dim

I'm looking at doing some long rides, and I'm worried that my mobile phone will loose charge halfway through . I'm thinking of getting a Power Bank External Battery pack and have this one in mind:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RAVPower-26800mAh-Portable-Charger-External/dp/B012V9H3WA/ref=sr_1_8?s=telephone&ie=UTF8&qid=1463035465&sr=1-8


I'd be gutted/cheesed off if my phone looses charge halfway through the ride. Any better suggestions/comments?

Wanderer

Should be able to charge your phone 20 times with that one!

dim

I'm also customising a Surly Long Haul Trucker and will be adding a dynamo hub. This battery pack might come in handy on that bike aswell as I could charge the battery pack whilst riding and at the same time connect my phone, GPS and back Cygolite light (front light will be powered by the dynamo)

Seattle Forrest

I've had an Anker one for a year or more. I use it to charge my GPS watch on backpacking (multi-day hiking) trips. Works fine. I got the 3,200 mAh one that weighs 2.6 ounces. The one you got is much larger and heavier and higher capacity than mine.

I charge my pack at home before a trip.

techsensei

It does not have as much capacity, but RAVPower makes one that might be more suitable for use on a bike: https://www.amazon.co.uk/RAVPower-Wa...ged+power+bank

Flinstone

You can find a ton of things like this really cheap (first one google found):
Portable 18650 Battery USB Charger For LED Flashlight Mobile Phone-2.23 and Free Shipping| GearBest.com


Or even two cell ones, by searching USB 18650 charger. YoumMight want to look for a waterproof one. They almost all have micro usb for charging the battery, and a female standard usb for charging something from the battery. Many have a small led light included. You can put loose cells in them which means you can charge cells to put into flashlights (handle-bar mounted our otherwise) and can use them as a power bank. One cell is enough to get a significant partial recharge of a phone. (you can't just convert mah to mah there is some significant efficiency factor and I suspect the regulators don't all work down to 3.0 V cell voltage. Actually I wish mWhr was more common as mAh is used in vague or incorrect ways too often. Energy is energy. How useful charge is depends on the voltage )

There are also multi-voltage types that have one or two outputs with configurable voltage regulation. That's usually on bigger, maybe 8 cell banks. Could be useful if you want to power higher voltage lights off of it directly and charge a phone.

The good thing going with loose cells is you can choose good cells and you can use a good charger instead sometimes, which can be useful to keep track of the cell health.

fietsbob

Be assured there are external battery packs made, that is not the only one.. I have friends that rely on them.

[ patch cord connector ,, probably un wieldy to have anywhere but in a Bar bag, or on a table top.]



Rather than stop working and wait for the friendly dive bar's rechargers to do the job...

Wi Fi ,no minutes cost charges from the tower owners.. your Pubs may have similar..

MrWasabi

That's a big one. I have a few in different sizes. This one is my go to backup:
https://www.amazon.com/Fritesla-20000...ilpage_o05_s00

It seems to be the best balance between size/weight and capacity for me. On longer rides it stuffs in my saddle bag easily. I can charge my iPhone and other devices several times with it.

Flinstone

.. and no you can't charge a phone 20 times with the one in the OP. The amazon listing says 6 times and from my experience that's an outside maximum that you can expect from 8 cells, which is what it looks like that is. Of course it depends on the phone. Of course wanderer didn't mean it litterally. Anyway, 2 cells is probably the sweet spot for charging phones, getting probably a full recharge for most phones. One is still useful for a good emergency top-off, and conveniently small, and 4 is obviously great if you want to be able to skip plugging it in sometimes, charge a friend's phone too, etc.

Of course 8 cells is getting close to 100 Watt hours, which is, over 1 hour, as much power as some people ride at, so you could go ahead and get a motor assist too.

gauvins

It is a complicated question.

1. Battery packs are extremely inefficient. Charging the bank from your dynamo (on long tours) and using the bank to recharge the phone will most likely not work.

2. A smartphone can drain a battery in roughly 3 hrs at maximum discharge rate, or last a full day if managed conservatively. Put it in airplane mode, configure your software to dim/turn off the screen between turns, increase the GPS update interval.

3. I've recently installed a Shimano dynamo hub and a Forumslader in steerer USB charger. I'll report in a couple of weeks but so far the phone remains fully charged at the end of the day. The short version is that the phone requires roughly 1W while the system generates 6W @ 20kmh. Plenty of power available, except in stop and go traffic.

4. I carry a spare phone battery. It weighs very little and provides, by definition, one full recharge, with the inconvenience of a power down/up cycle. But I can avoid the massive energy loss that is induced by the dynamo - > bank - > device strategy.

I also carry a smaller battery bank (16Ah or so) to take advantage of the occasional wall outlet that may materialize when on longer tours. This is a backup to recharge the phone and assorted devices.

5. The size of the battery bank may arguably be determined by assessing the number of recharges you want to be able to do multiplied by your phone's battery capacity, considering a 50% charging efficiency and the number of days without access to a wall outlet. For example, a 3-day weekend with a phone powered by a 3Ah battery that needs to be recharged twice a day would require a 36Ah battery bank (36000mAh).

dim

thank you

a1penguin

I have a newer Anker 10k one which I really like: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Portable-Ultra-Compact-Fast-Charging-Technology/dp/B0194WDVHI . The RavPower was my second choice but the Anker gets good reviews and was cheaper. I think this would charge my LG G5 twice, but I don't have accurate data on this. When I use Strava on my phone for GPS while hiking, I put it in airplane mode which turns off wifi and mobile data and hence saves some of the battery.

dim

I ended up buying the [h=1]RAVPower 26800mAh 3-Port 5.5A[/h]
I will update this thread once I have tested and used it.

Flinstone

I agree with gauvin's 50% charging efficiency from my experience, and I also typically carry a spare (very cheap solution, too bad about about these new phones). For un-interrupted gps tracking though an external charger can be nice, at a significant weight and space cost compared to a spare.

Flinstone

I'll also add, that there was a time when I didn't have a cell phone at all to take on my rides. With all the stress one might feel for it loosing its charge now, there was oddly absolutely zero stress associated with having never even heard of cell phone at that time. We did however tend to occasionally knock on doors, chat with people mowing their lawns, and sometimes give the time of day to a stranger (from an expression that might hardly make sense anymore). So that might have something to do with it.

Wanderer

Check Frys for sales, by signing up for promocodes. You can buy them really cheap! Like $4.00 for a 4000 ma bank. A 2000ma battery bank will charge almost any cell phone at least once.

Seattle Forrest

I have a friend, she's 52 (?) years old now, and hiking the PCT, 300 to 400 miles per year. We used to work together. Her experience is that these battery packs work much better than solar panels here. Not related to cycling and this is the Pacific Northwest, in other words a giant rainforest where the light of day is scarce. Still, it's a great endorsement of the technology.

John_V 

Another thing you can do to maximize your battery life is to go online and do a search on how to optimize your phone for longer battery life. There are lots of ways that you can increase the battery life of any phone by turning off default app and system settings that contribute to battery usage. This is especially true for apps that you seldom use but constantly use wifi and/or air time for updates and notifications, even when they are not running. I have done this with my iPhone and have noticed a huge before and after difference.

dim

thanks ... my teenage son is a computer whizz and he will check my iphone settings