Voltix 8000mAh Solar Power Bank w/LED

Deal Chatter Electronics
2

[Preview 1][Preview 2][Preview 3]

Voltix 8000mAh Solar Power Bank w/LED
Price: $16.99 - 29.99
Shipping Options:: $5 Standard
Shipping Estimates: Ships in 3-5 business days. (Tuesday, Aug 30 to Friday, Sep 02) + transit
Condition: New

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Previous Similar Sales (May not be exact model)
6/9/2016 - $19.99 (Woot Plus)

3

" Can charge two devices at the same time. " ?

Picture only shows one USB to charge devices and micro USB port to charge the Power Bank. Is there another port somewhere else not shown?

4

Also: “Kindly note, the Solar panel is only designed for emergencies. It is not a primary source of charging.”

What’s the point of a solar charger if you have to plug it in to charge? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having a solar charger?

5

[QUOTE=bigfoot013, post:3, topic:610077]
" Can charge two devices at the same time. " ?

Picture only shows one USB to charge devices and micro USB port to charge the Power Bank. Is there another port somewhere else not shown?
[/quote]

Hmmm. That’s a good question. We are going to ask the vendor and till we have an answer we are going to remove any mention of the “dual ports” to prevent confusion.

I expect we’ll have an answer tomorrow morning.

6

[QUOTE=bigfoot013, post:3, topic:610077]
" Can charge two devices at the same time. " ?

Picture only shows one USB to charge devices and micro USB port to charge the Power Bank. Is there another port somewhere else not shown?
[/quote]

Must be for the two pack. :-/

If you look closely at the picture,it doesn’t have a micro USB port. Instead it has a super-special “mirco” USB port.

Also, the back has some interesting specs, which could be useful, as the listing is lacking anything but the physical dimensions.

The battery has a capacity of “8000mAh”
The solar panel is… “Solar Panel: 5V/200mAH”

I wonder is they meant to use “mAh” for the battery and “mAH” for the panel. They certainly shouldn’t be in the same units. Unless the solar panel will die after one hour, which might not be out of the question.

mAh is a measure of capacity. The solar panel should be measured with a rate. mA (or mW) not mAh.

Assuming they meant 200 mA at 5V, that’s 1VA, or 1 Watt.

8000mAh at 3.7v is 8Ah * 3.7V = 29.6 VA hours, or 29.6 Watt hours.

In an ideal world, with 100% efficiency and realistic specs, it would take about 30 hours to charge via solar.

Assume, say, 50% efficiency on the solar panel and 80% on the DC/DC conversions in the power pack, and you’re talking 74 hours to charge–over three days.

And don’t forget that in most places of the world, the sun doesn’t shine for about half of that time. So 6 days.

Between that and the piss-poor translation, this thing just screams, “POS!!!”

No, thanks.

7

What is the panel wattage? I’ld like to work out what is the maximum current draw I can pull that will run a low power device (such as an arduino or raspberry pi zero or bbc micro bit) from this continuously under normal (South Texas) daylight levels.

Or to ask an equivalent question that may be easier to answer, how long does one of these have to sit in the sun to fully recharge if it is expended?

(And assuming the cell inside is lithium, is it possible to fully expend the battery by using an attached device - remembering that lithium cells should not be deeply discharged if you want them to last - or is there a battery controller that will cut off output power once the battery depletes to a recommended minimum level?)

btw Amazon has similar devices for less (if you have Prime shipping) eg https://www.amazon.com/Charger-External-Battery-Portable-GPS-Black/dp/B01GZR7428/ref=sr_1_5?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1472111121&sr=1-5&keywords=solar+charger&refinements=p_36%3A-1800 and larger battery devices for around the same price. (Though watch out for those astroturfed reviews)

8

I’d have real concerns leaving a lithium ion battery in a black case in the bright sun to charge.

9

[QUOTE=gtoal, post:7, topic:610077]
What is the panel wattage? I’ld like to work out what is the maximum current draw I can pull that will run a low power device (such as an arduino or raspberry pi zero or bbc micro bit) from this continuously under normal (South Texas) daylight levels.

[/quote]

See post directly above yours…

10

FWIW I have a similar charger (tho it is silver in color and came from an auction site) and the solar panel takes forever to charge it fully. Mine generally just sits in the windowsill til I need it to run a bluetooth speaker that dies while I am working outside, or if I am going off the grid, camping or boating etc.
I bought it as a backup for my tablet when we went on a barefoot cruise in the Carib (pre-Zika) and it served my needs well.

11

Devices like this are not ever really designed to charge directly from the solar panel. If you’re backpacking, or in some kind of zombie apocalypse scenario, the solar charger will be enough to get an emergency half-chage for your phone after a good sunny day.

During our last hurricane outage, a device like this kept me going, but I kept the phone in low power mode. Voice service was down anyway and data was sporadic so there wasn’t much to do other than texting, but in the end I was reasonably glad I had it.

Treat it like any power bank, with a little extra “oomph” when you’re absolutely in need of it. For something more permanent, you need a much bigger panel.

Physics is a harsh mistress.

12

[QUOTE=birdoprey5, post:8, topic:610077]
I’d have real concerns leaving a lithium ion battery in a black case in the bright sun to charge.
[/quote]

Yeah you are right on with this. Batteries also do not charge efficiently when hot. The way I first realized this was because I use a window mounted holder on my cell phone in my car. On hot days the battery would not charge at all (2.4 amp charger), in fact it was still discharging as I drove.The phone was getting pretty hot getting direct sun from that window mount. Once I allowed the phone to cool and put it in the cupholder, it charged fine. Everything was constant, I was using the same fixed, always on, screen brightness and the same apps were open.

This is really a gimmick item that seems like a good idea when in fact it’s not. If I were to design this, the solar panel would be removable so that you could place the panel in the direct sun while the battery was in another cooler location- but even then, it’s a much faster charge to just plug it in to a good charger.

13

Many vendors of similar products on the mothership mention the following:

Basically these are just storage banks that happen to come with a small solar panel. If you leave it in the sun long enough it might pick up some charge, but don’t count on it.

If you are really interested in using solar for charging, get one of the foldable two or three panel units and use it to charge a stand alone power bank.

14

Will it work with a Mac?

15

And that’s the problem with this type of thing… during an emergency the phones wont work so whats the point of a phone having a charge… and during a zombie apocalypse the last thing I will be worried about is being able to logon to facebook - I would rather have another case of ammo.

16

It’s for charging your iPod (for music, didn’t you see Book of Eli?) and eBook reader (for all the survival stuff you put on it)…

17

But what if you need to post a selfie of you with the zombies before and after you shoot them?

18

[QUOTE=bigfoot013, post:3, topic:610077]
" Can charge two devices at the same time. " ?

Picture only shows one USB to charge devices and micro USB port to charge the Power Bank. Is there another port somewhere else not shown?
[/quote]

From the vendor:
There is one USB port only.

19

-Smart LED Display
Another reason not to buy this is there is NO LED display. It is an LCD display. There is an LED “flashlight” on the other side. Maybe the solar panel is there to power the LCD display LOL.

20

It depends on what you mean by “the phones won’t work”. Often the towers ARE functioning, but are overwhelmed with knuckleheads using up bandwidth- (“OMG! Can you believe it? I was so scared! I was, like, LITERALLY dying!!! I know right?! blah blah blah”) Text messages often CAN get through and use SUBSTANTIALLY less bandwidth. Phones will often retry to send the message until it gets through without the user messing with it.

I get that hearing your loved ones voice is important to you, but a text message that says: “Humans and pets safe, headed to Woot HQ for shelter. Need food and clothes.” Allows the other people in the area to send messages to THEIR loved ones as well.