 12.5%. On second recharge, both cells delivered slightly less power before they shut down. The cells seem to be reclaimed at the end of life, or else factory rejects. Thanks Clive.
They sell these at your favourite shop (Poundland). I've got a couple and have put a decent recycled 18650 cell in each (~2000 mAh recovered from knackered hoverboard battery). It's a handy case/PCB and will charge my phone from near zero. Also handy to slot in one of those USB torch heads you've featured previously.
Going to assume the worst case scenarios and be generous with the assumptions. 700mA @ 5V means less than 980mA @ 3.6V Assuming 20% power loss due to conversion, would mean less than 1230mA from the battery. Assuming 20% tolerance on the capacity of the battery would mean the battery could be labelled as no more than 1540mA.
@Против Глобал Pardon my ignorance, but how do you know it is a linear charger? Presence of an inductor suggests that bucking is intended. Unless it is meant for some kind of filtering which I doubt.
@Против Глобал Perhaps my basic physics is rusty here but if the input is at 3.6V and the output is at 5V even with a 100% efficiency in the output circuit the current of the output must be lower than the input or the power output would exceed the power input, the law of conservation of energy says no dice on this one you can't output 0.5W (100mA@5V) from a 0.36W (100mA@3.6V) input either the output current would have to lower or you need to draw more current from the battery to supply the missing joules of energy here. Though this is if one is measuring it by measuring the discharge capacity of the battery I guess are you only talking about if you measure the charge input to calculate the mAh value? So I guess it does depend if you are measuring the raw charge input or the real world usable capacity (output) though I would expect marketing to favour the former as thermodynamics guarantees the usable output capacity will always be lower due to losses in the energy conversions.
I know I'm not the only one that finds your vidyas oddly calming. My coworker's 10 year old son is a huge fan coincidentally. She said "He's a guy with a big beard and from the U.K. who takes electronic things apart." At that point I knew it was Mr. Clive himself! Inspiring the next gen of tinkerers, and mellowing out lots of people in the process. Cheers.
Hey Clive, not sure if you will see this but... I started watching your videos a month ago, I stumbled upon your components video when I learned about resistors after blowing all the LEDs in a 6v firework igniter box I was building. Point of the story: I’m 31 and work in kitchens, I never had any career I wanted or any hobby that could be monetized, until now. I have always liked electronics but now I am in love! I watch your videos constantly, most of it is a foreign language but I’m slowly picking up on it. If all goes well I will be going to school in the next year for an electronics technician. Thank you, sincerely!
Thanks, Big Clive. I bought a few of the Poundland ones yonks ago. I think they were 1000mAh. Variable feast! More on power banks gratefully appreciated, esp what happens when they get old. Thanks.
I used to have a rule of thumb about power banks...they only have about 1/2 the stated capacity. Now that China is outputting so many knockoffs they only have 1/4 to 1/5 the rating listed. Sad state of affairs that you can't even get half of the amount anymore.
Wow this video is 4yrs old but anyway but I completely forgot about you bigclive, this is the first video of yours I've seen in over a year, for some reason RU-vid just stopped recommending your videos and you slipped into the ethos, glad I rediscovered you!
I bought a few of these at a local electronic stores. They look exactly the same as these. Its rated for 2200mah...and suprisngly, they WERE :O I verified it by opening it up and removing the 18650 and externally charging it at 500ma since thats the max charge rate the pcb board can do. And it definitely does supply 2.1 amps. I use these small power banks to power my camera on my motorcycle helmet when that battery dies. I further modded mines with a battery level bar
I wonder, if you plugged this into a device with OTG USB capability such as an Android phone would it be possible that the device would start charging the power bank rather than vice-versa?
Yes it would. The cables are wired differently, so if you used a normal USB cable the phone would charge from the power bank, but if you used an OTG cable the power bank would charge from the phone. I had to draw little direction arrows on the cables I carry around with me so I could remember which way the power would flow for each cable.
Berkeloid That wiring is mostly for the data, controlling which end is the master. There is an increasing interest in having phones charge while acting as data master for headphones or speakers.
My wife has a tiny electric fan which is powered via USB-C from her phone. Clearly there's 5 volts coming out of the port. It seems like this power bank with it's simple circuitry would see that and start charging itself rather than charging the phone.
What concerns me more than inflated capacity is inflated amp rating. Running an 18650 at ~21 amps because it says it's rated for "25-35" amps when it's actually only 10 amps is just plain scary. Some battery rewrappers are taking the manufacturers pulse rating (which means pretty much nothing) and claiming it's the CDR.
Efest is pretty bad at that. Their Samsung 30Q wrapper says 35A when the cell is only rated 15A continuous. You can definitely get away with quite a few extra amps on the rating, but advertising it as such is wreckless and misleading. Especially considering how little a lot of people know about li-ion safety.
@@william_2610 Ampking too. 20 amp cells with "35 - 45 amps" written on the wrap. It's insane because those are sold in vape stores. Most people with regulated devices never bother to learn any ohms law or battery safety/maintenance. With massively inflated ratings, they're gonna do themselves some damage one day.
@@archgirl They are already doing themselves damage, the fda (for Americans) has a page devoted to vape battery explosions. The following site has a compiled list of reported explosions; ecigone.com/featured/e-cigarette-explosions-comprehensive-list/
@@alexb.1320 It's just a shame that the explosions get attributed to vaping instead of human error with regards to li-ion batteries. These batteries will vent and go into thermal runaway in any device when misused, but the reports always blame vaping instead of the person incorrectly maintaining battery safety.
Poundland was selling exactly the same items, in different packaging, marked as 1200 mAh, last year. Same pcb, same colour defunct cell, same moulded name, same plastic box, except mine are black. I was given two of them, because they were capable of supplying less than 500 mAh. They benefit from having a decent cell fitted to them, and then the voltage holds up a bit better under load, right up to the 1A threshold, unless the cell is nearly discharged.
Wow that is a low component count, even lower than my all time worst power bank, which entirely lacked any charging logic but rather just stuck a diode to drop the voltage...
He's got a video about how he tests power banks that explains all this. He is testing them right. Kinda wonder if he should link that in every one of these videos to avoid a third of the comments being "you tested wrong, etc"
hi, I have been given a dead powerbank, under inspection, I think the battery died after just a few charges. I replace with my one of the laptop battery. I also found the battery discharge quite bad drain through the circuit board (not like yours) I replaced with another board I bought from ebay (2 boards for 99p). So only good thing is just the case. Mine all work with 3,000mah battery and very low drain, it can discharge about 1Ah. Cost me I guess 80p and I am happy with it.
A lot of these were being sold in Big W, 5 dollars for those smaller ones, and about 10 for ones double the size claiming to be 5200MaH, always seemed like they had less than advertised.
I’d be curious to find out the minimum current required to keep it on, and also to actually see on a scope the test pulses it generates. Still an amazingly simple circuit!
I was snacking on an individually-wrapped chocolate biscotti I received as a Christmas tip as the same time you started eating. I guess RU-vid should demonetize both of our channels due to "mutual mastication." LOL That purple power bank is a rather pleasing shade of purple...
Handy for a backup battery topper on USB charged bike lights, maybe? I much prefer my Mobi brand pack - manages 2+ full recharges on my iphone and can even charge it faster than Messenger on a video call can drain it (older phone, video calls can drain a full charge in half an hour on 4G)
Yeah, one of my friends was unaware that fakes existed and so was confused that her phone kept losing stuff. 64gb printed on it, the actual capacity was about 512mb.
I picked up a couple of these for £3 each. Mostly for smaller electronics projects. Mine are all the same package but a bit more complicated circuit, and the battery is not soldered but in a socket. Therefor I can use them as chergers for 18650's
I bought a number of these cheapy charge packs from Poundlands before. I just rip out the cells, and I have a number of 3000 mAh LG HG2 18650's in them instead and they work a treat. I can actually get a full charge off it, and the charge output holds at a steady 1.2amps with 5.2v according to my USB load meter. Not bad at all, I've taken them camping and they've done just what I needed for minimal spend.
Those jelly candies bring forward a strange nostalgia, almost as if I've enjoyed them before, but as far as I know, Until now, I've never seen them before in my life.
I've got one of these, except that it came from Poundland and it's branded Signalex. The only difference being the white backplate which forms a rating plate. As follows - DC input: 5V 0.8A, DC output:5V 1.0A, Cap 1200mAh, Model No:170327
Would be interesting if you swaped out the orginal 18650 battery cell with a proper 18650 cell that actually has a capacity of like 3400mah.. Would you kill the circut at max load?
I got a power bank in the same case for some years now. It's working fine for an emergency backup that I rarealy use. But mine also got a second LED in blue that lights up when the power bank is being charged.
I have one of these. The body isn't actually meant to work like that - they're supposed to have terminals that slot in those mounting points, and you can swap the cell out as you want. Mine is like that - I bought it from the "Muy Mucho" chain in Madrid (paid all of, like, €2 for it) and while the cell is moderately shitty it still holds close to 2Ah. I was quite surprised when I opened it up and the 18650 just fell out, allowing me to insert a NCR18650B 3.4Ah in its place and have a surprisingly capable tiny powerbank.
I have one of these power banks given from a relative but the internal design is slightly different from this video: The purple li-ion battery is not soldered/weld to the board but instead tension fit like a AA battery socket, there is two LED for each color and the Hotchip HT4928S occupies the U1 section.
As it happens I've actually got one of these, a black one - at least the outer case is identical - and I don't think I paid very much at all for it. I've had it probably over a year, just use it mainly to charge my phone while asleep if I've forgotten to do so earlier. But now having seen this, I'm tempted to open it up to see if the innards are the same.
@@CrownJewelzMusicGroup excellent....ive been charging mine indoors with a solar panel in my window....i charge up all kinds of stuff....i never buy batts now...cool stuff.
I have one of this powerbank, as far as i know, there are a wide variety of different quality of these powerbank, although the appearance might look the same from the outside, the internal circuit might be different due to different manufacturer. Mine comes with one of the best quality circuit, its very reliable and efficient and the 18650 li-ion inside there can be easily swappable non-soldered. My circuit board looks a lot more complex than yours, and the LED indicator light goes directly into that little hole.
A whole lot of makers would love to know the cutout threshold draw, as we've had issues with this when running light loads on various power banks. Lots of use would like to run something power-efficient for a few days vs not quite a raspberry pi for a few minutes. Yes, you can always design your own battery circuits, but expense and pain and danger of wrecking a cell....
The IC is a HotChip HT4927U. Official limit is 0.7A which coincides with the point at which your test drops below the rated 5V output. Datasheet is on their site, google finds it.
I believe the LED is in the correct position, while the board doesn't have a spring loaded contact other products have: you can notice it has grooves for it in the case. The case is designed to hold such a board and allow for replacing the battery. They just soldered wires to the battery in this one instead of using spring loaded contacts, that's why the LED is misplaced against that light guide.
I wonder if by changing the value of those two capacitors you could manipulate the low and high current thresholds. Would be an interesting experiment! I'm going to have to look around and see if I can't find one of those to try it.
oh experiment please Clive see how hot the chip runs and if not too hot remove chip from one of them and solder it in parallel with the other one see if puts out twice the current id love to know if they would work in parallel ... great vid as always fella
I believe the 2600mAh is 18650 capacity not at 5V output capacity and also they might use cheap under rating 18650 which it wont give you a full 2600mAH capacity. the circuit board will be the same, the only is the 18650 they using different capacity. The problem is the inductor can be too small when load with high current the boost converter efficiency drop.
I got this exact same power bank as a welcome gift for opening a bank account. I wonder how much they care about their customers. Haven't really used it anyway.
A SOT-23 6 pin boost converter is not unusual- parts like Microchip's MCP16251 or MCP1623 have been around for years (2010, I think). The big difference is this part needs 2 fewer components than the components I mentioned - 2 resistors to set the output voltage. The part used here must be a similar but fixed output voltage. I'm curious to see the converter's switching frequency and just how hot it is getting at its maximum output current- by the circuit, all the current must be going through the chip. By the picture at 6:30, D+ and D- are shorted on the USB A connector, so according to the USB-IF battery charging spec (USB IF BC1.2), this is telling the device it is connected to that the charger is a dedicated charging port (DCP) and can provide up to 1.5A, though it can start to do a "constant current" type of charge. The BC 1.2 spec ain't simple!
@Bigclivedotcom I hope you would consider making a video on how you are taking and making your photos. They are so clear and the lighting is great. Clear photos in lieu of a service manual is a great tool for troubleshooting as you've illustrated in many of your videos.
It looks like they have updated this board a few times - the "original" ones had 2 LEDs, they also came with a battery holder - the plastic case still have the retaining points in the moulding....
Lithium Ion cells from dodgy chinese supplies are 99% e-waste. That's why it's much better to just buy DIY powerbank case with the circuit and get a big 3000+ mAh cell from good source. Much cheaper that way.
its interesting if you notice that the "2600 mAh" label seems to be put on by someone else besides the original package manufacturer. i wouldn't be surprised if the owner of the shop or someone slightly above him in the supply chain just used a label maker and slapped a bunch of those labels on them. the original manufacturer leaves it blank for you to label (or lie about it) it yourself, i guess.
