@CraigDanger That’s a showstopper for me. My other intended use would be to power a boom-box radio for shooting at a drive-in with the grandkids next summer. (Drive-in theaters are scarce in New England because it’s a seasonal biz, and the price of the land is makes it hard to turn a profit.)
The last time I used the car’s radio, I needed a boost. I want a power bank that’s got me covered either way. Belt and suspenders.
@awk I watched a couple of videos just to be sure and it seems to be a solid little generator/powerbank. It’s not amazing, but it’s a really good price at $80 for what you get.
@awk@Dynamik tHE FACT YOU CAN CHARGE WITH SOLOR MAKES IT GOOD FOR ME JUST WORRIED THEY DIDN’T GET THESE WITH BAD BATTERIES READY TO EXPIRE IN THE NEXT 24 MONTHS, WOULD YOU BUY THIS IF IT WAS MANUFACTURED IN 2017?
@plymouthdave@RogerWilco Remember that Lithium Ion cells tend to have about a 300-500 cycle lifespan before they fall below 80% capacity. Leaving them fully charged for a long time can also degrade the batteries. Best to store long term at about 40-60% state of charge to get this to last a long time. Daily use, charging to full and discharging to say 10%? It’ll last 1-2 years before you start to see capacity issues or a cell failure.
Batteries like this with Lithium Iron Phosphate cells (abbreviated to LiFePO4) go 3,000 to 5,000 cycles before falling to 80% capacity, so 10 times the lifespan but do not cost 10x more than this.
When shopping, look at Watt Hours. While the Amp Hours or milliAmp Hours are interesting, unless they tell you the Voltage, they are hiding things. You get Watt Hours by multiplying the system voltage (usually 3 or 12 volts for these type of devices) by the number of Amp Hours capacity of the battery to get Watt Hours.
The higher the voltage, the more efficient the device will be.
3 volts at 96 Amp Hours = 288 Watt Hours
12 volts at 24 Amp Hours = 288 Watt Hours
For example, for $159 today get a CTECHi 200 watt max, 240 Watt hour (20 amp hour at 12 volts) LiFePO4 system similar to this, though 1/3rd the capacity, but will theoretically have a 10 times longer lifespan.
For $271 the Wattfun 300 watt max 298 Watt Hour (96 Amp Hour at 3.1 volts) will last 10 times longer.
The most equivalent I could find is the GoLabs R300, 299 Watt Hours, 300W max draw, $220 – this would retain its capacity 10 times longer than this item being sold due to the different type of battery inside. GoLabs may use crappy cells though, they claim 2000 cycles, whereas Grade A prismatic cells should manage 3000-5000 cycles before degrading below 80% capacity.
What is the maximum output wattage? The battery capacity is 222wh so can I draw 444 watts for 30 minutes or would that be considered an overload situation?
I might be in the market, but I already got the refurbed Kodiak Power Station 100 from meh back in 2019, so I am not in the market. Yesterday I used the Kodiak on a Silvertone practice amp. Ran like a champ.
@cfg83, Wow, that Silvertone [Sears] brand brought back memories. My intro into the music/guitar world was by a guy who had a black Silver-tone guitar & dat super cheap Silvertone practice amplifier! Thanks, for the fn memories, cfg83!!…Man, Man, Man!
@cfg83@plymouthdave, Yeah, my 1st amp was a Fender Reverb Amp & I think it had tubes, but since that was around '65, my mind may b playing tricks on me. It do seems that I noticed one of them tubes turn a glowing blue & vibrate when I cranked up the reverb in her,…I don’t think I dreamed that, nor fn imagined that while on Purple Microdot , or Texas White- Lightning acid
So, I’m not seeing a wattage rating on the inverter, an amperage rating on the USB ports, or information as to what standards the USB-C port supports (QC, PD, bidirectional charging?). Perhaps I’ve missed them, but if not I’ve found the following by searching “The Internet ™”.
It looks like the inverter handles 200 watts (assumed to be Peak, which would have it at 140-160 continuous)
[EDIT: The Walmart listing also lists the inverter at 300 watt, which could have it at 200 watt continuous?]
2x USB A - 3.1A
1x USB A - QC3.0
1x USB-C - USB-PD 45W
As far as the documentation I’ve found goes, it doesn’t look like the machine can be charged by the USB-PD port, but if someone finds out otherwise please do let us know! That’s the make or break feature for me personally, because I’m lazy and I like using my laptop charger for everything.
@EricJA I can’t tell if this thing has a car cigarette lighter style output, but that is what you want to look for to run a CPAP for multiple nights. You get the car adapter for your machine and power it that way. Significantly more efficient usage of the power–you’d get a couple nights instead of a few hours from this if it has that dc output.
@EricJA If you get the DC cord for the CPAP (most have awailable)and run it without the heat/humidity it should run for a few nights. I got a similar power bank so I could take my CPAP when we travel because the CPAP specific ones were ridiculously expensive and couldn’t be used for anything else.
@davidtomlin@EricJA It had two DC outputs AND the accessory adaptor for plugging in 12-volt car devices. Yes, you get WAY more time from your CPAP getting the DC converter cord and running it that way.
@werehatrack $79 for 222 watt hours? The batteries are likely 18650 lithium ion cells, 300-500 cycles until they fall below 80% capacity, or 177.6 watt hours.
What do you consider “decent” batteries?
What if I told you for 3x the price of this you could get 10x the battery lifespan? Look for LiFePO4 batteries in your portable power stations.
@Narwalt Video above user demonstrates a monitor with a very long run time. Smart TV obviously will use more amps/watts therefore with much less run time. For your Super Bowl party in your backyard it will work nicely.
@Narwalt@whomeyesu TV size is probably more important with wattage consumption than smart vs dumb tv. Those back lights or OLEDs take a lot of power and the larger the TV, the more back lighting is needed.
@cengland0@Narwalt@whomeyesu, I don’t know about Smart TVs, but all my devices are like part of the Dumb & Dumber World & Yeah, Ms Smartphone, I’m talkin 'bout you!
Can this charge while outputting power? Seems like it could be a good UPS since it can output 12 V directly to networking equipment, which would be much more efficient than conventional UPSes.
@mrkenneth but is the power station regulated at 12V or simulating a car battery at 13.8V? How sensitive is your networking equipment to the input voltage?
@mrkenneth There are commercial rack 24V DC power supplies/line conditioners just for networking gear. And UPS rigs that use deep cycle marine batteries that will last.
A UPS designed for computers/networking gear is probably better circuitry-wise than this jack-of-all-trades, master of none unit.
i LOVE GADGETS LIKE THIS BUT I NEED TO KNOW IF THE BATTERIES WERE MANUFACTURED 5 YEARS AGO OR RECENT, MAKES THE WHOLE DIFFERENCE ON THE LONGEVITY OF THIS ITEM SO, MEH LET ME KNOW AND I’LL BE IN FOR MAYBE MORE THAN 1 AS GIFTS TY IN ADVANCE
@mellowirishgent@mike808
Yikes, @mellowirishgent. Way to disparage an entire profession. I actually AM an English teacher, and I didn’t say anything to invoke your wrath.
Though I probably should mention that you seem to have a faulty understanding of contractions and apostrophes…
@mike808 THINK ABOUT THIS MIKE, HOW EASY WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TO JUST IGNORE ME? BUT YOU, NO, YOU HAD TO MENTION THE LARGE TYPE WHICH IS MEANIGLESS, YOU ARE TRYING TO HARD TO BE MEAN SPIRITED, MOB MENTALITY OVER WHAT CAPS? DID I MAKE YOUR DAY?FEEL BETTER I’M GOING ON 70, 90% BLIND AND ONE FOOT IN THE COFFIN. GREAT JOB MIKE 808.YOU’RE A GEM.
@mellowirishgent it is unnecessary what you are doing and honestly toxic to this community. It seems you are set out to provoke and then lash out.
Writing all caps is typically considered as yelling in online forums and poor netiquette. Exceptions may exist such as specific disabilities. But your responses after that suggests you are just here to troll.
@datruandi TROLL WITH WELL OVER 200 PURCHASES THATS FUNNY I ASKED A VERY GOOD QUESTION AND YOU TURNED IT INTO A SHIT SHOW NOT EVERYONE LAYS DOWN TO BULLIES BECAUSE THATS EXACTLY WHATS GOING ON HERE 99% OF MY POST ARE JUST FINE SO TONITE I TYPE IN CAPS AND I’M NOT FIT FOR THE FORUM QUIT BEING A BULLY AND BE MORE CONSIDERATE I DIDN’T SLAP YOU JUST TYPED IN CAPS FOR CHRIST SAKES GIVE IT A BREAK
@datruandi 8/10 POST ARE PEOPLE TRYING TO BE CLEVER AND UNRELATED TO THE TOPIC OR PRODUCT, ITS LIKE THE LETS SEE WHO CAN BE THE MOST CLEVER FORUM, OR LETS ATTACK THIS GUY NOT BOTHERING ANYONE BECAUSE HE TYPED IN CAPS LETS LET HIM KNOW THATS NOT OK HOW DARE HE TYPE IN CAPS DOESEN’T HE KNOW HOW OFFENSIVE THAT IS ? GO PLAY XBOX AND TAKE YOUR ANGER OUT THERE.
@mellowirishgent the ability to buy stuff is not correlated to acting like a troll or not.
Your behavior is trolling. You intentionally keep using all caps just to annoy people and lash out including directly insulting people who tell you that it is considered shouting.
I wonder if you would be so “nice” if it were not online.
netiquette is established for well over 3 decades now.
Maybe show some common sense?
@datruandi IF SOMEONE LIKE YOUR SELF IS OFFENDED AT CAPS WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT YOU? ON TILT 24/7 JUST WAITING FOR THAT ONE GUY TO TYPE IN CAPS LISTEN TO YOURSELF, GROW UP BRAT I ASKED A SIMPLE QUESTION THE MANUFACTURE DATE THATS NOT TROLLING IF NO ONE WANTS TO ANSWER FINE BUT THE CAP THING WELL ESTABLISHED FOR 30 YEARS ,UMM CORNY WOKE LEFT IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR WAY YOU DESTROY YOUR EVERYTHING THATS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY MINDING OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS . PREACHING WHATS RIGHT AND WRONG WHO MADE YOU THE MEH POLICE? FOR THE RECORD I HAVE CLOSE TO 1200 LIKES TO MY COMMENTS YOU HAVE 300 EXPLAIN HOW I RECIEVED 1200 LIKES IF I AM A TROLL? SEEMS YOU ARE THE ONE TROLLING ME ?
@mellowirishgent I am happy for you that you received so many likes. It must mean a lot to you. I suggest to try to learn to listen instead of the online equivalent of yelling. This convention together with other aspects of netiquette emerged sometime in the 80s mostly in Usenet and has been around since then. You can of course choose to ignore it, but don’t wonder then why people think of you being rude and a troll if you keep doing it even though you have been told about it.
@mellowirishgent did I use rude language towards you or was I impolite to you? What does that make you feel bullied? Maybe you are the triggered one after all? You started the diatribe about the “woke left” that has nothing to do with this forum.
You can do indeed mostly what you want, but don’t expect everybody to agree with you and shut up.
@mellowirishgent Man, I really wish there was a laugh react. Your behavior is so poor all around that I am in stitches. The silly all-caps is just a small part.
@hchavers@unksol Yeah - one is like a personal sized recreational toy that’s really hot, and the other is like a personal sized recreational toy that’s really hot.
@hchavers@rpstrong I contest either being “personal”. The opening statement was “What else do you do with your significant other at night on a camping trip?” And I’m sure both can be better together.
@Coldwyn Yeah I noticed it didn’t come with the solar panels. A pity since you’d need those for a longer power outage. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they will sell some tomorrow.
Will these work with any solar panels? Many years ago (10 maybe?) I bought goal zero solar panels and have been using them in conjunction with a small yeti (bought a few years ago), which I think might be dead now. I hang the panels outside my window and just charge my small devices whenever they need it (PS controllers, heaphones, keyboards, mice, tablet, etc.).
@radi0j0hn Drip coffee maker draws too much power to even run off this thing. A small one is 600w. I looked up a keurig and they are between 900-1500w so big NO on that.
@oldmantick@radi0j0hn Yeah, I recently got solar and it included household use monitoring. I saw a huge spike and thought, “what was that?” It was the Keurig.
This is actually a great price for the features. I paid this much a couple months ago for 155 watt hours and a 100 wat modified sine wave inverter and considered it a decent value.
I would be interested in this for getting a laptop to run even a couple of hours, with the docking station and a monitor or two would be perfect. With the idea of being able to function a little bit if I had to work remotely in a hopefully short power outage.
Mine arrived today. It’s physically smaller than I was expecting, but that’s OK. The internal batteries were at 27% according to its own meter, and it’s charging now. I’ll run a few tests to see how it stacks up as a 12V power source versus a UB12220 SLA battery.
@Kyeh
I’m in Houston. FXG from the DFW area is generally overnight, and I suspect mine was one of the first of these to get out.
I’ve got it set up running 12V power to a laptop with a mostly-empty battery, a cell phone (ditto), and one other USB device that needs charging, and so far it looks like I can expect about five hours of runtime at this load - which probably means a good bit more than that in fact, once the device batteries are charged. If I was using the power via the 110V inverter, I suspect that my runtime would be about half that. Hurray for Dell laptops with a 12V-capable power brick!
@werehatrack Does the manual show what type of interface (size and type) the solar panel needs? There are some great deals on Amazon for cyber monday but I can’t find any specs on the 200.
Has anyone found a good solar panel for this? The Snugmax panel designed for it does not seem to be available anywhere. I can’t find the manual online anywhere to read some specs.
@Tronne The Troubleshooting section has some specs:
What’s the specification for a solar panel that is compatible with this generator?
A solar panel with an 18V/60W power supply and a 5.5 x 2.1mm DC
connector is recommended to charge Vickers 200
@mgyvver Does the manual show what type of interface (size and type) the solar panel needs? There are some great deals on Amazon for cyber monday but I can’t find any specs on the 200.
Got mine yesterday and it works as advertised. It powered loads up to exactly 201W (according to the display).
I checked the output with a graphic multimeter and it looks like a sine wave, 60.0Hz, 113.5V. I plugged in some chargers and they did not make horrible whining noises or get too hot.
The only small solar panel I have (25W) doesn’t have the right connector, once I get that sorted out I will try the solar charging.
I’m sure the batteries are crappy Shenzhen specials but if it lasts a couple years that would be great.
@awk Does the manual show what type of interface (size and type) the solar panel needs? There are some great deals on Amazon for cyber monday but I can’t find any specs on the 200.
@awk@dave Great! I did a quick deep dive and it looks like this one is the best bang for the buck on CyberMonday. (Linking Camelcamelcamel for tracking history)
Powering a laptop that draws 15 to 21 watts running a streaming video, it kept up for nine hours and still had not gone dry. That was good enough for me.
I connected my LG 300-watt solar panel through a buck converter to charge it at 24V. It displayed up to about 55 watts. The specs on the box says charging voltages:. DC 13 to 24V/2.4A,. It’s about 60-watt. I don’t think this unit supports higher power charging unless I increase the voltage, but I don’t want to risk it.
Finally got mine and all I can add is that it unfortunately does not allow for pass-through while charging. Still a great deal at $80 in my opinion though.
Update; After several hours of playing possum vs all proddings, it responded to the charger and took for fecking ever to charge back up. It’s anybody’s guess wherher it will nonchalantly act like nothing was wrong. We ahall see.
After recharging, it acted like it was going to be normal. For several hours, it continued to forecast that it had 9 to 10 hours of runtime available. Then, abruptly, the bar gauge for the battery capacity plummeted from three bars to two bars to one in a short period, and it gave up again.
Further adventures; the second attempt to recharge produced The Smell Of Impending Release Of Magic Smoke, and the battery charge state indicator never climbed above one bar. At that point, I decided that exploratory surgery was warranted. So far, nothing crispy has been detected visually. It appears that the welded-together battery pack (24 INR18650 2500mAh cells, look genuine) is probably okay, but I want to discharge it safely before doing much of anything else.
Got mine out of storage and charged it up. It only took 1.5 hours to charge starting from a single blinking bar (empty).
It says “FUL” but only has about 50 wh of power stored up, and the bar graph immediately drops down to one bar.
Opened it up, and the first group of cells (between large black wire and small red wire) is at 3.5 volts, while the other two are at their max voltage of 4.2 volts.
So, a severe pack imbalance (due to storage?) leading to reduced capacity. I’m manually charging just the low part of the pack to get them all up to 4.2v.
Opening tips: You should just unsolder the large red wire that goes to the bottom circuit board. There isn’t enough play to remove/access the battery otherwise without unscrewing both the AC and DC circuit boards.
Specs
Power Outputs:
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$119.99 at Walmart
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Nov 29 - Thursday, Dec 2
bAH
Won’t jumpstart your car. Meh.
@CraigDanger That’s a showstopper for me. My other intended use would be to power a boom-box radio for shooting at a drive-in with the grandkids next summer. (Drive-in theaters are scarce in New England because it’s a seasonal biz, and the price of the land is makes it hard to turn a profit.)
The last time I used the car’s radio, I needed a boost. I want a power bank that’s got me covered either way. Belt and suspenders.
I’ll have a lodge budded pupcon, please.
This actually looks useful, what am I missing?
I guess I’ll find out…
/giphy pumped-flirtatious-swing
@awk Well the company who manufacturers this couldn’t sell it to retail outlets so they had to unload it to Meh.
@awk I watched a couple of videos just to be sure and it seems to be a solid little generator/powerbank. It’s not amazing, but it’s a really good price at $80 for what you get.
Great just to have on hand with winter coming.
@awk @Dynamik tHE FACT YOU CAN CHARGE WITH SOLOR MAKES IT GOOD FOR ME JUST WORRIED THEY DIDN’T GET THESE WITH BAD BATTERIES READY TO EXPIRE IN THE NEXT 24 MONTHS, WOULD YOU BUY THIS IF IT WAS MANUFACTURED IN 2017?
@awk @Dynamik @mellowirishgent but does it come with the solar panel? Reading the specs it would appear you have to buy that separately.
@awk @Dynamik @Kidsandliz @mellowirishgent you have to buy the solar panel separately
@awk @Felton10 Only to small retailers like Walmart… https://www.themanual.com/outdoors/black-friday-generator-deals/
gives a decent run down
@RogerWilco That’s a very thorough and well-made product description.
@plymouthdave @RogerWilco Remember that Lithium Ion cells tend to have about a 300-500 cycle lifespan before they fall below 80% capacity. Leaving them fully charged for a long time can also degrade the batteries. Best to store long term at about 40-60% state of charge to get this to last a long time. Daily use, charging to full and discharging to say 10%? It’ll last 1-2 years before you start to see capacity issues or a cell failure.
Batteries like this with Lithium Iron Phosphate cells (abbreviated to LiFePO4) go 3,000 to 5,000 cycles before falling to 80% capacity, so 10 times the lifespan but do not cost 10x more than this.
When shopping, look at Watt Hours. While the Amp Hours or milliAmp Hours are interesting, unless they tell you the Voltage, they are hiding things. You get Watt Hours by multiplying the system voltage (usually 3 or 12 volts for these type of devices) by the number of Amp Hours capacity of the battery to get Watt Hours.
The higher the voltage, the more efficient the device will be.
3 volts at 96 Amp Hours = 288 Watt Hours
12 volts at 24 Amp Hours = 288 Watt Hours
For example, for $159 today get a CTECHi 200 watt max, 240 Watt hour (20 amp hour at 12 volts) LiFePO4 system similar to this, though 1/3rd the capacity, but will theoretically have a 10 times longer lifespan.
For $271 the Wattfun 300 watt max 298 Watt Hour (96 Amp Hour at 3.1 volts) will last 10 times longer.
The most equivalent I could find is the GoLabs R300, 299 Watt Hours, 300W max draw, $220 – this would retain its capacity 10 times longer than this item being sold due to the different type of battery inside. GoLabs may use crappy cells though, they claim 2000 cycles, whereas Grade A prismatic cells should manage 3000-5000 cycles before degrading below 80% capacity.
@ooglek @plymouthdave @RogerWilco Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
@ooglek @plymouthdave @RogerWilco Yeah but… This one is only $80…
What is the maximum output wattage? The battery capacity is 222wh so can I draw 444 watts for 30 minutes or would that be considered an overload situation?
@cengland0 The write up on Walmart’s website says output is 200W @ 110 VAC.
@ELJAY thanks and that sounds about right for this price range but it would have been nice to see that in the specs or a link to the pdf manual.
The model Vickers-200 was a clue but could have been coincidence too.
@cengland0 SAW A VIDEO WHERE IT WAS CHARGING A SKATEBOARD AT 220 WATTS
I might be in the market, but I already got the refurbed Kodiak Power Station 100 from meh back in 2019, so I am not in the market. Yesterday I used the Kodiak on a Silvertone practice amp. Ran like a champ.
@cfg83, Wow, that Silvertone [Sears] brand brought back memories. My intro into the music/guitar world was by a guy who had a black Silver-tone guitar & dat super cheap Silvertone practice amplifier! Thanks, for the fn memories, cfg83!!
…Man, Man, Man! 
@1DisabledWarVet @cfg83 I have one of those silvertones still! It’s a very mellow sound but the yremelo effect is the real gem.
@cfg83 I have an old Airline tube amp I’m trying to refresh.
@cfg83 @ohhwell, Please, define ‘Yremelo’,…ya lost me there, or was that a typo?
@cfg83 @plymouthdave, Yeah, my 1st amp was a
Fender Reverb Amp & I think it had tubes, but since that was around '65, my mind may b playing tricks on me. It do seems that I noticed one of them tubes turn a glowing blue & vibrate when I cranked up the reverb in her,…I don’t think I dreamed that, nor fn imagined that while on Purple Microdot 
, or Texas White- 
Lightning acid 
@cfg83 @ohhwell, i just read your comment again as I was back at my gmail screen & I think I figures it out!! Did you not simply mean Tremolo¿?
@1DisabledWarVet @cfg83 yep, Tremelo hahah.
So, I’m not seeing a wattage rating on the inverter, an amperage rating on the USB ports, or information as to what standards the USB-C port supports (QC, PD, bidirectional charging?). Perhaps I’ve missed them, but if not I’ve found the following by searching “The Internet ™”.
It looks like the inverter handles 200 watts (assumed to be Peak, which would have it at 140-160 continuous)
[EDIT: The Walmart listing also lists the inverter at 300 watt, which could have it at 200 watt continuous?]
2x USB A - 3.1A
1x USB A - QC3.0
1x USB-C - USB-PD 45W
As far as the documentation I’ve found goes, it doesn’t look like the machine can be charged by the USB-PD port, but if someone finds out otherwise please do let us know! That’s the make or break feature for me personally, because I’m lazy and I like using my laptop charger for everything.
@Squic Watch the video posted by RogerWilco (above).
The guy reviews the specs (and the device) pretty thoroughly.
And in the video, he plugs in an electric hedge trimmer into the 110V outlet, (drawing 195 W), and starts trimming a shrubbery.
(The display on the power station said the run time at that load would be an hour.)
Not too shabby…
Would this be able to run a 12V, 5 Amp CPAP machine for 8 hours from the AC plug?
@EricJA 12V at 5A is 60 watts, so I think the 220wh battery will last you ~3.5 hours if my math is right.
@EricJA the post above is right, around 3 hours at full load. If you aren’t at max pressure and humidity, it will be lower than that.
Reduce the humidity level and it will use less power and last longer.
If you want this for travel or camping, it will probably do the trick. To be honest, you should invest in a good sized UPS for home use.
@EricJA FYI (or FWIW): On the Walmart site, one of the images for the product , they state “5 hours CPAP machine”…
@EricJA I can’t tell if this thing has a car cigarette lighter style output, but that is what you want to look for to run a CPAP for multiple nights. You get the car adapter for your machine and power it that way. Significantly more efficient usage of the power–you’d get a couple nights instead of a few hours from this if it has that dc output.
@davidtomlin @EricJA It includes that adapter cord per the video review above.
@davidtomlin @EricJA No built-in cigarette style output but they do include a separate adaptor which plugs into the 12v port.
@EricJA If you get the DC cord for the CPAP (most have awailable)and run it without the heat/humidity it should run for a few nights. I got a similar power bank so I could take my CPAP when we travel because the CPAP specific ones were ridiculously expensive and couldn’t be used for anything else.
@davidtomlin @EricJA It had two DC outputs AND the accessory adaptor for plugging in 12-volt car devices. Yes, you get WAY more time from your CPAP getting the DC converter cord and running it that way.
/buy
@werehatrack It worked! Your order number is: masterful-hopeless-ass
/image masterful hopeless ass
Given the capacity, if the batteries are decent, it’s a good deal.
@werehatrack $79 for 222 watt hours? The batteries are likely 18650 lithium ion cells, 300-500 cycles until they fall below 80% capacity, or 177.6 watt hours.
What do you consider “decent” batteries?
What if I told you for 3x the price of this you could get 10x the battery lifespan? Look for LiFePO4 batteries in your portable power stations.
What can this put out of the AC port in terms of wattage? Obviously nothing heavy duty.
So hot plates and coffee makers are probably out.
But what about a smart TV?
@Narwalt Video above user demonstrates a monitor with a very long run time. Smart TV obviously will use more amps/watts therefore with much less run time. For your Super Bowl party in your backyard it will work nicely.
@Narwalt @whomeyesu TV size is probably more important with wattage consumption than smart vs dumb tv. Those back lights or OLEDs take a lot of power and the larger the TV, the more back lighting is needed.
@cengland0 @Narwalt @whomeyesu
A Kill-A-Watt hooked up to your TV (or whatever) will tell you exactly how much it draws.
The TV speakers, amplifier, subwoofers, and powered soundbar likely consume the most power, mostly the amplifier and subwoofers.
@cengland0 @Narwalt @whomeyesu, I don’t know about Smart TVs, but all my devices are like part of the Dumb & Dumber World & Yeah, Ms Smartphone, I’m talkin 'bout you!
@cengland0 @Narwalt @whomeyesu
/buy
@gustador It worked! Your order number is: scrawny-bronze-cheetah
/image scrawny bronze cheetah
That’s not a Cheetah; it is a Panther, or at least FIU calls it that…
Can this charge while outputting power? Seems like it could be a good UPS since it can output 12 V directly to networking equipment, which would be much more efficient than conventional UPSes.
@mrkenneth but is the power station regulated at 12V or simulating a car battery at 13.8V? How sensitive is your networking equipment to the input voltage?
@mrkenneth There are commercial rack 24V DC power supplies/line conditioners just for networking gear. And UPS rigs that use deep cycle marine batteries that will last.
A UPS designed for computers/networking gear is probably better circuitry-wise than this jack-of-all-trades, master of none unit.
i LOVE GADGETS LIKE THIS BUT I NEED TO KNOW IF THE BATTERIES WERE MANUFACTURED 5 YEARS AGO OR RECENT, MAKES THE WHOLE DIFFERENCE ON THE LONGEVITY OF THIS ITEM SO, MEH LET ME KNOW AND I’LL BE IN FOR MAYBE MORE THAN 1 AS GIFTS TY IN ADVANCE
@mellowirishgent
wowdoyouuseallcapsinallofyourpostings?ifindthatsoannoying.itslikepeoplethatdontusepunctuationorspacesbetweenwords.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO SHOUT
@mike808 {Lots of name-calling and general silliness}
~ TC edit
@mellowirishgent @mike808 quick way to get banned from the forum or even the platform to insult other customers.
@mellowirishgent Turning off caps lock is literally one button press, dawg.
@mellowirishgent @mike808 Yep, user name checks out.
@datruandi @mellowirishgent @mike808 Also a quick way not to get the help you’re asking for
@mellowirishgent Looks like you lost control of your life somewhere along the line! (You need a new moniker that reflects the real you. LOL!)
@mellowirishgent @mike808
Yikes, @mellowirishgent. Way to disparage an entire profession. I actually AM an English teacher, and I didn’t say anything to invoke your wrath.
Though I probably should mention that you seem to have a faulty understanding of contractions and apostrophes…
@macromeh @mike808 i RATHER GO WITH OUT HELP THAN GET IT FROM SOMEONE LIKE YOU
@mike808 THINK ABOUT THIS MIKE, HOW EASY WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TO JUST IGNORE ME? BUT YOU, NO, YOU HAD TO MENTION THE LARGE TYPE WHICH IS MEANIGLESS, YOU ARE TRYING TO HARD TO BE MEAN SPIRITED, MOB MENTALITY OVER WHAT CAPS? DID I MAKE YOUR DAY?FEEL BETTER I’M GOING ON 70, 90% BLIND AND ONE FOOT IN THE COFFIN. GREAT JOB MIKE 808.YOU’RE A GEM.
@mellowirishgent it is unnecessary what you are doing and honestly toxic to this community. It seems you are set out to provoke and then lash out.
Writing all caps is typically considered as yelling in online forums and poor netiquette. Exceptions may exist such as specific disabilities. But your responses after that suggests you are just here to troll.
@datruandi TROLL WITH WELL OVER 200 PURCHASES THATS FUNNY I ASKED A VERY GOOD QUESTION AND YOU TURNED IT INTO A SHIT SHOW NOT EVERYONE LAYS DOWN TO BULLIES BECAUSE THATS EXACTLY WHATS GOING ON HERE 99% OF MY POST ARE JUST FINE SO TONITE I TYPE IN CAPS AND I’M NOT FIT FOR THE FORUM QUIT BEING A BULLY AND BE MORE CONSIDERATE I DIDN’T SLAP YOU JUST TYPED IN CAPS FOR CHRIST SAKES GIVE IT A BREAK
@datruandi 8/10 POST ARE PEOPLE TRYING TO BE CLEVER AND UNRELATED TO THE TOPIC OR PRODUCT, ITS LIKE THE LETS SEE WHO CAN BE THE MOST CLEVER FORUM, OR LETS ATTACK THIS GUY NOT BOTHERING ANYONE BECAUSE HE TYPED IN CAPS LETS LET HIM KNOW THATS NOT OK HOW DARE HE TYPE IN CAPS DOESEN’T HE KNOW HOW OFFENSIVE THAT IS ? GO PLAY XBOX AND TAKE YOUR ANGER OUT THERE.
@datruandi THIS IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF LEFT WING WOKE ,
@mellowirishgent the ability to buy stuff is not correlated to acting like a troll or not.
Your behavior is trolling. You intentionally keep using all caps just to annoy people and lash out including directly insulting people who tell you that it is considered shouting.
I wonder if you would be so “nice” if it were not online.
netiquette is established for well over 3 decades now.
Maybe show some common sense?
@datruandi IF SOMEONE LIKE YOUR SELF IS OFFENDED AT CAPS WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT YOU? ON TILT 24/7 JUST WAITING FOR THAT ONE GUY TO TYPE IN CAPS LISTEN TO YOURSELF, GROW UP BRAT I ASKED A SIMPLE QUESTION THE MANUFACTURE DATE THATS NOT TROLLING IF NO ONE WANTS TO ANSWER FINE BUT THE CAP THING WELL ESTABLISHED FOR 30 YEARS ,UMM CORNY WOKE LEFT IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR WAY YOU DESTROY YOUR EVERYTHING THATS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY MINDING OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS . PREACHING WHATS RIGHT AND WRONG WHO MADE YOU THE MEH POLICE? FOR THE RECORD I HAVE CLOSE TO 1200 LIKES TO MY COMMENTS YOU HAVE 300 EXPLAIN HOW I RECIEVED 1200 LIKES IF I AM A TROLL? SEEMS YOU ARE THE ONE TROLLING ME ?
@mellowirishgent I am happy for you that you received so many likes. It must mean a lot to you. I suggest to try to learn to listen instead of the online equivalent of yelling. This convention together with other aspects of netiquette emerged sometime in the 80s mostly in Usenet and has been around since then. You can of course choose to ignore it, but don’t wonder then why people think of you being rude and a troll if you keep doing it even though you have been told about it.
@datruandi YOUR BEING A BULLY ON A SENIOR CITIZEN LIVE WITH THAT VERY ABUSIVE TO ELDERS.
@mellowirishgent did I use rude language towards you or was I impolite to you? What does that make you feel bullied? Maybe you are the triggered one after all? You started the diatribe about the “woke left” that has nothing to do with this forum.
You can do indeed mostly what you want, but don’t expect everybody to agree with you and shut up.
@mellowirishgent Man, I really wish there was a laugh react. Your behavior is so poor all around that I am in stitches. The silly all-caps is just a small part.
“SnügMax” sounds like a condom brand.
@mike808 I thought it sounded like a cute name for a cat.
@mike808 Death by SnügSnüg
Homer:. Hmmm. Pure sine wave.
SnugMax: What a great name for a portable camping power supply. What else do you do with your significant other at night on a camping trip?
@hchavers do why is no one asking how long it runs a hitachi?
@hchavers @unksol Is that a small, electric grill?
@hchavers @rpstrong Hitachi <> hibachi
@hchavers @unksol Yeah - one is like a personal sized recreational toy that’s really hot, and the other is like a personal sized recreational toy that’s really hot.
@hchavers @rpstrong I contest either being “personal”. The opening statement was “What else do you do with your significant other at night on a camping trip?” And I’m sure both can be better together.
@hchavers @rpstrong @unksol
What to do with both and the SO camping?
Might I suggest a theme of “Grillin 'n Thrillin”.
I’VE GOT THE POWERRRR
/giphy obese-translucent-liver
Can’t charge your car so no
@craigcush Well technically, if you have a car battery charger that plugs into AC it can.
@Coldwyn @craigcush This would add about 0.5 miles to a Tesla Model 3.
@craigcush 12V trickle charger might do the job, just slower. Don’t have this, can’t test for you.
No idea about this brand, but my last job set me up with something similar from a company called jackery that was surprisingly useful.
So when are you all going to sell some 60W solar panels for cheap so I can charge this thing when I’m outside for more that 10 minutes?
@Coldwyn Yeah I noticed it didn’t come with the solar panels. A pity since you’d need those for a longer power outage. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they will sell some tomorrow.
Will these work with any solar panels? Many years ago (10 maybe?) I bought goal zero solar panels and have been using them in conjunction with a small yeti (bought a few years ago), which I think might be dead now. I hang the panels outside my window and just charge my small devices whenever they need it (PS controllers, heaphones, keyboards, mice, tablet, etc.).
@whitelightertre The Walmart listing they link to says that it has a built-in MPPT controller to support solar charging.
@whitelightertre yes, as long as the output is in the specified voltage range.
So, if I plug in a drip coffee maker, will it suck all the juice from this thing?
@radi0j0hn No. The coffee maker gets juice from the beans, not the battery.
@radi0j0hn Drip coffee maker draws too much power to even run off this thing. A small one is 600w. I looked up a keurig and they are between 900-1500w so big NO on that.
@oldmantick @radi0j0hn Yeah, I recently got solar and it included household use monitoring. I saw a huge spike and thought, “what was that?” It was the Keurig.
This is actually a great price for the features. I paid this much a couple months ago for 155 watt hours and a 100 wat modified sine wave inverter and considered it a decent value.
I just got a notification from Walmart that “an item you like is really popular… the SNUGMAX Vickers 200 Portable Power Station”.
/giphy stop watching me
I would be interested in this for getting a laptop to run even a couple of hours, with the docking station and a monitor or two would be perfect. With the idea of being able to function a little bit if I had to work remotely in a hopefully short power outage.
Fingers crossed it doesn’t crap out in a year.
/giphy fixed-festering-saffron
No flashlight or Bluetooth speaker crammed in there? An outrage I say.
@ugadogch I think there is a flashlight. Maybe even hdmi.
I’ll give it a try. Not a Jackery but hey wth…I’m in…
/giphy glorified-limited-peace
/giphy ginormous-foul-prison
Wow, sold out!
23 short of 1,000
@Euniceandrich Of course today is the one day I don’t check Meh in the morning and they actually had something I wanted to buy. Oh well.
@Froggy I like to think that those 23 will turn up in Instant Regret Kits.
Mine arrived today. It’s physically smaller than I was expecting, but that’s OK. The internal batteries were at 27% according to its own meter, and it’s charging now. I’ll run a few tests to see how it stacks up as a 12V power source versus a UB12220 SLA battery.
@werehatrack Wow, that was fast!
@Kyeh @werehatrack
Mine only shipped today.
@Kyeh
I’m in Houston. FXG from the DFW area is generally overnight, and I suspect mine was one of the first of these to get out.
I’ve got it set up running 12V power to a laptop with a mostly-empty battery, a cell phone (ditto), and one other USB device that needs charging, and so far it looks like I can expect about five hours of runtime at this load - which probably means a good bit more than that in fact, once the device batteries are charged. If I was using the power via the 110V inverter, I suspect that my runtime would be about half that. Hurray for Dell laptops with a 12V-capable power brick!
@werehatrack Does the manual show what type of interface (size and type) the solar panel needs? There are some great deals on Amazon for cyber monday but I can’t find any specs on the 200.
Has anyone found a good solar panel for this? The Snugmax panel designed for it does not seem to be available anywhere. I can’t find the manual online anywhere to read some specs.
@Tronne The Troubleshooting section has some specs:
DISCLAIMER: I do not have any idea if this would work, but it seems to match the above stats:
https://www.amazon.com/Flashfish-Foldable-Portable-Charger-Separately/dp/B08TZP6WJY
@dave I looked at those and was concerned they might be specific to the Flatfoot brand of batteries as well.
Dam, I just got mine and it didn’t come with the wood planking underneath.
Seriously, Great price and works as expected. Bought it for a recharge on my new electric bike. 2+ hours worth of charge so extends my range by 50%.
@mgyvver Does the manual show what type of interface (size and type) the solar panel needs? There are some great deals on Amazon for cyber monday but I can’t find any specs on the 200.
Got mine yesterday and it works as advertised. It powered loads up to exactly 201W (according to the display).
I checked the output with a graphic multimeter and it looks like a sine wave, 60.0Hz, 113.5V. I plugged in some chargers and they did not make horrible whining noises or get too hot.
The only small solar panel I have (25W) doesn’t have the right connector, once I get that sorted out I will try the solar charging.
I’m sure the batteries are crappy Shenzhen specials but if it lasts a couple years that would be great.
/giphy good job meh
@awk Does the manual show what type of interface (size and type) the solar panel needs? There are some great deals on Amazon for cyber monday but I can’t find any specs on the 200.
@Tronne The manual only has what @dave copied and pasted above:
Seems reasonable …
@awk @dave Great! I did a quick deep dive and it looks like this one is the best bang for the buck on CyberMonday. (Linking Camelcamelcamel for tracking history)
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B08CXP7MZN
Powering a laptop that draws 15 to 21 watts running a streaming video, it kept up for nine hours and still had not gone dry. That was good enough for me.
I connected my LG 300-watt solar panel through a buck converter to charge it at 24V. It displayed up to about 55 watts. The specs on the box says charging voltages:. DC 13 to 24V/2.4A,. It’s about 60-watt. I don’t think this unit supports higher power charging unless I increase the voltage, but I don’t want to risk it.
Finally got mine and all I can add is that it unfortunately does not allow for pass-through while charging. Still a great deal at $80 in my opinion though.
@ohhwell I know this is ancient but I just now found out that it will do pass through on the USB ports at least.
the AC does not work
Mine just died
@mutagen
Mine too has died. Kept it charged up, indoors. Used it for one camping trip
Garbage, used it 3 times total and now it won’t hold a charge even after keeping it plugged for multiple days (showing 0% battery) Complete waste.
Add another failure; it was working earlier today but it is now fully dead, will not turn on at all.
Update; After several hours of playing possum vs all proddings, it responded to the charger and took for fecking ever to charge back up. It’s anybody’s guess wherher it will nonchalantly act like nothing was wrong. We ahall see.
After recharging, it acted like it was going to be normal. For several hours, it continued to forecast that it had 9 to 10 hours of runtime available. Then, abruptly, the bar gauge for the battery capacity plummeted from three bars to two bars to one in a short period, and it gave up again.
Further adventures; the second attempt to recharge produced The Smell Of Impending Release Of Magic Smoke, and the battery charge state indicator never climbed above one bar. At that point, I decided that exploratory surgery was warranted. So far, nothing crispy has been detected visually. It appears that the welded-together battery pack (24 INR18650 2500mAh cells, look genuine) is probably okay, but I want to discharge it safely before doing much of anything else.
@werehatrack
Have you made any discoveries? Mine won’t turn on, and claims to go from 0 to full in minutes every time I plug it in.
I guess I am very lucky or just don’t use it a ton but mine is still kicking along.
Got mine out of storage and charged it up. It only took 1.5 hours to charge starting from a single blinking bar (empty).
It says “FUL” but only has about 50 wh of power stored up, and the bar graph immediately drops down to one bar.
Opened it up, and the first group of cells (between large black wire and small red wire) is at 3.5 volts, while the other two are at their max voltage of 4.2 volts.
So, a severe pack imbalance (due to storage?) leading to reduced capacity. I’m manually charging just the low part of the pack to get them all up to 4.2v.
Opening tips: You should just unsolder the large red wire that goes to the bottom circuit board. There isn’t enough play to remove/access the battery otherwise without unscrewing both the AC and DC circuit boards.