Manufacturers of smartphones, tablets, players and other mobile devices, spurring demand, constantly offer new models, reporting on improved technical characteristics and longer battery life of their products. In parallel, specialized Internet resources contain on their pages a lot of recommendations for optimizing the energy consumption of gadgets. Moreover, every owner of a portable device has almost certainly faced a situation in which he had to sit next to a power outlet, feeding his electronic friend and assistant. In other words, a relatively fast discharge problem exists and needs to be addressed.
Portable battery
If, while at home, you can still put the gadget on charge from the mains, then at the workplace it can be problematic. And it's completely impossible to travel. The solution was found - it was the Power Bank battery.
This device is essentially a battery in its own case withUSB and mini-USB connectors, although recently there have been options with an additional Type-C socket. The first output is used to connect the gadget's charging wire, and the second one is used to compensate for the spent capacity. The undoubted advantage is small dimensions. For example, the iPhone Power Bank can be so compact that it can easily fit even in your pocket.
Playing roulette
What could be easier than buying some gadget accessory? Now it is enough to make just two or three mouse clicks, and the Power Bank will be sent by plane directly from distant China.
And given that, as a rule, sellers have such fabulous characteristics in the product description, then there is no doubt about a successful purchase. For example, with a capacity of 10, 20 and fantastic 50 A, you will not surprise anyone - this is, so to speak, the norm. Although the reality is that the declared and actual parameters are two big differences. Of course, not always, but quite often. That is why in this article we will look at how to check the Power Bank. There will be two ways, one is to be used before purchase and the other is to be used after.
Power supply
As already mentioned, one or more batteries are placed inside the case of a portable charger. Most often, these are sources of size 18650. For those to whom the name does not mean anything, we can advise you to imagine an enlarged AA battery. This is a cylinder with dimensions of 66x18 mm. They are produced by large companies (Samsung,LG, Panasonic, Sanyo) and very little known.
There is usually a relationship between renown and quality. The most important characteristic of a battery is its electrical capacity, i.e. the amount of stored electricity. The higher it is, the more the battery weighs, due to the increased density of chemical elements inside. So, usually a mass of 45-50 g corresponds to 3-3.5 A of capacity.
Significant purchase
Actually, the description of 18650 just allows you to answer the question of how to check the Power Bank. Since the dimensions of the entire case and a single power source are known, it is not difficult to determine how many batteries will fit inside. And knowing the mass of each of them, get the final weight and compare it with the declared one. For example, there are many low-cost portable power supplies on the market, with a declared capacity of 50,000 mA, dimensions of 170x80x25 mm and a mass of 300 g. That is, it is obvious that six batteries are placed inside at best (based on weight). The total capacity is 63500mA=21000mA. Even such an approximate calculation shows that 50 A does not work out in any way. Subtracting the weight of the hull and auxiliaries only exacerbates the picture. Moreover, it is completely unprincipled whether it will be a Power Bank for the IPhone or devices running the Android system. Moreover, high-quality batteries are not necessarily installed inside such a Power Bank. Inexpensive varieties have less capacity, which can easily end up with a "honest" 8000-10000 mA.
For absolutelyrough calculations, you can use the formula according to which each 5 A corresponds to 100 g of weight.
USB Tester
Unfortunately, the above method, despite its obviousness, with each new generation of portable chargers gives less and less accurate results. The reason for this is that some manufacturers have begun to deliberately make the product heavier, bringing its mass to the required values.
How to check the Power Bank in this case? Pretty simple, but its peculiarity is that, firstly, the device itself must be "on hand", and, secondly, you will need a special USB tester. In other words, the method is suitable for checking an already purchased source.
Now you can easily purchase an inexpensive device for such measurements, which is a box the size of a USB flash drive, equipped with USB inputs ("father" and "mother"), as well as a small display showing the amount of voltage consumed during charging current, capacity and some other characteristics.
Usually, there are no problems with how to check the Power Bank using a USB tester: the measuring device is connected to the bus connector on the body of the portable charger, and the wire to the gadget being charged is already leaving it. For Apple products with a Lightning connector, for others - micro-USB or Type-C. It remains only to observe the indications on the display. Let's give an example: Power Bank was able to charge a smartphone 2 times, after which it turned off. The display showed 6000 mA. So the total battery capacityis slightly more than the value obtained.
Perhaps the next step is to explain how to charge the Power Bank. In fact, there is nothing complicated: the power cord from charging the gadget (smartphone, tablet, e-book) is connected to the device. The internal controller will automatically stop the process when the "ceiling" is reached.
Note that there is an alternative way to measure capacitance. It consists in the fact that the tester is connected to the USB connector of a computer or charger with the appropriate connector, and a wire goes from it to the Power Bank. In this case, not issued, but consumed capacity will be shown.
New on the market
Recently, some first-tier manufacturers have begun to offer Power Banks that use polymer or ion batteries instead of 18650. Usually the cost of such solutions is relatively high. Approximate capacity check through weight and dimensions is not applicable.
