Black & Decker GoPak 12V 1.5Ah Lithium-Ion Battery/USB Charger
$8
$49.99
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Select Ace Hardware Stores have Black & Decker GoPak 12V 1.5Ah Lithium-Ion Battery/USB Charger (BCB001K) on sale for $7.99. Select free store pickup where available.
Note: Availability is limited and will vary by location. Slickdeals Cashback is available for this store (PC extension required, before checkout).
Thanks to Deal Hunter daisybeetle for finding this deal.
AceHardware.com[acehardware.com] has Black and Decker GoPak 12V 1.5 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery and USB Charger on sale for $7.99. Slickdeals Cashback is available for this store (PC extension required, before checkout). Choose free ship to store, where available (may vary by region).
About this deal:
My research indicates that this Black and Decker GoPak 12V 1.5 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery and USB Charger is $8.14 lower (50% savings) than the next best available price from a reputable merchant with prices starting at $16.13 at the time of this posting.
This made me seriously wonder how power cores are doing the math. Turns out they actually measure the mah based on the batteries which are 3.7V. They just multiply the mah per battery times the number of batteries. So this should have four 1500 mah batteries in it for a total of 6000 mah.
You would have to tear it down to know for sure possibly. Less powerful than I had hopped.
Power bank capacity has always been specified by the "internal capacity" (in mAh) of the (3.6 to 3.7V nominal) Li-Ion battery inside, since the early 2010s. Packs with cells that are wired in series or uses a different battery chemistry are often converted to equivalent 3.6V Li-Ion capacity: a car jump starter with (3) 2000mAh LiPo cells in series (10.8V at 2000mAh) would be advertised as having a "6000mAh" capacity, and one would expect the output capacity comparable to a 3.6V 6000mAh power bank, and I've seen bulky lead-acid packs (like those bulky Goal Zero Yeti power packs) with equivalent mAh rating. too. Obviously, the "output capacity" (at USB 5V output) is less than the "internal capacity" due to 3.6V to 5V conversion and losses.
Quote
from graphixv
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Is there any chance this pack could potentially have an even lower than standard 5v charge capacity due to the configuration of the cells? The cells are primarily configured for 12 volts. I wonder if they are stepping down the 12 volts to 5. If so, that's a Big Step Down.
I only paid attention to this because I'm working on a compact solar charger and noticed how large a loss you got every time you made a large voltage change.
Properly designed and built DC-DC step-down (buck) and step-up (boost) converters tend to be very efficient (85~90%+ easily). Converters operating at low power can be less efficient (say, drawing only 0.3A from a 3A-capable converter, see https://electronics.stackexchange...-converter). Same with low output voltage (per this long analysis[lygte-info.dk] of a popular old-school LM2596 variable output voltage converter, 5V->3.3V is 66~79% efficient depending on current, 12V->3.3V is 70~78%, 12V->5V is 76~79% which is rather low). For a <$1 shipped circuit board, they are known to skim on components[hobbyelectronics.net] which reduces efficiency and reliability. Reputable brands (say, Anker, Samsung) use fancier, more efficient converters for their power banks and car/AC USB adapters.
I purchased this 2 months ago. One neat feature is that you can charge the 12v battery with micro USB. If you lift off the orange cap you can access the 12v battery terminals. It is meant for use with B&D tools so you'll need to come up with a way to connect to the terminals.
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Looks like it was meant to go with this "set" of ENTRY level tools:
https://www.acehardware
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You would have to tear it down to know for sure possibly. Less powerful than I had hopped.
I only paid attention to this because I'm working on a compact solar charger and noticed how large a loss you got every time you made a large voltage change.
if you are buying just for battery backup, you have much better options, this not a good deal at all.