I'm researching parts for a diy power bank, and finding many unreliable/nonperforming parts and would like some suggestions for use as a power bank during extended outages (as in locally Florida hurricanes). I have around 6 power banks some with solar cells and like the one reviewed, solar power output is abysmal. A suggestion for a future video "DIY power bank from off the shelf parts", or a new circuit of your design, if so inclined. Thank you for all that you do, and as always I look forward to your next video.
The metal casing, discounting the hole for the solar cell, reminds me of USB enclosures for PATA and SATA laptop hard disk drives from around a decade ago, including the end-slide feature and the roughly bookish shape. Makes me wonder if someone was looking for a repurpose of tooling for such a previous product, added a method to punch the hole for the solar panel, and changed the endcap electronics.
i never understood power banks having these tens of thousands of mAh ratings as opposed to tens of Ah ratings which would make more sense. that's like people around pro audio calling a 4K rig a 4 million milliwatt rig!
Because the dentheads that fall for this always assume bigger number means better, a 10 Ah wouldn't seem nearly as a 10000 mAh battery to the village idiot.
well it looks more impressive to use thousands for one, and then its not like you actually can get 10A for 1h out of these, so i guess its also to distinguish from bigger batteries
@@Misha-dr9rh it does mean better as long as its a single cell device. and if you see a battery labeled in Ah instead of mAh, its probably not a battery bank. even that huge one i saw that can be used as a 220v source was labelled mAh (memory can be faulty so... not exactly sure but it was like 50000mAh or something. its just power bank standard at this point)
It all depends :) First mAh is not a measurement for power and not even energy. To know the energy you also need to know the voltage but assumed here was a single cell LiCoO2 so 3.7V x 100Ah = 370Wh Now air can store thermal energy not great about 1000x less than water so for that volume of air say 0.0001m^3 with the air thermal storage capacity of about 1.16mWh per cubic meter per degree Celsius or for that respective volume about 0.116uWh per degree Celsius. So if you can increase the air temperature inside that power-bank by 3189655172 degree Celsius above ambient then you have stored 370Wh as thermal energy. Temperature is physically possible even if is about 200x higher than the Sun core temperature.
how the fuck does "1000x less than" even calculate? What would be "1x less than", by your formula? Compare with "1 times more than" and watch your brain explode
I appreciate the humor but oddly enough that is still insufficient assuming standard 5 volts and solar cell efficiencies of less than 100% (really giving them alot of chances here).
I actually have a working 100.000 Ah power bank. It's parked in my driveway and stored in a car shaped case. Although it's a bit on the chunky side, it's mobility compensates for that. :)
@bigclivedotcom You should use the live view of Google Translate, it does a really good job of translating Chinese and many other languages that would help with the datasheets. I used it to translate the one for this chip as a still in the video and it still worked. Great video ;)
Very good Clive, I was given one recently with a similar (? Its buried somewhere I can't get to right now) board. I looked it over and concluded that I wasn't sure if I would trust it to manage 320,000 mWh of any kind of Li-on battery. Of course, I graciously accepted the gift whilst mentally asking myself if it was worth buying a battery to put in it :)
loving your dry humour in commentary, Clive..... even your YT descriptions like the one 'what is inside Eneloop or Lidl Batteries'? (Fire, apparently) made me chuckle out loud!!!!
100000 mAh 😄....😂 Requires backpack not supplied. May pull trousers down if stowed in pocket which may cause illegal embarrassment. Users have been warned.
At least it's an actual solar cell, I've seen more than a few that say ''with solar cell'' but it's actually a sticker. Most ''solar'' calculators are like that.
I have one just like this without the solar panel from 5-6 years ago that says its 20,000 mAh, I've already had a look in it and it is stuffed with 1 complete cell, I don't need it anymore if you wanted me to send it to you for you to have a look at? Fire containment pie dish may be in order if you want to have a gander at it :)
I would give my eye teeth for your knowledge on electronics. I know basic stuff from where I self taught in the 70's. Do you remember a monthly magazine called Hobby Electronics? I loved it, used to build their little circuits in a column called 'short circuit'. Would have loved to have gone into design type stuff but wasn't considered clever enough when I left school so never went further, deeply regret that, I got left behind with technology I'm afraid. I would love to see you design a small simple circuit from scratch, a flasher circuit or mini op amp circuit and explain why the component values are such and what would happen if they were different values. Just a thought, still loving these videos 😁😁👍👍
I’ve gotten my hands on a number of little power banks with solar panels… I’ve always been disappointed, they’re usually worthless when it comes to trying to actually charge the bank… might keep the LED working?
I purchased a "kit" from China last spring, it has the same board, but fully populated, one side has the solar charger, the other side has 9 LED'S soldered onto a while board with a translucent plastic cover to disperse the light. At the top is one of those pretty much useless magnetic compasses which might have appealed to me before the days of cell phones with built in direction finding devices. Actually the compass seems to work when out doors and away from the electrically charged environment of my chair/workbench/living-room corner. When I assembled it, I put in one bag type lithium battery recovered from an Android Tablet, when the discharge proved a bit to short, I added another of the same size, after charging both to 4.2 volts. The only real problem I have had was the 4 charge LED's, two of which have fallen off the board, being the two that indicate a full charge, I think I shall have to take her apart once more and replace them. The light is quite bright and will illuminate our living-room well enough that one can walk without tripping over things during our most recent power outage, so it is good for that. The blasted charging light comes on almost all the time when any light at all is visible.
The solar panels in these devices are useless because when the charge indicator LED lights it will actually discharge the cells. I bought two kits, and built a unit with LED panels on both sides. It's a useful little "box 'o light".
I have a bunch of those battery packs you get for video game controllers and portable consoles that replace the AA you would have used and I was hopping there would be a way to turn them into usb power banks? I should have pointed out the batteries they use can be charged in a standard AA/AAA charger.
How hot is too hot for the cells? It's 29c and sunny here, leaving one of them in the sun would toast it I think. I have a few solar capable usb banks but not put them in the sunlight for fear of damaging the cells.
I wouldn't recommend putting any powerbank out in direct sunlight, including at a window. It will at the very least shorten the life of the cell and at worst cause it to fail.
Cheers Clive. That is exactly what I thought! Most of the windows here block quite a bit of UV too (not sure if that would affect how well the solar cell works? but they still get bloody toasty!) So all these solar cells are really just a gimmick? Besides degrading the cells you'd need an awfully long time at 15mah to charge the magical 100,000mah battery, especially in the UK with the sunlight there.. :D
Don't forget that ordinary glass changes the wavelength of UV light to infra-red. That's why it always feels hotter under glass and why the glass itself feels hot in direct sunlight. It's the principle used by hothouses or glasshouses. So, if you want to use the cell for charging, it's either direct sunlight or under some artificial light.
Out in the sun here would melt the battery :D never bothered with the mini-solar cell chargers for this reason... maybe if you were out camping and could leave it in a sunny but cool place all day it might help a bit but in such a case i think one of those usb generating fires is probably a better idea... i wonder why they still make them with solar cells and if anybody actually uses solar to charge these large banks??
I live in Sydney where 40 degree days in Summer are not uncommon. 30 plus seems to be the average now. A few months before Summer, I bought some solar lights that sit atop 50mm square posts. One day, I took them in after a row of hot days to see how they were coping. The batteries were fine but the hot glue under the solar panel that was used to waterproof under it had melted and some of it dripped onto the batteries. I managed to get it off and I recharged and tested the batteries with a Nitecore charger. They were fine. Of course, they were Ni-MH rather than lithium but Duracell are making solar lights with lithium batteries now. Anyway, my big problem was actually with rain. Because they are flat, rain drops sit on their top surface after it rains. I thought as the drops dried off they were leaving residue behind but it was worse than that. The resin covering the solar panels was actually going opaque, probably due to contact with water. I also have a solar panel with a USB connector attached. It was supposed to deliver 5V but it does bugger all. It also has a resin coating. So I don't think the problem is with the coating so much as what they're making the silicon component out of.
To quote a great mind "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth- shattering kaboom!" I thought for sure Clive was going to hook the battery backwards.
I don't recall if he has done it but I would like to see a cell go bang. But with the right safety precautions so that no one gets hurt. Tim- laps up to and slow motion for the kaboom.
Im not sure, but I dont think so. He has blown up a power supply, an easter bunny and a high voltage disconnector but I cant remember a lithium cell. Once he shorted a lithium jump starter that just puffed up and just after taking it apart it went on flames but that wasnt on camera.
I've had 2 of these powerbanks, both with cells already fitted. One said 100,000 mAh, the other sais 5,000 mAh. Both of them had large cells, almost fitting the entire space available, with the traditional silver coloured cell, with blue tape at the connections.
i thought on those cell phone batteries you had to use the middle pad somehow for the protection circuitry? is that not right and you can just hook up the + and - to anything and the protection circuitry will work? if so what is the middle pad used for?
I also bought some solar cell power bank kits and it turned out that the "solar cell" was just a shitty photo diode that turned on the charging LED when it sat in the sun. The the solar panel just had a sticker that looked like a proper cell butt underneath was this tiny diode. It was really disappointing.
One problem of soldering to phone batteries is going to be gold embrittlement. That might be a relatively thick gold plate to withstand wear from battery removal and replacement. If so, the joint is going to be brittle. Especially with lead-free solders.
There are non solar units with batteries already in them available with this same case. I’ve one rated 15000 mAh which feels like the case has been stuffed, though I haven’t taken it apart to see what it’s stuffed with. My guess is that it runs off the same board, since the usb sockets say 2A, but don’t put out 2A.
OMG, mind blown! I just wrote in another comment that I find it quite dumb that all those overrated power banks come with a solar panel, but this explains everything!
Some of these products use components that have failed normal testing. That solar panel had some bad solder connections, but it still put out some power regardless.
I think close to 10000 is a realistic goal, not just 5000! Because i have a store brand battery (approx. 20-30€ list price, don't remember) that is that size and shape, same book style, same drawer, no solar cell, and it's got 9400mAh marked on it. I trust this store, and it appears to pretty much completely charge my 4000mAh phone twice, so it can't be that far off. The cell inside is HUGE, very tightly packed in there, it doesn't have much any space to move at all, and it's marked SONY 32 W US4069C4H 2 3583ED055VH12B. Mine can probably output 2.1A that are marked on the package, as it's the only power bank that i have that will power my Windows tablet - though it will get pretty warm. The tablet refuses to work off an older Anker also with 2.1A output, it's allergic to voltage slacking off. I actually might already have a test load and charger doctor so i can test it more thoroughly.
Yeah i plugged in mine for a minute, it could do about 1.9A before voltage started dropping below 4.9... it's not the same electronics at all obviously as the enclosure that you scored.
The output of this thing is really poor. It needs to at least put out two amps at 5 volts in order to charge a tablet. All the battery packs I have built can do 2.5 amps before they start to struggle.
Could you do the JDB Quick Charger on Amazon for about $7. It claims to have 2.4A for 3 usbs and Quick Charge (5v 2a, 8v 2a and 12 1.5v) on one port, I already purchased one arriving thursday but want to see how its built
Ive bought two of those from eBay, except with a cell and no solar panel. The case looks the same, except the solar panel cut-out, the same latching method too. They were advertised as ”20000mAh”. I doubt they are anywhere near that, but the cells they have are actually pretty big and fill the whole case. So for £7.50 it wasnt too bad.
I have a couple of these book-style power banks, although mine have no solar panel, came with cells, and were rated 20Ah and 50Ah (I bought one of each from the same seller to see if there was any difference, since they obviously weren't going to be the full capacity). Both came out to around 7500mAh (7631mAh for the 50,000mAh version, and 7395mAh for the 20,000mAh one) and can supply up to around 1.8A. Decent enough, a 7500mAh cell and the charger/regulator for ~£10 Took the 20Ah one apart, and it has different circuitry to Clive's. Theres an anonymous 14-pin chip, an 8-pin chip marked 4606, and the DW01+8205A. Lithium cell is, as expected, completely unmarked. Mine also still havs connections on the PCB for a solar panel, marked SUN+ and SUN-, but they're unused.
If the batery voltage is not enough to turn on both LEDs in series, it can be used as a duplex. Pin driven high: lower LED on, upper off. Drive low: upper on lower off. Tristate pin: both off.
@bigclivedotcom - it appears to me the 2 solar panels are different technologies - TFS or Thin Film Silicon, and the other is a CZ ( can't tell if it is single-crystal silicon or polysilicon ). The two technologies have very different spectra responses. It is possible they would respond better outside. Because, depending on your inside light source and its spectral content, one solar cell/panel will perform better than the other ( I think the CZ or polysilicon is more responsive to blue and the TFS device has a better response to red ).
John Carr Not sure you'd ever want an external *SSD* case, that'd typically be a bandwidth choke point. But you can e.g. buy an external SATA case for around $3, USB3, which will happily take SATA SSDs.
Funny you should mention that. These cases are actually old external HDD cases for laptop drives from like 10 years ago. I have a couple drives mounted in some cheapo ones I got from a flea market back in 2009.
You don’t need to put this in a direct sunlight, just outdoors in a shade, because I got sunburned while sitting outdoors under a roof for 3 hours, that solar sun ray light power will travel anywhere, it touches and bumps everything.
I have the same kit and I found a 8000 MAH cell that fits it perfectly. No room for a larger cell. The other LED is used to show when the solar panel is charging. Maybe the batteries that you are using are too weak. Mine will charge at over an amp and still maintains 5 volts, but not much over 1 amp.
That looks like the exact design of my Fuse Plus You 7757 (terrible name) power bank that's only "5000mAh" but stuck in a different case with a crap solar panel on the side.
I bought a couple of the 6x18650 powerbank kits (no batteries included, salvaged from laptop battery packs) and the rating on it is also ridiculous. Very hackable tho. I added an aluminum strip with 4x "1W/3W" LEDs from eBay, going straight to the battery in parallel through a low value resistor and a switch, and replaced the puny, PWM LED included with a laser pointer from a toy gun that just so happened to fit perfectly on the hole. If you move it fast enough you can see the ant strips from the PWM. The power output does not quite reach the 2.1 Amp promised, it is closer to 1.75 A @5.00 V.
I bought a power bank with the same case but it doesn't have the solar cell, for $5 USD at a pallet store. It seems to work very well. 10,000 mAh. It looks like it has the same board, although I have't taken it apart since it works good. Now that you said it could have a smaller battery in it and some weights, I'm curious as to what is in it. LOL
Hey. I Actually have a reputable 16K mAh powerbank from a reputable company with similar dimensions. I double checked it, and even opened it and there are 4 smaller slims 4k mAh cells connected together. Its actually quite nice.
Given the size of the 10,000 mah battery that I recently installed in a thing, I find the prospect of a 100,000 mah power source that is that small fascinating
The two pins being shorted together on both sockets may have something to do with a relatively new Chinese charging standard. I don't know the specifics but there's basically a standard now that chargers sold in China are to have their data pins shorted so that the device knows it's a charger. It's a very brute force and analog way of doing it, but it's also the cheapest (and probably safest! At least in some respects.) way of doing it.
Can you talk about using the solar panel for charging that big battery pack? Would the panel output enough current to charge a large battery in a reasonable amount of time?
It takes a long time. I have one with the better panel on it. It's maybe useful if you just want to keep one on a window sill or the parcel shelf of your car (potentially not good for the cells though) and know that it'll be charged in a few days. If you can charge it with USB, it's a lot faster/better though.
solar power banks are great! hope the next versions have better charging capabilities. tis disappointing to have 2 usb ports yet i'll only seem to get good use outta 1.
It looks like the panel is outputting 1/3 the amps of the "good" one and there are 3 taps on the back of the cheap panel can it possibly be separated in sections and all the connections need to be hooked up in parallel?
Maybe it is 100,000 mAh and you just don't know how to use it properly? Try using velcro to stick your lipos to the ample space available on the outside of the case..
Chuckiele It requires a LiPo for the regulation chip to work. Circuit probably has a limit in what capacity it can handle, though it might not be 100Ah (4½ days charging time).
Neat construction! That orgy over ratings is not a new thing, I remember buying some 4200 watt PC speakers that had LM386's in them running off a PP3. Yeah....
I'm actually surprised that the solar cell was an actual solar cell
I tried it outdoors in direct sunlight today and its performance was abysmal. I'm tempted to delaminate it now.
bigclivedotcom I don't think you've done a solar panel before?
Ha, that's worth a try. Never seen anyone do that yet. If you don't damage it, you could also try coating it.
bigclivedotcom
Would you use the knife of delamination?
I'm researching parts for a diy power bank, and finding many unreliable/nonperforming parts and would like some suggestions for use as a power bank during extended outages (as in locally Florida hurricanes). I have around 6 power banks some with solar cells and like the one reviewed, solar power output is abysmal. A suggestion for a future video "DIY power bank from off the shelf parts", or a new circuit of your design, if so inclined. Thank you for all that you do, and as always I look forward to your next video.
The metal casing, discounting the hole for the solar cell, reminds me of USB enclosures for PATA and SATA laptop hard disk drives from around a decade ago, including the end-slide feature and the roughly bookish shape.
Makes me wonder if someone was looking for a repurpose of tooling for such a previous product, added a method to punch the hole for the solar panel, and changed the endcap electronics.
i never understood power banks having these tens of thousands of mAh ratings as opposed to tens of Ah ratings which would make more sense. that's like people around pro audio calling a 4K rig a 4 million milliwatt rig!
Even Ah are a crap measurement, Wh would be much better.
Because the dentheads that fall for this always assume bigger number means better, a 10 Ah wouldn't seem nearly as a 10000 mAh battery to the village idiot.
Yeah, Ah is sorta biased and most people don't fully understand it.
Wh is way more convenient, especially with fast chargers outputting 5/9/12V
well it looks more impressive to use thousands for one, and then its not like you actually can get 10A for 1h out of these, so i guess its also to distinguish from bigger batteries
@@Misha-dr9rh it does mean better as long as its a single cell device. and if you see a battery labeled in Ah instead of mAh, its probably not a battery bank. even that huge one i saw that can be used as a 220v source was labelled mAh (memory can be faulty so... not exactly sure but it was like 50000mAh or something. its just power bank standard at this point)
I know nothing about electricity or circuitry or even engineering, but damn does this channel make me happy everytime I watch it.
therealnightwriter only for you papi
I no alot I have a degree in electrical engineering and programming.
Big Clive is like Santa Claus...only a lot more entertaining and funnier. Also, he is not based in Finland, but on Isle of Man.
I never knew fresh air contained 100,000mAh of power... :P
Not fresh air; high quality energy dense eau de Shenzen.
It all depends :)
First mAh is not a measurement for power and not even energy.
To know the energy you also need to know the voltage but assumed here was a single cell LiCoO2 so 3.7V x 100Ah = 370Wh
Now air can store thermal energy not great about 1000x less than water so for that volume of air say 0.0001m^3 with the air thermal storage capacity of about 1.16mWh per cubic meter per degree Celsius or for that respective volume about 0.116uWh per degree Celsius.
So if you can increase the air temperature inside that power-bank by 3189655172 degree Celsius above ambient then you have stored 370Wh as thermal energy. Temperature is physically possible even if is about 200x higher than the Sun core temperature.
electrodacus duderama. Word!
how the fuck does "1000x less than" even calculate? What would be "1x less than", by your formula? Compare with "1 times more than" and watch your brain explode
Its "Zero point energy"!
You neglected to read the fine print. The solar panel will produce 100,000 mA...at the orbit of Mercury.
I appreciate the humor but oddly enough that is still insufficient assuming standard 5 volts and solar cell efficiencies of less than 100% (really giving them alot of chances here).
My dumb ass watching this video despite having no knowledge of boards or power: “right, right, I follow”
I actually have a working 100.000 Ah power bank. It's parked in my driveway and stored in a car shaped case. Although it's a bit on the chunky side, it's mobility compensates for that. :)
I love this guy's voice. It's so calming
Go on marry him..
@@arisz2191 If he'd tell me a bed time story thrice a week, I don't think my wife would have an argument with my leaving her for Clive.
Same
I like to think he has kind of Bob Ross vibe
@bigclivedotcom You should use the live view of Google Translate, it does a really good job of translating Chinese and many other languages that would help with the datasheets. I used it to translate the one for this chip as a still in the video and it still worked. Great video ;)
I agree with this. I use Google Translate all the time.
Very good Clive,
I was given one recently with a similar (? Its buried somewhere I can't get to right now) board. I looked it over and concluded that I wasn't sure if I would trust it to manage 320,000 mWh of any kind of Li-on battery. Of course, I graciously accepted the gift whilst mentally asking myself if it was worth buying a battery to put in it :)
I've been loving these "diy power bank" teardowns!
loving your dry humour in commentary, Clive..... even your YT descriptions like the one 'what is inside Eneloop or Lidl Batteries'? (Fire, apparently) made me chuckle out loud!!!!
100000 mAh 😄....😂
Requires backpack not supplied. May pull trousers down if stowed in pocket which may cause illegal embarrassment. Users have been warned.
i was looking at these but shied away when i noticed there were like 10,000 variations of the same design
"oh hell no"
At least it's an actual solar cell, I've seen more than a few that say ''with solar cell'' but it's actually a sticker. Most ''solar'' calculators are like that.
I have one just like this without the solar panel from 5-6 years ago that says its 20,000 mAh, I've already had a look in it and it is stuffed with 1 complete cell, I don't need it anymore if you wanted me to send it to you for you to have a look at? Fire containment pie dish may be in order if you want to have a gander at it :)
I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy one...
Spikey DaPikey
Is that because you'll be ordering online?
No, you'd just have to sit at home and order it on eBay.
Why not? ebay will refund you and youll get to keep it.
They aren't even trying to fool us
How can such a small body be that high capacity?
You'd probably only get about 10000 mAh maximum
I would give my eye teeth for your knowledge on electronics. I know basic stuff from where I self taught in the 70's. Do you remember a monthly magazine called Hobby Electronics? I loved it, used to build their little circuits in a column called 'short circuit'. Would have loved to have gone into design type stuff but wasn't considered clever enough when I left school so never went further, deeply regret that, I got left behind with technology I'm afraid.
I would love to see you design a small simple circuit from scratch, a flasher circuit or mini op amp circuit and explain why the component values are such and what would happen if they were different values.
Just a thought, still loving these videos 😁😁👍👍
I’ve gotten my hands on a number of little power banks with solar panels… I’ve always been disappointed, they’re usually worthless when it comes to trying to actually charge the bank… might keep the LED working?
I purchased a "kit" from China last spring, it has the same board, but fully populated, one side has the solar charger, the other side has 9 LED'S soldered onto a while board with a translucent plastic cover to disperse the light. At the top is one of those pretty much useless magnetic compasses which might have appealed to me before the days of cell phones with built in direction finding devices. Actually the compass seems to work when out doors and away from the electrically charged environment of my chair/workbench/living-room corner. When I assembled it, I put in one bag type lithium battery recovered from an Android Tablet, when the discharge proved a bit to short, I added another of the same size, after charging both to 4.2 volts. The only real problem I have had was the 4 charge LED's, two of which have fallen off the board, being the two that indicate a full charge, I think I shall have to take her apart once more and replace them. The light is quite bright and will illuminate our living-room well enough that one can walk without tripping over things during our most recent power outage, so it is good for that. The blasted charging light comes on almost all the time when any light at all is visible.
The solar panels in these devices are useless because when the charge indicator LED lights it will actually discharge the cells. I bought two kits, and built a unit with LED panels on both sides. It's a useful little "box 'o light".
I have a bunch of those battery packs you get for video game controllers and portable consoles that replace the AA you would have used and I was hopping there would be a way to turn them into usb power banks?
I should have pointed out the batteries they use can be charged in a standard AA/AAA charger.
How hot is too hot for the cells? It's 29c and sunny here, leaving one of them in the sun would toast it I think. I have a few solar capable usb banks but not put them in the sunlight for fear of damaging the cells.
I wouldn't recommend putting any powerbank out in direct sunlight, including at a window. It will at the very least shorten the life of the cell and at worst cause it to fail.
Cheers Clive. That is exactly what I thought! Most of the windows here block quite a bit of UV too (not sure if that would affect how well the solar cell works? but they still get bloody toasty!) So all these solar cells are really just a gimmick? Besides degrading the cells you'd need an awfully long time at 15mah to charge the magical 100,000mah battery, especially in the UK with the sunlight there.. :D
Don't forget that ordinary glass changes the wavelength of UV light to infra-red. That's why it always feels hotter under glass and why the glass itself feels hot in direct sunlight. It's the principle used by hothouses or glasshouses. So, if you want to use the cell for charging, it's either direct sunlight or under some artificial light.
Out in the sun here would melt the battery :D never bothered with the mini-solar cell chargers for this reason... maybe if you were out camping and could leave it in a sunny but cool place all day it might help a bit but in such a case i think one of those usb generating fires is probably a better idea... i wonder why they still make them with solar cells and if anybody actually uses solar to charge these large banks??
I live in Sydney where 40 degree days in Summer are not uncommon. 30 plus seems to be the average now. A few months before Summer, I bought some solar lights that sit atop 50mm square posts. One day, I took them in after a row of hot days to see how they were coping. The batteries were fine but the hot glue under the solar panel that was used to waterproof under it had melted and some of it dripped onto the batteries. I managed to get it off and I recharged and tested the batteries with a Nitecore charger. They were fine.
Of course, they were Ni-MH rather than lithium but Duracell are making solar lights with lithium batteries now.
Anyway, my big problem was actually with rain. Because they are flat, rain drops sit on their top surface after it rains. I thought as the drops dried off they were leaving residue behind but it was worse than that. The resin covering the solar panels was actually going opaque, probably due to contact with water.
I also have a solar panel with a USB connector attached. It was supposed to deliver 5V but it does bugger all. It also has a resin coating. So I don't think the problem is with the coating so much as what they're making the silicon component out of.
To make a Big Clive powerbank, one must first paraphrase Jaws:
"We are going to need a bigger book".
To quote a great mind "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth- shattering kaboom!"
I thought for sure Clive was going to hook the battery backwards.
Sean Not-telling love me some Marvin the Martian
Would there even happen a lot with protected cells?
I don't recall if he has done it but I would like to see a cell go bang. But with the right safety precautions
so that no one gets hurt. Tim- laps up to and slow motion for the kaboom.
Im not sure, but I dont think so. He has blown up a power supply, an easter bunny and a high voltage disconnector but I cant remember a lithium cell. Once he shorted a lithium jump starter that just puffed up and just after taking it apart it went on flames but that wasnt on camera.
I remember the jumper pack and the bunny but not the cap.Don't forget the light that he blew up too.
I think he should do an 18650 cell.
5:50 what is meant by "LIGTHT LED"? is this just written wrong?
I've had 2 of these powerbanks, both with cells already fitted. One said 100,000 mAh, the other sais 5,000 mAh. Both of them had large cells, almost fitting the entire space available, with the traditional silver coloured cell, with blue tape at the connections.
i thought on those cell phone batteries you had to use the middle pad somehow for the protection circuitry? is that not right and you can just hook up the + and - to anything and the protection circuitry will work? if so what is the middle pad used for?
Have you checked the open circuit voltage of the two solar panels? If they're different voltages you can't compare them with the short circuit current
I also bought some solar cell power bank kits and it turned out that the "solar cell" was just a shitty photo diode that turned on the charging LED when it sat in the sun. The the solar panel just had a sticker that looked like a proper cell butt underneath was this tiny diode. It was really disappointing.
One problem of soldering to phone batteries is going to be gold embrittlement. That might be a relatively thick gold plate to withstand wear from battery removal and replacement. If so, the joint is going to be brittle. Especially with lead-free solders.
There are non solar units with batteries already in them available with this same case. I’ve one rated 15000 mAh which feels like the case has been stuffed, though I haven’t taken it apart to see what it’s stuffed with. My guess is that it runs off the same board, since the usb sockets say 2A, but don’t put out 2A.
I have this model at home and it seems it doesnt charge via Solar. I show only green light under direct sunlight. Is this normal u think ?
They should rate it a 2.5 MegaAH. (10mA x 5 billion years the sun has left x 1/2 for daytime only.)
OMG, mind blown! I just wrote in another comment that I find it quite dumb that all those overrated power banks come with a solar panel, but this explains everything!
For real lol
(2.5MAH not m it's M)
Some of these products use components that have failed normal testing. That solar panel had some bad solder connections, but it still put out some power regardless.
I've just delaminated it. The silicon is real but damaged because the panel was too flexible.
I picked up a couple of 10,000 and 20,000 mAh powerbanks from Maplin before they sadly closed down 😢
How ironic, the ad for this video is for a solar powered power bank.
It must come from the same factory that makes the 800,000kV inverter that I reviewed 😁
Will that inverter power my delroean ?
It's not the volts that power DeLoreans, it's the amps.
well technically its the Jigawatts!
Expect Chinese merchants to be selling suitable flux capacitors to handle that power any time soon....
John - Orbiter 800MV ? That's more like a physics experiment. Could be built with ladder technology at really tiny current, like an overdone ionizer.
I think close to 10000 is a realistic goal, not just 5000! Because i have a store brand battery (approx. 20-30€ list price, don't remember) that is that size and shape, same book style, same drawer, no solar cell, and it's got 9400mAh marked on it. I trust this store, and it appears to pretty much completely charge my 4000mAh phone twice, so it can't be that far off. The cell inside is HUGE, very tightly packed in there, it doesn't have much any space to move at all, and it's marked SONY 32 W US4069C4H 2 3583ED055VH12B. Mine can probably output 2.1A that are marked on the package, as it's the only power bank that i have that will power my Windows tablet - though it will get pretty warm. The tablet refuses to work off an older Anker also with 2.1A output, it's allergic to voltage slacking off.
I actually might already have a test load and charger doctor so i can test it more thoroughly.
Yeah i plugged in mine for a minute, it could do about 1.9A before voltage started dropping below 4.9... it's not the same electronics at all obviously as the enclosure that you scored.
The output of this thing is really poor. It needs to at least put out two amps at 5 volts in order to charge a tablet. All the battery packs I have built can do 2.5 amps before they start to struggle.
Could you do the JDB Quick Charger on Amazon for about $7. It claims to have 2.4A for 3 usbs and Quick Charge (5v 2a, 8v 2a and 12 1.5v) on one port, I already purchased one arriving thursday but want to see how its built
that multimeter is the same one at harbor freight but its a different color
check out the goodmans 10,000mah power bank . i had it open and it appears to be one massive cell i think there available on ebay
and it clips together i never seen any glue on the part where the qi pad is but the pad is glued to the cell
Ive bought two of those from eBay, except with a cell and no solar panel. The case looks the same, except the solar panel cut-out, the same latching method too. They were advertised as ”20000mAh”. I doubt they are anywhere near that, but the cells they have are actually pretty big and fill the whole case. So for £7.50 it wasnt too bad.
So to use internal protection remove that 0 ohm ?????? If someone will answer that would be nice.
You can modify the case to use as phone cover, it has a great screen opening at the top ;-)
I have a couple of these book-style power banks, although mine have no solar panel, came with cells, and were rated 20Ah and 50Ah (I bought one of each from the same seller to see if there was any difference, since they obviously weren't going to be the full capacity). Both came out to around 7500mAh (7631mAh for the 50,000mAh version, and 7395mAh for the 20,000mAh one) and can supply up to around 1.8A. Decent enough, a 7500mAh cell and the charger/regulator for ~£10
Took the 20Ah one apart, and it has different circuitry to Clive's. Theres an anonymous 14-pin chip, an 8-pin chip marked 4606, and the DW01+8205A. Lithium cell is, as expected, completely unmarked. Mine also still havs connections on the PCB for a solar panel, marked SUN+ and SUN-, but they're unused.
This is the diagram that you spoke of on the pink 5000 mAh Poundland video... same 4 led at the bottom right...
never tested the other output. just assumed it would be 1 amp. I wanted to see you test both outputs to be sure.
Would baking the solar panel maybe help fix the bonds or damage it further?
It turned out that the panel was too flexible and there was cell damage. It'll be shown in a video later this week.
If the batery voltage is not enough to turn on both LEDs in series, it can be used as a duplex. Pin driven high: lower LED on, upper off. Drive low: upper on lower off. Tristate pin: both off.
@bigclivedotcom - it appears to me the 2 solar panels are different technologies - TFS or Thin Film Silicon, and the other is a CZ ( can't tell if it is single-crystal silicon or polysilicon ). The two technologies have very different spectra responses. It is possible they would respond better outside. Because, depending on your inside light source and its spectral content, one solar cell/panel will perform better than the other ( I think the CZ or polysilicon is more responsive to blue and the TFS device has a better response to red ).
That case looks like it would be perfect for an external SSD......if you had the external connectors.
John Carr Not sure you'd ever want an external *SSD* case, that'd typically be a bandwidth choke point. But you can e.g. buy an external SATA case for around $3, USB3, which will happily take SATA SSDs.
Funny you should mention that. These cases are actually old external HDD cases for laptop drives from like 10 years ago. I have a couple drives mounted in some cheapo ones I got from a flea market back in 2009.
i had that exact power bank and one day the battery that came in it expanded a lot, had to get rid of it
You don’t need to put this in a direct sunlight, just outdoors in a shade, because I got sunburned while sitting outdoors under a roof for 3 hours, that solar sun ray light power will travel anywhere, it touches and bumps everything.
I have the same kit and I found a 8000 MAH cell that fits it perfectly. No room for a larger cell. The other LED is used to show when the solar panel is charging. Maybe the batteries that you are using are too weak. Mine will charge at over an amp and still maintains 5 volts, but not much over 1 amp.
That looks like the exact design of my Fuse Plus You 7757 (terrible name) power bank that's only "5000mAh" but stuck in a different case with a crap solar panel on the side.
I bought a couple of the 6x18650 powerbank kits (no batteries included, salvaged from laptop battery packs) and the rating on it is also ridiculous. Very hackable tho. I added an aluminum strip with 4x "1W/3W" LEDs from eBay, going straight to the battery in parallel through a low value resistor and a switch, and replaced the puny, PWM LED included with a laser pointer from a toy gun that just so happened to fit perfectly on the hole. If you move it fast enough you can see the ant strips from the PWM.
The power output does not quite reach the 2.1 Amp promised, it is closer to 1.75 A @5.00 V.
Looks like the battery's from the heated power bank and I am sure I have seen the same board used in another one.
My guess is that they charge that much to cover the cost of all the returns they're getting when people think it's a full powerbank.
would you be able to mod it with a heatsink to have it charge at a higher current? Thanks,
They didn't solder the front tabs of the USB sockets down. Won't take long for them to rip off.
Hmmm actually I'm interested u put big load on one of the sides but what will happen if u put on booth ?
I bought a power bank with the same case but it doesn't have the solar cell, for $5 USD at a pallet store. It seems to work very well. 10,000 mAh. It looks like it has the same board, although I have't taken it apart since it works good. Now that you said it could have a smaller battery in it and some weights, I'm curious as to what is in it. LOL
Hey. I Actually have a reputable 16K mAh powerbank from a reputable company with similar dimensions. I double checked it, and even opened it and there are 4 smaller slims 4k mAh cells connected together. Its actually quite nice.
The 100,000mAh is aspirational: they hope that it will supply that much over a lifetime of charging and discharging...
I don't know much about electronics, but that's a clever design from the mechanical point of view 👍🏼
I think you could find a pouch lithium cell at around 20Ah that would fit in there...
Vu la taille de ce powerbank,ce se voit tout de suite,car il est impossible de mettre autant de lithium dans un si petit espace.
bigclivedotcom what protection circuit could you recommend to add in for unprotected cells
What powerbank can I buy that isn't fake with 20000mah?
Given the size of the 10,000 mah battery that I recently installed in a thing, I find the prospect of a 100,000 mah power source that is that small fascinating
it's 100k picowatts not milliwatts.
More solar garden lights videos please. Should be plenty in stock as warmer weather is on the way.
What's with the other two sets of solder points on the solar panel?
All in parallel to offer different connection positions.
I'll bet that the absurd mAH rating was considering the current supplied by the solar panel for some absurdly long period of the sun hitting it...
That SY3511 data sheet says it has a LIGTHT LED - WTF is one of those!
I note that the data sheet says 5.1V 1A. But doesn't one port have markings saying 2.1A? That sounds like yet another level of fraud.
The two pins being shorted together on both sockets may have something to do with a relatively new Chinese charging standard. I don't know the specifics but there's basically a standard now that chargers sold in China are to have their data pins shorted so that the device knows it's a charger. It's a very brute force and analog way of doing it, but it's also the cheapest (and probably safest! At least in some respects.) way of doing it.
Can you talk about using the solar panel for charging that big battery pack? Would the panel output enough current to charge a large battery in a reasonable amount of time?
It takes a long time. I have one with the better panel on it. It's maybe useful if you just want to keep one on a window sill or the parcel shelf of your car (potentially not good for the cells though) and know that it'll be charged in a few days. If you can charge it with USB, it's a lot faster/better though.
What's that neat battery tester thing you have and where can I get one?
Why I feel the battery storage is no more than 5 amp
U can pick good size polymer cell for 5-7-9$ on eBay like 2 tick ones will go fine in I hope
solar power banks are great! hope the next versions have better charging capabilities. tis disappointing to have 2 usb ports yet i'll only seem to get good use outta 1.
I enjoy watching you dissect and explain technology.
Fans of Birdemic will likely make jokes about the “slr pnl” (solar panel)
That might be what I need for my robot...
How do you take the zoomed HD photos of the circuit boards?
With my phone and good lighting.
That aluminium case looks rather like one of the slats of a shop roller shutter.
It looks like the panel is outputting 1/3 the amps of the "good" one and there are 3 taps on the back of the cheap panel can it possibly be separated in sections and all the connections need to be hooked up in parallel?
The connections on the back are all in parallel.
bigclivedotcom Did they have the same voltage?
Maybe it is 100,000 mAh and you just don't know how to use it properly?
Try using velcro to stick your lipos to the ample space available on the outside of the case..
Or a car battery :D
Chuckiele It requires a LiPo for the regulation chip to work. Circuit probably has a limit in what capacity it can handle, though it might not be 100Ah (4½ days charging time).
the casing is for a pocket hdd originally
This upload worked OK for me, although I had to restart my PC to get the video running. Your care with focusing is much appreciated.
I also had to reboot my PC to get this going, very strange.
No problem here.
That's odd. I wonder why.
I'm watching on my tablet and it plays fine.
While waiting for something to burst into flames...this video will do just fine
What are the OCVs of those solar panels?
Usually 5 or 6V to allow for charging a cell up to 4.2V plus a diode drop.
Thank you Clive. Any comment on what the other pads on the phone batteries are for? +/- and ?? Many thanks
I have learned so much from these videos. Thanks.
looking at doing something w/ solar but watching you solder makes me realize I've been doing it wrong lol
Neat construction! That orgy over ratings is not a new thing, I remember buying some 4200 watt PC speakers that had LM386's in them running off a PP3. Yeah....
Not a bad kit for the price. I think there are some 5000mAh Lipo cells that might fit. Depends on how the charge circuit is set up though.