Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: bobb on 26 April, 2018, 09:36:33 am
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How big is too big? How small is too small?
I have a few of varying sizes, but they're getting a bit old and crap. In fact, one has stopped working completely, so it's time for a couple of new ones.
So... I will be going touring soon and thought I'd get two. One that can be used for charging duties during the day and the other can be recharging off the dynamo. They can be swapped around every couple of days (depending on how long they take to charge up / how long they can last charging other stuff)
Is it a waste of time going massive? Say 25k mAh +
Or is it best to stick to something around the 10 - 15k mark? Or smaller still?
If it's huge, I assume it would charge ok off the dynamo - it would just take ages to do so?
Also, does it matter what size the battery is of the thing you are charging? I will have:
Phone 3.4k mAh
Tablet 10k mAh
E-snout 3k mAh
Kindle 1.4k mAh
The phone and E-cigarette would get caned the most - need daily charging. The Kindle lasts forever and probably only needs a charge once a month. Tablet lasts well with light use, but would need charging if I use it a lot.
I'll be away for about a month.
Any advice muchly appreciated...
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I reckon power vs weight should one of the key criteria, plus if your kit supports it, ability to do fast charge.
For me, this works well, no idea if there are better alternatives more than a year later https://chargedpower.com/collections/chjgd-ultracompact-mini
Oh, and with more stuff than one thing to charge, pass through is good too, as you may only have access to a single socket. This way it can charge everything while you sleep. Passthru is NOT as universal as you would first think
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Phone, tablet and Kindle? ??? Maybe you should have a read of this: http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/tls-revolutionary-packing-system.html?
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Maybe you should have a read of this: http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/tls-revolutionary-packing-system.html?
I'd rather lug everything up the steepest cols than waste my life weighing absolutely everything to the nearest gram. I would also hate to be considered a "Bikepacker" :P
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Oh, and with more stuff than one thing to charge, pass through is good too, as you may only have access to a single socket. This way it can charge everything while you sleep. Passthru is NOT as universal as you would first think
An interesting article about pass through charging from Ravpower (http://blog.ravpower.com/2017/10/danger-and-damage-of-pass-through-technology-for-batteries/)
In the end, to avoid damaging your device or power bank, follow two simple rules. First, make sure your power bank is equipped with the right circuitry to support pass through. Second, if you need to use it, don't do it for very long – think emergency rations situations. By limiting pass through to a few hours at most, you should be able to reduce heat and the potential for battery damage.
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Maybe you should have a read of this: http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/tls-revolutionary-packing-system.html?
I'd rather lug everything up the steepest cols than waste my life weighing absolutely everything to the nearest gram. I would also hate to be considered a "Bikepacker" :P
I'm not suggesting you weigh everything - just that carrying something for hundreds, if not thousands, of miles that has the same function as something else you're already carrying seems particularly pointless. Your tour, your rules. :-*
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Fair one, I might not take both
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Oh, and with more stuff than one thing to charge, pass through is good too, as you may only have access to a single socket. This way it can charge everything while you sleep. Passthru is NOT as universal as you would first think
An interesting article about pass through charging from Ravpower (http://blog.ravpower.com/2017/10/danger-and-damage-of-pass-through-technology-for-batteries/)
In the end, to avoid damaging your device or power bank, follow two simple rules. First, make sure your power bank is equipped with the right circuitry to support pass through. Second, if you need to use it, don't do it for very long – think emergency rations situations. By limiting pass through to a few hours at most, you should be able to reduce heat and the potential for battery damage.
'deed so, and follow two simple rules. First, make sure your power bank is equipped with the right circuitry to support pass through. Second, if you need to use it, don’t do it for very long – think emergency rations situations.
It's nice to have the option, but actually I couple it with a dual port fast charger (https://www.ravpower.com/QC3.0-30W-Charger-Black.html) which means I have rarely had to use it.
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It's nice to have the option, but actually I couple it with a dual port fast charger (https://www.ravpower.com/QC3.0-30W-Charger-Black.html) which means I have rarely had to use it.
Nice one - one of those would certainly be useful when I'm somewhere where I can pinch some electrons from the mains
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I prefer to have multiple sources and a 4 port charger (Fast chargers are only faster if the device matches it and none of mine do) There's several advantages including having one on charge and one in use, charging different devices in different places, not needing pass through, a phone with a small powerbank attached is still pocketable, smaller is easier to attach to the bike for Garmin, I won't be stuffed if I lose one. I like the self sufficient idea of using a dynamo to charge, but I've never needed it, access to a socket for an hour every couple of days has been enough for my usage.
Long term I can also carry what I need rather than a brick for an overnight and they get day to day use. Whatever you get, if it isn't in regular use after the trip it's still best discharge/charge it from time to time, they can die from neglect though it seems everyone but me knew that :facepalm:
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Say 25k mAh
*twitches*
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I reckon power vs weight should one of the key criteria, plus if your kit supports it, ability to do fast charge.
Agreed. What you really want for touring is a powerbank that can charge *itself* quickly when you have short-term access to mains. Ability to charge your phone or whatever quickly is a minor convenience in comparison.
Oh, and with more stuff than one thing to charge, pass through is good too, as you may only have access to a single socket. This way it can charge everything while you sleep. Passthru is NOT as universal as you would first think
Absolutely. Although beware of things that like to switch their outputs off if you're not drawing enough current.
I'd generally prefer a suitably-rated charger with multiple outputs than use passthrough on a powerbank, simply because it's quicker overall and stays on until you unplug it. On the gripping hand, if you're not going to see much mains power you might not want to carry a bulky charger, and if it's going to be abundant (hotel every night) then none of this really matters as you can rotate things round.
Related tip: If you're going to travel in Europe, invest in a European plug USB charger. Their plugs are neater to pack than ours anyway, and it saves mucking about with adaptors.
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Related tip: If you're going to travel in Europe, invest in a European plug USB charger. Their plugs are neater to pack than ours anyway, and it saves mucking about with adaptors.
My preference is to go with one that takes an IEC C7 lead (mine's this iclever one https://www.amazon.co.uk/iClever-BoostCube-Intelligent-Technology-Smartphone/dp/B01CSKLQDE ) making for ease of swap between all country systems. The six port version doesn't meet the weight weenie requirement though, by about 100g.
ETA - 2.4A charge =/= Quickcharge 3, although it still will charge quite fast.
EATA - this one looks like what I would buy now, @ 98g with IEC C7 it's a winner https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quick-Charge-3-0-Charger-AiPower-Black/dp/B01EFU8KR0
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Agreed, I carry a 2-pin plug to C7 lead, about half a metre long. Because power points are often in awkward places. And a 2-port charger for compactness.
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The answer is that the best configuration of power banks to carry is 4 x 10Ah.
- It gives a few days of power for reasonable usage.
- A 10Ah charges fully in 5-6 hours overnight in a hotel.
- IATA regulations say that the maximum number of power banks you can carry on is 4. They are not allowed in checked in luggage (chances of them setting on fire are very low but they are not zero and the consequences are catastrophic, so I wouldn't check one in)
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Ok, so how does charging from a dynamo (via an ewerk*) compare time wise to charging from the mains?
I've topped up from a dynamo, but I've never tried from near empty to full.
*Old skool version.
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I didn't realise you were using a dynamo.
To charge a 10Ah power bank would take about 24 hours using an Igaro - which is more efficient than most other dynamo chargers
https://www.igaro.com/d1/faq (https://www.igaro.com/d1/faq)
I think you might struggle to keep all those devices in power with just a dynamo. No reason why you couldn't have more than one dynamo, though: people who use them say that the resistance is negligible so you could, say, put a bottle dynamo on your back wheel.
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A Samsung Galaxy S4 mini will last almost 7 days in flight mode with just the occasional use for calls, texts and photos. Charging from a Son Deluxe with Luxos U, with lights off, it will go from flat to fully charged in 3 hours or so. This was in rolling terrain.
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Hmmmm... Maybe I'll have to spend the odd night in cheap hotels..
Last time I managed fine for a month with just a phone and a kindle. I just kept the phone charging up on the dynamo most of the day which was enough. I think I only needed to charge the kindle once as it lasts ages. I did occasionally charge the phone from the mains at campsites when a socket presented itself. I didn't have to worry about charging an e-fag as I just smoked real ones :demon: I guess I could lose the tablet and just use my phone. I did everything on my phone last time from route planning to writing my blog posts etc. Was a bit of a pain, but doable...
I did consider going double dynamo with a bottle, but wasn't sure if that was just being silly :P
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I use an 18650 battery ecig (eleaf istick pico) in conjunction with an 18650 powerbank similar to this one http://amzn.eu/8Aitz3I (http://amzn.eu/8Aitz3I) although the one I have takes 3 batteries (there are some that take 4). What I find works well with this set up is that you can charge and use the powerbank with 1 or 2 or 3... or 4 batteries fitted, so charging from a dynamo becomes a viable option with a single battery fitted (about 4 hours). Additionally you can start your trip with as many precharged 18650s as you're prepared to carry. These powerbanks without batteries weigh very little so I'd be inclined to take 2 x 2 slot chargers on an "epic" journey.
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For years I carried a powermonkey extreme 9000mAh battery bank, it was good enough to keep my then smartphone going all week, and I topped it up with a solar panel.
These days my smart phone has a larger battery, which it gets through faster, so I have to carry more by way of battery packs.
I have a dynamo with an usb-werk, which I can use for topping up the battery packs, but it suffers a bit from the fact I'm still walking up some hills...
The battery packs I have are a 20000mAh pack I was given, this has a fast charge output, plus 2 normal high power outputs. I then have an Anker 5000mAh pack. The later I tend to reserve for when I need to give my wahoo a boost and don't want to faff around with the big battery. or as an emergency charge for my phone.
I have 6 devices that I need to charge:
- Phone
- Camera
- Irridium device
- Wahoo
- Battery bank 1
- Battery bank 2.
I carry 2 chargers with me a 3 port Rav power charger, and a 3 port ikea charger. At least one of which is easy to access at the top of a bag, so that I can charge 3 devices for an hour over lunch if I need to, and find a cafe with a suitable power socket.
There is a strong argument as you say for having multiple smaller packs, as you can typically charge them quicker. But I notice that Anker do a 25000mAh pack that has 2 inputs, so you can plug in 2 usb cables, and charge it faster. I've not tried it, but it looks like a nice option.
Generally speaking, you're going to find life a lot easier if you have more power than you need, rather than less power. This is a situation where the downside of over specing isn't really that big.
Good luck, and let us know what you go for.
J
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Cheers for the replies. I need to do some serious thinking! I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the options. It doesn't help that anything to do with electrickery scares me as I just don't understand it!
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Cheers for the replies. I need to do some serious thinking! I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the options. It doesn't help that anything to do with electrickery scares me as I just don't understand it!
As a general rule of thumb then, buy the biggest anker battery pack you can afford, and get a 3-4 output usb wall thingy that can do at least 2.4A per channel. With that, you should be good.
J
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Ok, ta. But the big ones make some people twitch! I'm not sure why. The weight?
Say 25k mAh
*twitches*
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'Biggest' is not 'optimal'.
Even 10,000mAh is much bigger than I would ever take on a cycling tour, but then I try not to be too dependent on my 'stuff' and I am a credit-card tourist so always have access to power in the evenings. My current pack is 5,200mAh and that easily does for two of us touring together.
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The best size of power bank will depend on the available input, and whether you need to charge more than one device at the same time.
If you've only one power source (dynamo or single USB wall adapter), a big bank is better.
Having a smaller bank that's full is of no advantage over a larger bank that's part full if both have spent the same amount of time being charged.
You don't get the loss of charging time between bank 1 reaching full and you putting bank 2 on charge, and additionally a bank will normally charge more slowly as it nears full, so the big bank will have been charging at full rate whilst bank 1 is topping up.
If you've multiple inputs available (eg a wall adapter that has 4 x 2.4A ports), you gain with several small banks, as you can charge several banks simultaneously.
For charging devices simultaneously, it will depend on the number of output ports, Larger banks are more likely to have multiple ports, but may not have enough to match several small banks of the same total capacity.
Also, note that if your bank is bigger than about 27 Ah*, you may well not be allowed to carry it on an airplane.
* got to keep Kim happy
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Ok, ta. But the big ones make some people twitch! I'm not sure why. The weight?
Say 25k mAh
*twitches*
I'm guessing it's more about the "k" "m" (== kilo milli == 1000 1/1000s == 1)
(25 Ah would probably be less *twitch* inducing ;D)
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Not saying it's the best size for you, but on the basis of what you've said, I'd go with my existing two 6700mAh RAVpower units.
A full day's cycling with dynamo & Igaro/e-werk/Plug/Luxos should get close to fully charging one 6700mAh pack, and that gives a daily charge for e-cig and phone.
Then there is still one pack spare & for emergency top-up of tablet (which you'll generally charge in your occasional hotel nights).
Being away for a month I'd not rely on a single pack, however highly recommended.
Maybe ditch the Kindle, the functionality can be done not too inconveniently with phone app, albeit with increased battery usage, with but if you keep your phone mostly in flight mode there should be more than enough for a couple of hours reading each evening.
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Ok, ta. But the big ones make some people twitch! I'm not sure why. The weight?
Say 25k mAh
*twitches*
I'm guessing it's more about the "k" "m" (== kilo milli == 1000 1/1000s == 1)
(25 Ah would probably be less *twitch* inducing ;D)
Oh, I see. I didn't consider pedantry. How about 9.00 x 104C ?
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Having a smaller bank that's full is of no advantage over a larger bank that's part full if both have spent the same amount of time being charged.
The smaller one weighs less.
Maybe ditch the Kindle, the functionality can be done not too inconveniently with phone app,
I would ditch the phone. Are you on holiday, or what?
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I would ditch the phone. Are you on holiday, or what?
I'm amazed it's taken this long for someone to pipe up with that one :P
I'd ditch everything else before the phone...
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Just smoke the phone! ;D
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Ok, ta. But the big ones make some people twitch! I'm not sure why. The weight?
Say 25k mAh
*twitches*
It was your simultaneous use of the kilo and milli prefixes that I was twitching at; they cancel out. 25000 mAh is correctly written as 25Ah. Obviously marketing trumps common sense, as bigger numbers are more betterer, which is why they don't just use Amp-hours for the bigger packs (and why they don't use Watt-hours, which would likely be a more useful figure for end-users[1]).
(Yes, I will happily abuse SI prefixes for clarity. If you're talking about an 800mAh battery, a 950mAh battery and a 1.2Ah battery, I wouldn't object to describing the latter as 1200mAh.)
[1] They quote the Amp-hour capacity of the battery inside the powerbank, which is misleading, as some of that capacity will be used up raising the voltage from the nominal 3.7V of the battery to give you your 5V USB output. So you'll never see the quoted number of Amp-hours at the output. Sometimes (usually for packs with higher output voltages) they go one further and add up the Amp-hour capacities of series-connected cells, which crosses the line between misleading and is well into outright lies.
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Yep ditch the phone. If you want one for making calls then get or use an old style Nokia. About 25 days on standby.
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Yep ditch the phone. If you want one for making calls then get or use an old style Nokia. About 25 days on standby.
There's a strong argument for tablet + dumbphone in this context, certainly. Although since the demise of my Nokia E52[1], in recent years I've just stuck to my normal Android phone which at least means I can hedge my bets with two cellular providers, even if it does need recharging from time to time.
[1] The last sensible phone they ever made: Smart enough to do email, IRC and play MP3s. Dumb enough for the battery to last a couple of weeks.
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I absolutely love my Aukey 20000 mah. It's been going over a year and still holds the same charge.
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I absolutely love my Aukey 20000 mah. It's been going over a year and still holds the same charge.
I've got a 16Ah one. That's a bit optimistic as I only get 9Ah or so at the output, which seems a bit low (I'd expect 10-11), but it's otherwise been flawless.
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You'd probably be better off with one of these and a couple of decent sets of protected 18650 batteries.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Waterproof-4x18650-Battery-Storage-Case-Box-Holder-Pack-For-Bike-LED-Light-Hoc/152101697909?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Waterproof-4x18650-Battery-Storage-Case-Box-Holder-Pack-For-Bike-LED-Light-Hoc/152101697909?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649).
Which means that at a pinch (if you can source them) you could also use a set of 8 CR17345/CR123A disposable batteries.
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Ok, I have decided to ditch the tablet and kindle.
On Saturday I got a new phone :) It is awesome. As I mentioned previously, last time I did everything I needed on my phone - photos, blogging, googling stuff and posting pictures of my lunch :P I only thought about taking my tablet to make life a bit easier, but to be honest, I don't think it will make any difference other than take up valuable pannier space.... The new phone has excellent battery life - of course, it's brand new, but all the reviews I read said it had really good battery life and I've been hammering it and so far battery life does indeed seem good.
I've also installed the Kindle app and have been using that to read for the past few nights and it's absolutely fine - so the Kindle goes.
So.... I have dug out an old 13Ah Anker to do some testing. I'm pretty sure it's a bit knackered - it is a few years old and has been sitting in a draw for over a year doing nothing, so I will still be going for a new battery or two.
One thing I've noticed is that when I charge the phone from the mains it says "Super charging" and it charges in a err... super kind of way. When I plug it into the Anker, it doesn't say "Super charging" so I guess it's just charging normally.
Can I assume that I'd need a battery that supports some sort of quick charging if I want it to be all super and stuff?
Edit: My phone is a Huawei Mate 10 Pro and apparantly it doesn't use Quick Charge, rather their own fast charging tech... hmmm..
Edit 2: Just found this (https://www.chargerharbor.com/best-chargers-for-honor-8-honor-9-huawei-mate-9-mate-10-p9-p10/) which pretty much tells me everything I need to know....
Edit 3: So basically, my best bet to get "Super charging" is to get a battery with USB-C to USB-C charging so I get an output of 5V/3.0A.
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Do you need to charge the phone fast? Generally, you have all night and all day in the pannier to charge the phone from the battery. The thing you want to be faster is recharging the battery from a power socket, because that's when you may be sat in a cafe or leaving the thing in a random campsite socket or similar.
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Good point, no I guess I don't need to use the fast charging on the phone. And indeed a multi port wall charger that can charge the battery (or batteries) fast is what I need...
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I still like my Anker 20,000 mah which is a bit of a lump.
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Edit 3: So basically, my best bet to get "Super charging" is to get a battery with USB-C to USB-C charging so I get an output of 5V/3.0A.
Whatever else, you don't need USB C to C, B output to C works fine and if you want to minimise cables and have micro as well, a micro to c adapter is minuscule (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Micro-USB-Female-to-Type-C-Male-Converter-USB-C-Adapter-Converter-Adaptor-OFFER/222886801095?hash=item33e516aec7:m:mzpWrXtDHZkIQy7VGgmBAow). all you need is a powerbank capable of delivering fast charge, as the ones I linked to upthread.
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Right.... So far I have got a Ravpower 20100 mAh battery. It has a Quick Charge 3.0 input and Quick Charge 3.0, iSmart and USB C outputs. It seems fine and does what it's supposed to do. I'll probably get another one the same and also the wall charger Ham linked upthread that has two Quick Charge outputs and a bunch of regular outputs for charging the things when a socket is available.
I did some tesing today to see how it charged off the Dynamo. I was using it via an Lumotec IQ2 Luxos U rather than an ewerk (which I will try tomorrow) and this is what I found:
I'd ride along and the little red light will be on on the handlebar mount/switch thing and I can watch the blue lights flashing on the battery as it charges. Then the little red light goes out and the battery stops charging.
Even at a constant decent pace the red light would be on for around 25 to 30 seconds and would then go out for about 15 - 20 seconds. So for every minute of riding , I'm only getting just over half actual charging. Even when hammering it down a long hill, this behaviour was still observed. When going up a long hill, it was off for longer, before coming back on (remarkably it came back on just as I crawled to the top of The Mighty North Hill).
I'm assuming that the battery is sucking up all the electrickery faster than it can be generated, hence the continual on/off situation. It's just draining the little cache battery very quickly.
Is this normal? Does it do any harm to the battery?
I had kind of assumed it would just trickle charge constantly rather than doing what it's doing? Charge was defo going in, but I'm going to struggle to get anything more than a little top up from the dynamo when on tour.
I'll try the ewerk tomorrow to see what happens. The same I assume....
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When you have multiple gadgets, would it be viable to save weight by making them all share the same battery? For each gadget could you remove the internal battery and fit a plug or connector to the battery lead and connect directly to the power pack, perhaps with some sort of rectifier/diode thingummy so that the gadget draws the appropriate current? Maybe the power pack could be comprised of multiple AAA batteries, which would be useful for other things, e.g. head torch and lights.
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Agreed. What you really want for touring is a powerbank that can charge *itself* quickly when you have short-term access to mains. Ability to charge your phone or whatever quickly is a minor convenience in comparison.
Agree. Stuff can charge more slowly from the powerbank in the tent overnight.
Apologies if i have missed something upthread, but do you know of such a fastcharge powerbank?
None of my devices are quick charge, but as above, not a great problem.
I do have an Anker Powercore 20,100 powerbank - it's good, but not fast charging of course. Takes a long long night.
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The one I just bought (RAVPower 20100) (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CHZMFUS/) has a Quick Charge 3.0 input. Apparantly it will go from empty to full in 4.5 hours. I've not tried that yet, so we'll see....
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Thanks bobb, will check it out.
Any others?
Does the fastcharging compromise the powerbank in any way? Shorten its life?
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Well, this morning's testing was a disaster. It would seem my ewerk no longer werks. Tried it with various things, swapped leads, cleaned up and sorted the wiring in the brick... and nothing. Nothing at all.
Pain in the arse. It has been sitting in a draw for 5 years, but is that enough for it to stop working?
Now I don't know whether to just go with the intermittent charging via the Luxos, buy a new ewerk (or similar) or try something else I haven't thought of yet.....
EDIT: Ah! I'm a fool. I have the USB werk. After a quick Google it would appear I need a regular ewerk if I want to charge a large battery. I think that's the way to go.
EDIT 2: That doesn't explain why the USB werk wouldn't power the GPS. I would expect it to. I've also successfully charged a smart phone in the past with it. Hmmmm... Maybe it is broken....
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I'm much happier now after some more experimentation this afternoon. Rather than trying to charge the battery, I just tried charging various things and it worked just fine. I think I'll save charging the big power banks for when a mains socket is available...
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I had kind of assumed it would just trickle charge constantly rather than doing what it's doing? Charge was defo going in, but I'm going to struggle to get anything more than a little top up from the dynamo when on tour.
I would say you're going to struggle to get much charge out of the dynamo.
This is where it gets very annoying that everything is measured in mAh rather than watt hours.
My 10000mAh battery pack I got in ikea yesterday (€17 with a ikea family card...), has a more useful capacity rating of 37Wh.
At max output, a USB-WERK takes the 3W 6V AC and produces a 5V DC 500mA/2.5W output.
37/2.5, gives 14.8 hours to fully charge it. That's assuming you're going fast enough for the hub to be outputting 3W. Which depending on the dynamo might be a faster speed than you cruise at, esp if fully loaded touring.
The largest power pack Anker sell, their Powercore II 26800 is 96.48Wh (To be under the 100Wh max for taking on an airplane). At max output of a 3W dyno hub, and max output of the USB-Werk, is going to be 38.6 hours.
Usefully, said 96.48Wh pack has 2 2A inputs, allowing you to charge it twice as fast when you do get to power. This may be worth considering for those who are worried about getting a power pack fully charged over night in a hotel.
I see people talking about "surely it doesn't matter if your phone charges slow". But I've found having the option to put a load of power into the phone is really useful, as is having small packs you can have plugged into the phone, charging it in your jersey pocket. I have my phone playing podcasts or music at me when I'm cycling, and it doesn't have the battery life to go a whole day doing this. So I have need to be able to charge while I ride. Downside of the larger heavier packs is it becomes awkward to carry it in the jersey pocket for prolonged periods of time. On the plus side, hydration ports on packs can double as a place to route out a usb cable to plug in...
J
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EDIT 2: That doesn't explain why the USB werk wouldn't power the GPS. I would expect it to. I've also successfully charged a smart phone in the past with it. Hmmmm... Maybe it is broken....
The USB Werk has a ~100mAh LiFePO4 battery in it. If it's been in a drawer for years it'll have self-discharged below the safe cut-off voltage. In this state, the USB-Werk will trickle-charge the battery until it's back above the threshold, and then resume normal operation.
Take it for a bike ride of at least half an hour, without a load, and see if it comes back to life.
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Take it for a bike ride of at least half an hour, without a load, and see if it comes back to life.
Yeah, I did ride with it not plugged into anything for a bit for this reason, but probably for less than half an hour, so I'll give it another go tomorrow for longer.
Dumb question, but for the sake of neatness in the cockpit, could I plug the USB-werk into the output of the Luxos? Or is that going to blow shit up? Or pointless?
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I don't think that's likely to work. I expect it can cope with DC (it might even say in the manual - I know the e-Werk is rated for e-bike battery voltages), but it probably needs more than 5V.
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I don't think that's likely to work. I expect it can cope with DC (it might even say in the manual - I know the e-Werk is rated for e-bike battery voltages), but it probably needs more than 5V.
OK, ta. I guess what I'm getting at is not wanting to have two sets of wiring - one for dynamo to Luxos and one for dynamo to USB-werk. What I could do is have just the one but the USB werk takes a round connector thing (dunno what you call them) and the Luxos has spade connectors. So.... I could get the B&M E-werk Cable kit and use the cable shown below with a couple of spade connectors for when I want to connect to the Luxos.
(https://zaribor.co.uk/raz/pics/wires.jpg)
So my wiring would be brick to female round thing. USB werk would plug straight in to that. To go into the Luxos I use a short length with male round thing to spade connectors.
That would work, right?
EDIT: This is assuming that:
a. The USB werk is actually werking (which I'll test later)
b. I can be bothered
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Oh, I see. Yeah, don't see any problem doing that.
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No, I did genuinely ask if I could plug the male round input thing of the USB werk into the female round thing output of the Luxos :P
Anyway.... Tested again this morning. Gave it about 40 minutes before trying the USB werk. Nothing. I am however a little suspicious of the wire to the dynamo. Surely that's more likely to be broken than the ewerk unit itself? So I've ordered a replacemnt from SJS. Once it arrives I'll try that out...
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If anyone is remotely interested, I ended up taking the two 20.1 Ah Ravpowers and a couple of smaller (3 and 6) Ankers. That was more than enough. Pretty much every campsite had a socket I could use to give my phone a blast and I only charged the Ravs 3 times I think and they never got below 50% anyway. I absolutely hammered my phone - photo uploads, watching football and just general constant use. Never had a problem.
I used the dynamo to power the gps pretty much all the time. I occassionally gave my e-snout batteries a blast on it, but that wasn't essential due to the availability of power everywhere.
So.. In conclusion - if you're concerned about about keeping stuff charged in western Europe, you needn't be. I met an Aussie guy who was cheating touring on an e-bike and he said he had no problems at all finding places to charge every night.
There were maybe 3 or 4 places I stayed out of about 30 that didn't seem to have anywhere to charge, but that's when the Ravs came in. Other than that - plain sailing...
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I absolutely love my Aukey 20000 mah. It's been going over a year and still holds the same charge.
I've got a 16Ah one. That's a bit optimistic as I only get 9Ah or so at the output, which seems a bit low (I'd expect 10-11), but it's otherwise been flawless.
Anyone else got an Aukey?
Am pondering getting one as a cheaper alternative to another Anker (I already have one of theirs) but there are some, I stress only some, negative reviews on Amazon).
By the by, 7day shop has just got stock of this Anker.
https://www.7dayshop.com/brand/anker/filter/category/categories/batteries-power-chargers
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I absolutely love my Aukey 20000 mah. It's been going over a year and still holds the same charge.
I've got a 16Ah one. That's a bit optimistic as I only get 9Ah or so at the output, which seems a bit low (I'd expect 10-11), but it's otherwise been flawless.
Anyone else got an Aukey?
Am pondering getting one as a cheaper alternative to another Anker (I already have one of theirs) but there are some, I stress only some, negative reviews on Amazon).
This for instance?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/20000mAh-Portable-Charger-Lightning-Micro-USB-Black/dp/B0183K0GZC
seems like a good price though must admit the built-in torch makes we wonder if it's a quality product. Why would I need a torch built into a powerbank? Sounds gimmicky.
By the by, 7day shop has just got stock of this Anker.
https://www.7dayshop.com/brand/anker/filter/category/categories/batteries-power-chargers
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seems like a good price though must admit the built-in torch makes we wonder if it's a quality product. Why would I need a torch built into a powerbank? Sounds gimmicky.
For looking for, or changing the batteries in, your proper torch (particularly when loitering within tent). It's always handy to have a backup that takes up basically zero additional space and is likely to actually be charged. You don't have to use it.
(These days there are single-chip solutions for USB battery pack electronics, and most of them offer the torch feature. The cost of the underwhelming LED is minimal, and it means the marketing people can put another line on the feature list.)
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So.. In conclusion - if you're concerned about about keeping stuff charged in western Europe, you needn't be. I met an Aussie guy who was cheating touring on an e-bike and he said he had no problems at all finding places to charge every night.
Aye, tho it gets a bit more interesting once you get up into fennoscandia. My big trip in September is going to see me pass doing stretches where I'm wild camping for 2 nights between huts/hotels/hostels, so I'm gonna need to carry enough power for 3 days of use, tho I'll get about 20Wh of power from my dynamo daily.
This is why I have the anker 26800mah pack, plus a 10000mah pack from ikea, and I'll probably stick the emergency backup 5000mah in the bottom of my bag, just in case. But then I will be charging phone (airplane mode as audio source), irridium device, gps and 2 cameras. Should be just enough...
J