pseudoswede

This is a long-shot, but I'm looking for the following battery pack...

• Two output ports
• One QC 2.0 (or 3.0) output
• QC 2.0 (or 3.0) input
• Pass-through charging capability
• Can charge phones wirelessly via qi (this will be the difficult one)

Capacity not much of an issue, but I would like to avoid the large 10,000 mAh (or greater) bricks.

paperwastage

Just note that qi charging efficiency is very bad

You get a 20-40% loss on the wireless charging part, on top of the 30% voltage conversion loss

That saying, I want a pony too (your requirements are probably too niche, and two usb ports for a <10A is not that common)

You can probably find a device that meets all requirements except qi, and the jury-rig/ducttape a usb->qi charger(make sure it's not a micro USB qi receiver that is used to add qi charging to phones)

wco81

Anyone use battery packs for smaller devices?

In this case, I'm trying to recharge a pair of Beats X wireless headphones that just came out last month.

I have an Anker 2nd gen Astro E5 and if I try to just recharge the headphones by itself, it shuts off after like 10 seconds. I have to plug in my iPhone in the other USB port and then it will stay on and charge my iPhone and the Beats X headphones.

I tried it also with a cheaper battery pack and it's the same thing.

For comparison, I also have a pair of no-name brand wireless headphones and those charge fine from the battery packs. Seems like something about the Beats X which fools the battery packs into not detecting it plugged in.

Obvious difference is that the Beats X use Apple Lightning cables, not micro USB.

mauve

I would expect the power pack to shut itself off if there's a very low load to prevent its circuitry from slowly discharging the battery.

I just tested with a Mophie Juice Pack from a few years ago, and it works fine.

But it seems like a good idea to test before traveling, and that's not something I would have thought of.

wco81

I think the battery packs have to get some feedback from the device to know when the battery in the device is fully charged, so that it would shut off.

So maybe the Beats X doesn't send that info. back whereas the Marsee headphones, with a much smaller battery pack, does and charges fine.

Dubai Stu

I have the Anker and love it but given the electronics bans in the Middle East, I have to wonder whether these heavy duty batteries are likely to be next on the list.

zitsky

I would think they are already on the ban list.

Dubai Stu

I am sure I couldn't fly Dubai to the US with one of those in carry-on luggage, but I expect that they might be barred on Frankfurt to the US. They have a practical problem banning every iPad and it would be hard to make an exploding iPad that really worked. It would be child's play to make an Ankar battery that could power its four LEDs and was otherwise made of explosives.

el aye

If the intent is to get lithium batteries out of the hands of the passengers in the cabin, then undoubtedly yes.

Need

If that's the goal, iMac should be allowed? I thought the goal was to help US airlines be more competitive to foreign airlines. Make US airlines great again!

el aye

Heh, I get you are joking but I am sure that they have done a blanket restriction for electronics rather than having to get into arguments about whether something contains a lithium battery or not.

wco81

Have an Anker Astro with 16k mAh capacity.

It's about a couple of years old.

Like the size and weight for the capacity but now it's taking a long time to charge. It's been charging for about 12 hours and only up to 3 bars out of 4.

Seems like it takes longer to charge than it used to.

Do other packs with 15k or greater mAh capacity also take so long to fully charge?

LtKernelPanic

You may be running into the same issue I have with one of my battery packs. It can only charge at 1A (even off a 12W charger) which means to fully recharge it to its 10400mAh rating takes 10-12 hours. That's the big reason I asked for an Anker 13,000 mAh pack for Christmas. It can take a full 2A and charges in half the time of the other one. Since the older Romoss works fine and holds a 10+ Ah charge after two years I still use it but use the Anker first due to its ability to charge faster.

Doc Savage

Batteries become less efficient at recharging as they go through charge/discharge cycles as well as with age. Google "batt�ry charge cycle life."

CatJo

As pointed out, some older packs only charge at 5V/1A so that's pretty slow. Most modern packs can take 5V/2A (10W) which helps, but I'd recommend looking at something that supports USB-C PD (such as this RAVPower) which can charge at 15V/1.5A (30W), very quick! Anker is apparently coming out with a similar USB PD pack as well.

Many phones use USB PD to charge now (Google Pixel, for example), and these packs can also be useful for laptops such as Macbooks and Dell XPS.