I normally buy my USB power banks online from China, but I saw this one in TK Maxx and bought it to take apart and see how easy it was to open and whether there was a decent battery inside.
It's VERY tight inside to say the least. The battery and the thin wire that runs up its side are a tight friction fit in the tube, and the length is absolutely on the limit for the 18650 style lithium cell and the PCB. It was quite scary to take apart and reassemble due to the existing factory damage to the heatshrink on the cell and the vicinity of the PCB to the side of the case that is almost certainly in electrical contact with the negative terminal of the battery.
It's VERY tight inside to say the least. The battery and the thin wire that runs up its side are a tight friction fit in the tube, and the length is absolutely on the limit for the 18650 style lithium cell and the PCB. It was quite scary to take apart and reassemble due to the existing factory damage to the heatshrink on the cell and the vicinity of the PCB to the side of the case that is almost certainly in electrical contact with the negative terminal of the battery.
We have a store here called "Ollies" which sells discount products. This very same appearance tube light with logo "Justin" in a box labeled 2600 mAh and was only $1.99. I bought half a dozen of them and tested the capacity of each. The average test result across the 6 samples was 1623 mAh at 4.84 V which tells me the capacity is accurate. I'll have to see if they are depending on the anodizing is being used as an insulator or if they added the correct isolation on mine. Haven't torn into any of them yet.
Ooh that looks like a pretty efficient pipe bomb
I have one that uses a flat insulated niquel? strip instead of the cable.
How to pronounce solder?
Sodder?
Or
Soleder?
i use the first one.
Lithium battery in a cylinder with a short = Samsung bomb
Get your iBomb while they last!
Nice pipe bomb you got there 😉
I got two of those exact ones (same Body, Color, PCB looks the same, Printing looks similar) from Mercedes. One died/holds almost no charge (undersdischarged by seepage to death probably), one is ok, though low capacity. Really horribly low quality I think, but the WORST THING is that it unscrews so easily. Having your kids short a Li-Battery because they are curious as most of us were back then is just horrible. especially because the cell itself has no DW01 or anything.
Thought about using the PCB to make a Pokeball-Powerbank, but decided not to.
Funny enough I already had one of the generic ones you also showed. It said 12800 (no typo, at least not by me). It had super skinny battery wires, later unsoldered itself from the tiny tiny freckle of solder that originally connected it to the PCB. At least ended up being my first solder-repair of anything.
I got a couple of free battery banks from a cable company promotion and while they aren't super tight in the aluminum shell I'm still not so sure about the quality of them since they have absolutely no branding or info on where the cell comes from.
I would be interested in what you think of TS100 (TS-100) STM32 Soldering Iron station
I've got 2 of the pieces of crap. 1000mah output maybe 1200mah if your lucky generally only get 800mah out of it if not fresh off the charge
CLIIIVVEEEE!! +bigclivedotcom I bought three of these and they seem to be using tabs now instead of wires so they arent annoyingly tight. BUT! They have a neat "feature" where the shells can be screwed end to end and if you are good enough with bodge-wiring, you can attach cells end to end in parallel to make one long powerbank. I have a three cell pink one. It looks very inappropriate. I highly suggest making one.
I got some very similar to these on eBay, as DIY kits (supply your own battery). The difference is that the battery and PCB are carried in a plastic half-tube, which provides greater protection against shorting. The power bank must be fractionally larger diameter to accommodate the plastic sleeve, but it's still a tight fit.
I've found that the best way to get quality 18650 cells is from laptop battery packs. When the packs die and are recycled, it's often just 1 or 2 cells that are bad. I get loads of battery packs for free from the IT support group at work.
Nice Teardown Clive. Nick.
Hey Clive I have a similar model to this, do you mind commenting on whether this has undervolt protection built in or not? Maybe a video on what to look for would be nice too.
these are sold in Wal-Mart here in America, tighter fit than you have there. had to use a screwdriver from the backside to push it out.
oh god I have the exact same charger that my school gave away after selling a certain number of magazines – I know why now.