Review of two different USB mobile power banks - white 4-cell with 3-digit 7-segment LED display and black 6-cell with 5 LED display. Both have 2x USB sockets, a 1A socket and a 2A socket. Both have a 4mm multi voltage output jack. The white unit can provide between 5v and 13v in steps of 0.5v and the black unit supplies 3.7v, 5v, 9v and 12v.
http://www.fasttech.com/reviews/1341401/2949
http://r.ebay.com/SAdtvZ
http://r.ebay.com/sALvJG
http://www.fasttech.com/reviews/1341401/2949
http://r.ebay.com/SAdtvZ
http://r.ebay.com/sALvJG
you have commited a sin using ultrafire battery
Thanks for this. Without a manual, I was really confused about the on/off switch. So, on is off and off is on :-). Has anybody ever found an English manual?
Charge doctor 7 volt Max I think when you switch voltage it's out of range I think the power is still there
I think I'll buy one of these for my Ex-wife! 🙂
Afterthought, the biggest reason to get one of these is they are a charger power bank. You can bring as many charged 18650 batteries with you as you need enabling you to charge far more times than any ordinary power bank. With the ordinary power bank you are limited to whatever the capacity of that unit is and no further phone or camera charging is possible until you get to a 110 v. or 220 v.charging source. This is invaluable if you are away from civilization for extended periods of time and need power.
Since my last post I have been using the larger unit and am very happy with it. The other sealed banks are basically a through away when the batteries go dead but this baby can charge numerable batteries that are easily changed. I use it for charging my camera batteries in the jungles of Thailand and would be lost without it. I can swap out a set of batteries and get twice or however many sets I need. I got used to it easily but the charge dr. is a good tool. Thanks for the vid you do a very through job.
I like your videos, but wish you would close your curtains. Miss much because of to much light on leds.
I bought that black 6 cell unit, and I physically can't put 6 cells in it. Any more than 4 and the entire negative end spring rail jumps out of the case. Very annoying.
I am trying to find and get one of the 4 cell packs I have tried Ynaan/Fasttech and do not seem to be able to get one…Joe
Since we have you to explain for us the user interface problem solved, easily understandable. Al that was missing was a English manual actually a lot of that stuff was covered on the amazon site dont know about a manual…
on off on off, find the off… look well… on off on off all bets are in! LOL brilliant.
First of all, great video and thank you for taking the time to look a bit closer at these particular kinds of units. I have a question though. Are these balanced chargers? looking at the circuitry it does not look like they are, however I would obviously need a closer look to see for sure. I have a project in mind for these type's of units however I'm concerned with making sure the charging is balanced so that my 18650 cells last longer.
Just bought the one like the black which read model no QD186 – not to be confused with QD186-VAX which is a totally different model. I got some apparently quite good very lightly used laptop batteries from my work which found no use and thought why not buy some more "DIY" power banks and put those cells to some use. As with it's VAX sibling it seems very nice. Perhaps even better in some regards. Drawing 3 amps from it doesn't heat it up outrageous and it seems very stable supplying either 12 or 5-5.5 volt. I have a 12v home build headphone amplifier with a 12.000 µF capacitor bank. Feeding it from a USB->12v booster cable most power banks even think they got a short and some needs to get a right start. Even the QD186-VAX gets quite a voltage sag even though it can deliver beyond 3 amps. The black (like yours) however seems no to bother and the power on "thump" from the amplifier is indistinguishable from a powerful mains power supply. No noticeable sagging. Haven't got a scope to nit pick but just playing around a little it seems very stable. Guess the large inductor plays a part. Most power banks use tiny SMD mounted inductors which I guess have quite high resistance. Here's a large beefy one.
The UI might be a bit odd but I don't think it's that bad except for misleading labeling on the auto power off (you can always turn off manually). Perhaps they've fixed the odd 3.7v thing as it seems quite consistent on mine. Off = 3.7 v "directly" from the cells and from DC plug only. If only they've made the circuit board narrower to fit width case with the cells. That's the most severe thing I have on it as it wastes quite a bit of space. Shorter board sure but IMHO some times it's better to make better performing electronics instead of ultimate miniaturization with better performance and heat tolerance as result.
Oh sure you get a feeling for which "DIY" power banks are good quality and which are lemons. So far these "tese" seems very good quality as is "Ruinovo" (mostly Ruinovo goes unbranded but says Ruinovo on PCB). Soshine somewhat lower but not completely junk. A few so so with digital display and then a load of crap. Not always is crap priced cheaply but mostly. With time you get an eye for it. Just looking at the circuit board you can with quite an accuracy pinpoint which are winners and which are lemons. But hey even among ready to use power banks many are junk – even those which appear to be great quality on the outside and not "no names".
Despite their flaws I think the electronic itself looks as above average quality. Large proper inductors, something about the PCB quality just looks better than average. Guess efficiency is better than average and despite flacky user interface that's probably one of the most important properties of a power bank. What's the point of a large capacity if it's using a bad efficiency boost circuit?
I've had quite a few replaceable "DIY" 18650 power banks and so far only two have a really good quality and then some with medium quality and a whole bunch of crap. Especially a Ruinovo and a "TEZE" (same logo as yours) QD186-VAX stands out from the crowd. All others I've tried all struggles above 1 amp delivery (despite being rated 2) and gets very hot above 1 amp. Some requires custom soldering in the battery compartment as the thin spring wire connecting negatives have way too much voltage drop. While the casing of the Ruinovo is nice aluminium the QD186 has the best electronics. Showing voltage, amps and mAh – both when charging and discharging as well as a percentage. It too needs to be first fully discharged then fully charged to give most accurate readings (how else is it''s supposed to know battery capacity and remaining?). Even seems to keep track of capacity in off mode as it as all other power banks draws a very little current as there's no physical off switch. Write down remaining mAh wait a day or so and read remaining mAh and noticed it has dropped a little. Seems like very good quality electronics. Even charges with 3-3.4 amp so it's quite fast compared to most other power banks which only draws one amp when charging – which would take an eternity with 6x 3400 mAh cells on board. With 3 amps it can be just about fully charged over night from completely empty. While the Ruinovo begins struggling at about 2-2.5 amps the QD186 happily delivers 4 amps without too much trouble (although gives noticeably more heat than at 3 amps).
So take a look QD186 too. It's highly recommenced. A true wonder for everyone who needs a powerful power bank and likes to know the capacity of their cells and remaining charge with reasonable capacity. Even lets you estimate health of cells – when full capacity falls too low below nominal capacity you know cell health is declining and recommended to be replaced.