Phone powerpacks

[Yorkshire Andy]

Just took a dozen lithium cells to the council tip you'd think that I'd just walked in with an IED The panic it caused .. they don't want them in the dustbins

[GeeGee]

Just took a dozen lithium cells to the council tip you'd think that I'd just walked in with an IED The panic it caused .. they don't want them in the dustbins

Where did they put them in the end ?
Don't know about 'over the bridge ' in your part of Yorkshire but my side of the bridge they've closed several tips and refusing to take cannisters lithium cells etc at the ones that remain open ( 4 days a week )
So there's plenty of flying tipping going on or hiding in the general rubbish bins
Obv nothing to do with the local tips closing and opening less days oh and refusal to take them !

[Yorkshire Andy]

Just took a dozen lithium cells to the council tip you'd think that I'd just walked in with an IED The panic it caused .. they don't want them in the dustbins

Where did they put them in the end ?
Don't know about 'over the bridge ' in your part of Yorkshire but my side of the bridge they've closed several tips and refusing to take cannisters lithium cells etc at the ones that remain open ( 4 days a week )
So there's plenty of flying tipping going on or hiding in the general rubbish bins
Obv nothing to do with the local tips closing and opening less days oh and refusal to take them !

Probably chucked them over the hedge at the back of the tip erycc have said to take to the tip so I did

They have been sat in brine for over a month

Don't want to upset the bin men one is very good knowing Mrs a has health issues he puts the bin back in our garden for her / us. Got him a pint a few weeks ago in Spoons he told me off

[tarmactatt]

Very brave going with temu cells... Did you confirm the capacity? General advice is to use "matched" cells together, capacity and internal resistance should be similar.

Personally I stick to the reccomended UK based sites, at least there is possibility of legal responsibility if one or more of the cells goes nuclear....

Checked and they are fine and as advertised. Given that the cells you pay three times the price for from a UK supplier more than likely come from China, I'll stick with Timu.

Sure, you can do what you want, I just posted a warning for those who might not be aware of sub-standard cells on Bangood, AliExpress, temu etc. I've personal experience of buying Samsung 30Qs from banggood and finding they were not the cells advertised, so it's not scaremongering.

I stand by the remark that the overall advice you'll find on forums is to buy cells from reputable suppliers. Yes you pay slightly more to buy from that 18650.co.uk shop (now called something else), but at least you know what you're getting.

Of course if you're confident enough to give the assembled power banks as gifts, having done proper discharge tests, and 4-wire internal resistance measurements and you're satisfied with your measurements of charging cut off voltage and low voltage protection of the power bank circuitry, then you do you, however, this is beyond the skills of most users here.

[rik_uk3]

Very brave going with temu cells... Did you confirm the capacity? General advice is to use "matched" cells together, capacity and internal resistance should be similar.

Personally I stick to the reccomended UK based sites, at least there is possibility of legal responsibility if one or more of the cells goes nuclear....

Checked and they are fine and as advertised. Given that the cells you pay three times the price for from a UK supplier more than likely come from China, I'll stick with Timu.

Sure, you can do what you want, I just posted a warning for those who might not be aware of sub-standard cells on Bangood, AliExpress, temu etc. I've personal experience of buying Samsung 30Qs from banggood and finding they were not the cells advertised, so it's not scaremongering.

I stand by the remark that the overall advice you'll find on forums is to buy cells from reputable suppliers. Yes you pay slightly more to buy from that 18650.co.uk shop (now called something else), but at least you know what you're getting.

Of course if you're confident enough to give the assembled power banks as gifts, having done proper discharge tests, and 4-wire internal resistance measurements and you're satisfied with your measurements of charging cut off voltage and low voltage protection of the power bank circuitry, then you do you, however, this is beyond the skills of most users here.

I'm a radio ham so yes, very confident

[tarmactatt]

Ah, bravo, yes in that case you are well indeed likely to understand the necessary fundamentals better than the average forumite!

Reminds me, I should pull my finger out and get my foundation licence, I studied all I could find online and followed the Essex Ham course, just failed to book a test as life was hectic. Things are quieter now so perhaps now is my chance...

[rik_uk3]

The Foundation is easy, more of a quiz than an exam, you'll fly through it. You are restricted on power output, it was 10w but its been increased to 25w now.

I strongly urge you to learn morse code (known as CW), you need far far less power to work the globe, I regularly work Australia/South America on ten watts or less, normally I operate CW on 5w. Well worth learning the 'Q' codes as well, used in everyday speech and not just the key. In reality only a handful are used with voice transmissions but still handy to learn

https://www.qsl.net/4s7vj/lessons/Q-code.pdf

Whatever rig you have remember, without a good antenna your rig is worthless.

I don't know your budget but a good starting point is the Xiegu G90 and a Sigma SE HF X80 you can buy both for £500. The antenna tuner on the G90 will tune a damp lettuce leaf and the X80 matches the G90 well. For mobile work I mount an X80 onto a DJ speaker tripod, the rig will run off a car battery. The G90 also runs digital mode so take a look at FT8.

Take the test, its a great hobby; my grandson passed all three tests by the time he was 14.

The little Baofeng radios work well but upgrade the antenna to a something like a Nagoya https://www.hamradio.co.uk/aerials/ante ... ma-pd-9818 makes a big difference and look at online plans for making a wire 'J' pole antenna

Good luck, 73 and good DX in the near future

[YAFretter]

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[YAFretter]

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[tarmactatt]

There's a great website here that allows you to filter torches/flashlights as the yanks call them by parameter, it so happens that "powerbank feature" is an option.
http://flashlights.parametrek.com/inde ... =powerbank

One thing I would caution, the implementation of USB-C protocol on the circuit boards of many electronics is highly variable. If configured incorrectly, you'll only be able to charge the light with a USB-A to USB-C cable, not a C-C cable.

Single 18650 or 21700 lights might provide your phone a little top-up, but realistically you'll want a light with 3+ cells to provide any meaningful capacity. Do also note that the group of cells should only be used as a set to avoid mix n match of voltages when putting them back into a multi-celled light.

With the exception of my powerbank, I try to only buy electronics which take single 18650 or 21700 sized cells, or AA Ni-Mh. I avoid built-in batteries so it doesn't matter if the device acts up with a solar panel, I've some reliable lithium cell chargers which work off my very small panels just fine.