I appreciate that you still maintain the same format as from the beginning of the channel, Videos solely aimed at educating the viewers by sharing your experience and no unnecessary fluff added with channel growth.
You going through the datasheet really brightened up things for me about these boards. Those definitely will be better for projects with higher cell count 4+ and safer than usual charging power adapters. Might add one of those to my speaker to finally have a reliable way of charging the 5s battery inside it.
I would be careful at least above 4+ cells. Because the seller made an hint and there is a comment, which say that a "Triode" is just rated for 16.8V. That isn't even reserve for 4S and probably will blow up at 4+ (which happend to the commentator)
Oh yeah! Can use that board to charge up the 4s2p Battery in my Torch now. Just unfortunate the board does not have separate output pads. Cant use the 4 LEDs
@@somethinks5624 oh yeah, you're right I was scrolling through AliExpress and found a review also mentioning that, I guess I'll wait a bit until there will be a fix or the manufacturer releases a fix ( which probably is unlikely)
Not too long ago I've made my own modular powerbank using laptop batteries. With swappable batteries, and a buck boost converter it provides great results to a USB 3.1. I think I'll revisit it to give me USB C and some power monitoring. Great Video (:
have looked at this exact pcb before as well as the manufacturer. Their stuff seems quality. The product which caught my eye the most was the DIY powerbank from them themselves, where you just add your own batteries. There are different models with different amount of battery holders for example 8, 16 and 24 cells. It uses the same chip IP5389 and in my opinion is the best case scenario because you get both high capacity and easy of use.
Do you have a link to what you have found? I'd like to look more into this. Plus, I think this board Scott tested seems to have lead connections to monitor the cells itself.
WOW! Thanks for the tip, Jovaras. That store was amazing. I ordered the IP5389 w/ batteries module on the spot. But I doubt it will come with eight batteries (38Wh), probably just four (19Wh) but still a great deal.
@@bfelten1 I think they have 2 versions, one without batteries and one with. I am almost certain that if you buy the version with the batteries it will come with all 8 with the rate capacity of 20800mAh, around 74 Wh. If you bought the 8 battery cell version
Also useful in that shipping batteries internationally can be a real pain, so you can source your batteries locally, but ship the other parts from overseas without issue!
For someone wanting to read the actual guidelines, look for "IATA dangerous goods regulations, table 2.3". Here it says: "Batteries, spare/loose, [...] power banks are considered as spare batteries [...] Lithium ion batteries: the Watt-hour rating must not exceed 100 Wh". You are allowed to carry up to 20 seperate batteries though, so just building multiple Powerbanks with 100Wh each would allowed on a plane.
The issue is if you want to travel with a power bank, airlines limit power banks to 100wh. That’s why you tend to see most of the sold power banks below 100 wh
6:00 You can just translate the PDF file in Google Translate 7:40 Would have been interesting to also measure the voltage on the PCB itself. I guess the voltage drop over the cable can't have been that bad, judging by the voltage at 4.6 A. But would still have been interesting to measure it.
Thank you for making this video I built an 18650 4s5p power bank. These modules are excellent and I have 3 installed on battery. Perfect operation at 4s but I've noticed that if you want to hit the 100 watt max you must configure at 6s. Otherwise it will provide 3 amps in all voltages. I installed a 4s flying capacitor balancer. The board having a built in bms is super handy. Thank you.
Hey, sorry to bother you, do you mean that you connected more than one board to the powerbank to get multiple outputs? If that is the case how does the remaining capacity measurement work? Do all of them still show the correct value? Thanks in advance!
It operates as normal the indicator bars are not accurate. I just go off pack voltage. It operates between 11.9v and 16.7v. all of the plugs operate normally even if the indicator indicates empty. They will continue to function until it hits its preset level which is apparently 11.9v. I've also found that if the modules lose power entirely and 0 volts they need to be reinitialize by plugging it into a live supply
FYI when your spot welding cells it should not make any sparks, especially at the lower current levels required for just nickel strip. you might need to apply more pressure or lower your current. for just pure nickel strips I normally use around 30j.
@@bakatenchu i spot weld using my k welder through 1.5mm nickel strip over .2mm copper sheet and there is no sparks. if you are using a cheap spot welder with thin probes maybe its more common to see sparks idk but i did a 190 cell battery with my k-weld and rarely ever saw sparks. and I know my welds have ideal strength and penetration. you may want to re-evaluate your welding process.
I have a 48v ebike/scooter battery pack from a wrecked scooter I'm going to make a battery bank from. It charges via 54.6v charger but provides a ton of power. This video gave me ideas for the project. Thanks!
Also I would like to warn anyone that doesn't know this, that the voltage regulator on the board is rated max 18V (me6210) and I've seen images of it burned crisp in 6p configurations. So, as long as the battery voltage is below that, it should be fine. So 4s configs are the best bet for this board, for now.
Ah shoot, I think this is what happened to mine. I replaced R7 with a 27k and it worked fine for a while. Now it doesn't even prompt another device to recognize it's plugged in. Oddly, it still blinks its LEDs, so they must be getting power somewhere. Suggestions on a replacement component are welcome!
I think the company that makes the PCB has its own premade casing and wiring for it too. The only thing with maxing the thing is that you can't take it on a plane unless you can remove the cells, which you probably should've made doable
Huh. That reminds me of the big, chunky video batteries at the place I used to work. Those split in half solely so you could legally carry them on a plane.
Under 100wh is good to go. His pack is perfectly fine. Don’t get the acrylic cases. Turns my sw2303 into an easy bake oven. Edit oh you’re talking about the 16 or 24 cell powerbank? Wrap the cells in 1200mah fake sleeves. Problem solved.
@@haloduncan Pouch cells have too much thermal expansion, it's not a solid case, they eventually delaminate, then swell up and fail. If you have the space, use name brand tubular cell for capacity and longevity. Avoid cheap Chinese pouch cells like they're COVID 👍
Hey Scott! I know for some of the PCBs you've created, you shared your blueprints in the description, but have you ever considered selling them already built either with/without components? I know you're busy making content, but I'm interested in buying some of your DIY PCBs you've created and successfully work better than store bought versions. It seems more logical to some viewers vs buying individual parts that sometimes only come in bulk. Thanks.
I got a 110Wh, 90W powerbank for $70. I've done a DIY pack before, I'm very happy with the purchased one. ☺️ The safety features are primary in my mind.
This is a very useful video. Thank you! 90W is indeed very good. I bought several Romoss Battery Banks and none of them quite live up to the advertising. I paid about $1.05 per watt hour. Would be super nice to add PD, USB micro and another USB-C port. Then your DIY version would be King. I guess you could even incorporate a display if you wanted to get really fancy. But I would be happy with your 90W model just as it is. Bravo !! BTW...my test of the Romoss 65W, 40,000mAh unit gave about 27,000mAh at 500mA, 4.91v discharge rate.
To make your own powerbank, you need to: - know Ohm's law and how to wire banks in parallel/series to achieve desired output voltage/power - know how to measure output voltages of each battery (unless you want your powerbank to set your house on fire after a few charges) - know how to spotweld - know what gage of wire you need to use - know if the batteries you use have their own BMS or if you need your own - know to just buy a commercial product if you aren't capable of understanding any of the above
Wow that’s something I’ve always wanted to build with all the leftover 18650 cells I’ve scavenged out of old laptop batteries. Heck yeah that’s a nice build!
You would have to test every single one first and be careful what you mix and match. A bad cell in your pack can bring down performance or start a fire. Unbalanced cells have issues.
Me: casually looking at my 50ah homemade 18650 battery pack from scavenged laptop batteries ... It runs a mini inverter and is charged by solar. For small electronics when no power. With direct DC outputs too. Only 5v and 12v simple stuff though...
@@Henry-sv3wv you can’t but you can fuse each cell Tesla style or not use any cell below 80% state of health. That makes things much safer. Most problems are from people not properly testing all cells then pushing a 10 year old cell with a resistance of 227 milliohms to 1+ amp during a high load when the cell has 900mah out of an original 2200mah. That cell screams “internal short full of dendrites” and you’d easily catch it by doing the proper testing.
I'm not sure if it's your left-handedness or simply the angle of the camera, but I love seeing your paper notes/explanations; they are so easy to read!
I've had no luck with their 120W board. I think it gets way too hot and shuts down any time I try to pull over 60W. The inductor on that board isn't the same as what I have on my SC8812A board and the different SW2303 boards. Same with 2 versions of the SW2303 and I'm using the LG MJ1 so same output capacity but not paralleled like you. EDIT: SC8812A board is now working trouble free. You gave me a hmmmmm moment when I realized I had never charged the cells through the board like you did. Glad I had my 5P pack because it charged at nearly 6 amps!
Just got myself this particular power bank and it's awesome! Totally worth it! And more then that - it charges to 100% with 100W charges in exactly an hour
The measuring the capacity of the battery (the 4 leds) was interesting for me. 1 idea: Many things (phone and much more) work with 1 lipocell. What if you have only a external battery to use this things? You can use a much bigger battery, your phone cannot fall to the ground, old devices can work for ever, it is easy to change the battery and thiefs get a problem :)
Guess what? About phones having a single cell, I have a fairly old but very capable phone (Redmi Note 4x) for which I made an external battery with four 18650 cells after the phone's original battery went completely bad. And yes, I usually attach it to the phone holder of a game controller which I place on a table. I mostly use it for watching movies or as a WiFi hotspot for my other devices (like right now). It's a really cool idea, one that I've been using for months now.
Exactly what I need to transform my drill battery in a power bank, if I connect 2 boards I would be able to get 2 usb c, but of course never connect both to a charger at the same time. Thanks for the video
Any chance you could measure output ripple? Might also be worth mentioning that while IC supports up to 28 VBAT, the board in question is limited to 17V/4S max due to inadequate LDO.
I love this. As a fellow electronics content creator, i can really appreciate this video. People have no idea how much time and effort goes into the research and development process. Keep up the great work Mr. Scott. I love your videos.
The reason they use "fuel gauge" algorithm is that the battery voltage doesn't map to battery remaining capacity. Lithium batteries spend most of their time between 3.5 volts and 4 volts and the voltage isn't indicative of the remaining charge. It is like boiling water in a pot, temperature will plateau at 100C until there isn't water left, at which point the temperature will raise.
I would like to build this but when more cells in parallel. I thought there would be no implications for this but after watching the video, I was surprised to see there was a max AH rating on the battery. Why is this?
Currently DIYing a 148 Wh power bank, won't have PD, but can be retrofitted later if needed. Will have laptop charging with 10 various connectors, 2 USB A ports with quickcharge and charging speed of the powerbank at 35W, while theoretically being able to output 160W. All for around 60€, since I grabbed some 21700 cells on sale from LG after they had an automotive project cancelled and sold out the cells from it, 5 Ah cell for 3.75€ each
I had a laptop powerbank at UNI. 40000mAh/148Wh. It was a literal brick to carry, but it was the only way to have laptop running without searching for a power outlet, which were scarce.
I think the buy one is a better investment in the long run. Once the batteries are no longer holding and discharging properly you can thin reuse that board and add more batteries
hey scott! i was in market for a dolby atmos surround sound home theater. but looking at prices my jaw dropped. i was thinking of building it myself and i thought it would be a great idea for an episode for DIY or buy.
Dolby atmos is proprietary. You won't get a decoder board for it. You can buy super expensive atmos av preprocessors but that defeats the purpose of diy.
Atmos is heavily proprietary and actively protected, even in the usual copyright is a guideline places (ie Russian and Chinese suppliers if you know where to look). You won't be able to DIY for any cheaper than commercial offerings. Dolby actively protect defunct tape noise reduction systems that they haven't licensed in thirty years. They don't let any of their IP go. Even if it's no longer a money earner.
@@medes5597 Maybe we can salvage some parts from older units and use other components like many DIY projects everything doesn't have to be a brand-new component. use the Dolby decoder as a black-box no need to understand all the details just the necessary ones to make it run. even there are some open source surround sound standards that could be used or any workaround. it's a good project to be explored. although I don't know anything substantial to make one myself yet.
@@jitendrasharma8685 that might actually be workable. Atmos probably has more documentation than the older systems too. I did try and get dolby noise reduction working on a tape player I made (solely as a personal project) and the lack of public documentation was what made the task impossible. Atmos must have some hobbyists and such who are working on it. Apologies if I came off too negative, I was remembering my own struggles with dolby systems and how much of a dead end it ended up being and I think I came across way more negative than intended. It's a good idea. Definitely worth exploring. At the very least investigating Atmos from a perspective of recreating it is a good idea regardless of outcome.
That's crazy! Not even hot, must be some crazy low rds-on ohms on those mosfets. And that the usb can handle that much with its small connectors is also insane :D What module did you use to simulate the different charging standards? I see it quickly being shown in the video.
Awesome. If you use 20A for those cells, you could make an electric generator which can be charged at home or by solar panels and use it if you need to camp or in the garage to power a drill or a grinder. And what you have done would solve the problem when watching Netflix on the airplane for like 3hrs using an external monitor. Or a Samsung Tab S8 tablet.
I've got a customer's power bank which has an issue with working from the battery. I can't find the fault in it ;). So, I'm planning to reuse the case, charger, sockets & plugs, 18650's with mounts for them, even the LED. The driver I see here, for me make sense, so, the cost won't be 80 Euro. I've replaced dead 18650's and now all are holding power. This was an inverter as well, but this part works when is in a charge more, so, will work with this design later on. Thank you for this video, gave me ideas how to not create an e-waste, but repurpose as much as I can from an old one :).
Onshape seems another great way to lock your fans into a proprietary eco system. Do people never learn? Those platforms can disappear in a second or decide to raise the prices remove the free tier and then what? Use software installed locally preferable open source, but not necessarily, just make sure it's something that they can't just take away on a whim or raise the prices off. Something of which you are sure your designs are yours and safe and easily exchanged with others.
I just bought the same module, and I found your video with the same module! What a coincidence! Never thought you would cover this module. (ps : subbed you since 2015)
If you source your cells from salvage or in bulk, you can save a good chunk of money. New Samsung 3.2Ah cells sell $2/pc on battery hookup. You must get 30 though.
I know you said you were not going into detail on the battery pack, but 3 seconds to say "after making sure the voltages were all the same..." before welding batteries together wouldn't have been out of place. Certainly more useful than a shot of you cutting nickle strip!
So for the DIY version: What is the usable capacity? With 2.9V it seems like it cuts of a bit early. Is that only under no-load? What about standby-power? And for the bought battery bank - charging- and discharging efficiency?
I think all of these power banks lack a great feature to passthrough without some kind of reset and drop in power output. This one baseus 100w actually have this feature, but will output 30w when charged and "discharged" at the same time(I guess even if it is fully charged). It will be very useful for laptop setup.
Couple years ago I built a charger that utilized power tool batteries. Upgraded it recently and it can discharge at 250 watts with power delivery and everything. Ryobi packs are a great deal at 60 bucks for two 74wh packs as well.
@@ericklein5097 No, three separate charge controllers, two of which are delivering 100 watts each and third is 50 watt with a legacy usb port and usbc port.
I recently bought a similar buck converter off eBay, it’s a 5-32v input 0.8-20v out DC I needed it for voltage step down from my bms to 5v for a d1 mini
building a couple of these out of old gen2 ipads. can get them with broken screen/motherboars for around 8$, and they have a 6500-6900mah battery inside (three pouch cells, each about 2200 mah). since they are prebalanced, you just have to rip out the old screen and logic board, and wire them in series. stick the bms and PD board in and align it with the old holes in the aluminium housing. for a cover, just do 1-2 sheets of fiberglass/arimid weave in a vacume bag with some cheap epoxy between two baking sheets, and then trim it down to shape with a dremel to fit on top. Boom, ultra thin 24wh usbc bank that fits in any laptop case without adding any thickness. whats even cooler is you can do this with gen3 ipads and get hdmi breakout boards for their screens, and then turn a 20$ old dumpster gen3 ipad into a usbc powerbank with built in retnia display screen extension, all in a super slim package. tbh since im only using 3s configuration, i might just omit the BMS since it almost doubles the cost. this is the ultimate usbc gigachad diy project lol, and it saves the environment. ill test each pouch and see if their internal resistances are far off... but i doubt it will be an issue. aliminum housing is a good heatsink but i might put SSD copper heatsink in there if there is enough space, or just epoxy some old copper coins lol
You mentioned that the board stays cool enough to not require any additional cooling. But remember that is in open air and probably with the batteries above 2/3rd charge. Once in an enclosure and under a load it may get hotter. Then once warm already and the battery voltage falls lower it may generate more heat. I may be completely wrong but it's just a thought I had. I am interested in building my own power bank as well. Mine does not need to be small. It will still need to be able to fit in a backpack but not a pocket. So I was curious if anyone knew of a larger size cell that will still work with either an off the shelf pcb or if I need a custom one..know of a design I can use. I'm not electrical engineer and don't know if I trust myself to design such a board that could cause a MAJOR Fire
I managed to start a 2.0l VW Diesel engine with 8 A123 LiFePo cells, 2,5Ah each, weight of the cells about 600g. I assume the current drawn to be around 300-400 Ampere. I did not weld the contacts, but pressed Cu cabels onto the poles.
many battery banks dont have cell balancing, they just pair very similar cells. diy is definitively a more attractive option. i just wish there where at least one full usb port too
The reason it is not able to provide the full 20V 5A is because it does not like low voltage for some reason. If you use a 6S battery, it does provide the full 5A. It also provides the 5A output with a 5S but only above 70% or so, which is when 5S hits 20+ volts.
@Eric Klein sw3518s, sc8815, sc8812 these ICs have been good in my case. There is one on Aliexpress, able to provide 120W 20V at 6A. That one is good. You could try that. It is based on Sc8812 and a protocol chip whose name I do not remember, I think it was something from Chipsea. It could provide the full power, no hiccups.
@@dogukancil5128 yes SC8812A has been good for me too. I havent tried SW3518S but I have tried SW3518 and its a solid trooper that I accidentally pushed way past 60W once. Where did you get SC8815 from? I thought my SC8812A board didn't work but turns out I just needed to charge the cells through the board...which is weird because it worked for a while then almost acted like I had drained the cells even though I hook up all different kinds of power (packs and power supplies). Once I "charged" the cells (or the constantly changing ways to power the board) I was able to rip 120W out of that thing like no ones business. The new SW2302 based boards are trash. Before those were everywhere I bought an SW2303/PL5501 from Feb 22 store and the acrylic case I got with it was like an oven. Never had much luck with that thing unless I had multiple fans blowing on it then I could get it to run at 40-60W for a while
I love your channel. I love this very simple project and I nearly bought the module to power laptop from my 4S DIY Solar battery. But, I read in the Ali-Express description: "The bi-directional c-port of the product can only be connected to one-way appliances or chargers, such as charging heads, mobile phones and other appliances, etc. It is forbidden to link bidirectional c-ports to modules with bidirectional c-ports, which may cause frequent switching between modules that cannot be identified and may be damaged in serious cases." ...I'm not a pro, but I did test my laptop PD socket and it will charge my phone, so it is bi-directional, and I guess this is the same for any PD laptop, this means the module is not suitable to power laptop afterall..? or did I missunderstand?
Commercial power banks almost always use 1S topology which makes for very inefficient step-up to 20V. Even at 9 or 12 volts I measured my power bank a bit less than 74% of the Wh (20Ah * 3.7V battery got 11 Ah at 5V measured). And I'm pretty sure the batteries have the capacity stated at the box. If you have 6s - it'll be mostly stepping down which is very efficient. But if you drop below 20V on the battery it won't have the same efficiency that you measured. So the best efficiency for this pcb would be 6S into 15 volts at most. Oh, yes - about charging your laptop 1.3 times - try it with the commercial one. you won't get even half of it (please, I want to know the result - post reply if you try it).
Under the load that specific BMS get hot. You didn't use any isolation between the BMS and batteries. When it get hot it can easily get shorted out. Another thing is the link of AliExpress you put here sells the Board much more expensive than normal
I think charging a "modern laptop" even fully just one time is pretty good, and all most will need given that your average modern laptop lasts about 5 to 6 hours on a single charge. Easily get your through a full work day, then charge it all when you get home again.
According to the efficiency graph at 8:23 I couldn't understand how board kept cool at 90w output. Looks like efficiency is about 90 percent which means around 9w of energy should be dissipated as heat. How can be the temperature of the board is 45 degree celcius?
Great Video, in fact I just built myself a similar DIY Powerbank with LiFePo4 Cells and this exact chip to charge my Laptop while I'm at uni, but The chip is on a custom board with more Outputs and Inputs (2x USB A, 1x USB C, micro USB and Lightning as well as an DC barrel jack) with an included BMS and Balancing on the same PCB. Its on Aliexpress (as all interesting electronics goodies) and has an display that shows the current percentage and if fast charging is active.
Awesome work as usual. High capacity fast charge battery pack for portable electronics gadgets including fast charging laptop battery dock can be build using your DIY version of power bank.
The price efficiency curve get better along with capacity added. With 200Wh or more battery pack, it would be the true winner worth all effort crafting it.
That store offers a 300wh kit you add batteries to. Based on IP5389 tho. Room to add two more boards so you can get the shell with three boards for $100 for 120W, 120W, 100W outputs. Just add cells and assemble the acrylic walls
Very interesting board. I'm in the middle of building a large solar generator and want to include some usb-c ports on it. I might need to take a look at this one.... But since I'm already making 12v available I might just go the easy route and get one made for 12v. The efficiency will definitely take a hit though getting converted twice.
A friend of mine has a power bank about 1/3 that size that can also output 100w. He uses it to charge his laptop. They're pretty easy to get from most electronics stores...
I only got a brief close up look at the buck boost board but I did see some (but not all) very bad solder connections. Needs to be reflowed with proper flux. I wouldn't use it in anything until this is fixed because longevity and reliability would be questionable. Of course most boards from Asia look similar so this is no exception. You get what you pay for. I keep hoping that the Chinese manufacturers increase their production quality control as time goes on but it is not happening quickly. I think it is comparable to Japanese products in the 1950s and 1960s... it took a couple decades but finally Japanese products became good quality and a good value... Hoping China goes the same way eventually. Your video is top quality as usual. Thanks.
I Just bought a 737 gen 2 140watt anker power bank. All my chargers cables and power banks have been by anker and ive used them for many many years cause of their quality and true mah ratings no bs. Well that flat charger is from beasus and recently purchased a beasus 65watt charger for my gf and i am very very surprised and amused about the quality and true to life usage and mah/watt-hour power rating and they didn’t disappoint i cant wait to see what else they come out with. I used the beasus charger for my steam deck and got alot of extra hours from it.
Super video, it's actually close to a dyi project for my astro gear I need to (re) do (and would not mind some help on component selection): I need a battery bank that output a constant voltage, low noise 12v 10A mini (ideally 20A for overhead), use 4s lipo RC pack (because I have them) and include recharge input/balancing + all the protection possible (event low temp if possible) -> my astro gear is quite dear to me. So from what I can understand I need voltage regulator + bms + a 220v power supply (to 16.8v?), but there is so much ref out there I'm getting lost.
One thing I want to point out is that while it's tempting to create huge power banks, their usefulness is really limited when you consider that you're not allowed to bring battery packs over 100 Wh onto commercial flights without the airline's specific approval. For me, that was the deciding factor to buy an existing battery pack when I was considering my options. Not worth the effort just to squeeze a dozen or so watt-hours more out of it, especially considering that I'll probably be questioned about it at security.
Most people do not spend a significant amount of time on planes to the point they choose what to buy/build with flight in mind. Personally I have been on 3 planes in the last 20 years (a return trip to Italy, and a sightseeing flight to see the aurora borealis), most people nowadays dont fly at all, and modern airlines are more these days aiming flights at a small number of frequent fliers.
@@Debbiebabe69 .....I've been on probably 100 flights in the past 10 years and I don't travel for work. Couple vacations a year, funerals in states you've previously lived, seeing family. I think you're in the minority.
Hey, interesting video, I've broken two of the 100w models you featured. The PD module you linked mentions only 100W is achievable with 20volts, is that why you got 85w (your using ~14v)? I really want a PPS module too, and if it supported PD/QC4 that would be super ideal, but still this is pretty damn good. I also wonder if the protection board could be combined as both boards are 50% of the powerbank cost and that's a bit much for me. Also shout out to the lithium iron phosphate crew, safety first, LiFePo4 for life!
I appreciate that you still maintain the same format as from the beginning of the channel, Videos solely aimed at educating the viewers by sharing your experience and no unnecessary fluff added with channel growth.
You going through the datasheet really brightened up things for me about these boards. Those definitely will be better for projects with higher cell count 4+ and safer than usual charging power adapters. Might add one of those to my speaker to finally have a reliable way of charging the 5s battery inside it.
Go for it ;-)
@@greatscottlab I have a translated version
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xD557-1UVNz3oRqBK0LdAOf3IOp21Wg8?usp=sharing
I would be careful at least above 4+ cells. Because the seller made an hint and there is a comment, which say that a "Triode" is just rated for 16.8V. That isn't even reserve for 4S and probably will blow up at 4+ (which happend to the commentator)
Oh yeah! Can use that board to charge up the 4s2p Battery in my Torch now. Just unfortunate the board does not have separate output pads. Cant use the 4 LEDs
@@somethinks5624 oh yeah, you're right I was scrolling through AliExpress and found a review also mentioning that, I guess I'll wait a bit until there will be a fix or the manufacturer releases a fix ( which probably is unlikely)
Not too long ago I've made my own modular powerbank using laptop batteries. With swappable batteries, and a buck boost converter it provides great results to a USB 3.1. I think I'll revisit it to give me USB C and some power monitoring.
Great Video (:
is it possible to put 16 batteries? of course 16.8V, each cell contains 4 batteries, and of course with a BMS protection circuit, does it work? :)
pm me can you to install do solar panel of charger"
have looked at this exact pcb before as well as the manufacturer. Their stuff seems quality. The product which caught my eye the most was the DIY powerbank from them themselves, where you just add your own batteries. There are different models with different amount of battery holders for example 8, 16 and 24 cells. It uses the same chip IP5389 and in my opinion is the best case scenario because you get both high capacity and easy of use.
Do you have a link to what you have found? I'd like to look more into this.
Plus, I think this board Scott tested seems to have lead connections to monitor the cells itself.
WOW! Thanks for the tip, Jovaras. That store was amazing. I ordered the IP5389 w/ batteries module on the spot. But I doubt it will come with eight batteries (38Wh), probably just four (19Wh) but still a great deal.
@@bfelten1 I think they have 2 versions, one without batteries and one with. I am almost certain that if you buy the version with the batteries it will come with all 8 with the rate capacity of 20800mAh, around 74 Wh. If you bought the 8 battery cell version
Would you mind posting a link? Aliexpress search can be terrible at times :)
Also useful in that shipping batteries internationally can be a real pain, so you can source your batteries locally, but ship the other parts from overseas without issue!
don't forget that over 100wh not allowed on planes
For someone wanting to read the actual guidelines, look for "IATA dangerous goods regulations, table 2.3".
Here it says: "Batteries, spare/loose, [...] power banks are considered as spare batteries [...] Lithium ion batteries: the Watt-hour rating must not exceed 100 Wh".
You are allowed to carry up to 20 seperate batteries though, so just building multiple Powerbanks with 100Wh each would allowed on a plane.
no one said he will use it in a plane
But why?
Pretty sure he's more of a helicopter guy anyway!
You can lie and say it’s lower
The issue is if you want to travel with a power bank, airlines limit power banks to 100wh. That’s why you tend to see most of the sold power banks below 100 wh
And probably any DIY devices without oficially declared specs will get stuff attention anyway.
pm me can you to install do solar panel of charger"
6:00 You can just translate the PDF file in Google Translate
7:40 Would have been interesting to also measure the voltage on the PCB itself. I guess the voltage drop over the cable can't have been that bad, judging by the voltage at 4.6 A. But would still have been interesting to measure it.
Thanks for the feedback :-)
i have a translated version
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xD557-1UVNz3oRqBK0LdAOf3IOp21Wg8?usp=sharing
pm me can you to install do solar panel of charger"
Voltage drop would be insignificant over that very short length, please see VD = R x I x L / 1000
Thank you for making this video
I built an 18650 4s5p power bank.
These modules are excellent and I have 3 installed on battery. Perfect operation at 4s but I've noticed that if you want to hit the 100 watt max you must configure at 6s. Otherwise it will provide 3 amps in all voltages.
I installed a 4s flying capacitor balancer.
The board having a built in bms is super handy.
Thank you.
Hey, sorry to bother you, do you mean that you connected more than one board to the powerbank to get multiple outputs?
If that is the case how does the remaining capacity measurement work?
Do all of them still show the correct value?
Thanks in advance!
It operates as normal the indicator bars are not accurate. I just go off pack voltage. It operates between 11.9v and 16.7v. all of the plugs operate normally even if the indicator indicates empty. They will continue to function until it hits its preset level which is apparently 11.9v.
I've also found that if the modules lose power entirely and 0 volts they need to be reinitialize by plugging it into a live supply
@@nicholashamblin3 thank you for the reply!
FYI when your spot welding cells it should not make any sparks, especially at the lower current levels required for just nickel strip. you might need to apply more pressure or lower your current. for just pure nickel strips I normally use around 30j.
At least he's using a spotwelder. So many videos try to do it with soldering which has it's own issues.
Probably nickel plated steel strips
nickel plated steel sparks a lot. for this underdog powerbank steel is ok.
what are you smoking about? sparks are normal in spot welding. did you spot weld with less than 0.1mm? duhh
@@bakatenchu i spot weld using my k welder through 1.5mm nickel strip over .2mm copper sheet and there is no sparks. if you are using a cheap spot welder with thin probes maybe its more common to see sparks idk but i did a 190 cell battery with my k-weld and rarely ever saw sparks. and I know my welds have ideal strength and penetration. you may want to re-evaluate your welding process.
I have a 48v ebike/scooter battery pack from a wrecked scooter I'm going to make a battery bank from. It charges via 54.6v charger but provides a ton of power. This video gave me ideas for the project. Thanks!
Also I would like to warn anyone that doesn't know this, that the voltage regulator on the board is rated max 18V (me6210) and I've seen images of it burned crisp in 6p configurations. So, as long as the battery voltage is below that, it should be fine. So 4s configs are the best bet for this board, for now.
is it possible to put 16 batteries? of course 16.8V, each cell contains 4 batteries, and of course with a BMS protection circuit, does it work? :)
@@behnamp9174 Do you mean a 4Cell series and 4Cell parallel (16Cells overall) configuration? It should work! But as you said, a proper BMS is needed.
@@AmonadaLP yes yes yes exactly! sorry i saw your comment late. 4 Cells series and 4 Cells parallel which gives 16Cells overall
Ah shoot, I think this is what happened to mine. I replaced R7 with a 27k and it worked fine for a while. Now it doesn't even prompt another device to recognize it's plugged in. Oddly, it still blinks its LEDs, so they must be getting power somewhere.
Suggestions on a replacement component are welcome!
Does anyone have a reference that shows what the LED blinks mean?
I think the company that makes the PCB has its own premade casing and wiring for it too. The only thing with maxing the thing is that you can't take it on a plane unless you can remove the cells, which you probably should've made doable
Its not doable, you don't want an argument with TSA lol
Huh. That reminds me of the big, chunky video batteries at the place I used to work. Those split in half solely so you could legally carry them on a plane.
Under 100wh is good to go. His pack is perfectly fine.
Don’t get the acrylic cases. Turns my sw2303 into an easy bake oven.
Edit oh you’re talking about the 16 or 24 cell powerbank? Wrap the cells in 1200mah fake sleeves. Problem solved.
Longevity was not taken into account.
18650 cells have more than double the lifespan of the pouch cells used in most commercial power banks.
Is it the same with 21700 cells? Those are the cells my powerbank (Anker 737 PowerCore 24K) uses
@@TheStopwatchGod Pouch cells are trash, all other battery forms eg; tube, box & plate are superior.
Yea DIY definitely won this one
Can you tell me why? i was planning to use the pouch cells for this proyect.
@@haloduncan Pouch cells have too much thermal expansion, it's not a solid case, they eventually delaminate, then swell up and fail.
If you have the space, use name brand tubular cell for capacity and longevity. Avoid cheap Chinese pouch cells like they're COVID 👍
I was searching for this kind of board for ages, thank you for the build
Hope you enjoy it!
same!
Hey Scott! I know for some of the PCBs you've created, you shared your blueprints in the description, but have you ever considered selling them already built either with/without components? I know you're busy making content, but I'm interested in buying some of your DIY PCBs you've created and successfully work better than store bought versions. It seems more logical to some viewers vs buying individual parts that sometimes only come in bulk. Thanks.
I got a 110Wh, 90W powerbank for $70. I've done a DIY pack before, I'm very happy with the purchased one. ☺️ The safety features are primary in my mind.
This is a very useful video. Thank you! 90W is indeed very good. I bought several Romoss Battery Banks and none of them quite live up to the advertising. I paid about $1.05 per watt hour. Would be super nice to add PD, USB micro and another USB-C port. Then your DIY version would be King. I guess you could even incorporate a display if you wanted to get really fancy. But I would be happy with your 90W model just as it is. Bravo !! BTW...my test of the Romoss 65W, 40,000mAh unit gave about 27,000mAh at 500mA, 4.91v discharge rate.
To make your own powerbank, you need to:
- know Ohm's law and how to wire banks in parallel/series to achieve desired output voltage/power
- know how to measure output voltages of each battery (unless you want your powerbank to set your house on fire after a few charges)
- know how to spotweld
- know what gage of wire you need to use
- know if the batteries you use have their own BMS or if you need your own
- know to just buy a commercial product if you aren't capable of understanding any of the above
Thank you for this heads up
Wow that’s something I’ve always wanted to build with all the leftover 18650 cells I’ve scavenged out of old laptop batteries. Heck yeah that’s a nice build!
Glad you liked it :-) And happy building :-)
You would have to test every single one first and be careful what you mix and match. A bad cell in your pack can bring down performance or start a fire. Unbalanced cells have issues.
Me: casually looking at my 50ah homemade 18650 battery pack from scavenged laptop batteries ... It runs a mini inverter and is charged by solar. For small electronics when no power. With direct DC outputs too. Only 5v and 12v simple stuff though...
@@XxTWMLxX
how can you be sure it won't burn down your house
@@Henry-sv3wv you can’t but you can fuse each cell Tesla style or not use any cell below 80% state of health. That makes things much safer. Most problems are from people not properly testing all cells then pushing a 10 year old cell with a resistance of 227 milliohms to 1+ amp during a high load when the cell has 900mah out of an original 2200mah.
That cell screams “internal short full of dendrites” and you’d easily catch it by doing the proper testing.
I'm not sure if it's your left-handedness or simply the angle of the camera, but I love seeing your paper notes/explanations; they are so easy to read!
It may also have to do with the European numerals as well :) But mostly the camera angle and depth of field on the subject (what he's writing)
I've had no luck with their 120W board. I think it gets way too hot and shuts down any time I try to pull over 60W. The inductor on that board isn't the same as what I have on my SC8812A board and the different SW2303 boards.
Same with 2 versions of the SW2303 and I'm using the LG MJ1 so same output capacity but not paralleled like you.
EDIT: SC8812A board is now working trouble free. You gave me a hmmmmm moment when I realized I had never charged the cells through the board like you did. Glad I had my 5P pack because it charged at nearly 6 amps!
This is the post that convinced me to support on Patreon . Well deserved. Thank you for your dedication and contribution to learning
DIY is better than Buying!
Not every time
Well,....it depends. Buy is usually a bit cheaper but not as customizable as DIY. Both have their place.
@@greatscottlab He said 'better than' not 'cheaper than'....and I agree, DIYing is much more fun..hence better😉
@@apurvsharma1261 Yes! I agree!
@@greatscottlab DIY is cheaper, more fun and improves our knowledge!
Just got myself this particular power bank and it's awesome! Totally worth it! And more then that - it charges to 100% with 100W charges in exactly an hour
Where did you buy??
The measuring the capacity of the battery (the 4 leds) was interesting for me.
1 idea: Many things (phone and much more) work with 1 lipocell. What if you have only a external battery to use this things? You can use a much bigger battery, your phone cannot fall to the ground, old devices can work for ever, it is easy to change the battery and thiefs get a problem :)
Nice
Guess what? About phones having a single cell, I have a fairly old but very capable phone (Redmi Note 4x) for which I made an external battery with four 18650 cells after the phone's original battery went completely bad. And yes, I usually attach it to the phone holder of a game controller which I place on a table. I mostly use it for watching movies or as a WiFi hotspot for my other devices (like right now).
It's a really cool idea, one that I've been using for months now.
I have a few old ipods and iphones with completely dead batteries. They work perfectly fine using a powerbank.
Exactly what I need to transform my drill battery in a power bank, if I connect 2 boards I would be able to get 2 usb c, but of course never connect both to a charger at the same time. Thanks for the video
Any chance you could measure output ripple? Might also be worth mentioning that while IC supports up to 28 VBAT, the board in question is limited to 17V/4S max due to inadequate LDO.
That's a shame, as this seems like it'd match well with an 18V power tool battery.
I bought 11.11 baseus 100w power bank 20000mah for $44 + $16 shipping = $60. I think this is the best option for this price. (bought on Taobao)
I love this.
As a fellow electronics content creator, i can really appreciate this video. People have no idea how much time and effort goes into the research and development process.
Keep up the great work Mr. Scott. I love your videos.
Glad you enjoyed it!
The reason they use "fuel gauge" algorithm is that the battery voltage doesn't map to battery remaining capacity.
Lithium batteries spend most of their time between 3.5 volts and 4 volts and the voltage isn't indicative of the remaining charge.
It is like boiling water in a pot, temperature will plateau at 100C until there isn't water left, at which point the temperature will raise.
Bingo. Fuel gauges are useless for lithium ion and flat out misleading for LiFePO4
I would like to build this but when more cells in parallel. I thought there would be no implications for this but after watching the video, I was surprised to see there was a max AH rating on the battery. Why is this?
is it possible to put 16 batteries? of course 16.8V, each cell contains 4 batteries, and of course with a BMS protection circuit, does it work? :)
@@behnamp9174 so far so good. according to spec sheets it’s actually the default 4s4p configuration.
Wheres the links for the two pcbs in the build? You have only shown the small one not the two big ones. Thanks
It's definitely tempting to build one with a large capacity, but then it would be even more frustrating to only have one output I guess
They have PCB's that can be superimposed on each other. The problem with this one might be the battery management.
I’ve wanted to build a 300+Wh battery that can input/output with the latest 240W usb pd. Now I know it would be easier than I previous thought.
This board only does 100w (or 90). I haven't yet seen an ic for 240w
Is there any link to the BMS?
Currently DIYing a 148 Wh power bank, won't have PD, but can be retrofitted later if needed. Will have laptop charging with 10 various connectors, 2 USB A ports with quickcharge and charging speed of the powerbank at 35W, while theoretically being able to output 160W. All for around 60€, since I grabbed some 21700 cells on sale from LG after they had an automotive project cancelled and sold out the cells from it, 5 Ah cell for 3.75€ each
It amazes me that so much power can go through such small USB
It can partly power my PS5, or even my desktop PC or my whole house
@@tomer4566 It can *partly* power New York, that's the thing about the word "partly"
I had a laptop powerbank at UNI. 40000mAh/148Wh. It was a literal brick to carry, but it was the only way to have laptop running without searching for a power outlet, which were scarce.
What spotwelder did you use for the battery tabs? I'm looking for something that's not to expensive for some future projects.
I am using the kWelder.
I think the buy one is a better investment in the long run. Once the batteries are no longer holding and discharging properly you can thin reuse that board and add more batteries
You can with the DIY one though
hey scott! i was in market for a dolby atmos surround sound home theater. but looking at prices my jaw dropped. i was thinking of building it myself and i thought it would be a great idea for an episode for DIY or buy.
Dolby atmos is proprietary. You won't get a decoder board for it. You can buy super expensive atmos av preprocessors but that defeats the purpose of diy.
Atmos is heavily proprietary and actively protected, even in the usual copyright is a guideline places (ie Russian and Chinese suppliers if you know where to look). You won't be able to DIY for any cheaper than commercial offerings.
Dolby actively protect defunct tape noise reduction systems that they haven't licensed in thirty years. They don't let any of their IP go. Even if it's no longer a money earner.
@@medes5597 Maybe we can salvage some parts from older units and use other components like many DIY projects everything doesn't have to be a brand-new component. use the Dolby decoder as a black-box no need to understand all the details just the necessary ones to make it run. even there are some open source surround sound standards that could be used or any workaround. it's a good project to be explored. although I don't know anything substantial to make one myself yet.
@@jitendrasharma8685 that might actually be workable. Atmos probably has more documentation than the older systems too.
I did try and get dolby noise reduction working on a tape player I made (solely as a personal project) and the lack of public documentation was what made the task impossible. Atmos must have some hobbyists and such who are working on it.
Apologies if I came off too negative, I was remembering my own struggles with dolby systems and how much of a dead end it ended up being and I think I came across way more negative than intended. It's a good idea. Definitely worth exploring. At the very least investigating Atmos from a perspective of recreating it is a good idea regardless of outcome.
Recently I bought an alliexpress board that have 100W output and 2 usb A, 1 USB C, 1 micro usb and 1 lightning, with integraded bms. it works fine
That's crazy! Not even hot, must be some crazy low rds-on ohms on those mosfets.
And that the usb can handle that much with its small connectors is also insane :D
What module did you use to simulate the different charging standards? I see it quickly being shown in the video.
It is USB-C PD Trigger board. Just search for it on Google or similar ;-)
Awesome. If you use 20A for those cells, you could make an electric generator which can be charged at home or by solar panels and use it if you need to camp or in the garage to power a drill or a grinder.
And what you have done would solve the problem when watching Netflix on the airplane for like 3hrs using an external monitor. Or a Samsung Tab S8 tablet.
don't tell my girlfriend 44 minutes ain't long
When I saw the title and thumbnail I just KNEW you were going to say something about the awesomeness of usb-c.
Usb-c is pretty cool I agree.
It is super cool :-) Will be very big in the future
I've got a customer's power bank which has an issue with working from the battery. I can't find the fault in it ;). So, I'm planning to reuse the case, charger, sockets & plugs, 18650's with mounts for them, even the LED. The driver I see here, for me make sense, so, the cost won't be 80 Euro. I've replaced dead 18650's and now all are holding power. This was an inverter as well, but this part works when is in a charge more, so, will work with this design later on.
Thank you for this video, gave me ideas how to not create an e-waste, but repurpose as much as I can from an old one :).
Onshape seems another great way to lock your fans into a proprietary eco system. Do people never learn? Those platforms can disappear in a second or decide to raise the prices remove the free tier and then what?
Use software installed locally preferable open source, but not necessarily, just make sure it's something that they can't just take away on a whim or raise the prices off. Something of which you are sure your designs are yours and safe and easily exchanged with others.
I just bought the same module, and I found your video with the same module!
What a coincidence!
Never thought you would cover this module. (ps : subbed you since 2015)
If you source your cells from salvage or in bulk, you can save a good chunk of money. New Samsung 3.2Ah cells sell $2/pc on battery hookup. You must get 30 though.
I know you said you were not going into detail on the battery pack, but 3 seconds to say "after making sure the voltages were all the same..." before welding batteries together wouldn't have been out of place. Certainly more useful than a shot of you cutting nickle strip!
I wonder if it would be possible to change the reported max power draw of the board to 90W in order to keep the voltage in the correct range.
So for the DIY version:
What is the usable capacity? With 2.9V it seems like it cuts of a bit early. Is that only under no-load? What about standby-power?
And for the bought battery bank - charging- and discharging efficiency?
I think all of these power banks lack a great feature to passthrough without some kind of reset and drop in power output.
This one baseus 100w actually have this feature, but will output 30w when charged and "discharged" at the same time(I guess even if it is fully charged). It will be very useful for laptop setup.
Couple years ago I built a charger that utilized power tool batteries. Upgraded it recently and it can discharge at 250 watts with power delivery and everything. Ryobi packs are a great deal at 60 bucks for two 74wh packs as well.
PD output is 250W?
@@ericklein5097 No, three separate charge controllers, two of which are delivering 100 watts each and third is 50 watt with a legacy usb port and usbc port.
I recently bought a similar buck converter off eBay, it’s a 5-32v input 0.8-20v out DC I needed it for voltage step down from my bms to 5v for a d1 mini
building a couple of these out of old gen2 ipads. can get them with broken screen/motherboars for around 8$, and they have a 6500-6900mah battery inside (three pouch cells, each about 2200 mah). since they are prebalanced, you just have to rip out the old screen and logic board, and wire them in series. stick the bms and PD board in and align it with the old holes in the aluminium housing. for a cover, just do 1-2 sheets of fiberglass/arimid weave in a vacume bag with some cheap epoxy between two baking sheets, and then trim it down to shape with a dremel to fit on top. Boom, ultra thin 24wh usbc bank that fits in any laptop case without adding any thickness.
whats even cooler is you can do this with gen3 ipads and get hdmi breakout boards for their screens, and then turn a 20$ old dumpster gen3 ipad into a usbc powerbank with built in retnia display screen extension, all in a super slim package.
tbh since im only using 3s configuration, i might just omit the BMS since it almost doubles the cost. this is the ultimate usbc gigachad diy project lol, and it saves the environment. ill test each pouch and see if their internal resistances are far off... but i doubt it will be an issue. aliminum housing is a good heatsink but i might put SSD copper heatsink in there if there is enough space, or just epoxy some old copper coins lol
I have about 200 of those batteries. Put 2 in a little 7.2v screw gun to replace the dead nicads. Works like a charm.
Your voice is so clear and easy to listen too. 👍
You mentioned that the board stays cool enough to not require any additional cooling. But remember that is in open air and probably with the batteries above 2/3rd charge. Once in an enclosure and under a load it may get hotter.
Then once warm already and the battery voltage falls lower it may generate more heat. I may be completely wrong but it's just a thought I had. I am interested in building my own power bank as well. Mine does not need to be small. It will still need to be able to fit in a backpack but not a pocket. So I was curious if anyone knew of a larger size cell that will still work with either an off the shelf pcb or if I need a custom one..know of a design I can use. I'm not electrical engineer and don't know if I trust myself to design such a board that could cause a MAJOR Fire
I managed to start a 2.0l VW Diesel engine with 8 A123 LiFePo cells, 2,5Ah each, weight of the cells about 600g. I assume the current drawn to be around 300-400 Ampere. I did not weld the contacts, but pressed Cu cabels onto the poles.
Well thats kinda cheating....those A123 ANR26650M1B's put out some serious amperage. To this day nothing really comes close
I Really like your videos, thank you for all your efforts. i admire you working method, patience, and organization
Excellent build, shame there's not a bigger difference in cost savings. But the bigger battery size is a plus.
Definitely ;-)
You can use an USB Hub to extend the usb ports. And if you want to put type c ports, just use a converter to convert the usb type a to type c.
Type A doesn't support 20V
?
many battery banks dont have cell balancing, they just pair very similar cells. diy is definitively a more attractive option. i just wish there where at least one full usb port too
Well the extra 20E seem pretty good value considering:
1) peace of mind
2) no time wasted
3) Display + multiport + quality materials
The reason it is not able to provide the full 20V 5A is because it does not like low voltage for some reason. If you use a 6S battery, it does provide the full 5A. It also provides the 5A output with a 5S but only above 70% or so, which is when 5S hits 20+ volts.
Using a power supply at 16.6V with 10 Amps available I still find many of these boards fail at 3-4A from heat
@Eric Klein sw3518s, sc8815, sc8812 these ICs have been good in my case. There is one on Aliexpress, able to provide 120W 20V at 6A. That one is good. You could try that. It is based on Sc8812 and a protocol chip whose name I do not remember, I think it was something from Chipsea. It could provide the full power, no hiccups.
@@dogukancil5128 yes SC8812A has been good for me too. I havent tried SW3518S but I have tried SW3518 and its a solid trooper that I accidentally pushed way past 60W once. Where did you get SC8815 from?
I thought my SC8812A board didn't work but turns out I just needed to charge the cells through the board...which is weird because it worked for a while then almost acted like I had drained the cells even though I hook up all different kinds of power (packs and power supplies). Once I "charged" the cells (or the constantly changing ways to power the board) I was able to rip 120W out of that thing like no ones business.
The new SW2302 based boards are trash. Before those were everywhere I bought an SW2303/PL5501 from Feb 22 store and the acrylic case I got with it was like an oven. Never had much luck with that thing unless I had multiple fans blowing on it then I could get it to run at 40-60W for a while
I love your channel. I love this very simple project and I nearly bought the module to power laptop from my 4S DIY Solar battery.
But, I read in the Ali-Express description: "The bi-directional c-port of the product can only be connected to one-way appliances or chargers, such as charging heads, mobile phones and other appliances, etc. It is forbidden to link bidirectional c-ports to modules with bidirectional c-ports, which may cause frequent switching between modules that cannot be identified and may be damaged in serious cases."
...I'm not a pro, but I did test my laptop PD socket and it will charge my phone, so it is bi-directional, and I guess this is the same for any PD laptop, this means the module is not suitable to power laptop afterall..? or did I missunderstand?
The buy option is from Baseus if you were wondering
Commercial power banks almost always use 1S topology which makes for very inefficient step-up to 20V. Even at 9 or 12 volts I measured my power bank a bit less than 74% of the Wh (20Ah * 3.7V battery got 11 Ah at 5V measured). And I'm pretty sure the batteries have the capacity stated at the box. If you have 6s - it'll be mostly stepping down which is very efficient. But if you drop below 20V on the battery it won't have the same efficiency that you measured. So the best efficiency for this pcb would be 6S into 15 volts at most.
Oh, yes - about charging your laptop 1.3 times - try it with the commercial one. you won't get even half of it (please, I want to know the result - post reply if you try it).
Under the load that specific BMS get hot. You didn't use any isolation between the BMS and batteries. When it get hot it can easily get shorted out. Another thing is the link of AliExpress you put here sells the Board much more expensive than normal
Excellent job obtaining the required specs from the Chinese datasheet.
This is very timely, I was just thinking of doing this project this week!
I think charging a "modern laptop" even fully just one time is pretty good, and all most will need given that your average modern laptop lasts about 5 to 6 hours on a single charge. Easily get your through a full work day, then charge it all when you get home again.
So if you add a second one of the usb c pcb you could charge and discharge at the same time. Effectively making a UPS
Been playing with this board myself. I personally love that it also supports LiFePO4, which while stores less energy is a lot safer than Li-Ion
Less energy by weight. As long as you don't need the pack to be mobile that is not so important. Safety is important.
Have you been able to output 100W PD for more than 5 min?
According to the efficiency graph at 8:23 I couldn't understand how board kept cool at 90w output. Looks like efficiency is about 90 percent which means around 9w of energy should be dissipated as heat. How can be the temperature of the board is 45 degree celcius?
There are these 12V ones for a wifi router they make use of 3 li-ion cells in series. This one has more cells.
Great Video, in fact I just built myself a similar DIY Powerbank with LiFePo4 Cells and this exact chip to charge my Laptop while I'm at uni, but The chip is on a custom board with more Outputs and Inputs (2x USB A, 1x USB C, micro USB and Lightning as well as an DC barrel jack) with an included BMS and Balancing on the same PCB. Its on Aliexpress (as all interesting electronics goodies) and has an display that shows the current percentage and if fast charging is active.
Sounds like a good project :-)
Can you give a part number for that chip?
@@stevebabiak6997 It's a ip2368, cf 1:39 😉
Awesome work as usual.
High capacity fast charge battery pack for portable electronics gadgets including fast charging laptop battery dock can be build using your DIY version of power bank.
You can charge it less than 3 hrs for the LG MH1 Cell and 3 hours for 3 parallel 4 cells.
The price efficiency curve get better along with capacity added. With 200Wh or more battery pack, it would be the true winner worth all effort crafting it.
That store offers a 300wh kit you add batteries to. Based on IP5389 tho. Room to add two more boards so you can get the shell with three boards for $100 for 120W, 120W, 100W outputs. Just add cells and assemble the acrylic walls
I'm using 1.8ah 18650 LiFePO4 cells in my projects. They charge and discharge at 1C. This looks like an interesting board.
Very interesting board. I'm in the middle of building a large solar generator and want to include some usb-c ports on it. I might need to take a look at this one.... But since I'm already making 12v available I might just go the easy route and get one made for 12v. The efficiency will definitely take a hit though getting converted twice.
Does the IP2368 support charge + passthrough simultaneously?
I am currently also a designing a power bank with 8 cells in onshape so this video is a big help for me :)
A friend of mine has a power bank about 1/3 that size that can also output 100w. He uses it to charge his laptop. They're pretty easy to get from most electronics stores...
Do you have the CAD model for the DIY enclosure you could share? I don't think I see it in the description.
I only got a brief close up look at the buck boost board but I did see some (but not all) very bad solder connections. Needs to be reflowed with proper flux. I wouldn't use it in anything until this is fixed because longevity and reliability would be questionable. Of course most boards from Asia look similar so this is no exception. You get what you pay for. I keep hoping that the Chinese manufacturers increase their production quality control as time goes on but it is not happening quickly. I think it is comparable to Japanese products in the 1950s and 1960s... it took a couple decades but finally Japanese products became good quality and a good value... Hoping China goes the same way eventually.
Your video is top quality as usual. Thanks.
They finally got this PCB an inductor and mosfets that work at full output. Some of the other boards I own and they won’t go over 60W
I Just bought a 737 gen 2 140watt anker power bank. All my chargers cables and power banks have been by anker and ive used them for many many years cause of their quality and true mah ratings no bs. Well that flat charger is from beasus and recently purchased a beasus 65watt charger for my gf and i am very very surprised and amused about the quality and true to life usage and mah/watt-hour power rating and they didn’t disappoint i cant wait to see what else they come out with. I used the beasus charger for my steam deck and got alot of extra hours from it.
Yes. He is Great. Great Scott
Super video, it's actually close to a dyi project for my astro gear I need to (re) do (and would not mind some help on component selection): I need a battery bank that output a constant voltage, low noise 12v 10A mini (ideally 20A for overhead), use 4s lipo RC pack (because I have them) and include recharge input/balancing + all the protection possible (event low temp if possible) -> my astro gear is quite dear to me. So from what I can understand I need voltage regulator + bms + a 220v power supply (to 16.8v?), but there is so much ref out there I'm getting lost.
I'll go with the buy version.
One thing I want to point out is that while it's tempting to create huge power banks, their usefulness is really limited when you consider that you're not allowed to bring battery packs over 100 Wh onto commercial flights without the airline's specific approval. For me, that was the deciding factor to buy an existing battery pack when I was considering my options. Not worth the effort just to squeeze a dozen or so watt-hours more out of it, especially considering that I'll probably be questioned about it at security.
If you’re smart you re sleeve your MJ1’s with some old 1200mah sleeve design. Let the TSA do the math 💁
Most people do not spend a significant amount of time on planes to the point they choose what to buy/build with flight in mind. Personally I have been on 3 planes in the last 20 years (a return trip to Italy, and a sightseeing flight to see the aurora borealis), most people nowadays dont fly at all, and modern airlines are more these days aiming flights at a small number of frequent fliers.
@@Debbiebabe69 .....I've been on probably 100 flights in the past 10 years and I don't travel for work. Couple vacations a year, funerals in states you've previously lived, seeing family. I think you're in the minority.
Just this morning I searched for making one of these to extend my laptop battery, thank you!
Glad I could help!
waiting for this, very interesting video, I hope more power related videos will come ... more power to GREAT 👍👍👍👍 SCOTT !
More to come! ;-)
Adding battery holder will not add a lot of volume, but adds an option to replace some dead cells in future.
Cell holders are a no no because the contacts don't do well above 5A. Jehu Garcia had a lot of trouble with this and his PCB boards
Hey, interesting video, I've broken two of the 100w models you featured. The PD module you linked mentions only 100W is achievable with 20volts, is that why you got 85w (your using ~14v)? I really want a PPS module too, and if it supported PD/QC4 that would be super ideal, but still this is pretty damn good. I also wonder if the protection board could be combined as both boards are 50% of the powerbank cost and that's a bit much for me. Also shout out to the lithium iron phosphate crew, safety first, LiFePo4 for life!
Do you have a DIY UPS for 12v electronics such as routers? or a recommendation which PCBs to look at?
I bought a lumenier 225 watt 972 Wh power bank to change my drone batteries on the go. This looks like a cool project.