Hacking the Anker PowerPort for backpacking
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ค. 2024
- This video explains why portable solar chargers (such as the Anker PowerPort) are not sufficient on their own for keeping mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc) charged during backpacking trips. Their shortcomings, however, can be overcome by combining them with a solar charge controller (such as the WaveShare Solar Power Manager) which ensures solar power is harvested efficiently. They also allow storing surplus energy in a lithium-ion battery, which will be available later to balance out dips in power output from the solar charger.
Note: The Anker PowerPort is a great product, and will work fine on its own, as long as it sees full sunlight. This is, however, impractical to achieve consistently while backpacking. This is nothing the PowerPort can be faulted for.
Update: The Solar Power Manager has a successor, about which you can hear me talk here: • An improved solar-rech...
Product links:
Anker PowerPort 21: www.anker.com/products/varian...
WaveShare Solar Power Manager: www.waveshare.com/wiki/Solar_...
Potential alternatives to the Solar Power Manager: wiki.dfrobot.com/Solar_Power_...
Data gathered from hiking trips:
PowerPort without modifications:
Conditions: Glorious sunshine. Duration: 5:15h. Energy captured: 2.3Wh (Rate=0.438Wh/h). Equiv. charge*: 12% (Rate=2%/h)
PowerPort with modifications:
1) Conditions: Dense fog, sunny nearer the mountain summit. Duration: 4:06h. Energy captured: 4.3Wh (Rate=1.05Wh/h - 139% superior). Equiv. charge*: 23% (Rate=6%/h)
2) Conditions: Trip through a valley, very little direct sunlight. Duration: 5:15h. Energy captured: 2.9Wh (Rate=0.55Wh/h - 26% superior). Equiv. charge*: 16% (Rate=3%/h)
3) Conditions: Diffuse sunlight from behind a thin layer of clouds. Duration: 1:15h. Energy captured: 2.5Wh (Rate=2.00Wh/h - 357% superior). Equiv. charge*: 14% (Rate=11%/h)
4) Conditions: Flawless sunshine, some clouds later on. Duration: 6:20h. Energy captured: 10.9Wh (Rate=1.72Wh/h - 292% superior). Equiv. charge*: 59% (Rate=9%/h)
*based on estimated 18.5Wh required for full charge.
Image and footage credits:
Hiking route overview generated using www.mappedometer.com with data from www.openstreetmap.org
Shelf background: pixabay.com/photos/bookshelf-...
Tablet picture: pixabay.com/photos/person-tab...
Smartphone picture: pixabay.com/photos/phone-cell...
Exercise band picture: pixabay.com/photos/green-band...
Smartwatch picture: pixabay.com/photos/smartwatch...
Other photos were taken by me or by friends (used with kind permission).
Globe zoom-in on location of Immenstädter Horn generated using Google Earth Pro.
All other footage was recorded by me. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I used the Anker 21W solar charger when backpacking across the Pyrenees on the GR11 in 2021. The trip took 6 weeks and I was self sufficient with regards to electricity for the whole trip. I charged the Anker 1000mah battery pack when walking and when stopping at the end of the day, would charge my mobile phone and top up from the Anker battery pack.
I have the Anker 24w solar panel, I will now add my Anker battery bank, to the pouch to charge the bank when out and open, here in Arizona, we have plenty of the local star power God made for us! Thank you!
Thank you very much for this thought provoking hack. I will be anxiously waiting for your follow-up video about how you have overcome the limitations you mentioned. That should be good!
Thanks, that's appreciated. I have some more tests to run outdoors before I can finalise my next video - so fingers crossed the weather will play along.
Thanks mate! Great video. I'd encountered the same prob using foldable solar panel when hiking/cycling/camping. I had this idea in my head the same what you are doing in the video but not the details. The solar power manager is the key here. I can't thank you enough for putting up this very informational video. Much appreciated.
Thanks, I'm glad this video has been helpful to you. Hope you can enjoy the more capable setup on your hiking, cycling and camping trips :-)
Great video, definitely relevant for my upcoming backpacking trip.
I'm a technical incompetent sore eye, but I'm so Glad to have watched your video to help me search for better options of portable backpacking solar gimmicks :-). So much appreciate and Thank You!!
Hope you can bring better solutions to our world as more of us are enthusiastically getting into backpacking/cycling adventures. Happy feet!
Thank you, it's nice to read that. Happy feet to you , too :-)
Great video! Thank you for experimenting and sharing!
Awesome Video! Thank you for sharing. Can't wait to see more 👍
That's appreciated :-)
I managed to get myself one! Fiddling around with it now.
I'm using a 3.7V Li-ion rechargable 14500 battery with a (claimed) 1300mAh capacity as the "temporary energy storage" battery for now. Fits perfectly in the battery holder on the board, and I've hooked up a myMosh S-Pro 12,000mAh powerbank to the 5V/1A USB-A output for some charging tests.
My question is, does the temp energy storage battery need to be fully charged or even partially charged first, before the solar power manager is able to output consistent, stable power at its 5V/1A USB port?
This is awesome man, you should definitely manufacture these, I’d buy one!!!
Thanks man! 👌
Great Video! Great Execution And Amazing Way Of Presenting Information!
Thanks for this video. I was wondering, the Anker solar panel is 21W. But adding this Solar Power Manager you will get only an output of 5W. Isn't that a waste of the potential solar energy? It sounds like it slows down charging in full summer sun.
I'm looking forward to see the next Video 😄
Thanks. Hopefully, it'll happen soon. I started writing the script the other day.
Hey, thanks for the video. I was trying to choose between the Anker 21w (it's lighter) and the BigBlue 28w (supposedly better with power interruption, but heavier). Thanks to this video I think I should probably add the waveshare . So just wondering.... do you think I'd see much difference between the BigBlue and the Anker? Not sure how much the extra panel would help keeping a phone charged for weeks during a similar hike, or if the BigBlue would perform better even without the waveshare.
I don't know too much about the BigBlue, although it looks strikingly similar to the PowerPort... the may come from the same factory. My guess is the PowerPort would be sufficient, and the extra weight of the BigBlue isn't worth it. You can try out the PowerPort on it's own first, and if it struggles to keep your devices charged up, you can always add the Solar Power Manager later. Let me know how it goes 👍
I have the BigBlue 28W since October and have to say that it works flawlessly. Even now in December in Germany it produced 15 W (3,1 A) on a sunny morning with no clouds. The technology seems to be quite advanced. A reviewer guessed that it might even have a proper MPPT build in. But cant say for sure. It reconnects very quickly my iphone if a cloud passes by or a shadow falls on the panel. The pocket with zipper is also very handy. You can keep a small powerbank in it connected to the panel and wont even see it from the outside, as the cabel goes through a special whole from the socket into the pocket. Also very good is, that the 4 panels work independently. If you cover 1-3 panels the remaining ones will still deliver there proper power. So you can only unfold 2 or 3 panels, if it would be too big otherwise, for hiking for example. The only disadvantage for me is, that it produces much more energy than I need. On a sunny day it will always produce more energy than one usb socket can deliver (more than 2 A or 2,4 A). If you want to take advantage of all the energy you have to connect to devices to the two usb-sockets.
I have also a 14 W choetech and several 6 W ETFE noname panels. The BigBlue makes by far the best impression. I personal would recommend it for camping or as the only panel for at least two or more people during hiking, as it will probably produce more energy as a single person would normally need. And therefore it is too heavy for this purpose with 700g. Haven't tested it for hiking yet.
Supplement:
[my comment was removed, probably because of links in it. So now without links]
If you were ready to experiment with WaveShare's Solar Power Manager anyway, I would not use the expensive Anker panel for this, but experiment with inexpensive panels. Especially because the Power Manager can consume a maximum of 4 watts of power, but the anchor panel delivers 10 watts in direct sunlight without any problems. For a higher performance, I would then use the successor model from WaveShare "Solar Power Manager (B)". This can take up to 10 watts of power and deliver up to 15 watts of power via Usb-C or QC. 10 Ah battery is integrated right away. So it can also be used like a normal power bank, which you save yourself with.
For example, I have now also ordered the small Power Manager and the successor model. I will use the small PowerManager for an ultra-light solution on a 6 watt panel and with a 1000 mAh 14500 battery. The panel I'm going to use for this is a 7 Watt ETFE coated flexible Panel from China. Got three of them for 30 EUR and have already tested them several times. The panel itself (they write 10 W, but it is a 7 W panel) is completely waterproof, ultra robust and flexible. Weighs approx. 140g. Peak power now in winter was about 0.9 A at 5V, which is extremely good for this size. The USB connection, on the other hand, is junk and comes off the panel when it is used several times, because it is just glued to it. But that doesn't matter because I'll remove it. A cable is then soldered directly to the panel and connected to the Solar Power Manager with an integrated 14500 battery using a DC 3.5 1.3 connector. The eyelets are extremely practical for attaching the panel directly to the backpack, for example. If you put the Solar Power Manager in your backpack, you can simply leave the panel on the backpack even when it is pouring rain. Various tests have shown that the panel should provide at least 0.3 Ah at 5 V in changing light conditions (not when it is cloudy). But it would have to be tested properly on a hike. Over 6 hours that would be at least 9 Wh, which is 1.5 times my iPhone charge (SE 2016). The weight for this would then be 130 (panel without USB socket) + 30 (Solar Manager) + 20 (battery) + 10 cable = 190g (without the need for another power bank).
These panels can also be switched in parallel very well (tested via USB). Simply hang two panels together using the eyelets. Connect the cables with a Y-cable with DC 3.5 1.3 (adapters on 5.5 2.1) plugs. They then deliver twice the power, which would be too much for the small solar manager when the sun is shining, but which only happens if they are perfectly aligned with the sun. Alternatively, you can also use the successor power manager. With the small Power Manager it would be 330g, with the successor Power Manager (290g) it would be 260 (2 panels without USB socket) + 290 (successor Power Manager) + 20 for cables = 570g. For comparison: Anker approx. 500g + 10Ah power bank approx. 200g = 700g.
There are also many other interesting solar panels that are flexible and have sometimes the waterproof ETFE coating. One, which many ultra-light hikers take weighs only 90g with 5W [cant post a link]. Combined with the small Solar Power Manager, the latter should be very interesting.
Great video, what about utilizing the onboard battery charger, I think you can add up to 14500mah batteries to it. I was hoping to charge my RavPower through usbc that accepts 20v 1.5A. Do you think I can just buy one of those usbc cables with a positive and a negative terminal and hook it up to the circuit through battery output connections?
Thanks! There is no onboard battery charger, just a DC-to-DC converter which puts out 5V. It won't be able to put out 20V, because it doesn't have USB-C and doesn't support power negotiation, which is required for voltages greater than 5V.
WOW! Superb video (and the following one). Many thanks for sharing. If I understand you correctly, the solar panels which have integrated battery should have the advantage of skipping USB charging (at least internally), so they should behave like panel+manager combo, correct?
Thanks, your comment is appreciated :-) The power banks with integrated solar panels I have seen so far, didn't seem very good. The solar panels are usually very small, so they won't deliver much power. Also, when you put them in sunlight, the battery will heat up as well, which isn't good for them. Do you have a particular model in mind? I can certainly take a look :-)
@@toledomerendo Thank you, I missed the heating up factor, good point. I don't have anything particular in mind, but I saw some folding solar panels (so total surface should be enough, in theory) with the battery, so it made me thinking :-). Just examples like Addtop solar charger, or Blavor (but now I've even read small remark that the panel should not be placed in direct sunlight without air cooling which is hilarious).
I just had a look, it still seems like manufacturers completely miss the point that the solar panels can and should be kept separate from the battery. That's part of what inspired me to make my first video... the Addtop looks decent but, like you said, it doesn't fix the issue of baking the battery (and the electronics, for that matter) in the sun.
This is amazing! Besides doing this, could we just use an external power bank (such as Anker Powercore or Ravpower)? How would the results vary?
Using a power bank, on its own, is certainly an option, if you know you will be able to recharge it regularly - say, if you plan on staying at campsites. Often, at campsites, you'll see people charging their phones/power banks in the bathroom, on the sockets meant for hairdryers. Of course, this presents a risk of things getting stolen. And for extended trips with lots of wild camping involved (where legal), this isn't really an option, because you won't be anywhere near a mains socket. This video was made with this scenario in mind :-)
@@toledomerendo I would have to say you are completely wrong about needing any wall sockets to run devices. I lived without any electricity for three years only 4 small folding solar panels and I had way more than I needed. Yes they will absolutely charge every day regardless of overcast/season.
@@MobileAura that sounds interesting. So, what kind of panels did you use? What devices did you charge? Of course, solar panels do produce less power when it's overcast, so I'm guessing you had a huge surplus when the sky was clear?
Hi, would this hack work on other portable panels for backpacking ? THANKS
I'm only getting 8.6 to 9.1 watts using this combo, i have set the powerban to 6 volts, am i doing something wrong?
how does ANKER not include an MTTP already? What's their setup?
Can you use just connect a regular powerbank like Anker or Ravpower to the solar power manager instead of the ebay one you bought?? I'm trying the understand the technical concept of having a separate battery attached to the solar power manager. Also it seems the solar power manager has a spot to put cylindrical battery, maybe rechargeable one. Are you using the one bought off ebay in lieu of the cylindrical one? Thanks.
It is not possible to connect a powerbank to the Solar Power Manager _instead_ of the lithium-ion cell. You can charge a powerbank from the USB-socket on the Solar Power Manager, but that doesnˋt make much sense since it only adds extra weight and reduces efficiency by adding additional energy conversion. If you need to be able to store more energy, simply use a bigger lithium-ion cell. In my future video, I'll explain all that in a little more detail, and I'll use a 10000mAh lithium-ion cell, four times as big than in this video. You can use a 14500 cylindrical lithium-ion cell (NOT a non-rechargeable battery - it must be lithium-ion) instead of a pouch cell, but those tend to have capacities somewhere around 800mAh, which is far too little for backpacking. I hope this answers your questions - if not, just drop another comment :-)
@@toledomerendo thanks for the answer!
@@toledomerendo earned a sub from me. These types of videos are just what im after.
@@phatshah7377 Thanks 😉
How does this improve upon simply charging a USB power bank while hiking, and charging devices from the bank, during evenings?
Does the USB tester automatically save the values or are they lost if it gets no power?
The manual only states that 10 data can be saved, but you have to do this yourself by pressing it manually.
I'm afraid the USB power meter loses its values when power is lost. I pointed a camera with a time-lapse function at the meter to capture the values and to make sure I have the last reading when the power cuts out..
question, why can't you charge a power bank directly with the solar charger, or can you without the mppt?
You can, but it will be much less efficient. The MPPT charger bridges the gap between the solar charger, which is a variable power source, and the powerbank, which expects to see a stable power supply (wall brick, etc.), if you will.
@@toledomerendo thanks
Nice Man
Wouldn't a general power bank do the same thing without the complications. They're designed to charge at slow rates and some even have built in solar panels. If they'll charge with the built in ones. Surely they'll charge with those panels too.
Is "MPPT SET" at 6V to select the desired input voltage from solar panels?
Exactly, that is correct. The setting might be differently for different solar panels, but the PowerPort delivers about 6V.
I'm thinking that we can achieve the same result by using a portable battery charger (so we don't lose the leftovers energy). After that we can use the portable battery for charge our devices.
Do you think the results are the same as yours?
Please see my reply to your comment on my other video :)
Thanks for the experiment. So whats the purpose of such a solar panel if its capacity is only 20%. Such a waste of panel surface area. I also go a 20W Suaoki Panel for backpacking, but after your video, i guess charging my surface 3 via usb will take a week :)
You could use a smaller panel, of course. It would also save you some weight. On the other hand, a larger panel will also allow you to keep charging when there is little sunshine. Charging a Surface 3, with its 7270mAh battery would probably take the better part of a day.
I wish to see more videos like this. Experimental instead of produt reviews.
Danke für das sehr informative Video! Ich werde mir das Gerät jetzt auch bestellen und mit meinen 6 Watt-Solarpanel am Fahrrad testen, da an diesen sich die USB-Buchsen mit integriertem Spannungswandler ohnehin lösen. Bin gespannt, ob ich dann bessere Werte herausbekomme. Bei ein paar Testfahrten mit angeschlossener Powerbank und Amperemeter konnte ich feststellen, dass vorbeisausende Baumschatten den Ladevorgang schon etwas irritieren können.
Erstaunlich finde ich, dass bei dir ein so starker Unterschied herauskommt, zwischen dem normal verwendeten PowerPort an einer Powerbank und der gehackten Version. Ich habe mich gefragt, ob es vielleicht an der von dir verwendeten Powerbank liegt? Hast du das Default-Setting mal mit einer anderen Powerbank ausprobiert? Vielleicht kann ja genau diese Powerbank mit leichten Schwankungen der Spannung um 5V und/oder Ströme nicht umgehen. Bin einfach grad am rumrätseln, wie genau die Leistungssteigerung bei deinen Tests zustandekommt ;) [Bearbeitet: hier hatte ich eine Frage zur Leerlaufspannung des Anker. Hat sich erübrigt, da im Video gezeigt]
Eine letzte Frage: ist die maximale Eingangsleistung immer 4 Watt?, auch bei höherer Eingangsspannung? max. 900 mA Eingangsstrom bei 24 V z.B. müsste ja über 20 Watt Eingangsleistung ermöglichen. Konnte zur Eingangsstromstärke bei WaveShare leider nichts finden. Bin elektronischer Leihe, von daher nicht wundern, falls die Frage vielleicht blöd ist ;)
Hallo. Vielen Dank für deinen Kommentar. Probier es gerne aus mit dem Solarmodul an deinem Fahrrad. Wie Du schon sagst - bereits kurz auftretende Schatten lassen die Leistungsabgabe des Solarmoduls deutlich einbrechen, und genau hier macht MPPT einen deutlichen Unterschied. Das ist, meiner Einschätzung nach, auch der Grund, warum auch die Powerbank nur wenig Leistung von dem Anker PowerPort aufnimmt - sobald das Modul, auch nur vorübergehend, abgeschattet wird, bricht die Leistungsabgabge des PowerPort ein. Die Powerbank erkennt, dass der PowerPort plötzlich nicht mehr genügend Leistung liefert, und drosselt deshalb die Ladeleistung. Allerdings bleibt die Ladeleistung dann gedrosselt - selbst wenn das Solarmodul nach kurzer Zeit wieder der vollen Sonne ausgesetzt ist, und wieder volle Leistung liefern könnte... USB ist einfach nicht dafür ausgelegt, mit stark schwankenden Energiequellen umzugehen. Zu deiner Frage: Der Solar Power Manager kann den Lithium-Ionen-Akku mit maximal 1,09A aufladen - je nach Spannung des Akkus (zwischen 3V und 4,2V) beträgt das etwa 4W. Die Spannung des Moduls spielt hierbei keine Rolle - der Ladestrom des Akkus wird immer auf den maximalen Wert begrenzt (oder eben weniger, wenn weniger Leistung zur Verfügung steht, aber immer noch besser als nichts). Es gibt von WaveShare inzwischen auch einen Nachfolger (der Solar Power Manager B) - darüber mache ich auch gerade ein Video ;-) evtl. könnte der auch von Interesse sein, da die Leistungsaufnahme auf ca. 10W erhöht wurde, und diesmal ein Akku bereits dabei ist, und das Ganze auch in einem Gehäuse verbaut ist.
@@toledomerendo Danke für deine ausführliche Antwort, sehr hilfreich!
Den Nachfolger B) und C) hab ich schon entdeckt und werd einen davon auch dazubestellen. Den ursprünglichen Power Manager find ich interessant, um zusammen mit einem 6W Panel ein sehr leichtes Setup ohne zusätzlicher Powerbank zu konstruieren, das dann störungsfrei beim Fahrradfahren das Handy lädt, während es als Navi genutzt wird. Sind dann etwa 250g. Da das Panel nicht mehr wie 4 Watt leisten kann, spielt die Begrenzung hier keine Rolle.
Was den Grund für die schlechte Ladeleistung ohne Power Manager angeht, bin ich mir unsicher. Die drei Powerbanks, die ich habe, darunter auch eine 9-EURO-Billig-Powerbank, können alle problemlos auch bei sehr geringen Ladeströmen laden und regeln alle auch bei vorrübergehendem Leistungseinbruch die Ladeströme wieder hoch. Hab ich schon hundertfach mit USB-Amperemeter mit unterschiedlichen Solarpanels an unterschiedlichen Powerbanks getestet. Sie laden selbst bei 10mA und regeln sofort wieder auf Maximum, sobald die Beschattung weg ist. Das Problem, dass der Ladestrom auf niedrigem Niveau verharrt, kenn ich nur von meinem iPhone, wenn es direkt an den USB-Port von Solar Panels ohne Restart-Funktion angeschlossen wird. Könnte mir vorstellen, dass entweder speziell deine Powerbank einen Ladeschutz ähnlich dem iPhone hat oder dass speziell der Spannungsregler bzw. PWM des Anker PowerPort das Problem erzeugt. Ich meine auch mal in einem Nutzerreview gelesen zu haben, dass der PowerPort dieses Problem nicht nur beim direkten Laden von Smartphones hat, sondern eben auch beim Laden von Powerbanks.
Bin jedenfalls gespannt, ob sich bei mir eine Leistungsverbesserung einstellt. Könnte mir auch vorstellen, dass aufgrund des zwischengeschalteten 3,7V-Akkus der MPPT die Möglichkeit hat, die Spanne zwischen Solar-Nennspannung von 6V und der Akku-Spannung komplett auszunutzen, um den MPP zu finden. Die heruntergeregelte Spannung wird dann in Ampere transformiert, es geht dabei also (fast) keine Leistung verloren. Der Anker PowerPort hat hingegen nicht die Möglichkeit, so tief mit der Spannung runterzugehen, da er an die 5V USB-Spannung gebunden ist und diese nur minimal unterschreiten darf. Das würde bedeuten, dass der Solar Power Manager ohne angeschlossenem Akku dann nicht so effizient arbeiten dürfte. Also noch mal Dank und bin gespannt auf dein nächstes Video!
I don't get why you need to swap the circuit, surely you can just use the Powerport's own USB ports to charge a USB powerbank via a short cable. That's exactly what I've done for years with this device. Could you explain why you wouldn't just do that rather than replacing the circuitry for MPPT and another battery? Thanks
That's what I tried to show in the first experiment - charging a powerbank of the PowerPort directly doesn't work so well when the insolation is highly variable. It will work fine if the PowerPort is sat in direct sunlight all day but that's not my use case scenario. With the MPPT charger, the solar enegery is harvested more efficiently than it would be using a USB port - because USB ports were never designed to work as fluctuating power sources. The MPPT charger and Li-Ion battery bridge this gap. I hope this answers your question. If not, just drop another comment.
@@toledomerendo thank you, I understand. What you are asking is that both devices and powerbank charge circuits expect stable current. I can believe this because some don’t even resume charging once the current drops away and comes back.
Thanks for showing this, I’m going to try it out on the Anker 15w which is an ideal hiking panel
Exactly right. Some devices do resume charging but only at 2.5W, the very lowest power. They will stay there, even if more power becomes available later (when more sunlight falls on the Solar panels). Let me know how your project goes. Cheers!
This premise for this hack are flawed. You state that the phone rejects unstable power sources, however at the very beginning you stated that you use a charging brick as a proxy. So it shouldn’t matter if the power source fluctuated, because the brick is not affected by this…
Could I not use a 2000mph battery permanently plugged into solar panel usb and then plug my devices into the battery.
Do you mean a 2000mAh power bank? If so, that was kind of my point in this video, to show that this works less efficiently than the setup with the power port. Depending on your power needs, it may work OK though. Just try it :)
@@toledomerendo yeh sorry, mph, doh😂
@@bryanshaw38 no problem :D
Is there a device out there that has a power reservoir and does all these things?
Have a look at the successor to the WaveShare Solar Power Manager - they say it does all those things. I haven't had a look at it yet but I will.
Humm yeah, well the main thing with the MPPT is that it constantly adjust the voltage and amperage to always give the most stable voltage possible, 5v in this case.
If not enough sun (within certain limits) it will low the amps to increase the voltage. And the other way too, if the voltage is already good but the cells give more than the 5v it will convert the excess into more amps. So it reduces the waste of energy a lot.
Most solar panels have a PWM (much cheaper) it basically only stop the voltage to go too high, so no voltage/amperage balancing and so lot of energy wasted when not in perfect conditions
I am looking to use this on my motorcycle. When I take long trips sometimes things can die like my phone from gps, my brake light on the back ofy helmet, ory Cardo. All of these can charge while being used. I haven't ever wanted to put a charger on my actual bike hooked to the battery because of the risk of power drain. this will work perfectly instead. Just hook the units in to charge, or have it charging a power bank while I'm out driving so I can use the bank to charge my phone and helmet at night.
Sounds good, it should work. Just make sure you don't put the lithium-ion battery in direct sunlight, it doesn't like to get hot. Obviously, make sure the solar panel doesn't fly off ;-) Let me know how it goes.
Just carry a battery bank and charge that when you’re still
I have now extensively tested both the smaller Solar Power Management Module presented in this video and the Solar Power Manager (B) presented in the next video. Here I come to significantly different results or to a different assessment of efficiency. As I suspected in another comment, this difference is due to the fact that your baseline test was carried out with a particularly unsuitable power bank (Samsung) (more in the last paragraph). Compared to this baseline setup, the Waveshare module looks particularly efficient, but it really isn't. In fact, it has one of the worst buffer storage efficiencies I've ever tested for 6V solar panels.
The overall efficiency from input to output is particularly important for a buffer storage for solar solutions. I.e. how much energy (in Wh) is lost through temporary storage in a power bank or in another battery solution (like Waveshare). The usual overall efficiency of good power banks is 70-75%. This means that 75% of the energy that was used to charge the power bank can then be recovered from the power bank. References tested by me: Sunnybag 10000 = 75%; Intenso XS 5000 = 75%; iStore 5200 = 68%. Test results for other power banks from professional testers: Anker PowerCore 10000 = 72%; Nitecore NPB1 = 75%; Anker PowerCore 5000 = 62% etc.
I carried out these tests both with the small Waveshare solar module and with the successor Waveshare Solar Power Manager (B). Namely, by charging via the solar input (with 6V) as well as via the USB input (with 5V).
Small Waveshare module USB effiecency test:
With inserted 14500 Li-Ion battery 1100 mAh / 3.7 V (4.07 Wh capacity) from Akkuteile.de
Charged via micro USB input at 0.5A > 4.23Wh input until fully charged
Discharged via USB-A output at 0.5A > 1.82Wh output until fully discharged
The overall efficiency is 1.82/4.23*100 = 43%
A second and third attempt, in which I charged with 1.1 A and discharged with approx. 0.3 A, resulted in overall efficiencies of 43% and 45%.
Now I thought that maybe the USB input has a very bad step-down converter installed and that the solar input will certainly result in better efficiency. This is unfortunately not the case. For the test I simulated a 6V power source via a boost converter because the sun didn't want to shine at all.
Charged via solar input with 6V and 0.9A > 5.02 Wh input until fully charged
Discharged via USB-A output with my phone at 0.9A > 2.172 Wh output until fully discharged
The overall efficiency is 43%. However, since measurements were taken directly at 6V here and the losses of conventional USB solar charge controllers are eliminated, these losses, which do not exist here, must be taken into account in order to compare it with the USB charging efficiency. Common solar USB charge controllers have an efficiency of about 90% (tested by me). Accordingly, the comparable efficiency is 43% / 0.9 = 48%. Charging via the solar input increases the overall efficiency by about 10% compared to charging via the USB input, since there are no losses in the transformation from 6V to 5V. However, this is of no use if the overall efficiency is already very poor.
The next hope was that it might be due to the 14500 battery. So I ordered exactly the same battery that you use in your video, namely Eremit 2500 mAh / 3.7V (9.25 Wh capacity). The result here is even worse.
Charged via micro USB input with approx. 1A > 12.7 Wh input until fully charged
Discharged via micro USB-A output with approx. 0.6 A > 4.8 Wh output until fully discharged
So the overall efficiency is only 38% with this battery.
Pass-through charging:
After the efficiency as a power bank turned out to be extremely poor, I was interested in whether particularly efficient pass-through charging might be possible. This means that a consumer (like a smartphone) can be charged at the same time as the module is being charged. The worst case would be that the entire energy is regulated down from 6V to the charging voltage of 3.7V on average, only to be regulated up again to 5V at the output. The best case would be that all the energy required at the output is only regulated down to 5V and only the excess energy is fed into the battery, i.e. regulated down to 3.7V. To test how the module works, I tested the efficiency between input and output with an empty battery. It turns out that the module actually does the most inefficient pass-through charging, namely transforming the entire energy down to the level of the battery voltage and transforming it back up to 5V. The measured efficiency here also corresponds to approx. 43%. So you don't achieve more efficient energy use by charging a consumer at the same time. The solar modules from Adafruit, which are twice as expensive, are actually able to enable efficient pass-through charging by not pushing all the energy through the battery when consumers are connected at the same time, but making it available directly at the output. This is what Adafruit calls load sharing. Wasn't tested by me. But it can only be better than the very poor efficiency of the Waveshare module.
MPPT-Module form China:
For comparison, I ordered a similar module from China for 3 EUR that also uses the CN3791 pseudo-MPPT chip and can also be set for 6V, 9V and 12V solar panels. I connected the EREMIT battery to this and also equipped it with a 2 EUR step-up converter to 5V USB. With this self-made module I have now carried out the same tests.
Charged via USB at 0.8A > Input 13.2 Wh to fully charged
Discharged via USB at 0.8A > Output 6.7Wh to fully discharged
Overall Efficiency = 51%
Charged via solar input with 6V and 0.8A > input 12.5 Wh until fully charged
Discharged via USB at 0.8A > Output 6.7Wh to fully discharged
Overall efficiency = 54% / 0.9 = 60%
So the 5-euro solution from China was significantly more efficient than the Waveshare module. If you equip the module from China with expensive buck and boost converters that have an efficiency of up to 95% instead of the approx. 80% of cheap parts, this solution should have an overall efficiency of around 70%. You can also create your own efficient pass-through option with shotkey diodes, which makes it even more efficient when discharging at the same time.
I will comment on the Waveshare successor model "Solar Power Manager (B)" for the corresponding video. I tested this as well. It has an efficiency that is on par with regular power banks, but has other disadvantages that make it unsuitable.
Conclusion:
The pseudo MPPT function of the Waveshare module (chip CN3791) promises a particularly efficient solution for solar applications. In theory, this chip is probably a bit more efficient. However, Waveshare seems to have installed such bad step-down and step-up converters that nothing remains of this theoretical efficiency of the MPPT chip and in fact you have a solution that is almost half as efficient as with a normal power bank.
With 6V solar panels, an MPPT chip does not bring any real increase in efficiency. This is also confirmed by several tests that can be found on the net. It is possible that the Waveshare module can only show its strength when it is set to 12V or 18V and used with corresponding solar panels that have this nominal voltage. For 6V solar panels, this module is the worst solution to choose. A regular $10 USB power bank is almost twice as efficient and you don't have to cut up your Anker panel.
Suggestion:
Just do some more baseline tests with a decent solarable power bank. You will see that you get much better results than with the Waveshare module. I have three power banks that can all charge at changing currents and voltages. Two of them can be charged and discharged very efficiently at the same time. All tested with different solar panels. Intenso XS 5000 is available for 9 EUR and can be charged without any problems if the input fluctuates. However, it cannot do pass-through charging. The best solar-capable power bank I know of is the Sunnybag 10000 (without wireless function) for around EUR 20. Charges easily in all conditions, also on a bike driving through forrests and so on. It even hung in the rain for 2 weeks with the solar panel connected and still works perfectly. What this power bank is particularly good at is pass-through charging. The pass-through charging efficiency is 99%!!! This means that if a load is connected at the same time, the entire required energy is passed through directly and at the same time the output is supplied with battery energy without interruption if there is no input. Tested countless times with iphone on power bank and solar panel on power bank, no problems. This power bank does exactly what the Waveshare module should be able to do, but cannot, namely provide a stable output voltage as efficiently as possible. Instead of 43%, the efficiency here is 75% to 99%, depending on how much solar energy is delivered directly via pass-through charging instead of being stored temporarily in the battery.
My third powerbank isnt available anymore, but is almost as good as the one from Sunnybag in all aspects. Another recommendation of a solarable Powerbank would be NPB1 from Nitecore or NPB2, if more capacity is needed. I havent tested them myself, but Nitecore is specialized on outdoor Solar Power Solutions and they claim that this powerbank can do all those things, the Sunnybag can do. Allthough pass-through-charging could be less efficient, as Sunnybag uses a technic nobody else is useing.
Thank you for your comment. I certainly welcome the suggestions for alternative power banks, which sound interesting. I shall have a look at them.
Regarding the charge/discharge efficiency of the Power Manager: I recently noticed something about the first model (maybe you have noticed that, too): The little switch has become a bit wobbly, and seems to present electrical resistance (of course, this applies to any switch, but here, I have observed the little charge indicator LEDs change when wiggling the switch, while the USB output is under load, indicating a significant voltage drop across the switch). This may be due to repeated use of the switch, but it does adversely affect the performance of the PowMan (and the battery), by adding an apparent internal resistance to the battery. This has two effects (which I can think of off the top of my head):
1) While the battery is being charged in constant-current mode, the charge controller has to put out a higher voltage, which of course requires more power on the input side, lowering efficiency. If insufficient input power is available, less of what is available ends up in the battery, which also lowers efficiency.
2) While the battery is being charged in constant-voltage mode, the resulting charge current is lower, which means less of the available input power is used.
The switch on the PowMan B is a bit beefier, but both are arguably superfluous. I have never seen a powerbank with a switch before - providing protection from angry batteries (due to short circuits or over-voltage) is of course what the protection circuit is for. The switch can be safely jumped using a simple solder bridge (the bridge should only be placed where there is no ground plane between pins - otherwise, any damage to the PCB solder resist could cause a short-circuit).
In addition, the somewhat dinky connector for the battery could also present an increased resistance after several mating cycles, and this could explain the low charge/discharge efficiency you have seen in your tests, as it also presents an apparent increase in the battery's internal resistance. I would expect the battery holder to be superior in that regard and tests you have described seem to confirm this. The PowMan B has a better connector.
I agree that pass-through charging makes sense because it eliminates some energy conversion processes so it is inherently more efficient. Some people may prefer to use their phone extensively during the day though and charge it only at night, so a pass-through feature would not see much use here.
I also got a small charger module with the same chip, which implements the constant-voltage MPPT technique. I haven’t tested the efficiency of this module, but I imagine it will be superior to the PowMan. It uses an active polarity- and reverse-current protection circuit, so this already gives it an edge. It also uses beefier components. In fact, I use said module in the prototype solar-rechargeable powerbank which you can briefly see at the end of my second video on the subject.
I know that some semiconductor manufacturers offer MPPT chips (I know of one chip by TI in particular) which utilise more sophisticated MPPT techniques and perform “global sweeps” at regular intervals for keeping track of the “true” maximum-power-point, rather than just a local “hump” in solar power. I have, however, been unable to find a charger module which uses this chip, suitable for my project at the time. A pity, because it would have been interesting to work with one of these.
Once I get around to having a closer look at some of the products you mentioned, I’ll consider making a new video. I am presently busy with a new, unrelated project which I plan to use as the basis for several future videos.
@@toledomerendo Thanks for all the information!
Here my thoughts to your points:
1) Switch: Havent noticed any wobbling yet, but didnt use the switch much. I cant really read circuit diagrams, but maybe you can check, if they really run the power through the switch or if the switch disconnects the circuit from outside, via a transistor or something. Running the power through the switch would be again a very bad design from Waveshare as one amp is too much for most small switches and it would effect efficiency unnecessarily. I think, they inserted a switch, because the internal consumption might be very high and without a switch the battery would be empty after a week or so. A guy from a forum about diy-electronics-stuff, tested this module for a project and finally didnt use it, because he messured a very high internal consumption, from the LEDs and probably the conduction coil in the boost converter (if there is any). He actually made a very devastating judgement about the module and said, that it is a complete fail, which I would agree on ;)
I dont think, that the guys from Waveshare are very professional. The company seems to be a chinese copy of american companies in this microcontroller diy-field, like adafruit etc, but without any real competence. They just seem not to really know, what they are doing. They just do something, sell it for half the price than adafruit and dont care, if it is really thought through. I asked them, if it would be save to charge the module via the solar input, but with 5V instead of 6V and they were not able to answer that question. The communication process felt extremely incompetent. Maybe you have better experiences and could be that I'm wrong.
By the way. Would be interesting to meassure the overall efficiency with only 100mA Input and Output. If the efficiency goes significantly up, that could support the assumption, that one or more elements are not rated for more than 100mA, like the switch for instance. In this microcontroller world, they seem to be not used to calculate with more than 500mA (is my experience).
2) Battery connections: The JST 2.0 connector is the standard connector EREMIT and other brands uses for their batteries. So I dont think that they are not sufficient enough for 1-2 amps. I know that the cables of the EREMIT battery seem to be a bit thin for my feeling. But why would be EREMIT so stupid to use cables (and connectors), which reduce the efficiency of their batteries? In addition, the efficiency was also bad with the inserted 14500 battery and this battery connection seem to be very good. I even rotated the battery in the connector while messearing the output and couldnt observe any fluctuation. (I really tried everything, because I couldnt belief such a bad performance).
3) Reason for bad efficiency: Most likely the bad efficiency has to do with a very very bad boost converter. Cheap boost converters from China have an efficiency of 70% and lower (also got one with a potentiometer from China, which looses around 50% energy by boosting up 5V to 6V, unbelievably bad). Good once from TI cost ten times as much (which adafruit uses) and have an efficiency of up to 97%. In addition they could have integrated the CN3791 chip not correctly, so that they loose in the step down process unusually much energy. Then probably the switch is not rated for more than 100mA and directly integrated in the circuit (got one from Amazon "SS12F15", which looks exactly the same and can only be used with max 100mA). There might be one or more elements on the board which create a huge resistence, because they might have used the cheapest random elements they could get. Finally the constant shining of the LEDs consume also energy. Lets say, the step down process has 70% efficiency and the step up process has 70% efficiency and then another 5% is lost through the switch or other components, then you end up at 44% overall efficiency. So it seems not to be too difficult to reach that inefficiency, if you just use the cheapest components, in a wrong way.
4) Pass-Through-Charging: Probably you are right for hiking. In my case I use the solar panels on the bike and my phone with a navigation app. So my phone is constantly in use and connected to the powerbank. It consumes at least 1,5 Watts constantly. I save 20% of energy, if I can directly use the solar energy. But also for hiking I can imagine, that it is a nice feature to know, that you can recharge your phone in the backpack, while the sun is shining and save 20% energy. Aside the phone usage, there are a lot of other applications of such a pass-through-option. Lets say a fan is connected at the pool/beach (probably not that important), or your IPad, whilst you are working on it and so on. Or in general: It always makes sense, if you want to charge something whilst the sun is shining but dont want a direct connection to the panel, lets say a headlamp and so on. So it makes sense to design such a module in a way that it has more than one usage scenario. In case of the Waveshare module it is even more important (or even a must feature), because this module is targeted at outdoor microcontroller projects, like weather stations and stuff like that, with constant power consumption.
5) Other MPPT-Module: Has it a blue circuit board, 4 JST-connectors and meassures roughly 2x4 cm? Than it would be the same I have. Thats the one i tested. Got it from ebay, but you can also order it from aliexpress. I think its the only module with CN3791 chip at the moment (beside Waveshares). A previous version had a red circuit board. Good thing about it: It can handle 2 amps. Bad thing: I can meassure some of the battery voltage at the solar input. Dont know if that means, that some current is consumed by the panel, if no sun is shining (its a known problem). But its possible to prevent that with a shottkey diode at the solar input. I'm not sure, if the battery protection has any effect on the efficiency. Does this matter?
6) TI MPPT-Chip: Could you tell me the name of that chip? Would be very interested in it. The chips adafruit uses from TI have an extremely good performance in the datasheets from TI. I was blown away. TI seems to produce some really good stuff, the best and most expensive you can get.
Looking forward to your next video. Always exciting!
@@toledomerendo I guess the mppt chip from texas instruments is this one right? BQ24650
So essentially you added a powerbank with bypass charging to allow device charging even if the panels are folded up
I call it "temporary energy storage" but yes, this is correct.
Can't you achieve the same result using a powerbank?
It depends on the powerbank, some are more suitable than others. If you already have one, just give it a try :-)
If it’s that simple to make it that much better. Why don’t these manufacturers just build them that way?
You should get a job at Anker ;)
Thanks ;) Although, given the choice, I'd prefer working for WaveShare. They're up to something interesting, so stay tuned.
@@toledomerendo You seem like the right kind of person who needs to work at these companies producing these products. Somebody who thinks about how they are going to be used and more into detail about how they would best be functional. I'm honestly surprised why your functionality detailed here isn't something they thought of because it sounds such an obvious problem. So if you're that kind of person who can see those types of problems and knows how to fix them. I have high hopes for the future products that get built. Cause sometimes I buy these things and I'm wondering "why does this product have XYZ limitation" and I can't understand why nobody thought of such an obvious thing. So please! Go change things! :D
@@chrisalexthomas thanks 😊 I do work as an engineer, and use-case considerations are a critical part of my job. I guess Anker didn't design the PowerPort with my particular scenario in mind, and adding extra electronics and a battery make it more expensive, bulkier and heavier. Maybe that's why they decided to design it the way they did...
i have a better hack that doesn't involve cutting into the solar panel. connect a power brick to the solar panel, and connect your phone to the power brick.
30 watts for cell phones 100 watts 75 bare min for anything else and 1500 to 3000 watts for the bigger stuff in solar panels and batteries etc.. these small panels 30 watts you can only get 9 volts outta them then they down convert it to 5 you want 12 -24 in panel output to do mppt sure you can do this but most stuff is for small super small projects get a 100 wat folding panel there about 180 bucks and that should provide all your needs get a small 10 amp mppt use the dc output which provides 19 volts and hook it into the mppt then to a normal car battery and power your deviced from the car battery but that 100 watts at 5-7 amps will take longer to recharge a 250 amp hour battery 250 because sla and lead acid 50% is the min you want to go to so a 750 cca battery half of that or a 550 cca battery half of that.. or you can get a power bank ankler etc and charge that up they have all the outputs you need doing this you can only charge small things run led lights etc charge a cell phone power bank
This setup is only meant for small loads such as charging a phone, of course, running something more powerful requires a larger solar panel, more powerful electronics and so on... But those won't be as easily portable.
Can't wait to see you on the trail with that rig 🤪
Wy the F..... They don't make it like it this but the way they do?