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Stardate: 20221211.2227 | |
Location: The Lab | |
Input Device: enTourage pocket eDGe | |
Audio: Hum of fans. | |
Visual: Device in landscape mode, using Documents To Go. | |
Emotional: Dreading Monday, not enough weekend :/ | |
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I brought out the enTourage pocket eDGe (ebook reader) this evening | |
from the archives. It has been awhile since I used this device. I | |
try to keep some charge in it, and it still seems to be handling well | |
for its age. This was a quirky device when it came out, having 2 | |
screens, one resistive LCD and the other an eink display. There | |
seemed to be more odd-ball kinds of devices before than now. These | |
days, they all seem basically the same. I think the world needs a | |
better selection of odd-ball devices. | |
As some of you that read my phlogs know, I enjoy electronic gadgets | |
and I do what I can to extend the life and purpose of these devices. | |
As a result of being the curator of these devices, I have acquired | |
some knowledge of caring for the power consumption and the | |
mechanisms that provide power for these devices. This has led me to | |
having an inadvertent hobby with batteries, DC power, and even photo | |
voltaics. | |
Over the past couple weeks, I have been going through the irregular | |
practice of testing the capacity of rechargeable power banks and | |
batteries that I have acquired over the years. Some of these are | |
small and portable, others are larger and provide power to the | |
Ghetto Charging Cart[1] and smaller rechargeables. | |
The way I test capacity is with various tools depending on the | |
battery/power bank. Originally, it was very manual and not precise, | |
using alligator clips, hacked cables, a multimeter and a watch, with | |
tracking how long it would take for the battery to be depleted | |
under load. I learned quite a bit doing things that way back then. | |
These days, I use better tools that are more precise and less of a | |
fire hazard. But I still keep a fire extinguisher close by. | |
For larger batteries, I use a West Mountain Radio CBAII (Computerized | |
Battery Analyzer). This device has a fan that sits on top of a heat | |
sink that sits over the microcontroller and has wires coming out of | |
it. There is a type-B USB port for the data and is plugged into an | |
old Windows XP tablet PC. The firmware on the CBAII will not work | |
on Linux or newer versions of Windoze, so I keep a partition on the | |
tablet PC for offline, legacy support. | |
For USB power banks, I use an inexpensive Chinese USB multimeter | |
(Rui Deng UM25C). This tool has an Android app that commuicates | |
with the mulitmeter over bluetooth. I put it on an old Android | |
phone that has an infrared camera (CAT S60). The camera comes in | |
handy when checking for hot spots or shorts in the discharging. | |
Here's a pic from the camera with and without thermal imaging.[2] | |
It shows the 12v banana jack accessory that I have plugged into a | |
12v accessory socket to test the ACOPOWER power bank. There is | |
visible heat (110.7F) that cannot be seen in the regular image but | |
is clearly visible in the thermal image. | |
The USB mulitmeter has few USB ports for the load. Sometimes I | |
connect a power bank for the load so I can reuse the power. If I | |
need to test at a specific amperage, I will attached the CBAII for | |
the load. | |
This round, I tested a number of devices. | |
[-------------------------------------------------------------] | |
[ | Original | Current| Life | Service ] | |
[ Battery | Watt Hours | Wh | Left | Start date ] | |
[------------------|------------|--------|-------|------------] | |
[ ProHT | 37 | 25.628 | 69.2% | ] | |
[ Aduro Ultraboost | 74 | 65.185 | 88.1% | 06/07/2021 ] | |
[ ACOPOWER | 150 | 42.106 | 27.9% | 07/21/2019 ] | |
[ Rad Shack 7A SLA | 84 | 18.96 | 22.6% | ] | |
[ Rad Shack 5A SLA | 60 | 7.9 | 12.9% | ] | |
[ Rad Shack 7A SLA | 84 | 34.08 | 40.6% | 07/21/2019 ] | |
[ Xpal 18000 | 70 | 49.2 | 70.3% | 08/2012 ] | |
[ Energizer PS010 | 15 | 1.013 | 6.75% | ] | |
[ Krisdonia NJF-5X | 185 | 78.54 | 42.5% | 07/21/2019 ] | |
[-------------------------------------------------------------] | |
If I remember to, I will make a label with the date and stick it | |
on the battery pack when I put it in service. | |
Most of these batteries were discharged at the rate I typically use | |
them. I was suprised at the remaining life of the ProHT and Xpal | |
batteries. These are one of the oldest ones I still have in | |
rotation, but they do not get used as often as before. Perhaps they | |
should. | |
When the capacities drop down to <25%, I will repurpose the battery | |
for discharging that is less demanding. For instance, the | |
Energizer PS010 used to be able to charge an old mobile dumb phone | |
but is no longer able to. Now it can be used to charge a 3.7v 150mA | |
Lipo cell that I use for LEDs, while also extending the life of the | |
battery and keeping it away from the recycler/landfill. | |
This task of charging, discharging and maintenance of the batteries | |
can seem a bit much. Most people would not even bother. For some | |
reason, I enjoy the task and looking at the graphs and the data. | |
The observation of the life cycle and the tracking of the history of | |
various batteries and power banks was not a hobby I would have | |
actively pursued. It now seems like it has become part of my routine. | |
[1] 20190113_charging | |
[2] Side by side regular and thermal image from CAT S60 phone. | |
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