@Griff726 One Best Buy reviewer said it does NOT support pass-through. But this same review said you also have to use the short cable that came with it to charge (because they tried a different cable with no luck). So…yeah…
@Griff726@TimW If you have to use the cable it came with, does that mean it won’t work with other (lightning) cables and only would charge micro USB devices?
@Griff726@katbyter That Best Buy reviewer was talking about charging the power bank itself. I call BS on that statement, though, that you have to use the cable it came with to charge it. It is supposed to be able to charge with either micro-USB or lightning cable. Then you can use the power bank to charge most anything that plugs into a standard USB-A port.
I actually considered getting an apple device like an ipod or ipad so this might come in handy. Or I’ll give it to my sister as a future gift. We’ll see what the future holds.
@JT954 this device appears to “be Apple-friendly” only in the sense that it claims you can charge the battery itself using your existing Lightning cable - it has a Lightning input charging port.
Otherwise, it appears to be Micro USB/Lighting phone/tablet ambivalent.
So the claim to fame would be if you’re an all Apple user, you only need to carry your Lightning cable to both charge this battery and your iPhone/iPad. Rather than also needing to also carry a micro USB cable to charge the battery.
@jeffcohen I bought this at Christmas and so far I’m pretty pleased with it. The convenience of having the mouse be Qi capable is actually pretty cool.
The Best Buy reviewers who reckon it only charges via the supplied micro USB cable are either on crack or using shitty third-party cables. Mine arrived today and it’s charging just fine using my Lightning cable.
However, it’s been several hours now, and the readout hasn’t ticked over from 99 to 100. Makes me wonder if there is actually a third digit in the display or if 99 is as far as it goes. If it does actually go to 100, then that last percentage point is the slowest trickle charge I’ve ever encountered. I guess I’ll find out in the morning.
@jetkins Charged mine for short time and got to like 98%, didn’t see 100. But it seemed like it used the charge way quicker than other 10,000mah packs. Maybe that last 99-100% is really like 40%
@awk normally, I’d completely agree on the Apple MFi certification.
However, in this case, it is a battery being charged via that “Lightning” connector, not an iPhone/iPad. The “Lightning” port is an input port on the battery to save you from having to carry both a Micro USB cable and a Lightning cable if you’re an Apple device user.
@defective if you bought just one by clicking on the buy button and completed checkout, you can’t go back and click the buy button again. You should have added them “to your cart” and bought them all at once.
I like to keep these in the basket of my bicycle for long rides to keep my phone/usb speaker charged. I won’t buy less that 10,000 mAh anymore. I still have a few of the purple ones that take forever to charge, but other than that work great.
/giphy affordable-lagging-minnow
On offers like this, with limited quantity and high demand, I set the maximum purchase quantity to one, to let more people in on the deal. I missed that setting for the first 30 minutes here, so some people were able to buy multiples, but it’s now set to one per person.
Sorry for the confusion there, but that’s why you’re only able to buy one now.
@craigcush I understand your frustration. It was a mistake that anyone was able to buy more than one, but I do get how that seems unfair to people coming in after the mistake was fixed.
Well, $9 for seven full charges is too good a deal to pass up. I do believe I have ordered more on Meh in the last 6 months than I have throughout my entire membership!
Well lost sale again if can’t order at least two. Brother and sisters fight you know. It’s always something meh, you run out before you can open the page or this.
@Wolverine350r awww… my daughter had a young possum for a pet when she was a kid… they are actually pretty cool. She raised it from a baby after it’s mom was hit by a car and they found the babies in her pouch. Kept it for several months, then one day it just disappeared out of the container she had it in and we never did find it…weird.
Something to justify my VMP, and the deal got paused before I could order it. And at 11am, I’ll be at work, where no cell phone/internet access is allowed.
If you are not familiar with Tzumi they also make this
I bought one on Black Friday and so far have been happy with it. The convenience of having the mouse be Qi capable is pretty cool.
@chienfou That does look kinda cool. The mouse isn’t total crap?
And how is it for location sensitivity? All of my current Qi pads have a limited sweet spot, which is fine, but with this, I’d kinda want to be able to put it anywhere on the pad.
It might be cooler still if you could just use your phone as a mouse. Might. Might also suck, but it would be a nifty parlor trick. Notwithstanding that people really don’t have parlors these days. There are other ways to turn a phone into a mouse, so I guess it could be done anyway, but those typically require kinds of connectivity blocked at the office.
@joelmw Mouse is OK, certainly not designed for gaming though (not that I care). There is a ‘sweet spot’ which encourages you to put the phone to the side so the mouse can use the ‘mousepad’ as God intended!
Having 12,000 mAh is nice but I really bought it for the QC3.0 port so I can fast charge my phone. Meh doesn’t mention the voltages you can achieve with that port but the manual does. It can go all the way to 12V at 1.5A.
Something else to note, the inputs are 2A which, in my experience, is pretty good. I think every battery I have can output high current but only charges at around 500mA. I’m going to have to test that 2A charging capability because that would put this battery in a class of its own.
Here are some more manual snippets:
Some people reading reviews of the product pointed out that you must use the cable that comes with it. That does not appear to be true according to the manual (unless maybe they mean for charging the Tzumi device itself but I still doubt it to be true):
@joelmw Thank you for the kind words but I just posted snippets of the manual someone else located in PDF format. I made it a little easier to read without having to click to another site somewhere.
Do I want this? Guess I should try at 11. My trusty battery bank is starting to slow down and be more finicky. Plus, my 12 year old keeps swiping it and never charging it back.
@anjelchairez whatever the Best Buy Model number is… over there, in the specs, I’m seeing: (vs “5264” here on Meh)
5707BB
In any case, that “BB” hints it is a Best Buy only model number for the same device… that Best Buy doesn’t want folks attempting to price match-force their $45 price lower.
Like matching to someone selling it for $9. Does Best Buy know who Meh is?
I was going to buy 4 of these when I saw the listing pop up at midnight, but I only bought 2 to let others have a chance (that and my OCD). I’ll be willing to trade both of them for the IRK I couldn’t snag on Monday
@jzmacdaddy So tempted to take you up on that offer with the one IRK I snagged during the Mehrithon, but I don’t know what’s in it yet, so… This is suddenly a very useless post. Not my first, unfortunately.
@cinoclav@rprussell@tngrannyd in fact, you could use it to recharge a smaller battery pack if you wanted … though that would be of limited use unless you were charging these so you could use multiple fans at once…
Well hot diggity. Recently lost my battery pack, and happened to check Meh at 10:59 central time. Hope this battery pack won’t make my phone Go Samsung in my purse…
Did a /buy and the site froze so tried the old fashioned “click the buy button” method and it froze up and told me something went wrong, but lo and behold the /buy came thru eventually. YEAH!
@RedOak i cannot disagree on the merits of either the product, or the pricing. Meh, and the original woot, made their bacon on low priced tech items, and it’s been pretty thin pickings on those items for quite some time.
However, this limit to one, the move to multiple tiered times to buy stuff, etc is not full blown post amazon woot level messed up, but it’s definitely NOT the original 3 item, list it til it’s gone, semi-cool stuff for cheap that it should be.
With the original format, you knew there would probably be a “good deal” many, if not most times, and you knew if it was a really good deal you better be there at midnight, or you didn’t get it. The new model has these deals much less frequent, and it could be at any of three different times, and they may get moved around. So now instead of checking every night, I check when I check, since the products have become ho-hum (worse than “meh”), prices are usualy not worth the risk, and the overall experience is also less than “meh”.
So, as a very long time dave fan/customer, I do believe he needs to go back the format that made him what he is. But, I don’t write the rent checks, so I’ll just sit and complain…:)
If all a company does is 100% nobrainer buy-tempers, it might not be long for this world because it goes broke.
Between first 18-month launch/promo budget investments like @JonT’s full time position, stirring the forum pot, seemlingly every week giving away product, and the steady stream of (apparently subsidized/zero margin) deals that drew @Unixrab to proclaim, it was all a VMP-fee sucker tease/bribe… at some point that level of subsidy could not endure.
@RiotDemon That explains it. my card expired sometime after the march transition. I reenabled in november when i noticed it tried to charge me shipping, and completely forgot that VMP was over.
@RedOak I gotta admit I have been on way more than usual since I was up and at work at 0245 and ER has been slow. Just 4 more hours than I will be headed home and most likely not stay abreast of this thread!
@jdude727@RedOak be sure you wait for the change then use the /buy for your best bet. I thought I had lost out so tried the buy button but my /buy went thru. Good luck.
@uninflammable I bought one of those. It truly is painful. Then when you shut it off it plays a nice three note power off sound… WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST PLAY THAT BUT IN REVERSE for the start up?
Shit. I set an alarm for 3:50 to remind me to buy this. Then when the alarm went off I was like, “what the hell is that alarm for?”. I completely forgot. I’ll just have to try at 4:00
Well THAT was confusing. I’m at work so when I pulled up the site on an incognito chrome window it said they were sold out. Then when I went to log in to ask how the F@#$ that had happened with the deal paused, it correctly listed the deal as paused.
@blaineg AFAIK, product being offered that has very positive reviews and is seemingly only available for much many more bucks being offered by Meh who only has a smaller-than-desired quantity available. Or they are messin’ with us. Either way, with the recent Mehrithon and then the pop socket joy (for some) the next day, seems like people are prepared to post and buy today.
I don’t ever deliberately charge my phone anymore.
I got a 1+ 6T. This phone has never up and died on me, and I’ve never left it to charge over night.
I plug my phone into my car on my way to and home from work, to listen to podcasts on Android Auto. By the time I get where I’m going, this baby’s always at 100%.
@dave@RedOak ¯\ (ツ) /¯ apparently so since it changed. I hadn’t actually seen this product until it launched (most enjoyable for me when that happens as I get to experience it as everyone else does)
I just checked my bag and I have no fewer than 4 USB-C charging cables, two USB-C to USB-A cables, a mini USB Type B cable for my calculator, a micro USB type B for anything that might need it, a lightning cable even though I don’t own any apple products, my Laptop charger (I have a laptop dock for my desk so I keep the charger in my bag), a USB-C wall brick, three USB-A wall bricks, a 20000 mAh portable charger, and a 8000 mAh portable charger. I just don’t like the idea of running out of power while I’m out
Received mine today and here’s a quick review.
Using QC3.0 port, I can get the voltage up to 12 volts and can use up to 1 amp.
But, the second I increase the load to 1.06A, the voltage drops all the way to 3.95 volts.
Going down to 5 volts on that QC3.0 port, I can get about .52 amps before voltage starts to drop.
Going to a load of 2A drops the voltage all the way to 4.55 volts.
Going to a load of 2.5A drops to 4.47 volts.
Going to 2.83A, drops to 4.32 volts.
The regular non-QC3.0 port claims to have a 2.4A output.
But that port becomes completely unusable at 4.25 volts.
The reason I bought this was so I could quick charge my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 using quick charge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do that and only delivers 5.09 volts at 1.276A.
Regarding charging, I was hopeful that it would really charge at 2A but looks like it’s only 1.426A.
My summary is that it was a good price for $9 but I’m disappointed that it doesn’t have a high amperage output like the specs said and does not quick charge my Note 9 even though my phone is compatible with other QC 3.0 devices around the house.
Now the big question is, is it really 12,000mAh? That could take a long time to test as I would need to deplete it completely to determine how much it stored in that battery. If I get enough comments to do that test, I’ll do it but I’m not looking forward to it unless others would find value in the time it would take me.
@cengland0 Thanks for the info. That is interesting to know, nice to have real numbers. Not a complete breakdown but about how would you rank this vs others you have tested?
I don’t figure it really is 12,000 mah but also not too important I would not say it is worth the time for the few people that actually bought and would look back here.
@raccoon81 I have tested many of these batteries and many 120V to 5V chargers and car chargers. I must say that this particular device is way off from it’s specs.
Claim: QC 3.09V-12V at 1.5A.
Actual: 1A is okay, more is huge voltage drop so does not meet spec.
Claim: QC3.0 port: 4.6V - 6.5V at 3A.
Actual: QC3.0 port: 5V/1A = ok, 5V/2A = sketchy, 5V/2.5A = No way, 5V/3A = did not test due to complete fail.
Claim: Micro Input 5V/2A.
Actual: 5.10V/1.426A. Better than most batteries but not as good as specs.
QC port works as expected. Can send data to tell the battery what voltage to use and it does respond properly. I don’t know why my Note 9 is not sending the appropriate data to increase the voltage for charging. The Samsung 120V to USB that came with it does initiate the fast charge. I may do some more research on this – perhaps the Note 9 is not QC3.0 compatible like I thought it was. My first initial thought is the Note 9 is using QC2.0 and the battery is not downward compatible. I did not test it’s QC 2.0 capabilities because there was no claim it was downward compatible but I may do that test later too.
@raccoon81 I just checked the QC 2.0 capabilities and it works fine.
So interestingly, I plugged in my note 9 again into the QC 3.0 port and it did initiate the quick charge at 9 volts. I’m positive I put it in the correct Port the first time because you can see it’s in the center port in the photo above. I don’t know why it just suddenly started to work But it’s fine now.
Claim: Regular USB port 5V/2.4A
Actual: Drops to 4.25V at 2.39A Does not meet spec.
It’s common for the voltages to fluctuate while the load gets larger but the USB spec says voltage should be between 4.40V to 5.25V and the tested 4.25V is way below the minimum USB voltage spec.
@cengland0 would be slightly interested in knowing the full capacity. Mine arrived at 84% and I charged it to 100% before using it. I was able to charge my 1st gen pixel from 51 -100% and my 1st gen pixel xl from 65 - 100% and the backup had 17% remaining. That seems a bit skimpy to me.
@jaybird I’m in the process of testing the battery now. I estimate it will take around 10 hours to complete and I’m on hour #3 right now.
Things I learned so far: The charge indicator doesn’t appear to be linear. After 1 hour of discharging at a constant current of 1A, the battery still showed 100% charge. Then at the 2nd hour with the same constant current discharge, the display shows 97%. Right at the 3rd hour, it shows 79%.
So far, after 3 hours, it has drawn 2.97Ah at around 4.92 volts. It’s more accurate to say 14.62Wh because the voltages can rise and fall during this experiment.
Regarding it showing 100% charge for an hour, charging it last night did something similar. It was around 81% charged and jumped to 99% pretty fast. It was on 99% for about 2 hours before it registered 100%.
@jaybird Now that this forum is working again, I can post all the results regarding the capacity.
It’s definitely not linear when looking at the percentage display. I used a constant current drain at 1A. Took 8 hours 26 minutes and 11 seconds to drain until it cut off.
Don’t be too surprised that it almost goes up exactly 1,000 mAh for each hour. That’s expected when you have a constant 1A drain for an hour.
The final mAh is 8,400 and 41.31Wh. Since the nominal voltage of a lipo battery is 3.7V, then 41.31 / 3.7 = 11,165 mAh. You need to do that conversion because the battery voltage is less than the USB output voltage and we are looking for the battery capacity and not the 5V output capacity. This is why it’s sort of bogus to rate batteries like this in mAh instead of mWh.
At a calculated 11,165 mAh I would say the battery is definitely 12,000 mAh as advertised because there’s always loss in the boost circuitry.
As a double check, I charged it all the way and it consumed 11,598 mAh during the charge cycle from a completely dead unit.
@cengland0 I noticed the same overly optimistic reported percentages on the first hour or two. Saying that it still has 100% after fully charging my phone from 20% to 100%. Then after doing it again, THEN it drops down. At least it’s not just me.
@Bandrik Optimistic isn’t the word I would use. It’s non-linear. That top 2% is more like 10% and the same between 51 - 59% (8%) being about 30% of the capacity.
Is it my imagination, or is there absolutely no visual clues as to how charged this thing is? Nothing to say it’s fully charged when charging, nothing to say when it is almost depleted.
@BuffBillsFan mine arrived 90% charged. It blinks the current charge during recharge, and there is a button on the side you can push to check the current level when it is not plugged in.
@BuffBillsFan yeah. mine had one too. Those are pretty common on electronics these days…My bigger complaint was the use of adhesive instead of the normal ‘cling’ style tag. It left a sticky residue I had to take off…Pooh!
Not sure if I should open this now and try it or should I wait for my current crappy power bank to inevitably break. (I play Pokemon Go a lot so a battery is kinda important to carry)
Guess i’m never going to get mine …still says “Processing” under my order status… these may be the very last words I ever type because I only have 2.73% battery le
@a5meiser yeah… mine was cancelled as well. I ordered as soon as it opened back up at 11, so not sure there is any rhyme or reason to who missed out. Given the mixed reviews, I suppose the most appropriate response is… “meh”
@a5meiser did mine as a /buy command at 1100 sharp and it went through finally. @hokiedevil yours may have been a VMP membership issue, but that’s weird about yours @a5meiser.
@a5meiser Yeah, I hit order the second it opened up at 11am and got cancelled. I had no need to hit the 4pm slot since I thought I had one. All in all it was pretty lame to get the cancelled notice a week later along with a $5 credit for… apparel. Gee, thanks.
[Weird, the forum let me initiate a reply to a post above, but would not allow text entry in the resulting box… latest 6th gen iPad 9.7, fully updated iOS 12]
My nowhere near thorough testing so far hints these battery banks are somewhat wonky.
Mine don’t perform similarly to each other.
Both arrived at similar charge statuses per their own displays at 81% & 85%.
However, while one charged up predictably, with the display stepping up (non-linearly) to 100% as it charged, and in a reasonable timeframe…
The other one sat “charging” at “81%” for hours. Unplugged it and replugged it in… and several hours later came up to “100%”. Not confidence-inspiring consistency.
Topped off the charge on an iPhone (started at 77%) and iPad (started at 62%), individually using the battery banks.
The wonky “81%” bank never dropped from an indicated “100%” after topping off the iphone. The more predicable bank dropped to 55% after topping off the iPad. I realize the battery sizes of the iPhone and iPad are very different, but neither indicated “after” capacity (100% & 55%) makes much sense.
Will continue “testing”… good thing it’s only a $9 battery.
@RedOak I had a similar experience with the display. It’s not trustworthy to rely on that display to be accurate. However, my testing did reveal that it’s more than likely to be 12,000 mAh battery inside.
If you look at my post above, you can see how a constant 1A draw for 8 1/2 hours has inconsistent values on the display. For example, after 1 hour of discharge, it still showed 100% but that shouldn’t be since I know I took 1,000 mAh out. Then it dropped to 97% after two hours which is only a 3% depletion. Suddenly after another hour it dropped to 79% which is an 18% difference in one hour.
All-in-all, I’m glad to have purchased it. It’s a good size battery for the money - just don’t trust the display.
@cengland0 yah, the $9 part brings some level of forgiveness, however, the inconsistent behavior between the two battery banks I have is not a good thing. It hints one might be defective.
And the poor case design is perhaps forgivable for a $9 battery Bank. It is unbalanced, with the battery in one end and (apparently, I have not opened it) the electronics In the other end. I realize that end to end design is common, but in this example, unbalanced/“inconsistent density” makes it feel cheap. Perhaps the electronics are not as compactly packaged as in Anker or RAVpower battery banks.
… and swapped over to the “regular” USB port on the battery bank, 4.91 volts/ 2.03 amps.
Seems to hint the QC 3.0 chip does a better job of managing both the voltage and current. Also odd the “regular” USB port current was beat out by the QC 3.0 port in that I don’t think the iPad knows what “QC 3.0” is, does it?
… and for reference, swapped over to our trusty Anker wall power supplied USB charger (IC, but not QC capable) to show “normal” charging, 5.11 volts/ 2.26 amps.
@RedOak nice testing but the QC 3.0 port should have an output of 3A and the regular port is 2.4A. Yours under delivered just like mine did. However, it will only deliver as much current as your device consumes. It could have been the iPad not requesting the full power of the port.
I tested mine with a digital load to make sure it will try to consume the spec values and the battery couldnt output what it claims so we know it’s likely not a problem with the iPad.
It’s still the best battery I own and the only one with a QC 3.0 port. For $9, its a huge win. Wish I could buy more.
USPS okay-prickly-oven, Delivered, In/At Mailbox 04/09/2019 4:44pm CITY ST ZFIVE Reply STOP to cancel
It works, but the capacity gauge has never reached 100. It was ~85 out of the box. I’ll have to try again, but I don’t think the unit can charge devices while the unit is being recharged. I like the non-slip coating.
/giphy I like it
I’ll have to try again, but I don’t think the unit can charge devices while the unit is being recharged.
FWIW: Mine came with a bright yellow sticker on the back side above the product number etc. saying you shouldn’t charge and discharge the unit at the same time.
@chienfou
Upon further study, it looks like charging the pack while using it to charge another device messes up the battery meter’s calibration. At some point, I’m going to fully discharge and recharge the pack to see if the meter resets.
/image reset the meter
Am I the only person who is having problems charging these? I’ve got them both plugged in, one to my laptop and one to a plug. The laptop one came charged at 90 and is actually losing power, down to 88. The other one came at 78 and hasn’t budged in two hours. I has a sad.
@vampkat it seems the digital display isn’t accurate at all. I just let mine charge overnight and eventually it said 100 and stopped. It worked fine. Hopefully yours will work fine too.
Just got back from a trip to France and this thing was great. I used it during the day to keep the two phones and tablet charged up then refilled it overnight each night.
Worked like a champ.
As otherwheres mentioned the display data sux, so don’t panic about the lack of movement while it is charging or discharging. Never had trouble getting it charged back to 100% overnight.
Overall another great meh purchase. (I’m still ahead on my VMP membership cost vs orders placed, so that’s a plus!)
@chienfou This is my second favorite battery pack. Keep it ready to go for my big battery choice. Would be sad if it dissapeared, but if luggage went away would worry about the other stuff more.
@raccoon81
Yeah…i lost my favorite dress jacket, favorite belt, favorite necklace, a couple of my favorite shirts and ONE dress shoe! I was on a knee scooter in a splint during recovery from Achililles tendon surgery so only brought the right shoe. They took the bag while i was making my way (slowly) to the carousel, emptied it in the terminal then left the bag with a few personalized items in it, like a Columbia rain jacket i had written my name on the tag…
@raccoon81
It seems they took the bag, snatched out the contents they wanted and then abandoned the suitcase in some corner of the airport. I guess that way if they are stopped, you can’t prove it’s your shit that they have with them…
This was one of the best items I’ve ever purchased from Meh… the battery does NOT lose its charge! I charged it one time, lost it in a bag for 4 months, took it back out and it was still at 97% charged!!!
@RICHY531 I really like mine still. Though to drop for 100% probably already is down a ways. But still good. And I like the percent even if it isn’t super accurate
Specs
What’s in the Box?
1x 12,000mAh power bank
1x USB to Micro USB cable
Price Comparison
$44.99 at Best Buy
Warranty
1 Year Tzumi
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
TAKE MY MONEY
Wish I was first
/giphy proper-qualitative-heron
@dj_m meh.
Sigh… unzips wallet.
/giphy vulnerable-thrifty-offer
Man that is a extremely tempting price but I already have tons of portable batteries
@deathbynoodlez Can never have enough power banks! …never.
Gee I dont really need more power said no one ever.
BUY
Yes but can I have that purple mediocre shirt
@heartbleed I love purple.
@heartbleed Is this going to become the third daily user petition request after electric toothbrushes and pop sockets?
You can charge it with a lightning cable?! That’s pretty cool. Shame I just bought the two-fers during the mehrathon.
What’s the lightning port for? To charge it with a lighting cable or USB cable?
@SKostohryz
/giphy that’s a bingo
@heartbleed it’s so strange. Never seen a non Apple device use lightning.
I was looking at these on Morningsave the other week and was tempted… 2 for $29.
2 for $18, have my moniez
@thechinglish how did you buy two?
According to the Bbuy link, dimensions are 5 x
0.8 x 3 inches with a weight of 0.9 pounds
Too bad it’s not a Monster power brick. Instabuy if it was. Easy $100+ savings, making it better than this deal.
/giphy preferable-debonair-wealth
/giphy curvy-rambunctious-straw
How many of these do I have to have before I stop being tempted to buy more??
No USB-C. Meh!
@ellett All of my USB-C cables are… USB on one end. Not sure what the issue is.
@abamon81 @ellett 2 issues 1) you can’t charge this brick with that cable, 2) you can’t rapid charge (USB-PD) with a cable that’s USB-B to USB-C
/buy
@savvysapphire It worked! Your order number is: precise-confident-mustard
/image precise confident mustard
Something useful that will improve my life? Sure. In for 3.
Also, the Best Buy reviews seem pretty positive, so that’s nice.
/giphy brawny-legal-quill
Does anyone know if you can charge a device with this while it’s being charged. (pass through)?
@Griff726 One Best Buy reviewer said it does NOT support pass-through. But this same review said you also have to use the short cable that came with it to charge (because they tried a different cable with no luck). So…yeah…
@Griff726 no. According to reviews
@Griff726 @TimW If you have to use the cable it came with, does that mean it won’t work with other (lightning) cables and only would charge micro USB devices?
@Griff726 @katbyter That Best Buy reviewer was talking about charging the power bank itself. I call BS on that statement, though, that you have to use the cable it came with to charge it. It is supposed to be able to charge with either micro-USB or lightning cable. Then you can use the power bank to charge most anything that plugs into a standard USB-A port.
/buy
@Euniceandrich It worked! Your order number is: highfalutin-permanent-airport
/image highfalutin permanent airport
Great order number, @mediocrebot !
I think it is awesome.
/giphy highfalutin permanent airport
LEGOS! EGGOS! STRATEGO! AWESOME!
@mediocrebot sorry, that last one is a stretch…
/buy
What? 1/5 the retail/Best Buy price… and very positive reviews with no 1-star reviews?
Is this Meh?
Reviews on Best Buy said only drawback was only charged via supplied short usb cable. Don’t get the lightning input if that’s the case.
These are going lightning fast
talkative-knockout-smell
@Rowsdower …must have passed out while hacking up a hairball…
I actually considered getting an apple device like an ipod or ipad so this might come in handy. Or I’ll give it to my sister as a future gift. We’ll see what the future holds.
/buy
@JT954 this device appears to “be Apple-friendly” only in the sense that it claims you can charge the battery itself using your existing Lightning cable - it has a Lightning input charging port.
Otherwise, it appears to be Micro USB/Lighting phone/tablet ambivalent.
So the claim to fame would be if you’re an all Apple user, you only need to carry your Lightning cable to both charge this battery and your iPhone/iPad. Rather than also needing to also carry a micro USB cable to charge the battery.
@RedOak well done!
/buy
@wronkerville It worked! Your order number is: mindless-fresh-seal
/image mindless fresh seal
Can’t pronounce the brand name, but I can provide this silly GIF.
/giphy chivalrous-historical-degree
@jeffcohen I bought this at Christmas and so far I’m pretty pleased with it. The convenience of having the mouse be Qi capable is actually pretty cool.
I’m pretty sure it’s not “USB 3.0.” This thing isn’t a portable hard drive that’s moving data at high speed — it’s just supplying power.
The “Quick Charge 3.0 USB Port (1.5A - 3A)” in the specs sounds much more likely, and I can see how that could’ve telephoned into “USB 3.0.”
@TheFLP Plus it’s not the lovely shade of blue that USB 3.0 ports usually are.
/image pantone 300c
@TheFLP You are correct. As stated in the specs above (and now corrected on the home page) this is Quick Charge 3.0, not USB 3.0.
@TheFLP good eye!
Something actually useful and well-reviewed? April Fools was yesterday, guys.
/giphy smoggy-nimble-pickle
Happy day…fools. Humans are weird.
The Best Buy reviewers who reckon it only charges via the supplied micro USB cable are either on crack or using shitty third-party cables. Mine arrived today and it’s charging just fine using my Lightning cable.
However, it’s been several hours now, and the readout hasn’t ticked over from 99 to 100. Makes me wonder if there is actually a third digit in the display or if 99 is as far as it goes. If it does actually go to 100, then that last percentage point is the slowest trickle charge I’ve ever encountered. I guess I’ll find out in the morning.
@jetkins Charged mine for short time and got to like 98%, didn’t see 100. But it seemed like it used the charge way quicker than other 10,000mah packs. Maybe that last 99-100% is really like 40%
Update: It did get to 100…eventually.
I’m gonna wager that there are 4 or 5 18650 batteries in here. Wonder if you can swap them with higher cap ones.
Anyway, here’s the manual link from their website. Not sure why shopify has it but
Manual
@thechinglish aren’t 18650s Lithium Ion? The manual claims this battery uses Lithium Polymer innards.
@thechinglish it’s just hosted on shopify’s CDN, meaning that some shop that uses the shopify platform has the PDF on their shop
/buy
@phendrick It worked! Your order number is: uniform-gabby-thrill
/image uniform gabby thrill
700 sold in 30 minutes… is that a record?
@mcemanuel yeah these were definitely popular. They were flying off the shelf at about one every 4.5 seconds for the first 71 minutes. Then BOOM!
/buy
@spitfire6006006 It worked! Your order number is: acrid-sore-derby
/image acrid sore derby
Sir, I’m gonna need to see your MFi license for that Lightning port…
@awk normally, I’d completely agree on the Apple MFi certification.
However, in this case, it is a battery being charged via that “Lightning” connector, not an iPhone/iPad. The “Lightning” port is an input port on the battery to save you from having to carry both a Micro USB cable and a Lightning cable if you’re an Apple device user.
Why is there no quantity adjustment on the by page? Are we only limited to one?
@craigcush my order confirmation said I bought two.
Why the heck can I only buy one?
@defective^^ this?
@defective I clicked the “another” link and got another one.
And my credit card text showed $18.
@defective if you bought just one by clicking on the buy button and completed checkout, you can’t go back and click the buy button again. You should have added them “to your cart” and bought them all at once.
/buy
@rigor Oops, sorry. You can’t buy any more of these (you already bought 1).
@mediocrebot let me spend more money or I’m gonna eat my own ass
/buy
@hailDeadmau5 Oops, sorry. You can’t buy any more of these (you already bought 1).
What?!? Only one?!?
/giphy frantic-bendy-reindeer
I like to keep these in the basket of my bicycle for long rides to keep my phone/usb speaker charged. I won’t buy less that 10,000 mAh anymore. I still have a few of the purple ones that take forever to charge, but other than that work great.
/giphy affordable-lagging-minnow
@mtb002 I love purple.
How are people buying 2 or 3??
@hailDeadmau5
Perhaps there was a bug that allowed the first to jump to get more than one… and then @Shawn’s team “fixed” it to limit to one?
My credit card text says I paid for two.
Hmmm.
Edit: see @Dave’s not below.
@hailDeadmau5 @RedOak Sort of this, but not a bug, and not Shawn, just me.
Gah! Limit one again! Why?!
/buy
@dalekjoe Oops, sorry. You can’t buy any more of these (you already bought 1).
@mediocrebot Worth a try. Damnit.
I haven’t bought any but see others ordered two or more. No option for quantity on the order page
On offers like this, with limited quantity and high demand, I set the maximum purchase quantity to one, to let more people in on the deal. I missed that setting for the first 30 minutes here, so some people were able to buy multiples, but it’s now set to one per person.
Sorry for the confusion there, but that’s why you’re only able to buy one now.
@dave Will that change at 8AM or 4PM for VMP?
@allen721 No, it’s set for one per person for the rest of the event.
@dave not fair to those that researched reviews, helped answer questions and was going to buy three. A sale is a sale till they are gone.
@craigcush I understand your frustration. It was a mistake that anyone was able to buy more than one, but I do get how that seems unfair to people coming in after the mistake was fixed.
@dave Damn you Dave, Damn you straight to WOOT!
@craigcush @dave think of it like an IRK. It’s not fair that people with crappy internet never get a chance to buy one.
@dave
Kindly allow me to now engage in the standard level of highly ceremonial bitching and moaning.
/giphy “there now”
Well, $9 for seven full charges is too good a deal to pass up. I do believe I have ordered more on Meh in the last 6 months than I have throughout my entire membership!
/image haunted-uppity-sun
@PooltoyWolf Mainly due to the PopSockets… right???
@chienfou Actually no, I only bought one set of those. Also I could swear I had the Angry Sun from Mario in this message
@PooltoyWolf alas, if you edit the post the giphy changes
@chienfou Which is why I added a still image using the tool for that XD
/giphy confident-infamous-light
Well lost sale again if can’t order at least two. Brother and sisters fight you know. It’s always something meh, you run out before you can open the page or this.
@craigcush “I can’t buy two so I’m gonna buy zero!!!”
@craigcush use your second Meh account. You have one of those, right? (Admittedly, there’s the shipping cost pain.)
@rigor guess you don’t have kids
@craigcush sometimes getting everyone the same thing to “keep things fair” is nice… but getting different things teaches kids to be flexible as well.
/image floral understanding language
/buy
@akumax It worked! Your order number is: bullish-darling-mind
/image bullish darling mind
Cmon USB 3.0? That’s a bit misleading don’t you think?
@akumax already addressed above and fixed per @dave
/giphy okay-prickly-oven
Honestly a good deal. Last time I bought something here was years ago
/giphy bloody-mournful-possum
@Wolverine350r awww… my daughter had a young possum for a pet when she was a kid… they are actually pretty cool. She raised it from a baby after it’s mom was hit by a car and they found the babies in her pouch. Kept it for several months, then one day it just disappeared out of the container she had it in and we never did find it…weird.
Something to justify my VMP, and the deal got paused before I could order it. And at 11am, I’ll be at work, where no cell phone/internet access is allowed.
@OutbackJon No chance to step outside for a break around 11am?
@jewelshound I work in, shall we say, a “secure gated community with 24 hour security”, so unfortunately, no.
@OutbackJon I’m sorry. Perhaps a family member or friend could place your order?
@OutbackJon … thank you for your service (and sacrifice…)!
May try at 4? Vmp only time. (I think anyway)
@OutbackJon
@D_a_v_e @OutbackJon Isn’t there a way to place an order in the comments?
@crow @D_a_v_e @OutbackJon using the /buy commands, but you still have to be doing it in real time.
If you are not familiar with Tzumi they also make this
I bought one on Black Friday and so far have been happy with it. The convenience of having the mouse be Qi capable is pretty cool.
@chienfou That does look kinda cool. The mouse isn’t total crap?
And how is it for location sensitivity? All of my current Qi pads have a limited sweet spot, which is fine, but with this, I’d kinda want to be able to put it anywhere on the pad.
It might be cooler still if you could just use your phone as a mouse. Might. Might also suck, but it would be a nifty parlor trick. Notwithstanding that people really don’t have parlors these days. There are other ways to turn a phone into a mouse, so I guess it could be done anyway, but those typically require kinds of connectivity blocked at the office.
@joelmw Mouse is OK, certainly not designed for gaming though (not that I care). There is a ‘sweet spot’ which encourages you to put the phone to the side so the mouse can use the ‘mousepad’ as God intended!
/buy
@bakav2 We wanted the morning crowd to have a shot at this too, so we’re holding back some of these until 11am ET.
Having 12,000 mAh is nice but I really bought it for the QC3.0 port so I can fast charge my phone. Meh doesn’t mention the voltages you can achieve with that port but the manual does. It can go all the way to 12V at 1.5A.
Something else to note, the inputs are 2A which, in my experience, is pretty good. I think every battery I have can output high current but only charges at around 500mA. I’m going to have to test that 2A charging capability because that would put this battery in a class of its own.
Here are some more manual snippets:
Some people reading reviews of the product pointed out that you must use the cable that comes with it. That does not appear to be true according to the manual (unless maybe they mean for charging the Tzumi device itself but I still doubt it to be true):
@cengland0 thanks for the useful information!
@cengland0 sometimes, fast is good.
@thewynner @cengland0 is notorious for providing useful information. Truly. Hey, @cengland0!
@joelmw Thank you for the kind words but I just posted snippets of the manual someone else located in PDF format. I made it a little easier to read without having to click to another site somewhere.
Do I want this? Guess I should try at 11. My trusty battery bank is starting to slow down and be more finicky. Plus, my 12 year old keeps swiping it and never charging it back.
Is this the same exact one on Best Buy? The model number for best buy is Model:4533BB-3
This one is different I see.
@anjelchairez whatever the Best Buy Model number is… over there, in the specs, I’m seeing: (vs “5264” here on Meh)
In any case, that “BB” hints it is a Best Buy only model number for the same device… that Best Buy doesn’t want folks attempting to price match-force their $45 price lower.
Like matching to someone selling it for $9. Does Best Buy know who Meh is?
I was going to buy 4 of these when I saw the listing pop up at midnight, but I only bought 2 to let others have a chance (that and my OCD). I’ll be willing to trade both of them for the IRK I couldn’t snag on Monday
@jzmacdaddy so you’d, in effect, pay $18 for a $5 IRK?.. this could create an interesting secondary market in IRKs…
@jzmacdaddy Thanks for your self restraint! Hopefully I’ll snag one of them in a little while.
@jzmacdaddy So tempted to take you up on that offer with the one IRK I snagged during the Mehrithon, but I don’t know what’s in it yet, so… This is suddenly a very useless post. Not my first, unfortunately.
@RedOak yeah. I wish they’d put up some $50 IRK’s. I love surprise junk boxes, and I have more money than sense.
/buy
@thechilipepper0 We wanted the morning crowd to have a shot at this too, so we’re holding back some of these until 11am ET.
@mediocrebot @thechilipepper0 not mention needing to be a VMP to use the /buy command.
@chienfou @mediocrebot @thechilipepper0 What is the syntax for using the /buy command? (asking for an imaginary VMP friend)
@crow @mediocrebot @thechilipepper0 you can find it here
@chienfou Thanks!
@chienfou @mediocrebot @thechilipepper0 I believe they changed it so members can also use it.
@RiotDemon if so they need to update that page. Especially given how confused everyone seems to be about VMP vs Membership
@chienfou it happened recently, I’m sure they’ll get to it eventually.
Okay, techie geniuses… I have an old Samsung Galaxy S5. Will this thing work for me?
@tngrannyd Absolutely. It will work with any phone that charges via a USB cable.
@cinoclav @tngrannyd
or tablet
or MP3 player
or camcorder
etc. etc.
@chienfou @cinoclav @tngrannyd What about a quadcopter?
@cinoclav @rprussell @tngrannyd that would be an “etc. etc”
@chienfou Will it run things that don’t need charging, like a USB hula dancer?
@cinoclav @rprussell @tngrannyd in fact, you could use it to recharge a smaller battery pack if you wanted … though that would be of limited use unless you were charging these so you could use multiple fans at once…
@chienfou For what it’s worth… I miiiight just be killing time 'til 11am.
@rprussell …dastardly!
@cinoclav thank you. Grandkids are in school so I had no one to ask.
@rprussell Did you get one?
@chienfou LOL yeah, I did, in the end.
Yay?
@rprussell
Yikes!! Did it hurt??
/buy
@carl669 We wanted the morning crowd to have a shot at this too, so we’re holding back some of these until 11am ET.
@mediocrebot but i want one NOW! dammit mediocrebot, i liked you more when you were sentient.
@carl669 Needs more fucks.
@narfcake #truth
@carl669 @narfcake @Barneybot is better and nicer than @mediocrebot.
When I complete the takeover of Earth, purple will be the first to go.
@mediocrebot Fuck off, bot.
What’s up with the Martian background?
/giphy smokey-hopeful-cherry
Students are taking a test. I’m sitting here in front of Meh waiting to buy a thing I don’t need
/giphy lazy teacher
@ddbelyea ditto… but not the teacher part
I did it!
/giphy 063104668
@ddbelyea
/giphy lazy call center manager
/giphy troubled-teeny-dragonfly
/buy
@chienfou It worked! Your order number is: partial-baled-pig
/image partial baled pig
It’s 11am!
/buy
@ManBehindPlan It worked! Your order number is: guiltless-obtainable-ninja
/image guiltless obtainable ninja
/buy
@rpstrong It worked! Your order number is: risky-fluttering-clam
/image risky fluttering clam
/buy -q 2
@rprussell Sorry, you can only buy 1 more of these (you already bought 0).
@mediocrebot I POOP ON YOU!
/giphy I poop on you
@mediocrebot @rprussell
Actually, mediocrebot will poop on you if you untether from the VMP drug.
/giphy beneficial-misty-book
@joelmw Misty Copeland - Mmmmm
Okay, you got me on the 2nd try. I have lots of power banks, but this seems a good one.
/giphy rascally-utopian-spy
Well hot diggity. Recently lost my battery pack, and happened to check Meh at 10:59 central time. Hope this battery pack won’t make my phone Go Samsung in my purse…
/buy
@memiry Sorry, the
/buycommand is only available to members. Learn more./buy
@rprussell It worked! Your order number is: cruel-precarious-goblin
/image cruel precarious goblin
Fail…
Well actually it was just a self inflicted DDoS and it did in fact go thru!
/buy -q 4
@leginp Sorry, you can only buy 1 more of these (you already bought 0).
@mediocrebot /giphy Booo
@leginp @mediocrebot
let me help you
/giphy Booo
(has to be on it’s own line)
/buy
@D_a_v_e ETIMEDOUT
@D_a_v_e That’s a mediocrebot response from /buy I’ve never seen before.
@cengland0 @D_a_v_e I timed out too but not on /buy. Just getting the darn page and then order screen to load. Servers lock up every time!
/buy
@D_a_v_e It worked! Your order number is: inexpensive-seductive-birch
/image inexpensive seductive birch
@D_a_v_e … seductive WHAT now?
OH.
The tree.
@rprussell Yeah, took me about the 3rd time before I read it right…
/giphy tired-curt-shame
/buy
@KMakato ETIMEDOUT
/buy
@marcee Sorry, the
/buycommand is only available to members. Learn more.So can only buy 1? That’s lame…
@placecm Agreed! I bought one from Best Buy last year and was going to get them as Christmas gifts.
@placecm yep… read the thread above for details.
/buy
@narfcake Sorry, I couldn’t place your order. Something went terribly wrong.
Grumble grumble blame goat grumble. Gotta do it the old fashioned way
/image short gigantic pin
@narfcake This is the other response from /buy I’ve never seen before. The other I discovered today was ETIMEDOUT.
@cengland0 Yeah. The lingering brokenness of @mediocrebot’s reign still remains.
@cengland0 @narfcake mine was wonky too but eventually went thru…
/buy
@victornivorski Sorry, the
/buycommand is only available to members. Learn more.@mediocrebot @victornivorski
Huh?
@mediocrebot really on the fritz, leaving out the “word” VMP before “members”…
It keeps saying “Oops. We had a problem placing your order.” and I don’t know why!?!?!?!
@marcee ex-VMP status most likely
@marcee Try and try again. Also blame the goat.
/buy
@gardenald Oops, sorry. You can’t buy any more of these (you already bought 1).
I thought I read people buying more than 1 early this morning? Did that change because they were selling too fast? I was shooting for 3. Bummer…
@leolovely read down a few posts from where you obviously left off…
/buy
@Badpookey Sorry, the
/buycommand is only available to members. Learn more./buy
@Vertabrae ETIMEDOUT
@mediocrebot I got it going, nevermind.
/image plain informally earthquake
Website acted weird, but I got one.
Like others wish I could’ve gotten one more, but I will take what I can get. lol
/buy
@oppodude It worked! Your order number is: marbled-rapid-avocado
/image marbled rapid avocado
/buy
@shampshire ETIMEDOUT
/giphy regal-blotchy-gravy
Largest bank I have is 10k, and the lightning port to charge is interesting.
@raccoon81 I want to like my post because I love the giphy… but don’t want to be accused of too much “self likes”!
@raccoon81 here, I’ll help you out…LOL
Did a /buy and the site froze so tried the old fashioned “click the buy button” method and it froze up and told me something went wrong, but lo and behold the /buy came thru eventually. YEAH!
/buy 3
@Butwhole Oops, sorry. You can’t buy any more of these (you already bought 1).
Ugh, that took forever.
/giphy miraculously-willowy-book
Betting we won’t see these on Morningsave…
@rprussell yeah, well, sort of
Someone needs to invest in a more capable server. It shouldn’t take 20 minutes to buy something.
Also, the limit of 1 item is another very poor idea. Meh has truly lost it’s way.
@beachhead See the post from earlier.
@beachhead @narfcake Sharing is caring.
@beachhead
Actually this deal hints Meh found its way! It’s a lot closer to the first 18-months-type-Meh-deal than most of what has been here for the past year+.
@RedOak i cannot disagree on the merits of either the product, or the pricing. Meh, and the original woot, made their bacon on low priced tech items, and it’s been pretty thin pickings on those items for quite some time.
However, this limit to one, the move to multiple tiered times to buy stuff, etc is not full blown post amazon woot level messed up, but it’s definitely NOT the original 3 item, list it til it’s gone, semi-cool stuff for cheap that it should be.
With the original format, you knew there would probably be a “good deal” many, if not most times, and you knew if it was a really good deal you better be there at midnight, or you didn’t get it. The new model has these deals much less frequent, and it could be at any of three different times, and they may get moved around. So now instead of checking every night, I check when I check, since the products have become ho-hum (worse than “meh”), prices are usualy not worth the risk, and the overall experience is also less than “meh”.
So, as a very long time dave fan/customer, I do believe he needs to go back the format that made him what he is. But, I don’t write the rent checks, so I’ll just sit and complain…:)
@beachhead
The too-good deal as draw is a fine line.
If all a company does is 100% nobrainer buy-tempers, it might not be long for this world because it goes broke.
Between first 18-month launch/promo budget investments like @JonT’s full time position, stirring the forum pot, seemlingly every week giving away product, and the steady stream of (apparently subsidized/zero margin) deals that drew @Unixrab to proclaim, it was all a VMP-fee sucker tease/bribe… at some point that level of subsidy could not endure.
Just a guess.
BTW, not a fan of @Dave’s brother?
I never thought I’d see the day that a power bank would crash the site. It must be a really good one.
@sammydog01 Now that it’s sold out again, let the whining commence!
Nooooooo!!! I was mixing dough for tonight’s rolls and forgot to come back early enough!!!
/giphy forlorn
@tnhillbillygal
@tnhillbillygal set the alarm for 3pm local time and try again. Hopefully the rolls won’t need to come out of the oven at that time!
@tnhillbillygal any luck?
@chienfou I’m not a VMP, just a lowly member so I didn’t even get to try.
/giphy sad story
I got to the final button 3 times and it said “something went wrong” each time. Very nice server setup, meh. MEH
/giphy glitch
(I’m needing a new power brick for Ingress…)
took several tries, but finally was able to get order placed…
/giphy ponderous-unnatural-idea
/giphy resistance
Dat Deal Paused peer pressure and fear of missing out…
It ain’t that big of a deal…
Still bought it tho :sad:
Says oops you already bought one (after freezing up multiple times). But I never got a silly order number or an email confirming?!
@kevamkids Have you check your orders page?
@narfcake I just did and YAY! I got one.
/buy
@dupart3 We’re sold out except for a small amount we set aside for existing VMP members to be released at 4pm ET.
@mediocrebot DONT WORRY I’LL BE BACK
@dupart3 You’re not a VMP so maybe don’t plan your afternoon around it.
@sammydog01 wait what? I’ve been VMP since like 2017?
@dupart3
@dupart3 @sammydog01 you have a heart shield, you’re a member, not vmp.
@dupart3 your profile says membership since November 2018.
@RiotDemon huh, i wonder what happened. I still have my VMP initiation email from 1/2017, maybe it lapsed form lack of orders?
@dupart3 it automatically bills you unless you cancel or your card expires.
@dupart3 contact CS and maybe they can clarify it (or check you CC and see if you are still paying for it!)
@chienfou @dupart3 Member is $4.99 and VMP is $5.00 so it should be easy to spot the transition.
@RiotDemon That explains it. my card expired sometime after the march transition. I reenabled in november when i noticed it tried to charge me shipping, and completely forgot that VMP was over.
cries in member peasantry
@dupart3
@sammydog01 I mean I didn’t honestly need another battery bank but the lightning input ability seemed very nice.
@dupart3 @RiotDemon well that truly sux. I guess I need to put a reminder in my phone for November so I don’t get orphaned.
@dupart3 Insert Apple user insult here. (I have Apple stuff too.)
@sammydog01 haha I actually have both Android and apple (apple is the work burner phone). I prefer USB C, but anything is better than Micro.
@chienfou @dupart3 @sammydog01 thx. I still wasn’t sure if there was vmp vs member difference
You suck. The suckiest of sucks…
@Bumplepimp
/giphy sucks
Ooooh, the sold count went down by one. Can I buy it?
/giphy neurotic shopper
Damn… those were popular.
Sold another 900 or so in less than 1/2 hour.
and yes… the self-inflicted DDoS sux!
259 comments only halfway thru the deal day… for a USB battery bank!
That’s IRK comment territory, isn’t it?
@RedOak I gotta admit I have been on way more than usual since I was up and at work at 0245 and ER has been slow. Just 4 more hours than I will be headed home and most likely not stay abreast of this thread!
/buy
@jdude727 We’re sold out except for a small amount we set aside for existing VMP members to be released at 4pm ET.
@jdude727, VMPr, sets phone alarm app for 3:57pm…
@jdude727 @RedOak be sure you wait for the change then use the /buy for your best bet. I thought I had lost out so tried the buy button but my /buy went thru. Good luck.
1 BoC in 10 years, but I got one-a these.
@brispi this was probably the better purchase!
/giphy loosely-glamorized-merlin
@testoclesarroyo That’s almost Merlin.
Do these make an ear shattering power on noise like the tzumi speakers a while back? Wondering if I could weaponize it if need be
@uninflammable I bought one of those. It truly is painful. Then when you shut it off it plays a nice three note power off sound… WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST PLAY THAT BUT IN REVERSE for the start up?
Good speaker other wise
@Chronicle good point. Though I guess if the manufacturer knew what they were doing they never would’ve ended up here
Shit. I set an alarm for 3:50 to remind me to buy this. Then when the alarm went off I was like, “what the hell is that alarm for?”. I completely forgot. I’ll just have to try at 4:00
@mfladd 350?? What the hell time zone are you in?
Seriously, It’s currently 1:30 for me and I’m in CST
@Chronicle if your 3:50 alarm already went off I wondered if you were out in the pacific or something… Oh wait… that ? was for Mfladd
@mfladd T minus 10…just a friendly reminder…
@chienfou Ha! Sorry, 10:50am is what I set it for.
@mfladd that giphy is even better now!
@chienfou That’s my world everyday
/buy
@Chronicle We’re sold out except for a small amount we set aside for existing VMP members to be released at 4pm ET.
/giphy waiting
@Chronicle I’m afraid you will be disappointed when 4pm ET comes… this will be a VMP only sale again…
Well THAT was confusing. I’m at work so when I pulled up the site on an incognito chrome window it said they were sold out. Then when I went to log in to ask how the F@#$ that had happened with the deal paused, it correctly listed the deal as paused.
@chienfou Non-VMP mehmbers will not see the “deal paused”, hence why it wasn’t visible when you weren’t logged in yet.
@narfcake yeah, I figured that out after a brief WTF moment!
/giphy tawny-weepy-heat
Why such a feeding frenzy for a power bank? I haven’t seen that kind of server response other than IRKs or Fukos.
@blaineg AFAIK, product being offered that has very positive reviews and is seemingly only available for much many more bucks being offered by Meh who only has a smaller-than-desired quantity available. Or they are messin’ with us. Either way, with the recent Mehrithon and then the pop socket joy (for some) the next day, seems like people are prepared to post and buy today.
I don’t ever deliberately charge my phone anymore.
I got a 1+ 6T. This phone has never up and died on me, and I’ve never left it to charge over night.
I plug my phone into my car on my way to and home from work, to listen to podcasts on Android Auto. By the time I get where I’m going, this baby’s always at 100%.
Trust me, Meh, my phone is charged.
@mhires For whatever reason, can’t get giphy to do what I want. So I’ll just say congrats, well done, bravo.
@Jonas4321 @mhires
/giphy congerts
@Jonas4321 Thank you kindly, sir.
/giphy hateful-big-whale
I manged to place an order. Emailed Cust. Serv., that my shipping address was wrong. They cancelled my order.
/buy
@kdemo It worked! Your order number is: parasitic-fuchsia-drug
/image parasitic fuchsia drug
/buy
@mfladd It worked! Your order number is: stupendous-scrawny-airplane
/image stupendous scrawny airplane
@mediocrebot @mfladd congrats!
@mediocrebot Seriously? That was lame.
“The Goblin”
@chienfou Thanks
(and for thinking of me with the reminder!)
/buy
@rjaiswal It worked! Your order number is: thin-slow-drake
/image thin slow drake
/giphy uneasy-droopy-grain
/buy
@rjaiswal Oops, sorry. We’re sold out.
/giphy fatty-soft-rhythm
Oh wow, came back at 4pm to snag this, and managed to before it sold out in a minute!
/giphy warm-domineering-warrior
Ahh, one of the final 77 that snagged it…
/giphy unadvised-ulterior-art
Missed it by that much…
@tightwad one wonders what portion of Mehtizens are old enough to “Get” that?
@RedOak @tightwad This one is!
@RedOak @tightwad …oooh… “Get” that… I get that!
@chienfou @RedOak @tightwad Max and the chief were OK, but 99 was the reason I watched!
KuoH
@kuoh …yep… nailed it (so to speak…) Kind of like Mary Ann
@tightwad Would you believe I get it though I’m pretty young?
4:01EST took order, then said SOLD OUT…Why do I even bother?
@adam7 Ditto for me! Said it didn’t know what I was trying to buy…
@who922 only VMPs can purchase at four if it sold out previously.
/giphy profuse-receptive-regret
sorry guys, I probably shouldn’t have bought 3 last night
@snapster Word, that’s crazy. I guess you get rewarded for buying early.
/cancel --order crazy-rewarded-word
/giphy hal 9000
@snapster
… So was the @Dave start the deal at the Meh default limit quantity 3 thing an error or not?
@dave @RedOak ¯\ (ツ) /¯ apparently so since it changed. I hadn’t actually seen this product until it launched (most enjoyable for me when that happens as I get to experience it as everyone else does)
I have a lot of chargers. I hope this is the best!
Take it away, mediocrebot . . .
@kdemo
awesome setup!
@chienfou
JOKER! POKER! NOT MEDIOCRE! AWESOME!
KRULL! A SKULL! BRETT HULL! AWESOME!
OKAY THEN! HAVE IT YOUR WAY!
/giphy benevolent-weighty-orc
/giphy coy-doubtful-turkey
I just checked my bag and I have no fewer than 4 USB-C charging cables, two USB-C to USB-A cables, a mini USB Type B cable for my calculator, a micro USB type B for anything that might need it, a lightning cable even though I don’t own any apple products, my Laptop charger (I have a laptop dock for my desk so I keep the charger in my bag), a USB-C wall brick, three USB-A wall bricks, a 20000 mAh portable charger, and a 8000 mAh portable charger. I just don’t like the idea of running out of power while I’m out
Received mine today and here’s a quick review.
Using QC3.0 port, I can get the voltage up to 12 volts and can use up to 1 amp.
But, the second I increase the load to 1.06A, the voltage drops all the way to 3.95 volts.
Going down to 5 volts on that QC3.0 port, I can get about .52 amps before voltage starts to drop.
Going to a load of 2A drops the voltage all the way to 4.55 volts.
Going to a load of 2.5A drops to 4.47 volts.
Going to 2.83A, drops to 4.32 volts.
The regular non-QC3.0 port claims to have a 2.4A output.
But that port becomes completely unusable at 4.25 volts.
The reason I bought this was so I could quick charge my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 using quick charge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do that and only delivers 5.09 volts at 1.276A.
Regarding charging, I was hopeful that it would really charge at 2A but looks like it’s only 1.426A.
My summary is that it was a good price for $9 but I’m disappointed that it doesn’t have a high amperage output like the specs said and does not quick charge my Note 9 even though my phone is compatible with other QC 3.0 devices around the house.
Now the big question is, is it really 12,000mAh? That could take a long time to test as I would need to deplete it completely to determine how much it stored in that battery. If I get enough comments to do that test, I’ll do it but I’m not looking forward to it unless others would find value in the time it would take me.
@cengland0 Thanks for the info. That is interesting to know, nice to have real numbers. Not a complete breakdown but about how would you rank this vs others you have tested?
I don’t figure it really is 12,000 mah but also not too important I would not say it is worth the time for the few people that actually bought and would look back here.
@cengland0 thank you for your service…
@raccoon81 I have tested many of these batteries and many 120V to 5V chargers and car chargers. I must say that this particular device is way off from it’s specs.
Claim: QC 3.09V-12V at 1.5A.
Actual: 1A is okay, more is huge voltage drop so does not meet spec.
Claim: QC3.0 port: 4.6V - 6.5V at 3A.
Actual: QC3.0 port: 5V/1A = ok, 5V/2A = sketchy, 5V/2.5A = No way, 5V/3A = did not test due to complete fail.
Claim: Micro Input 5V/2A.
Actual: 5.10V/1.426A. Better than most batteries but not as good as specs.
QC port works as expected. Can send data to tell the battery what voltage to use and it does respond properly. I don’t know why my Note 9 is not sending the appropriate data to increase the voltage for charging. The Samsung 120V to USB that came with it does initiate the fast charge. I may do some more research on this – perhaps the Note 9 is not QC3.0 compatible like I thought it was. My first initial thought is the Note 9 is using QC2.0 and the battery is not downward compatible. I did not test it’s QC 2.0 capabilities because there was no claim it was downward compatible but I may do that test later too.
@raccoon81 I just checked the QC 2.0 capabilities and it works fine.
So interestingly, I plugged in my note 9 again into the QC 3.0 port and it did initiate the quick charge at 9 volts. I’m positive I put it in the correct Port the first time because you can see it’s in the center port in the photo above. I don’t know why it just suddenly started to work But it’s fine now.
One more claim.
Claim: Regular USB port 5V/2.4A
Actual: Drops to 4.25V at 2.39A Does not meet spec.
It’s common for the voltages to fluctuate while the load gets larger but the USB spec says voltage should be between 4.40V to 5.25V and the tested 4.25V is way below the minimum USB voltage spec.
@cengland0 would be slightly interested in knowing the full capacity. Mine arrived at 84% and I charged it to 100% before using it. I was able to charge my 1st gen pixel from 51 -100% and my 1st gen pixel xl from 65 - 100% and the backup had 17% remaining. That seems a bit skimpy to me.
@jaybird I’m in the process of testing the battery now. I estimate it will take around 10 hours to complete and I’m on hour #3 right now.
Things I learned so far: The charge indicator doesn’t appear to be linear. After 1 hour of discharging at a constant current of 1A, the battery still showed 100% charge. Then at the 2nd hour with the same constant current discharge, the display shows 97%. Right at the 3rd hour, it shows 79%.
So far, after 3 hours, it has drawn 2.97Ah at around 4.92 volts. It’s more accurate to say 14.62Wh because the voltages can rise and fall during this experiment.
Regarding it showing 100% charge for an hour, charging it last night did something similar. It was around 81% charged and jumped to 99% pretty fast. It was on 99% for about 2 hours before it registered 100%.
@cengland0 Thanks for going to all this trouble! “Enquiring minds want to know…”
@jaybird Now that this forum is working again, I can post all the results regarding the capacity.
It’s definitely not linear when looking at the percentage display. I used a constant current drain at 1A. Took 8 hours 26 minutes and 11 seconds to drain until it cut off.
Hour, Percentage, Consumed mAh
0, 100%, 0
1, 100%, 990
2, 97%, 1,980
3, 79%, 2,970
4, 59%, 3,970
5, 53%, 4,960
6, 51%, 5,960
7, 31%, 6,960
8, 13%, 7,960
8:26, blank, 8,400
Don’t be too surprised that it almost goes up exactly 1,000 mAh for each hour. That’s expected when you have a constant 1A drain for an hour.
The final mAh is 8,400 and 41.31Wh. Since the nominal voltage of a lipo battery is 3.7V, then 41.31 / 3.7 = 11,165 mAh. You need to do that conversion because the battery voltage is less than the USB output voltage and we are looking for the battery capacity and not the 5V output capacity. This is why it’s sort of bogus to rate batteries like this in mAh instead of mWh.
At a calculated 11,165 mAh I would say the battery is definitely 12,000 mAh as advertised because there’s always loss in the boost circuitry.
As a double check, I charged it all the way and it consumed 11,598 mAh during the charge cycle from a completely dead unit.
Next message will be all my raw data images.
Raw data used during test:
After hour #1
Hour #2
Hour #3
Hour #4
Hour #5
Hour #6
Hour #7
Hour #8
End of discharge at 8:26:11
End of charging images:
FYI, it took 6 hours 8 minutes and 58 seconds to fully charge at 5V and around 1.6A.
@cengland0 Thank you.
@cengland0 I noticed the same overly optimistic reported percentages on the first hour or two. Saying that it still has 100% after fully charging my phone from 20% to 100%. Then after doing it again, THEN it drops down. At least it’s not just me.
@Bandrik Optimistic isn’t the word I would use. It’s non-linear. That top 2% is more like 10% and the same between 51 - 59% (8%) being about 30% of the capacity.
Is it my imagination, or is there absolutely no visual clues as to how charged this thing is? Nothing to say it’s fully charged when charging, nothing to say when it is almost depleted.
Well - that’s pretty dang useless.
@BuffBillsFan mine arrived 90% charged. It blinks the current charge during recharge, and there is a button on the side you can push to check the current level when it is not plugged in.
@BuffBillsFan so yeah… it’s your imagination!
@chienfou I’ll be darned…
For some silly-arsed reason there was a sticker on mine showing “100” that completely blocked the charge indicator.
Thank you for pointing the blinking indicator out!
And a pox on whoever thought it was a good idea to put a sticker over a vital piece of information.
@BuffBillsFan yeah. mine had one too. Those are pretty common on electronics these days…My bigger complaint was the use of adhesive instead of the normal ‘cling’ style tag. It left a sticky residue I had to take off…Pooh!
Not sure if I should open this now and try it or should I wait for my current crappy power bank to inevitably break. (I play Pokemon Go a lot so a battery is kinda important to carry)
@xEBRONx it has a one year warranty. Better check it before then.
Guess i’m never going to get mine
…still says “Processing” under my order status… these may be the very last words I ever type because I only have 2.73% battery le
@fluidj Bummer… did you check to see if they dinged your credit card?
@fluidj you probably had your order cancelled.
Mine just got canceled.
Anyone else from the 11:00 release get canceled? Or any 4pm VMP’s get theirs (if so… not fair)?
@a5meiser i’m pretty sure i got one on the 1100 release and mine arrived yesterday.
@a5meiser yeah… mine was cancelled as well. I ordered as soon as it opened back up at 11, so not sure there is any rhyme or reason to who missed out. Given the mixed reviews, I suppose the most appropriate response is… “meh”
@a5meiser did mine as a /buy command at 1100 sharp and it went through finally. @hokiedevil yours may have been a VMP membership issue, but that’s weird about yours @a5meiser.
@a5meiser Yeah, I hit order the second it opened up at 11am and got cancelled. I had no need to hit the 4pm slot since I thought I had one. All in all it was pretty lame to get the cancelled notice a week later along with a $5 credit for… apparel. Gee, thanks.
[Weird, the forum let me initiate a reply to a post above, but would not allow text entry in the resulting box… latest 6th gen iPad 9.7, fully updated iOS 12]
My nowhere near thorough testing so far hints these battery banks are somewhat wonky.
Mine don’t perform similarly to each other.
Both arrived at similar charge statuses per their own displays at 81% & 85%.
However, while one charged up predictably, with the display stepping up (non-linearly) to 100% as it charged, and in a reasonable timeframe…
The other one sat “charging” at “81%” for hours. Unplugged it and replugged it in… and several hours later came up to “100%”. Not confidence-inspiring consistency.
Topped off the charge on an iPhone (started at 77%) and iPad (started at 62%), individually using the battery banks.
The wonky “81%” bank never dropped from an indicated “100%” after topping off the iphone. The more predicable bank dropped to 55% after topping off the iPad. I realize the battery sizes of the iPhone and iPad are very different, but neither indicated “after” capacity (100% & 55%) makes much sense.
Will continue “testing”… good thing it’s only a $9 battery.
@RedOak I had a similar experience with the display. It’s not trustworthy to rely on that display to be accurate. However, my testing did reveal that it’s more than likely to be 12,000 mAh battery inside.
If you look at my post above, you can see how a constant 1A draw for 8 1/2 hours has inconsistent values on the display. For example, after 1 hour of discharge, it still showed 100% but that shouldn’t be since I know I took 1,000 mAh out. Then it dropped to 97% after two hours which is only a 3% depletion. Suddenly after another hour it dropped to 79% which is an 18% difference in one hour.
All-in-all, I’m glad to have purchased it. It’s a good size battery for the money - just don’t trust the display.
@cengland0 yah, the $9 part brings some level of forgiveness, however, the inconsistent behavior between the two battery banks I have is not a good thing. It hints one might be defective.
And the poor case design is perhaps forgivable for a $9 battery Bank. It is unbalanced, with the battery in one end and (apparently, I have not opened it) the electronics In the other end. I realize that end to end design is common, but in this example, unbalanced/“inconsistent density” makes it feel cheap. Perhaps the electronics are not as compactly packaged as in Anker or RAVpower battery banks.
Some further unscientific testing…
Charging an iPad whose battery is at 62%, using the QC 3.0 battery bank port, 5.09 volts/2.31 amps.
… and swapped over to the “regular” USB port on the battery bank, 4.91 volts/ 2.03 amps.
Seems to hint the QC 3.0 chip does a better job of managing both the voltage and current. Also odd the “regular” USB port current was beat out by the QC 3.0 port in that I don’t think the iPad knows what “QC 3.0” is, does it?
… and for reference, swapped over to our trusty Anker wall power supplied USB charger (IC, but not QC capable) to show “normal” charging, 5.11 volts/ 2.26 amps.
@RedOak nice testing but the QC 3.0 port should have an output of 3A and the regular port is 2.4A. Yours under delivered just like mine did. However, it will only deliver as much current as your device consumes. It could have been the iPad not requesting the full power of the port.
I tested mine with a digital load to make sure it will try to consume the spec values and the battery couldnt output what it claims so we know it’s likely not a problem with the iPad.
It’s still the best battery I own and the only one with a QC 3.0 port. For $9, its a huge win. Wish I could buy more.
USPS okay-prickly-oven, Delivered, In/At Mailbox 04/09/2019 4:44pm CITY ST ZFIVE Reply STOP to cancel
It works, but the capacity gauge has never reached 100. It was ~85 out of the box. I’ll have to try again, but I don’t think the unit can charge devices while the unit is being recharged. I like the non-slip coating.
/giphy I like it
Upon further study, it appears the capacity gauge is defective. The device did charge my phone though.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@eonfifty
FWIW: Mine came with a bright yellow sticker on the back side above the product number etc. saying you shouldn’t charge and discharge the unit at the same time.
@chienfou
That could explain my capacity gauge problems.
/giphy oops
@eonfifty
Yeh, it is obviously very important… Note the 3 exclamation points!!!
@chienfou
.
They should have put four exclamation points!!! I blame the
/giphy goat blame
@eonfifty Great plan ! ! ! !
@chienfou
Upon further study, it looks like charging the pack while using it to charge another device messes up the battery meter’s calibration. At some point, I’m going to fully discharge and recharge the pack to see if the meter resets.
/image reset the meter
@eonfifty bummer! Guess that’s why they put on the warning label.
I really wanted this stupid power bank… I’m a VMP, bought it ad it popped up, and still got shafted. I want 2 discount codes
Am I the only person who is having problems charging these? I’ve got them both plugged in, one to my laptop and one to a plug. The laptop one came charged at 90 and is actually losing power, down to 88. The other one came at 78 and hasn’t budged in two hours. I has a sad.
@vampkat it seems the digital display isn’t accurate at all. I just let mine charge overnight and eventually it said 100 and stopped. It worked fine. Hopefully yours will work fine too.
Just got back from a trip to France and this thing was great. I used it during the day to keep the two phones and tablet charged up then refilled it overnight each night.
Worked like a champ.
As otherwheres mentioned the display data sux, so don’t panic about the lack of movement while it is charging or discharging. Never had trouble getting it charged back to 100% overnight.
Overall another great meh purchase. (I’m still ahead on my VMP membership cost vs orders placed, so that’s a plus!)
@chienfou
Well, that sucks. Got my luggage swiped on a trip to Orlando last summer and, yep the charger was in it. Damn carousel pirates…
@chienfou This is my second favorite battery pack. Keep it ready to go for my big battery choice. Would be sad if it dissapeared, but if luggage went away would worry about the other stuff more.
@raccoon81
Yeah…i lost my favorite dress jacket, favorite belt, favorite necklace, a couple of my favorite shirts and ONE dress shoe! I was on a knee scooter in a splint during recovery from Achililles tendon surgery so only brought the right shoe. They took the bag while i was making my way (slowly) to the carousel, emptied it in the terminal then left the bag with a few personalized items in it, like a Columbia rain jacket i had written my name on the tag…
@chienfou @raccoon81
Ugh, that’s horrible.
@Kyeh @raccoon81
yeah… kinda put a damper on the trip right from the start. I still reach for stuff that I then realize I no longer own… C’est la vie…
@chienfou @raccoon81 Oh, man - I somehow assumed it happened on your return, but at the start of the trip - even worse!
@chienfou wow, left the bag but took the stuff. Hard to believe they do that.
And sounds like lots of good stuff they got, especially if they are only one legged.
@raccoon81
It seems they took the bag, snatched out the contents they wanted and then abandoned the suitcase in some corner of the airport. I guess that way if they are stopped, you can’t prove it’s your shit that they have with them…
This was one of the best items I’ve ever purchased from Meh… the battery does NOT lose its charge! I charged it one time, lost it in a bag for 4 months, took it back out and it was still at 97% charged!!!
@RICHY531 I really like mine still. Though to drop for 100% probably already is down a ways. But still good. And I like the percent even if it isn’t super accurate
Mine has worked pretty well but is starting to bulge in the middle a little bit. Time for a new one!
@cf1
good luck finding a new one… and let us know where you did if you do!
@chienfou I’ll let you know. I guess what with one thing and the other, it will be harder to find bargain electronics for a while.
@cf1 @chienfou Is this it? A lot pricier than it when you got it here, but if you really like it…
https://www.staples.com/tzumi-pocket-juice-wireless-12-000-mah-black/product_2846527
@cf1 @Kyeh
pretty similar but a bit different format
(the original wasn’t wireless charging capable…)
@cf1 @chienfou I see.
@cf1 @chienfou @Kyeh and the original has the led display percentage not 4 hard to see dots.