USB Power bank without on/power button?

InceptionHosting

Bit of an odd one but is anyone aware of any sub power banks that have no power button, I.e. they just put out power if something is plugged in?

Working on a little project to power a 5v camera from a power bank, the issue I have with all the ones I have is that I can solar charge them all but if it ever drains the battery bank it will charge again via solar but I need to manually switch it on again.

Just looking for something dumb that puts out power if it has it and has something plugged in.

Hard to find it seems.

MikeA

I have a bunch of 21000~ mAh power banks from Blackwell and Ravpower. Both power on with USB lights instantly, these are newer ones with USB-C though so a bit expensive.

Adam

The Ec Technology Power Bank does this. It's also 22400 mAh it just powers when connected.

dahartigan

Most of those will turn themselves off when it no longer detects a relatively heavy load (like charging a device) so it's by design that they switch off, for it to stay on would be undesired.

You can hack these to believe they are under load if you put a 22 ohm resistor across it every 1 second (or build a circuit with a 555 to do it) etc

joepie91

Huh, all the powerbanks I've used just detected power draw. SilverCrest (Lidl's own brand), Trust, and some no-brand thing from the local discount store (Action). I don't think I've ever seen one with an explicit power button?

Edit: Don't the Anker PowerCores also just detect power draw?

WSS

@AnthonySmith I'm too cheap to know of one, but this sure seems like a good use for either a capacitor or a 555 timer.

Neoon

Well, most power banks, have a button but they measure the current flow, if the flow goes close to zero, they cut power after x seconds.
So if your camera stays online 24/7 sounds not like an issue to me, just need to push the button once.

Only issue would be if you drain the power bank and it cuts off the output or runs dry.
Or your camera is not drawing enough and the power bank cuts off the power.

There is a PSU backup LIPO pack for the raspberry pi but its tiny and expensive, it charges itself via USB, passes through the power and when the solar panel goes offline, it does a fallback to the LIPO and powers stuff from that.

InceptionHosting

Actually @Neoon that gives me an idea, I guess I could use one of the spare arduino’s I have laying about to pass the power through after detecting current for more than 30 minutes or something.

The problem I have is that the banks I have work fine, you plug a load in and they just work, no need to press the button, the issue is that if we get 3 overcast days in a row which is very common here then there is not enough sun to keep it running, the power bank fully drains.

The sun comes out again and charges the power bank however the camera will not switch on again until I press the power button on the usb bank or take the cable out and plug it back in again.

I think I can solve that with an arduino.

The setup will be remote and outdoors in a weatherproof project box.

WSS

@AnthonySmith said:
I think I can solve that with an arduino.

koff

https://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/TechTip/555-timer-tutorial.html

dahartigan

Never use an arduino for a job that a good old 555 can handle. Having said that, an attiny85 can be run with minimal external components with the same package size, so yeah, there's that lol

WSS

@dahartigan said:
Never use an arduino for a job that a good old 555 can handle. Having said that, an attiny85 can be run with minimal external components with the same package size, so yeah, there's that lol

Bitch - I cut you!

Bitch! I love you!

InceptionHosting

I dont see how to have a 555 timer wait until it sees the solar giving the usb bank 30 minutes of charge before powering on the camera?

Ympker

Hmm, that's quite an interesting question. I'd be interested in a solution too..for science purposes. Tag me if you find smth @AnthonySmith

InceptionHosting

@Ympker said:
Hmm, that's quite an interesting question. I'd be interested in a solution too..for science purposes. Tag me if you find smth @AnthonySmith

Looks like the best option: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LQ1UP74

Ympker

@AnthonySmith said:

@Ympker said:
Hmm, that's quite an interesting question. I'd be interested in a solution too..for science purposes. Tag me if you find smth @AnthonySmith

Looks like the best option: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LQ1UP74

Will check it out, thanks

InceptionHosting

@Ympker said:

@AnthonySmith said:

@Ympker said:
Hmm, that's quite an interesting question. I'd be interested in a solution too..for science purposes. Tag me if you find smth @AnthonySmith

Looks like the best option: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LQ1UP74

Will check it out, thanks

Just got 8 x of these cheepies to go with it: https://eu.nkon.nl/rechargeable/li-ion/18650-size/sony-konion-us18650vc7-3500mah-8a.html to go with it

WSS

@AnthonySmith said:
I dont see how to have a 555 timer wait until it sees the solar giving the usb bank 30 minutes of charge before powering on the camera?

You could easily make it measure the threshhold of the battery and then flip it on, but you'd probably want at least a 7555 for lower drain. I didn't actually work out how much that would use by itself, but i assume it would be pretty marginal.

WSS

Did you see that those 18650s are wired in parallel? Hope you don't need a completely stable 5v unless it actually has a half-decent chip controlling it.

InceptionHosting

@WSS said:
Did you see that those 18650s are wired in parallel? Hope you don't need a completely stable 5v unless it actually has a half-decent chip controlling it.

fuck it!

Ympker

@AnthonySmith said:

@Ympker said:

@AnthonySmith said:

@Ympker said:
Hmm, that's quite an interesting question. I'd be interested in a solution too..for science purposes. Tag me if you find smth @AnthonySmith

Looks like the best option: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LQ1UP74

Will check it out, thanks

Just got 8 x of these cheepies to go with it: https://eu.nkon.nl/rechargeable/li-ion/18650-size/sony-konion-us18650vc7-3500mah-8a.html to go with it

Looks great

g4m3r

Why don't you just buy a charge controller with protection circuit (<$1) and a button (<$1) for your 18650's?
Or if you want to build a cheap wifi cam use the ESP32-CAM (~$5, inclusive a cam).

mobile

there's a raspberry pi shield for this, it can alternate between direct dc input or battery input, you can use it to other device by it's usb port but i really forgot the name lol

foxone

@AnthonySmith said:
I dont see how to have a 555 timer wait until it sees the solar giving the usb bank 30 minutes of charge before powering on the camera?

Monostable /w comparator

uhu

@g4m3r said:
Why don't you just buy a charge controller with protection circuit (<$1) and a button (<$1) for your 18650's?
Or if you want to build a cheap wifi cam use the ESP32-CAM (~$5, inclusive a cam).

...and remember to check whether the jumper is set for the internal or external aerial. Couldn't work out why it was dropping out more than the other ESP32s I have.

willie

I picked up an Energizer UE10042 on sale a few months ago and it seems to come on right away although there is a button that shows the battery charge indicator. I don't know the situation about charging it with solar cells though, or using it as pass-thru.

Maybe what you really want is something like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4114

Multi-input, buck-boost, can act as a tiny UPS, etc.

Added: you can also get it here in EU: http://www.uugear.com/product/zero2go-omini-wide-input-range-multi-channel-power-supply-for-raspberry-pi/

deank

Speaking of power banks, why is it so hard to find lithium UPS?

Can't stand lead acid batteries.

willie

Lead acid is still a lot cheaper than lithium. Its disadvantages are weight and not being able to survive as many charge cycles, but both of those are less of an issue for a UPS than for a portable or energy storage application. What are you looking for in terms of capacity? Lots of large cheap lithium systems on https://batteryhookup.com/ though no ready-to-go UPS.

WSS

..basically what willie said, and the fact that since there is a slight ability of them to go kablooie, transport is difficult for Lithium batteries.

Ah fuck- just remembered I have probably 80 of them freezing out in the garage for the last two years.

deank

I'd be happy with about 300w/h lithium UPS. And I expect to deplete the battery.

I am too scared to deplete lead acid batteries unless they are deep cycle ones (they are not).

willie

For 240WH, try this:
https://www.jackery.com/products/explorer-240-portable-power-station

They have a 300WH model coming out in a few months, that will be a little more modern, supporting USB-PD, similar to the 1000 watt model.

deank

I already have Rockpal 300w one.
https://www.rockpals.com/products/rockpals-300w-portable-power-station

But those are not UPS. I can't let porn stop -, eerr, I mean, important data to get corrupted. I even have UPS but those batteries suck major jblloh.