The common problem with these units is that everyone leaves them in their vehicle 24/7 including during the summer heat. The extreme temperature in a hot vehicle will always cause a battery to swell up. I have a different brand jump starter that I store in my vehicle and noticed that the battery also swelled up after a couple years.
@@noodles806 Not safe at all. I'd bring them out the house and/ or car and leave them inside of a BBQ or concrete floor surface just in case they catch fire!!
When my lithium booster went bad, I took it to bits and poked around - until a 2 foot flame jumped out of the battery. Should have waited on BC's autopsy.
Maybe TH-cam is just glitchy but I can't see the reply threads for this comment, even though I posted and I'm pretty sure you're replying to me! I was drunk when I posted that, but I wasn't *that* drunk! Y u no sho? Am I the only one who the comments are failing to load on TH-cam lately?
Thank you. I dismantled old electronics at home. My biggest project was an old television. Vacuum tubes, transformers, capacitors, etc. neatly layed out on newspaper on my bedroom floor. Mom was not always happy with my projects.
The instant my brain realized Clive was moving the 2 cables closer together, I distinctly heard a loud "Nooooooooo don't do it !" in my head. I hate my brain sometimes.
madichelp0 "Deep down I don't want to set fire to my workshop... Right now." So I take that to mean setting fire to his workshop isn't completely off the table.
Did you ever find out what his problem is? Now I have a friend who needs a few new parts so I was wondering if you ended up parting out your friend for useable spares and if so can I have some?
I have a GB30 for a few years and because my car is parked outside, this thing has saved me so many times already. It's not cheap for "a battery" but so handy to be back on your way in 2min. Unless you're the person who leaves too late for everything, a dead car battery will never stop you anymore.
Far more electronics inside of that unit than I would have expected... complex unit. When the Li battery goes thermonuclear, it's all over no matter how advanced the circuitry is.
I've added a list of the main components in the unit. It is quite complex. The optocoupler-like devices are indeed Cosmo 1010 optocouplers. The battery balancing is dealt with by an 8254AA chip with 4435 MOSFETs. The LEDs are driven by an Xn2115tp device. The main processor is a Holtek HT46R06. The USB output is powered by an MP1584 buck regulator. The USB charging input is boosted up by an FP6293. There's a GZ423 (maybe a dual op amp?) and a 3.3V regulator.
This is because the video is available for preview by Patreon donors before Clive makes it publicly available on TH-cam. We can comment before it is available public.
According to the many electronic reviews of these products, that I've seen; the Noco is one of the worst at over promising it's amperage capability. I gave up trying to find a good one! I'll just stick with the 12v 50Ah battery I have mainly for my lift. It has two 15 watt solar panels, one on each side of my van to keep it topped off. Or, the 24v (2x12) 50Ah batteries in my wheelchair. Both of which I've used to jump my own, and other people's cars!
I have had a Schamer tech with USBs, Flashlight, compressor, 12 V outlet for 5 years. It has served me righteously during every power failure (lots here in the sticks) , starts the tractor each week, has started my truck and cars on occasion and has been FLAWLESS. It has some sort of lead acid battery and is heavy but smaller than a bread box. Old tech is great! Heavy but great!
5:42 I like how you qualify that statement by saying "right now" so as to leave open the possibility of wanting to deliberately set fire to your workbench at a later date.
I have one of these units and it does have protection but if you have a complete dead battery, you can put it in in some sort of Manual mode where it allows the full current and circumvents the "brains" that detect if low battery is connected.
The electronics check if you have connected the pack the right way round and won't let it give power until it sees the vehicle battery. If the vehicle battery is so completely dead the pack doesn't detect it you can press the override button and then it gets power - you have to check you connected it right way round!!
I also had a GB30. Sturdy build quality, IP65 rated, and would charge phones for hours. Loved it. Mine failed after a couple years of use. It's lithium battery swelled up so much that it cracked the case open. Must have been a similar failure as this unit. It was out of warranty but NOCO swapped it out with a new GB40 for ~$50. One difference I noticed is that the GB40 has a relay, apparent by the clicking it makes when jumpstarting cars.
@@mrbmoney2396 I have the gb40. It used to work kinda ok... now it doesn't. Puts out 12v but not enough current to crank. I bought the gb70 this week. So far it works good. Boosted a 5.9l Cummins with it and it fired right up even with intake heater coming on prior to start. In fairness block heater was plugged in and batteries still had some voltage so not a real torture test, but I was surprised, I didn't think it would do it.
You know, I've played with load baring semi conductors in parallel before. What can happen is, if they aren't all perfectly matched, and there are subtle differences in their impedance in operation, it causes current to flow unevenly across each component. The lower impedance component passes more current and gets over loaded. Then shit runs away and fails.
Nice thing about Mosfets is that they lend themselves to that though, because they start limiting as they overheat rather than run away, so it tends to self balance in parallel.
Having worked with model helicopters in the past, it totally scares me to know they're putting this kind of battery pack inside consumer electronics in such a way that makes them impossible to visually inspect for damage. If you saw your model pack go puffy, you know to never let it inside your house. This thing is a time bomb waiting to go off.
This was 4 years ago and that noco in particular as he said is an unknown year but noco puts a lot of protection in their starters back when you made this comment they had thermal sensors inside the battery as you saw and multiple other protections but when a starter is outside in a car they will get HOT and seince there isn't a way for them to cool the battery they often end up puffing up from the heat ruining the pack new ones have sensors to not let the pack be used if this ends up being the case where as this older model in the video doesn't have said protection and was still able to preform basic functions in the current model if it determines that the pack has puffed up it will charge to 50% and die or if it's above 50% it won't start a car and will let you charge your phone until it hits 50% which is the most stable percentage for a lipo cell battery
Just watched the Noco GB40 start up 5 very cold and flat automobiles in a car park full of snow. The Subaru took 4 heafty goes, 4 others started up well. All from the pack that fits in your pocket.
The blinking lights at the beginning is normal. When you hit the. ! It overrides protection and gives you full power. I use a gb 150 everyday. Love it.
as others have mentioned, these units are rated higher then they are built. i have a battery maintainer/repair unit from Noco that got lumpy and deformed after its first battery conditioning cycle! it still seems to "work" although i haven't tested it on a scope/meters to see how well, or as advertised (compared to new).
I just bought a NOCO last week. Funny to go back to this video and recognize the design. Apparently they haven't changed the case design in like 4 years.
Why am I the only one not wanting him to blow it up, I mean if he set up for it sure but at his bench without any containment. Must be because it reminds me of my dad working at his bench, never wanted him to be zapped.
"Do I really need to be doing this?" I wish I had a dollar for every time I've said that to myself when I've been working on something. I also quite liked "Scary, but strangely pleasing" when you probed the rather-sus-looking battery packs with your fingertip.
OUTCH! Be careful. NEVER push metal tool inside an electronic device, especially one with battery inside. And when removing the shrink around the batteries, you must be extra carefully. I’m glad nothing happened to you.
I bought the Viking brand battery booster, from Harbor Freight. It worked so well, that I bought a second one. Both of our cars are always armed with a back up, just in case the battery dies. I have a Ford Escape with a bad battery, and I use the booster to start it anytime I need to use it. They are $80 and are rated for 450 amps. That's enough to start a petrol V8 or a small diesel, like the 2.0L four cylinder.
Love your videos Clive... I recently purchased a GB 40 ... instructions said to plug it in an charge .... after only an hour the LEDs indicated it was fully charged. I never used it and when I checked it a month later it only first LED was lit ...I plugged it in and left it plugged in for several hours checking on it every half hour and it never charged😢 Seeing your video I now know there is nothing I can do. Thanks so much for these videos ❤
I've heard less than complimentary things about the Noco jump starters. I purchased one from a company called Gooloo and it's been good so far. I've jumped 3 dead cars so far with it.
Interestingly, in the manual for the NOCO Model Genius 3500, it states "Do not operate outside the normal operating temperature of 0 C to 40 C" They are available all across Canada and where we live it goes down to -25 C every year. NOCO were not very useful when I pointed this out to them.
Wow. I work at a battery store and we sell the Noco brand jump packs, but not the GB30, only the GB20, GB40 and one of the bigger ones. Interestingly enough a customer brought in a GB30 to be diagnosed and it had this exact same issue. Probably why we don't sell them anymore, the GB20 must've been the replacement.
Stumbled on your videos and enjoy watching. I decided to chime in on this one, since I recently purchased their (Noco) GB150. For the last few years I've been taking my XR650R dirt bike to Death Valley and usually I am miles away from civilization camping and alone. It never dawned on me that I may need a jump, and the lightbulb in my tiny head went off. You need a means of rescue! Long story short.... I bought the unit before my last trip and stopped before I went to a friends house. I actually jump started my friends Diesel. To be honest we were both skeptical. It cranked the engine over with ease. I have had other cheap models that wouldn't even start my car, and actually went up in smoke. Scary feeling. AND YES I DID WANT TO SEE YOU SHORT IT OUT. Cheers!
I just came across your 6 year old video. I use a Noco 2 amp charger to keep a small battery charged for our house alarm backup. It is only 1 1/2 years old and failed last week for no apparent reason. Here is the thing; I can't even remove the screws to open it. They are not cross head or slotted. They are a 3- fluted head. I have never seen a company go to such lengths to keep prying eyes away from their secret stuff. I suspect a failed mosfet . I will not buy another Noco devise, as their marketing is over-hype for what you get for your money. I may box and send it to you for your channel if you like. You make wonderfully informative videos'.
GB40 worked great the first two times I used it and now it is DEAD. Stuck at 25% charge infinity I cannot use it anymore and it is still new. Buyer beware, the Noco Genius Boost units have problems. There are a lot of people on Amazon reviews also having problems with theirs.
My experience is quite the opposite. Bought GB40 off Amazon.ca and have been using it for about three years now, multiple jump starts (mostly for stragglers on the road, but once for my car), also using it extensively as a powerbank. It just keeps working.
Considering it's size, I was a little surprised at what the manufactures web site shows it cost, in USA dollars $249.95. Like another person commented, I don't think I'll be buying one of these any time soon. Thanks for doing all of the different reviews.
Have been using GB40 for a while now, giving boosts to some stragglers on the road and jump starting my car once. No issues. I'm surprised they don't use the standard 18650 cells, though.
So, after looking up the datasheet for those mosfets, I'm going to assume someone either put the cables on backwards (which should've blown the diodes instead of the mosfets) or there was a huge power surge. I say that because the maximum rated current in the package is 75A per mosfet. So 225A total. On a bare mosfet, the maximum rated current is 130A. Those are designed to take a beating, but dang
For some reason I thought these had large capacitors, used to offer the enormous 160A/12V pulse of current for 20 seconds needed to start a car battery. Not so, at all.
Got got one of these from Amazon.ca. It was pretty much the same case as this. The flashlight and power bank functions worked but it wasn't even able to start my lawn tractor. Absolute junk. I returned it.
The unit sacrificed itself in order to protect from the battery pack igniting. How very noble of it. God forbid they design it to actually have its battery pack replaced. That would cause unemployment.
I'd be interested in seeing a tear down of one of the new "batteryless" jump packs (e.g., Autowit) which use the dead car battery as the source of power to start the car. I assume there is some sort of jewel thief circuit to extract energy from the battery which then charges a supercap which provides the boost to start the car. The obvious advantage is there is no battery in the jump pack which has to be charged in advance. Seems like a bit of technical magic.
@4:40 You have taped the red so it wont short but do naff all to the black so it wont short to the underside of the board where there is...... lots of red.
Outside of the device, yes there's protections if not enabling force mode, but when he opened it, there were two battery leads that were bare and not knowing of the switches malfunctioned in the on or off position, better to be safe than sorry 😬
Yet another manufacturer whose designers have been taking the "too clever" pills again. I DID actually think of buying one of these, but luckily my garage doesn't have any mains power run in. Loved the very Scottish technical term, "blootered" is a highly descripitive word. All the best for 2021, keep your entertaining videos coming!
I have the 50 for my BMW X5 3.0d and it's fantastic. I first bought a gooloo that was supposed to be a lot higher rated claiming to start diesels up to 8.5l but it didn't work. I replaced it with the noco gb50 and it started it instantly 👍👍👍
My GB70 battery swelled up so much it split the case apart. It was about 3 years old, but had only been used a few times. Charged it about every 3 months. Last time it would not charge, so I left it on longer. A day later it lined like a bloated tick.
Nothing beats the traditional JNC660 peak 1700ampe junp starter super reliable and always works that's why it's #1 chosen by many automotive and diesel truck shops, these bull shit lithium tiny jump starters may be good for tiny motorcycle batteries but that's about it
Dumb comment. Its clearly not made for motorcycles only since a lot of people made positive reviews of starting so many stranded cars with all sort of engines. Give me your JNC660 and let me treat it how the owner of this “tiny” jumpstarter treated it, I guarantee I can fry it in same way. You’re clueless yet you like to post negative comments about a product you probably never used before.
My car salesman mate has just purchased his third Noco in 2 years,both previous just stopped working in the same manner as this one.the second of those was quite cooked inside.
Thanks for an interesting insight but Gosh...... That Was Close...... Literally!!! Was I the only one holding their breath when you were disconnecting those leads? It looks to me like the larger GBs are the better bet. However, I may be wrong but I suspect that some GB Owners are not reading (who does?) and fully understanding the User Guide regarding the 'Manual Overide' button, in that when it is pressed, the 'Safety Protection' features are disabled, the leads become live and incorrect connection or shorting can result in....... Well....... Failure Autopsy ;)
I have 2 GB70 and 1 GB40 ,both GB70 are over 2 years old and work great. Just got the GB40 ,less power but hasn’t had any problems yet. Great products.
All these problems...mine has always worked. I'm guessing that since the mosfets were open it wouldn't have been spectacular if you had shorted the two output wires...
These are premium packaging only. Check out the Project Farm channel's test of jump starters. This one failed pretty badly. Not the worst, but not great.
I'm glad I didn't go with a noco. I got a different brand and it's worked well for me. Jumped my SUV like 10 times and the battery is still nearly 100%
I had a small one accident fell in my cup with liquid. Didn't work after. Then I bought a combo unit with tire pump. Won't easily fall into anything I still got that one it's good can be charge with USB and my tool battery will charge it up with adapter. I'm happy with it.
I just purchased on of these for myself. They should last about three years. There seem to be lithium polymer, the same type of batteries used in my RC Planes. The only catch with these types of batteries, you should not keep the fully charged as it puts a lot of wear on the batteries . Lithium batteries should be kept at 50% charge when in storage, which is not ideal for this application. That being said the do produce a lot of Amps and are very light. Back to the problem with this pack. I see a lot of people plugging them directly to their Positive and Negative terminals on their vehical directly and bypassing their car battery all together. This will work in a pinch however once the vehicle starts it will try to charge the battery which is not there and that when it will fry the Battery Booster. This could also could occur if you forget to disconnect the booster once the car starts.
One of the selling features of NOCO is that you can not shorten out the leads, or so they say, so i would have liked you to touch those two wires together and see how they are protected. I found your video because my NOCO stopped working or at least it will not boost my boat motor. In the beginning when it was new i was able to boost a full size van with dead battery with a 6lt engine. but now it just left me stranded with my outboard motor. Wanted to take mine apart but it has screw heads with a triangle never seen these before and I have a lot of screw driver tips.
I just bought one of these and the more i look into it, I find people saying not to leave them inside a hot car in the heat, as it will cause the batteries to vent and expand breaking the case.
I'm wondering if it is generally a bad design to have mosfets in parallel. Typically one fet can handle a current spike at least twice its rating for continuous current, for some number of milliseconds. Maybe if only one turned on, and the other(s) had a longer than expected delay, it could cause a cascading fet failure. Is that likely to happen?
It seems that no amount of smart/clever circuitry can stop those type of devices popping there clogs. I've seen no end of automatic "smart" chargers become useless over a short time, they just don't cut the mustard.
I bought 1 of these when they first came out, used it once or twice and then it stopped working. I was transporting at the time so I ended up around the corner from their factory/office. I brought it to them and they "fixed" it. It worked one time after that and never again.
Sorry for commenting before watching the video; Wanted to share that NOCO 's customer support explicitly denies the content of their manual for their G3500 (6V/12V lead acid) with respect to low-voltage recovery. I'll have to see if I can find it - but the manual says that if it cannot charge a depleted battery at 12V, then hook it *parallel to another charger* or power-supply and use the 6V setting first. (Not that this did work- the safety-cutout would trigger without a parallel charger/wallwart, but it wouldn't actually charge with one.) When asked if it would be valid to use the 12V setting on a depleted 24V battery in a similar manner to how the manual says to use it set to 6V for a depleted 12V battery, they yelled and screamed that the manual and website (at the time) did not say what I was reading and quoting page-and-printing numbers for. I'll still use it auto-shut-off to top off batteries from a storage charge, but I would have been better off building my own charger from scratch since I had bought it for the depleted/recovery charge mode in the advertising materials displayed at the store (at the time) when I bought it.
Using the booster mode in direct and accidentally reverse connecting the battery to boost will blow out the booster unit and do the damage shown. Also can cause the battery to swell up from over current. In direct mode, shorting the output will also do damage to the unit.
In the chinese packs, is all of the protection circuitry in the clamps? If so, could you use an unprotected lipo with the clamps in substitution for these? I can see that noco puts its protection circuitry in the device rather than the clamps. What do the more name-brand packs do - protection in clamps or protection in pack?
These compact jump starters, while convenient, are so scary! That's why I have a big one, with a sealed lead acid battery. Much safer, and also has a built-in air compressor. Li-Ion batteries just scare the hell out of me, especially in the trunk of my car!
I bet that your better half asked you if your life insurance was valid during your tests? Well presented and informative video on failure's of circuit boards, and batteries. P.S: Lets bring back factories/quality control/workmanship to the U.S.A and Canada.
7 ปีที่แล้ว +3
I was shouting at the screen, asking where your explosion containment device is, when you started taking apart the battery...
The common problem with these units is that everyone leaves them in their vehicle 24/7 including during the summer heat. The extreme temperature in a hot vehicle will always cause a battery to swell up. I have a different brand jump starter that I store in my vehicle and noticed that the battery also swelled up after a couple years.
Jump starting cars with other cars used to be acceptable and quite sufficient. Apparently, people these days are too good for that.
Once the battery is swollen, is it still safe to keep around and use?
@@noodles806 Not safe at all. I'd bring them out the house and/ or car and leave them inside of a BBQ or concrete floor surface just in case they catch fire!!
@@LuisA1Million Appreciate your reply! I ended up chatting with NOCO Support and e-wasted the device that same day.
Noco products are total shit
You know what, I have learnt more about electronics from watching Clive’s awesome videos than in the last 42yrs!!
Snap in twoways I too have learned alot from Clive and am also 42
"I don't want to set fire to my workshop right now."
Is that to say you might want to set fire to it _later_?
uxwbill I thought the same thing.
Once he gets the insurance set up...
uxwbill maybe hes waiting cause a fire one week after setting up the insurance is rly obvious
Yeah .. Don't want to 'spoil us'. It's too soon since the last time.
Well his power supply already caused a fire
When my lithium booster went bad, I took it to bits and poked around - until a 2 foot flame jumped out of the battery. Should have waited on BC's autopsy.
They kinda pretend to be premium, but it's mostly just the price. It's hard to find one of these that isn't under built and over rated.
Same story with Cuisinart brand ever since they were bought out by Conair... at one time quality, now, just garbage in a fancy shell
That's _Con_ air. The clue's in the name. ;-p
Maybe TH-cam is just glitchy but I can't see the reply threads for this comment, even though I posted and I'm pretty sure you're replying to me! I was drunk when I posted that, but I wasn't *that* drunk! Y u no sho? Am I the only one who the comments are failing to load on TH-cam lately?
My GB40 was defective. Traded for a Motomaster Eliminator
My gb 40 and 70 was great but my 150 lasted less than 3 months
Thank you.
I dismantled old electronics at home. My biggest project was an old television.
Vacuum tubes, transformers, capacitors, etc. neatly layed out on newspaper on my bedroom floor. Mom was not always happy with my projects.
If I had done something like that, mine wouldn't be either - and that goes for dad as well!
"Deep down you want me to do it."
Clive, of course we want you to short it out on camera.
no no, i want to see it highly overcharged then shorted out
The instant my brain realized Clive was moving the 2 cables closer together, I distinctly heard a loud "Nooooooooo don't do it !" in my head. I hate my brain sometimes.
madichelp0 "Deep down I don't want to set fire to my workshop... Right now."
So I take that to mean setting fire to his workshop isn't completely off the table.
madichelp0 he knows us so well
tallman11282
This channel is my childhood all over again. I literally took apart anything I could get my hands on. my favorite thing to take apart were VCRs
Some times my friend behaves "very oddly" and I have occasionally thought about taking him to bits to see what his problem is.
Did you ever find out what his problem is? Now I have a friend who needs a few new parts so I was wondering if you ended up parting out your friend for useable spares and if so can I have some?
@@Alexander_l322 I'm glad my wife has no interest in Big Clive. I'd wake up one morning finding my parts up for bid on eBay.
Such a badass...
You might be odd whilst he is actually normal!!!
You might find a lot of spare parts
"Scary, but sort of pleasing in a 'Oh-it-might-go-at-any-moment' kind of way."
I have a GB30 for a few years and because my car is parked outside, this thing has saved me so many times already. It's not cheap for "a battery" but so handy to be back on your way in 2min.
Unless you're the person who leaves too late for everything, a dead car battery will never stop you anymore.
Just realise the car battery is quite similar
Far more electronics inside of that unit than I would have expected... complex unit. When the Li battery goes thermonuclear, it's all over no matter how advanced the circuitry is.
I've added a list of the main components in the unit. It is quite complex.
The optocoupler-like devices are indeed Cosmo 1010 optocouplers.
The battery balancing is dealt with by an 8254AA chip with 4435 MOSFETs.
The LEDs are driven by an Xn2115tp device.
The main processor is a Holtek HT46R06.
The USB output is powered by an MP1584 buck regulator.
The USB charging input is boosted up by an FP6293.
There's a GZ423 (maybe a dual op amp?) and a 3.3V regulator.
bigclivedotcom too much shite.
Lots of points pf failure Id say.
bigclivedotcom how did this happen? it says that your comment was posted three days ago and meanwhile the upload was only six hours ago.
This is because the video is available for preview by Patreon donors before Clive makes it publicly available on TH-cam. We can comment before it is available public.
LakeNipissing ah, thanks a lot! more of a reason to donate.
According to the many electronic reviews of these products, that I've seen; the Noco is one of the worst at over promising it's amperage capability. I gave up trying to find a good one!
I'll just stick with the 12v 50Ah battery I have mainly for my lift. It has two 15 watt solar panels, one on each side of my van to keep it topped off. Or, the 24v (2x12) 50Ah batteries in my wheelchair. Both of which I've used to jump my own, and other people's cars!
PV2Omni I bought one from aukey it has a very large 60 watts high discharge battery with relay
I have had a Schamer tech with USBs, Flashlight, compressor, 12 V outlet for 5 years. It has served me righteously during every power failure (lots here in the sticks) , starts the tractor each week, has started my truck and cars on occasion and has been FLAWLESS. It has some sort of lead acid battery and is heavy but smaller than a bread box. Old tech is great! Heavy but great!
worddunlap are you sure yours is Li-ion? sounds like yours is a lead acid one
Ammar Abotouk . that's what he said it was.
Lauren J. my bad 😉
5:42
I like how you qualify that statement by saying "right now" so as to leave open the possibility of wanting to deliberately set fire to your workbench at a later date.
Sometimes stuff does unexpectedly go on fire.
"Unexpectedly"
+Veraxis --> That's why he has the BigClive™ Explosion Containment Pie Dish® handy at all times. :)
Aleatha Vogel
Excellent use of the ™ and ® symbols
@@bigclivedotcom Don't you mean.......... " _unexpectedly_ " . 😎
That's another old Scottish engineering term 'absolutely blootered'
Absolutely blootered is how old Scottish engineers spend their off time😉
I have one of these units and it does have protection but if you have a complete dead battery, you can put it in in some sort of Manual mode where it allows the full current and circumvents the "brains" that detect if low battery is connected.
The electronics check if you have connected the pack the right way round and won't let it give power until it sees the vehicle battery. If the vehicle battery is so completely dead the pack doesn't detect it you can press the override button and then it gets power - you have to check you connected it right way round!!
I also had a GB30. Sturdy build quality, IP65 rated, and would charge phones for hours. Loved it. Mine failed after a couple years of use. It's lithium battery swelled up so much that it cracked the case open. Must have been a similar failure as this unit. It was out of warranty but NOCO swapped it out with a new GB40 for ~$50. One difference I noticed is that the GB40 has a relay, apparent by the clicking it makes when jumpstarting cars.
insanity54
So the lesson is don't buy the GB30 model? How is your new one doing?
@@mrbmoney2396 I have the gb40. It used to work kinda ok... now it doesn't. Puts out 12v but not enough current to crank. I bought the gb70 this week. So far it works good. Boosted a 5.9l Cummins with it and it fired right up even with intake heater coming on prior to start. In fairness block heater was plugged in and batteries still had some voltage so not a real torture test, but I was surprised, I didn't think it would do it.
"I don't hear any little relay click sounds ...and don't touch or this will be so exciting so quickly. " I love your way of saying things!
You know, I've played with load baring semi conductors in parallel before.
What can happen is, if they aren't all perfectly matched, and there are subtle differences in their impedance in operation, it causes current to flow unevenly across each component. The lower impedance component passes more current and gets over loaded.
Then shit runs away and fails.
Nice thing about Mosfets is that they lend themselves to that though, because they start limiting as they overheat rather than run away, so it tends to self balance in parallel.
Having worked with model helicopters in the past, it totally scares me to know they're putting this kind of battery pack inside consumer electronics in such a way that makes them impossible to visually inspect for damage. If you saw your model pack go puffy, you know to never let it inside your house. This thing is a time bomb waiting to go off.
This was 4 years ago and that noco in particular as he said is an unknown year but noco puts a lot of protection in their starters back when you made this comment they had thermal sensors inside the battery as you saw and multiple other protections but when a starter is outside in a car they will get HOT and seince there isn't a way for them to cool the battery they often end up puffing up from the heat ruining the pack new ones have sensors to not let the pack be used if this ends up being the case where as this older model in the video doesn't have said protection and was still able to preform basic functions in the current model if it determines that the pack has puffed up it will charge to 50% and die or if it's above 50% it won't start a car and will let you charge your phone until it hits 50% which is the most stable percentage for a lipo cell battery
Just watched the Noco GB40 start up 5 very cold and flat automobiles in a car park full of snow. The Subaru took 4 heafty goes, 4 others started up well. All from the pack that fits in your pocket.
The blinking lights at the beginning is normal. When you hit the. ! It overrides protection and gives you full power. I use a gb 150 everyday. Love it.
as others have mentioned, these units are rated higher then they are built. i have a battery maintainer/repair unit from Noco that got lumpy and deformed after its first battery conditioning cycle! it still seems to "work" although i haven't tested it on a scope/meters to see how well, or as advertised (compared to new).
I just bought a NOCO last week. Funny to go back to this video and recognize the design. Apparently they haven't changed the case design in like 4 years.
"Deep down, you want me to do it..."Gotta be honest here... It's not that deep down. It's fairly high up. :D
Right off the top of my head actually
Why am I the only one not wanting him to blow it up, I mean if he set up for it sure but at his bench without any containment. Must be because it reminds me of my dad working at his bench, never wanted him to be zapped.
"Do I really need to be doing this?" I wish I had a dollar for every time I've said that to myself when I've been working on something.
I also quite liked "Scary, but strangely pleasing" when you probed the rather-sus-looking battery packs with your fingertip.
the batterypack is begging to be stabbed. on camera.
Indeed, I was looking forward to the pyrotechnics . BigClive must be loosing his edge passing up the chance for a bang!
First he's gonna need to charge the pack, and then short it! Can't wait for the follow-up ^^
weres the fire pan we need it now lol
It tis, let's take it to bits shall we?
"Relieved"
The suspense when you were pulling on the leads got me on the edge of my seat
OUTCH! Be careful. NEVER push metal tool inside an electronic device, especially one with battery inside. And when removing the shrink around the batteries, you must be extra carefully. I’m glad nothing happened to you.
This is Big Clive.
He tweaks the very nipples of fear.
Thank you for the autopsy!! I have the Noco GB40, it is running good so far to boost many cars.
A mighty fine danger pillow you have there.
That's rather interesting, now it'd be fun to see it "fixed," just to see it blow itself to bits then used.
I was sooo hoping for an accidental short.
And you came pretty close a few times.
I was smiling the whole time :)
I bought the Viking brand battery booster, from Harbor Freight. It worked so well, that I bought a second one. Both of our cars are always armed with a back up, just in case the battery dies. I have a Ford Escape with a bad battery, and I use the booster to start it anytime I need to use it. They are $80 and are rated for 450 amps. That's enough to start a petrol V8 or a small diesel, like the 2.0L four cylinder.
Love your videos Clive... I recently purchased a GB 40 ... instructions said to plug it in an charge .... after only an hour the LEDs indicated it was fully charged. I never used it and when I checked it a month later it only first LED was lit ...I plugged it in and left it plugged in for several hours checking on it every half hour and it never charged😢 Seeing your video I now know there is nothing I can do. Thanks so much for these videos ❤
If it's still under warranty then contact your supplier.
I've heard less than complimentary things about the Noco jump starters. I purchased one from a company called Gooloo and it's been good so far. I've jumped 3 dead cars so far with it.
Interestingly, in the manual for the NOCO Model Genius 3500, it states "Do not operate outside the normal operating temperature of 0 C to 40 C" They are available all across Canada and where we live it goes down to -25 C every year. NOCO were not very useful when I pointed this out to them.
Wow. I work at a battery store and we sell the Noco brand jump packs, but not the GB30, only the GB20, GB40 and one of the bigger ones. Interestingly enough a customer brought in a GB30 to be diagnosed and it had this exact same issue. Probably why we don't sell them anymore, the GB20 must've been the replacement.
Stumbled on your videos and enjoy watching. I decided to chime in on this one, since I recently purchased their (Noco) GB150. For the last few years I've been taking my XR650R dirt bike to Death Valley and usually I am miles away from civilization camping and alone. It never dawned on me that I may need a jump, and the lightbulb in my tiny head went off. You need a means of rescue! Long story short.... I bought the unit before my last trip and stopped before I went to a friends house. I actually jump started my friends Diesel. To be honest we were both skeptical. It cranked the engine over with ease. I have had other cheap models that wouldn't even start my car, and actually went up in smoke. Scary feeling. AND YES I DID WANT TO SEE YOU SHORT IT OUT. Cheers!
A great man once said, "I ain't avvin it. I want flames !".
Dan Harris Where's my hammer?!
Dan Harris your not on about photonic inductions are you?
Haven't seen much from Photon for some time. Anyone know if he's OK?
Dan Harris oi oi fuckin photonic induction legend
i popppedd ittt
yeah...., so let's take it to bits....
Yes, this is why we subscribe
TheChipmunk2008
Grappenhall
I just came across your 6 year old video. I use a Noco 2 amp charger to keep a small battery charged for our house alarm backup. It is only 1 1/2 years old and failed last week for no apparent reason. Here is the thing; I can't even remove the screws to open it. They are not cross head or slotted. They are a 3- fluted head. I have never seen a company go to such lengths to keep prying eyes away from their secret stuff. I suspect a failed mosfet . I will not buy another Noco devise, as their marketing is over-hype for what you get for your money. I may box and send it to you for your channel if you like. You make wonderfully informative videos'.
GB40 worked great the first two times I used it and now it is DEAD. Stuck at 25% charge infinity I cannot use it anymore and it is still new.
Buyer beware, the Noco Genius Boost units have problems.
There are a lot of people on Amazon reviews also having problems with theirs.
Travis In Canada -yup, you are right on. They should seriously change their jump packs names to- NOGO
I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!
My experience is quite the opposite. Bought GB40 off Amazon.ca and have been using it for about three years now, multiple jump starts (mostly for stragglers on the road, but once for my car), also using it extensively as a powerbank. It just keeps working.
Had same issue, solved it by pressing all 3 buttons together until lights flashed. This seems to do a reset and the unit now charges properly.
Considering it's size, I was a little surprised at what the manufactures web site shows it cost, in USA dollars $249.95. Like another person commented, I don't think I'll be buying one of these any time soon. Thanks for doing all of the different reviews.
Yeah exactly, at that point it's time to grab a spare lead acid battery and trunk it
Have been using GB40 for a while now, giving boosts to some stragglers on the road and jump starting my car once. No issues. I'm surprised they don't use the standard 18650 cells, though.
Shorting out was an accident waiting to happen,but of course you are too smart for that too happen, but you did tease us a bit.
Nice diagnosis thanks.
So, after looking up the datasheet for those mosfets, I'm going to assume someone either put the cables on backwards (which should've blown the diodes instead of the mosfets) or there was a huge power surge. I say that because the maximum rated current in the package is 75A per mosfet. So 225A total. On a bare mosfet, the maximum rated current is 130A. Those are designed to take a beating, but dang
Just received my gb40 last week, worked perfectly.
I'm so glad to see Clive back today after eating that cheese yesterday.
HB45175
Choke it down with some hard liquor and you're golden.
He's a big boy.
radry100 for you?
he's our good good cheese boy.
I'm glad to finally visit your channel. I enjoy taking things apart as well! Looking forward to catching up on your videos!
Welcome. Taking stuff apart is pretty much all that happens on this channel. (It does usually get put back together again afterwards.)
For some reason I thought these had large capacitors, used to offer the enormous 160A/12V pulse of current for 20 seconds needed to start a car battery. Not so, at all.
There is a version that does that.
"Deep down you want me to do it." looooooool, was thinking the whole time before you said that... "Wonder what that would look like...."
Got got one of these from Amazon.ca. It was pretty much the same case as this. The flashlight and power bank functions worked but it wasn't even able to start my lawn tractor. Absolute junk. I returned it.
The unit sacrificed itself in order to protect from the battery pack igniting. How very noble of it.
God forbid they design it to actually have its battery pack replaced. That would cause unemployment.
I have a Gb40 1000amp and love it. These are handy lil units...
I'd be interested in seeing a tear down of one of the new "batteryless" jump packs (e.g., Autowit) which use the dead car battery as the source of power to start the car. I assume there is some sort of jewel thief circuit to extract energy from the battery which then charges a supercap which provides the boost to start the car. The obvious advantage is there is no battery in the jump pack which has to be charged in advance. Seems like a bit of technical magic.
@4:40 You have taped the red so it wont short but do naff all to the black so it wont short to the underside of the board where there is...... lots of red.
These Noco are short and reverse polarity protected so you didn't have to worry about leads touching together I own one and like it alot !
Outside of the device, yes there's protections if not enabling force mode, but when he opened it, there were two battery leads that were bare and not knowing of the switches malfunctioned in the on or off position, better to be safe than sorry 😬
Yet another manufacturer whose designers have been taking the "too clever" pills again. I DID actually think of buying one of these, but luckily my garage doesn't have any mains power run in. Loved the very Scottish technical term, "blootered" is a highly descripitive word. All the best for 2021, keep your entertaining videos coming!
Although they're bulky & heavy, you're still better off with the lead / acid jumper packs for reliability.
I have the 50 for my BMW X5 3.0d and it's fantastic. I first bought a gooloo that was supposed to be a lot higher rated claiming to start diesels up to 8.5l but it didn't work. I replaced it with the noco gb50 and it started it instantly 👍👍👍
Have you tried replacing the FETS and seeing if the unit can be resurrected? New cells are fairly cheap so it need not be an expensive project.
My GB70 battery swelled up so much it split the case apart. It was about 3 years old, but had only been used a few times. Charged it about every 3 months. Last time it would not charge, so I left it on longer. A day later it lined like a bloated tick.
Nothing beats the traditional JNC660 peak 1700ampe junp starter super reliable and always works that's why it's #1 chosen by many automotive and diesel truck shops, these bull shit lithium tiny jump starters may be good for tiny motorcycle batteries but that's about it
Dumb comment. Its clearly not made for motorcycles only since a lot of people made positive reviews of starting so many stranded cars with all sort of engines. Give me your JNC660 and let me treat it how the owner of this “tiny” jumpstarter treated it, I guarantee I can fry it in same way. You’re clueless yet you like to post negative comments about a product you probably never used before.
My car salesman mate has just purchased his third Noco in 2 years,both previous just stopped working in the same manner as this one.the second of those was quite cooked inside.
Thanks for an interesting insight but Gosh...... That Was Close...... Literally!!!
Was I the only one holding their breath when you were disconnecting those leads?
It looks to me like the larger GBs are the better bet.
However, I may be wrong but I suspect that some GB Owners are not reading (who does?) and fully understanding the User Guide regarding the 'Manual Overide' button, in that when it is pressed, the 'Safety Protection' features are disabled, the leads become live and incorrect connection or shorting can result in....... Well....... Failure Autopsy ;)
I have 2 GB70 and 1 GB40 ,both GB70 are over 2 years old and work great. Just got the GB40 ,less power but hasn’t had any problems yet. Great products.
All these problems...mine has always worked.
I'm guessing that since the mosfets were open it wouldn't have been spectacular if you had shorted the two output wires...
These are premium packaging only. Check out the Project Farm channel's test of jump starters. This one failed pretty badly. Not the worst, but not great.
I'm glad I didn't go with a noco. I got a different brand and it's worked well for me. Jumped my SUV like 10 times and the battery is still nearly 100%
I had a small one accident fell in my cup with liquid. Didn't work after. Then I bought a combo unit with tire pump. Won't easily fall into anything I still got that one it's good can be charge with USB and my tool battery will charge it up with adapter. I'm happy with it.
I just purchased on of these for myself. They should last about three years. There seem to be lithium polymer, the same type of batteries used in my RC Planes. The only catch with these types of batteries, you should not keep the fully charged as it puts a lot of wear on the batteries . Lithium batteries should be kept at 50% charge when in storage, which is not ideal for this application. That being said the do produce a lot of Amps and are very light.
Back to the problem with this pack. I see a lot of people plugging them directly to their Positive and Negative terminals on their vehical directly and bypassing their car battery all together. This will work in a pinch however once the vehicle starts it will try to charge the battery which is not there and that when it will fry the Battery Booster. This could also could occur if you forget to disconnect the booster once the car starts.
One of the selling features of NOCO is that you can not shorten out the leads, or so they say, so i would have liked you to touch those two wires together and see how they are protected. I found your video because my NOCO stopped working or at least it will not boost my boat motor. In the beginning when it was new i was able to boost a full size van with dead battery with a 6lt engine. but now it just left me stranded with my outboard motor.
Wanted to take mine apart but it has screw heads with a triangle never seen these before and I have a lot of screw driver tips.
Mr. Clive those MOSFETs are AOT460, I recognized them since I use them in products the company I work for make. It's a 60V FET.
Those dangling copper ends of the battery gave me instant shivers. How exciting!
Having accidentally shorted out a big 12S LiPo pack, I totally recommend insulating everything at all times and in every conceivable way.
I just bought one of these and the more i look into it, I find people saying not to leave them inside a hot car in the heat, as it will cause the batteries to vent and expand breaking the case.
Yes, we do want you to do it. Each time you say "let's cover it to avoid explosion" my excitement level goes down.
so awesome looking up a product and finding a disassembly and autopsy from someone you're already subscribed to 8)
On some jump-starters the diodes are actually located in the cables.
I'm wondering if it is generally a bad design to have mosfets in parallel. Typically one fet can handle a current spike at least twice its rating for continuous current, for some number of milliseconds. Maybe if only one turned on, and the other(s) had a longer than expected delay, it could cause a cascading fet failure. Is that likely to happen?
It's perfectly normal to use FET's in parallel but when there's a problem, they all blow up together.
I Love your videos but would like to see you repair stuff like this too
It seems that no amount of smart/clever circuitry can stop those type of devices popping there clogs.
I've seen no end of automatic "smart" chargers become useless over a short time, they just don't cut the mustard.
AvE did a BOLTR of one of these
and gave it quite a slagging off, I think
he's taken the video down now,
NOCO was definitely a NOGO.
I bought 1 of these when they first came out, used it once or twice and then it stopped working. I was transporting at the time so I ended up around the corner from their factory/office. I brought it to them and they "fixed" it. It worked one time after that and never again.
You and AvE are my favorite TH-cam's
I'll second that.
We need a club then starting with us three👌
Brandon Cornett er we few (four)... we happy band of luddites kek
OKami Kuma..... Skookum as frig idea
AvE also had a vid about the noco.
It's total garbage!
Sorry for commenting before watching the video;
Wanted to share that NOCO 's customer support explicitly denies the content of their manual for their G3500 (6V/12V lead acid) with respect to low-voltage recovery.
I'll have to see if I can find it - but the manual says that if it cannot charge a depleted battery at 12V, then hook it *parallel to another charger* or power-supply and use the 6V setting first. (Not that this did work- the safety-cutout would trigger without a parallel charger/wallwart, but it wouldn't actually charge with one.)
When asked if it would be valid to use the 12V setting on a depleted 24V battery in a similar manner to how the manual says to use it set to 6V for a depleted 12V battery, they yelled and screamed that the manual and website (at the time) did not say what I was reading and quoting page-and-printing numbers for.
I'll still use it auto-shut-off to top off batteries from a storage charge, but I would have been better off building my own charger from scratch since I had bought it for the depleted/recovery charge mode in the advertising materials displayed at the store (at the time) when I bought it.
Using the booster mode in direct and accidentally reverse connecting the battery to boost will blow out the booster unit and do the damage shown. Also can cause the battery to swell up from over current. In direct mode, shorting the output will also do damage to the unit.
Apparently, I was told NOCO will service their products as long as it was not damaged by improper use.
Did you say the USB charger part still works? Could put some smaller cells in just to restore power bank functionality. Or flashlight.
In the chinese packs, is all of the protection circuitry in the clamps? If so, could you use an unprotected lipo with the clamps in substitution for these? I can see that noco puts its protection circuitry in the device rather than the clamps. What do the more name-brand packs do - protection in clamps or protection in pack?
Everyone congratulate BigClive™ on reaching 270k subs! Hurray! :)
Oooh...that's a bit scary but also pleasing in a "it might go at any moment kind of way"
So let's poke it...
These compact jump starters, while convenient, are so scary!
That's why I have a big one, with a sealed lead acid battery.
Much safer, and also has a built-in air compressor.
Li-Ion batteries just scare the hell out of me, especially in the trunk of my car!
Amateur question here: How he did not close circuit with his hand when he touched both leads in same time? Around 3:20
Low voltage is not a shock risk as it can't push enough current through your body to be harmful.
bigclivedotcom Thank you very much on reply! :)
Was there any heat sinking on the MOSFET bank? Also would it have been wise to add a PTC thermistor to the current in put side?
I bet that your better half asked you if your life insurance was valid during your tests?
Well presented and informative video on failure's of circuit boards, and batteries.
P.S: Lets bring back factories/quality control/workmanship to the U.S.A and Canada.
I was shouting at the screen, asking where your explosion containment device is, when you started taking apart the battery...
I don't recognise that screwdriwer... My life is falling apart
Gave me a laugh. Thanks Carl!
Carl Holm
I noticed it too and wondered when he got it.... I think we all watch too much Clive.
I'm glad to help, and fortunately my anxiety seems to have simmered down today!
It's ok, it's ok, look, the spudger is the old familiar one...
+tin2001 --> Hmm, is there really such a thing as "too much Clive?" ;)
Thank you very much for the autopsy, Doctor Quincy....ah I mean bigclivedotcom