What battery pack?

[RobW]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.

Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend?

The Anker Astro 3E seems to get good feedback on Amazon, but concerned if it's really tough enough to bounce around on a bike for long periods. Also, maybe with the dyno charge-up option I can get away with a lower capacity and lighter unit.

Cheers for any tips.

- Rob

[Chris S]

Make sure you get one that takes a micro/mini USB input. Some use a smaller jack-plug that means you can only charge them from the mains with the wallwart they come with - so no use for dyno-charging.

I have the Teck Net 5000mAh, which does two charges of my Samsung III, and charges fine off an e-werk or Axa light.

[RobW]

Cool - cheers Chris, will look at that one. Did wonder if 10000maH might be overkill.
I'm a bit nervous of a light/dyno failure, and was thinking a beefier pack would give me more reserves to charge my backup Lezyne light. But I'm probably being too paranoid on backup systems there.

[RobW]

Ah - remembered another query I had on these packs.
Do any of them allow you to charge devices, whilst the pack is itself receiving power to be charged? i.e. during the day, can you have leads out to your phone or whatever needs charging, but also an input lead from the dynamo to keep the pack topped up. Or does that just not make sense?

[Chris S]

Boab has the 12Ah version, which charges lots of things lots of times, but can only be recharged from the mains.

Also, neither will charge and discharge at the same time. I thought for a long time that mine did, but on further testing, it would appear not.

ETA - In practice, this limitation has never bothered me.

[RobW]

Boab has the 12Ah version, which charges lots of things lots of times, but can only be recharged from the mains.

Also, neither will charge and discharge at the same time. I thought for a long time that mine did, but on further testing, it would appear not.

Ok, cool. Figured that charge/discharge was expecting too much. I can work around that - just hook devices direct to dynamo when the pack is full if I really have a need to top them up. I see Teknet do a 7,000mah version which looks pretty good.

Will definitely go USB input charging though - don't want to rely on finding/waiting for mains charging and en route.

[L CC]

Boab has the 12Ah version, which charges lots of things lots of times, but can only be recharged from the mains.

Also, neither will charge and discharge at the same time. I thought for a long time that mine did, but on further testing, it would appear not.

ETA - In practice, this limitation has never bothered me.

Mine charges and discharges at the same time, but as it only charges from the mains, that's not really relevant on a bike.
No2Son's (I think a 7000) also charges & discharges at the same time. His is a newer version of Chris's, and usefully, has micro-usb in so you only need to take one cable if you're using it just for phone charging.

[RobW]

Boab has the 12Ah version, which charges lots of things lots of times, but can only be recharged from the mains.

Also, neither will charge and discharge at the same time. I thought for a long time that mine did, but on further testing, it would appear not.

ETA - In practice, this limitation has never bothered me.

Mine charges and discharges at the same time, but as it only charges from the mains, that's not really relevant on a bike.
No2Son's (I think a 7000) also charges & discharges at the same time. His is a newer version of Chris's, and usefully, has micro-usb in so you only need to take one cable if you're using it just for phone charging.

Ah cool - thanks for the extra info Boab

[huggy]

I have recently purchased one of these Mobile Juice Pack 9000 for £24.99 (they also come in 12Ah model for more beer tokens).  It ticks the box for charge from micro-USB socket; although I haven't actually tried charging the battery pack whilst using it to charge a device but I don't see anything in the spec or instructions to say that it can't do that.  Importantly the spec does say that it regulates its own charging and can't be over charged.  It comes with a myriad of connectors and a powerful onboard LED light for that night time searching of bags for the snack you just know is in there somewhere.
As I am sans dynamo I bought this 9Ah pack to power my GPS and do an emergency phone charge whilst out on long audax rides and I'm currently running it to see how long it will actually power my Edge 705, so far it is doing very well and I'm happy with it.  It is a little on the large size physically being about the size of an iPhone with a bit more depth, but it sits in my seatpost bag okay.
All in all I'd recommend it for everything it says on the tin!

[Chris S]

Given a large enough capacity cache battery, the ability to charge it on the bike becomes moot for anything but the longest, or remotest tours. I doubt you'd get objections to plugging in a charger in a pub, some audax controls (unless there is an event policy, as there may well be for LEL), or your sleep stop travelodge.

[huggy]

Given a large enough capacity cache battery, the ability to charge it on the bike becomes moot for anything but the longest, or remotest tours. I doubt you'd get objections to plugging in a charger in a pub, some audax controls (unless there is an event policy, as there may well be for LEL), or your sleep stop travelodge.

Indeed, I'm expecting my battery pack to get me round a 600k ride on a single charge.
I found that I needed this extra capacity after my 2300mAh Powermonkey ran out of juice on a 400k ride and my Edge 705 barely made it to the end using its own power.

[Laid Back Rich]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.  Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend? 

please pardon my ignorance but why do you need an aux battery pack?  can you not simply use dynamo to power light at night and recharge garmin/phone (using e-werk or similar) during the day?

[L CC]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.  Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend? 

please pardon my ignorance but why do you need an aux battery pack?  can you not simply use dynamo to power light at night and recharge garmin/phone (using e-werk or similar) during the day?

The irregularity of current/voltage supply (I don't really undersatnd electrickery, Kim doubtless will clarify) means that I would always rather be charging a battery than any more valuable device.

[stevevw]

Do you need a cache battery with the dynamo? I have on my new bike a electronic gizmo that was built by Jose of Paulus Quiros. The electronics fit inside the steerer tube and there is a output on the stem where you can plug in various leads to charge phone, Garmin or whatever you want. So far I have used it on a 150 mile ride which started in the dark. The Garmin was not charged before the ride had maybe 20% left in it and by the time I got home it was fully charged and had obviously been navigating with the back light on all the time. While riding in the dark with both front and rear lights on and the Garmin navigating I disconnected the Garmin to see if it was effecting the lights, it was not. The only down side is when you slow to below 3kmh or stop you get beeps from the Garmin saying remote power lost. Also charges my S11 with no drama. I was sceptical that the dynamo would have enough power for charge and light but happily all seems to work fine.

[Chris S]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.  Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend? 

please pardon my ignorance but why do you need an aux battery pack?  can you not simply use dynamo to power light at night and recharge garmin/phone (using e-werk or similar) during the day?

The irregularity of current/voltage supply (I don't really undersatnd electrickery, Kim doubtless will clarify) means that I would always rather be charging a battery than any more valuable device.

And if something goes wrong with regulatory electrickery, I'd rather blow up a £20 cache battery than a £400 iPhone 

[marcusjb]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.  Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend? 

please pardon my ignorance but why do you need an aux battery pack?  can you not simply use dynamo to power light at night and recharge garmin/phone (using e-werk or similar) during the day?

The irregularity of current/voltage supply (I don't really undersatnd electrickery, Kim doubtless will clarify) means that I would always rather be charging a battery than any more valuable device.

And if something goes wrong with regulatory electrickery, I'd rather blow up a £20 cache battery than a £400 iPhone 

Basically that is my thinking as well.  iPhones and Garmins are megabucks - I don't have enough faith in the E-Werk to not kill them, so charge a battery pack and then use that to charge the phone/Garmin.

[stevevw]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.  Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend? 

please pardon my ignorance but why do you need an aux battery pack?  can you not simply use dynamo to power light at night and recharge garmin/phone (using e-werk or similar) during the day?

The irregularity of current/voltage supply (I don't really undersatnd electrickery, Kim doubtless will clarify) means that I would always rather be charging a battery than any more valuable device.

And if something goes wrong with regulatory electrickery, I'd rather blow up a £20 cache battery than a £400 iPhone 

Basically that is my thinking as well.  iPhones and Garmins are megabucks - I don't have enough faith in the E-Werk to not kill them, so charge a battery pack and then use that to charge the phone/Garmin.

What about the regulator in the battery packs? You not worried this may fail and put the full pack 7.4 volts through to your device?

[marcusjb]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.  Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend? 

please pardon my ignorance but why do you need an aux battery pack?  can you not simply use dynamo to power light at night and recharge garmin/phone (using e-werk or similar) during the day?

The irregularity of current/voltage supply (I don't really undersatnd electrickery, Kim doubtless will clarify) means that I would always rather be charging a battery than any more valuable device.

And if something goes wrong with regulatory electrickery, I'd rather blow up a £20 cache battery than a £400 iPhone 

Basically that is my thinking as well.  iPhones and Garmins are megabucks - I don't have enough faith in the E-Werk to not kill them, so charge a battery pack and then use that to charge the phone/Garmin.

What about the regulator in the battery packs? You not worried this may fail and put the full pack 7.4 volts through to your device?

Maybe it will.  Hasn't happened so far.  Something in the wall-wart I use to charge my phone my fail and I get 230V through the thing.  Could happen!

At the end of the day I trust the battery pack more than something attached to a spinny thing which has erratic speed variations.  I wouldn't be heartbroken to blow up a battery pack.  Blowing up an iPhone would be a little more traumatic. 

[Bunker22]

Boab has the 12Ah version, which charges lots of things lots of times, but can only be recharged from the mains.

Also, neither will charge and discharge at the same time. I thought for a long time that mine did, but on further testing, it would appear not.

Ok, cool. Figured that charge/discharge was expecting too much. I can work around that - just hook devices direct to dynamo when the pack is full if I really have a need to top them up. I see Teknet do a 7,000mah version which looks pretty good.

Will definitely go USB input charging though - don't want to rely on finding/waiting for mains charging and en route.

I have both the 5000 and newer 7000 Teknets. The 7000 is a shade heavier and a shade larger, but not (2000/5000)ths bigger than the 5000 if you get my meaning. So longer power for only slightly larger pack. Recommended.

[stevevw]

Have you seen a Lipo pack blow up? I have, scary to say the least. mind you most phones and sat nav's have Lipo batteries in them so we are all playing with bombs.

[Chris S]

Have you seen a Lipo pack blow up? I have, scary to say the least. mind you most phones and sat nav's have Lipo batteries in them so we are all playing with bombs.

Don't! That reminds me of the time my HTC went postal in my back pocket. I stopped to see what that strange hot feeling was in my pocket, to find my phone too hot to touch and ready to blow (smelling of smoke and hot, melty electronics). That was without any charger attached at all  .

As you say - bombs in the right wrong conditions...

[RobW]

So my shiny new dynamo wheel came back from wheelbuilders yesterday - a lovely piece of work, and surprised how well it spins.  Main purpose for me is light, of course, but I'm wondering about charging an Aux battery pack during the day to give me extra juice for phone etc if needed. Anyone got a good unit they can recommend? 

please pardon my ignorance but why do you need an aux battery pack?  can you not simply use dynamo to power light at night and recharge garmin/phone (using e-werk or similar) during the day?

The irregularity of current/voltage supply (I don't really undersatnd electrickery, Kim doubtless will clarify) means that I would always rather be charging a battery than any more valuable device.

And if something goes wrong with regulatory electrickery, I'd rather blow up a £20 cache battery than a £400 iPhone 

Yep - all of the above are my reasoning too. Plus, if my dynamo or main light get me some of the way around but have a failure, if I've kept a reasonably sized battery pack charged up as I go, that should get me the rest of the way on my backup light without wasting time trying to get stuff fixed or looking for a shop to get batteries.

[stevevw]

Have you seen a Lipo pack blow up? I have, scary to say the least. mind you most phones and sat nav's have Lipo batteries in them so we are all playing with bombs.

Don't! That reminds me of the time my HTC went postal in my back pocket. I stopped to see what that strange hot feeling was in my pocket, to find my phone too hot to touch and ready to blow (smelling of smoke and hot, melty electronics). That was without any charger attached at all  .

As you say - bombs in the right wrong conditions...

You was lucky sir could have been nasty. Skip the first 2:30 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/B-AoAYrEy-o&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/B-AoAYrEy-o&rel=1</a>

[RobW]

Darned that's scary!

[aidan.f]

objections to plugging in a charger in a pub, some audax controls (unless there is an event policy, as there may well be for LEL),

I don't  think there is  an event policy (yet), left up to individual controls. We are planning a charging bank. You hand over your device, get a  receipt and we plug it in. That, we hope will suit everyone, you get peace of mind that your device is somewhere reasonably secure whilst charging and we don't have a random collection of phones and chargers in odd places. I'm also hoping  to  have  a few micro usb & standard usb chargers available.