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Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

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Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#111

Post by wkat4242 »

daveguy wrote: post #98
NedF wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldn't surprise me if it was just half that, This was openly crowdfunded in Japan. Please explain the lie/scam for us? How does Makuake rip people off? https://www.makuake.com/project/haribo_dcglobal/ Is this comment anything more than the normal shit HN negativity? Nihilism is so cool, thinking is so hard, if I try I might fail. Sure you might be right. Just want to know where the scam is here?

Because 20ah for a 5v battery is ~357 Wh/kg which is more than the highest density lipo as of 2024 []. Do you honestly think they are putting the most cutting edge lipo technology in a gummy bear branded battery pack? I agree with your GP, it is unlikely. Maybe at least consider the density vs SOTA before you accuse someone of being a nihilist. [] https://www.cei.washington.edu/research/energy-storage/lithi...

True and the plastics used aren't typical low weight, the attached cord also weighs (which many power banks don't have). I doubt it even uses a GaN DC-DC converter. There's no way this could be lighter than one designed specially for lightness if the capacity was real.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#112

Post by j45 »

exabrial wrote: post #80

> Ultralight culture seems a little nuts to the uninitiated. I prefer "Durable, but as light as possible", not the other way around. Most ultralight gear breaks after a few uses or when it is mishandled in anything-less-than-perfect conditions, which, happens a lot outside.

Most efficient volume, weight, and durability is valuable in so many ways.

Quite often they end up being used a lot more too.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#113

Post by mbesto »

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #100
thegrim33 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man it drives me crazy when people/products use Ah instead of Wh as a way to specify battery "capability". Without knowing more details about the battery, "20Ah" alone does not convey enough information to determine how long the battery could power a given load for. If I need to power a 100 watt lightbulb, will a 20Ah battery power it for an hour? 10 hours? 10 days? No way to know. Wh is the unit of stored energy, Wh…

Battery capacity is always measured in amp hours not watt hours, because it’s telling you more than just capacity. The rating is a measure of how many amps the battery can emit continuously for one hour. You can estimate how long the battery will last at different loads, but it won’t match up 1:1 because of efficiency differences depending on how fast the battery is discharged, and if it has a chance to recover betwe…

> The rating is a measure of how many amps the battery can emit continuously for one hour.

This is absolutely not true at all. 'Ah' is a measure of capacity and 'amps' is a measure of current. Batteries typically have three measurements: nominal voltage, capacity (Ah or mAh), and rated continuous current (amps).

> watt hour measurements are path dependent

Watt hour is a normalized measurement of the battery's capacity. For example, it lets me compare a 12v/100Ah LifePO4 battery versus a 3.7v/3Ah Li-ion 18650 battery in terms of each batteries capacity (in this case 1200Wh versus 11 Wh).

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#114

Post by batiudrami »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #74
Timshel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capacity appears to be inline with others: https://old.reddit.com/r/Ultralight/comments/1li5rxw/20000ma...

The author of tfa refers to r/ultralight, but fails to note the capacity reported there. Then he writes (or generates) an "article" that might be advertisement, making emphasis on price and fleetingly mentioning the brand products. It doesn't feel sincere.

Liz is a lady, and I am confident she did not AI generate this article. Aside from it clearly having her authorial voice, here is another piece she has written:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/23/24326077/i-asked-chatgpt

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#115

Post by trenchpilgrim »

wkat4242 wrote: post #103
s0rce wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ultralight gear has been sufficiently durable for my backpacking and hiking, even off trail. I'm not hunting or repairing trails but stuff lasts a while. The only exception I've found is inflatable pads which get punctured but no more often than bicycle tire inner tubes and they can similarly be patched with some effort.

What do you use those pads for I wonder?

You put them under your sleeping bag and they make your sleep way warmer than if your sleeping bag is directly on the tent floor.

https://www.nemoequipment.com/collections/sleeping-pads

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#117

Post by gruez »

daveguy wrote: post #98
NedF wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldn't surprise me if it was just half that, This was openly crowdfunded in Japan. Please explain the lie/scam for us? How does Makuake rip people off? https://www.makuake.com/project/haribo_dcglobal/ Is this comment anything more than the normal shit HN negativity? Nihilism is so cool, thinking is so hard, if I try I might fail. Sure you might be right. Just want to know where the scam is here?

Because 20ah for a 5v battery is ~357 Wh/kg which is more than the highest density lipo as of 2024 []. Do you honestly think they are putting the most cutting edge lipo technology in a gummy bear branded battery pack? I agree with your GP, it is unlikely. Maybe at least consider the density vs SOTA before you accuse someone of being a nihilist. [] https://www.cei.washington.edu/research/energy-storage/lithi...

To be fair, as others have mentioned, claiming internal battery amperage compared to output amperage is a common enough fudge that they're not materially lying.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#118

Post by quxbar »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #107

I guess I default to assuming this is BS? I was in the market for a 20Ah battery to power my Burning Man totem last month. I ended up buying two off Amazon - a no-name brand and an Anker for 2.5x the price ($65 for 28Ah). The Anker bank was heavier than the no-name and had substantially longer battery life under the same usage patterns. I don't know a lot about batteries, but what I do know is that they're very impor…

Yeah, my assumption is a ton of people are getting for half the advertised capacity, and if they looked at actual 10Ah batteries this would be in line with their energy density.

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#119

Post by [deleted] »

thegrim33 wrote: post #48
cenamus wrote: post #5

20Ah for 23 bucks? Seems like it's almost too good to be true. Wouldn't surprise me if it was just half that, would explain the price and weight.

Man it drives me crazy when people/products use Ah instead of Wh as a way to specify battery "capability". Without knowing more details about the battery, "20Ah" alone does not convey enough information to determine how long the battery could power a given load for. If I need to power a 100 watt lightbulb, will a 20Ah battery power it for an hour? 10 hours? 10 days? No way to know. Wh is the unit of stored energy, Wh…

[deleted]

Re: Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank

#120

Post by hinkley »

two_handfuls wrote: post #116

> I haven’t done capacity testing yet Seems like this article is skipping something important. What's the point of a light battery if it won't hold enough charge?

In a world where electronics lie, if it’s too good to be true, assume it is until someone proves it isn’t.
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