Powerbanks

[morite]

Hi All,

I am after a power bank as a backup charger for my Garmin/Phone and I am looking at the Anker Powercore 5000 (https://tinyurl.com/y2yyv5yg)

Does anyone have any opinions on this or alternatives?

I already have a Garmin battery pack (Powermonkey explorer) and this will be a backup for this should I forget to charge it (like last time) or it runs outs. I use my Garmin to navigate the audax routes as much as possible and then use the route plan when my Garmin has run out but I am trying to get slicker as I ride more audaxes.

TIA

Andy

[Diesel]

Anker have a good reputation. I use 2 x 10,000 ones when I need them and have been very happy. So looks like you have a good choice

[Kim]

I have a 20Ah Anker which I'm also happy with.  Only gotcha is no pass-through charging, which might be an issue if you want to use it to buffer a dynamo charger.

[Ham]

This does pass through charge, I've been very happy with mine

https://chargedpower.com/collections/chjgd-ultracompact-mini

[quixoticgeek]

Anker has a good reputation. I have a pair of the powercore 26800, which is handy in that it has dual inputs, so it can charge much faster (6 hours from empty).

Do the maths in your power budget, how much power does the Garmin need to fully charge? How many times do you expect to need to do so? Etc...

J

[bludger]

https://www.screwfix.com/p/varta-10-400mah-powerbank/313fx

This is the one I use. £17 from screwfix and works a treat.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I have a 11,000mAh charger (cheap one from Boots) which was more than enough to keep my Garmin 1030 going for a 600k at the weekend.  I've bought a 25,000mAh for the 4 days of 1000 du Sud, more to keep the iPhone going to take the picture proofs of passage.

[frankly frankie]

Do the maths in your power budget, how much power does the Garmin need to fully charge? How many times do you expect to need to do so? Etc...

That's good advice.  Cycling is supposed to be about keeping the weight down and it's pointless to carry round more Amp-hours than you need.  For that reason I have 3 powerbanks of various capacities, the largest of which (12000mAh) I consider too heavy to cycle with.

[grams]

A decent 12000 mAh powerbank weighs something in the region of 200g. Throwing some plausible numbers into bike calculator suggests carrying that around PBP the whole of PBP will cost you... 3 minutes.

[morite]

A decent 12000 mAh powerbank weighs something in the region of 200g. Throwing some plausible numbers into bike calculator suggests carrying that around PBP the whole of PBP will cost you... 3 minutes.

Does that factor in the descents where the extra weight will make you go downhill faster?

[De Sisti]

I have an Anker 2nd Gen Astro E1.


https://thetechnologyman.com/anker-astro-e1-6700mah-review-is-this-the-best-value-portable-charger

[frankly frankie]

A decent 12000 mAh powerbank weighs something in the region of 200g. Throwing some plausible numbers into bike calculator suggests carrying that around PBP the whole of PBP will cost you... 3 minutes.

I wouldn't carry anything rechargable round PBP.  What starts out as Amp-hours in the bank ends up as dead weight that you can't jettison.

[Kangaroocourt]

I'm in the market for a new headlight and am caught between buying a SON Edelux II and a B&M Luxos U. The Edelux is a better light (IMHO), less bulky and better looking (also IMHO) but unlike the B&M doesn't have an inbuilt USB port so I'll need a power bank or two.  Is something like a 20000 MaH powerbank likely to charge a Garmin and iPhone all through PBP? TIA.

[Kim]

Given that choice, I'd go for the Edelux (though maybe also consider the IQ-X).  The Luxos U seems to have issues with water ingress.

My 20Ah Anker gives a real-world ~14Ah at the 5V USB output^[1].  I think a Garmin Edge battery is somewhere in the 1Ah range, and in the absence of measurements it's reasonable to pessimistically assume the charge regulation is linear^[2], so that would be about 14 charges worth.  As for the iPhone, that's going to be a big "it depends", but I'd assume a back-of-the-envelope 3Ah per charge.


_{[1] For marketing reasons, powerbank capacity is quoted at the internal 3.7V battery, before the conversion to 5V and associated efficiency losses.
[2] ie. 1Ah at the 5V USB input becomes 1Ah at *its* 3.7V internal battery, with the rest being wasted as heat.}

[Phil W]

The GPS would be fine with a power bank less than half that amount so really depends what you are doing on your phone to drain the battery multiple times during PBP.

[quixoticgeek]

The amp hour unit is a bloody stupid one for most things like this. Better to look at it in terms of watthours.

Taking an iPhone 6 plus as a reference, it has a 11.1wh battery. Garmin and Wahoo at really bad at giving actual sizes of their batteries (at least based on my quick Google), so let's roll a d6, and say 5wh for a full charge of a Garmin/wahoo.

PBP is essentially 4 days, but you'll start with everything charged, so effectively 3 days. So if you need to charge each device once, that's (11+5)*3 = 48wh. Assuming 100% efficiency. That would be roughly equivalent to a 14000mah battery. But it's not 100% efficient, so maybe go for something closer to 1800mah.

Do do the maths yourself, based on better numbers, but gives you an idea.

I have an Anker with 98Wh of capacity with me. Because I'm charging a lot of devices (wahoo, phone, light, tracker, camera, other light). I'm thinking my 60wh per day power budget may have been a bit pessimistic. Some would say having a 500g battery pack contributed to my failure on the TCR. I'm inclined to think that in the temp, a bike with naught but lights would still have been walked up the hills.

Work out your power budget, and see what you come up with.

J

[Wycombewheeler]

Given that choice, I'd go for the Edelux (though maybe also consider the IQ-X).  The Luxos U seems to have issues with water ingress.

My 20Ah Anker gives a real-world ~14Ah at the 5V USB output^[1].  I think a Garmin Edge battery is somewhere in the 1Ah range, and in the absence of measurements it's reasonable to pessimistically assume the charge regulation is linear^[2], so that would be about 14 charges worth.  As for the iPhone, that's going to be a big "it depends", but I'd assume a back-of-the-envelope 3Ah per charge.


_{[1] For marketing reasons, powerbank capacity is quoted at the internal 3.7V battery, before the conversion to 5V and associated efficiency losses.
[2] ie. 1Ah at the 5V USB input becomes 1Ah at *its* 3.7V internal battery, with the rest being wasted as heat.}

I estimate my garmin 520 will run for 12 hours on a charge (used to be 15 I am sure) so 14 charges gets me 168 hours. Half of that seems plenty especially when I expect to ride for less than 60 hours.

The key is reserving power for the garmin and not being tempted to use it for the phone.

I was thinking about getting a second 10Ah battery but it's probably not required.

[TOBY]

The key is reserving power for the garmin and not being tempted to use it for the phone.

To extend your phone life put it in Flight mode when riding and turn the screen brightness down.

[Wycombewheeler]

The key is reserving power for the garmin and not being tempted to use it for the phone.

To extend your phone life put it in Flight mode when riding and turn the screen brightness down.

It better yet, turn it off as I probably wont look at it for a 4 hour block between controls

[grams]

Power consumption in screen off flight mode is pretty negligible. You probably burn any energy saving booting it back up.

(and the cumulative time waiting for it to boot up burns the three minutes you saved not bringing a bigger power bank...)

[quixoticgeek]

Power consumption in screen off flight mode is pretty negligible. You probably burn any energy saving booting it back up.

(and the cumulative time waiting for it to boot up burns the three minutes you saved not bringing a bigger power bank...)

Exactly. Booting up is slow and power hungry. Airplane mode is very low power. If you need to be contactable, but still want a power saving, turn off data.

J

[Paul H]

As a back up, I carry an AA to USB thing, I can't tell you how good/bad it is as I've never had to use it in the five years I've carried it, but I know what'll happen the first time I leave it at home.

[earthloop]

One thing to be aware of: the amp hour value on most of these power packs refers to how many amp hours the internal battery will produce, at an average of 3.7 volts, not how many amp hours you can expect to get out of it at 5 volts. A 10Ah power pack won't provide 1A at 5v for 10 hours.

[S2L]

Some would say having a 500g battery pack contributed to my failure on the TCR. I'm inclined to think that in the temp, a bike with naught but lights would still have been walked up the hills.

Seeing that this post was written on day 3 of TCR 7, I would say your failure is probably due to being unprepared for the challenge?

... unless you are referring to a past event

[quixoticgeek]

Some would say having a 500g battery pack contributed to my failure on the TCR. I'm inclined to think that in the temp, a bike with naught but lights would still have been walked up the hills.

Seeing that this post was written on day 3 of TCR 7, I would say your failure is probably due to being unprepared for the challenge?

... unless you are referring to a past event

The thing I was most unprepared for was the amount of negative messages I have got.

J