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USB Battery Pack - 6600 mAh
Power on the go? Why didn't you ask? We've got plenty! These portable, rechargeable lithium-polymer battery packs are simple, compact and make for a great way to power your widgets in the field. Best of all, they're dead simple to operate: Just connect your device to one of the two USB ports on the battery pack and press the power button. The LEDs will alert you to the charge level of the battery and start powering your device. The battery pack will turn off on its own when your device stops drawing power from it. To recharge the battery pack, just plug it into your computer or phone charger using a USB micro-b cable.
This particular battery pack has a whopping 6600mAh capacity and will source 5V/1A at one port and 5V/2A at the other.
Note: Due to the requirements of shipping these batteries, only two batteries can be shipped together at one time and orders may take longer to process and therefore do not qualify for same-day shipping. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Note: Contrary to the video below, this pack will only charge or power a device; it can't do both at the same time.
- 22.5 x 62 x 97mm
- Charging IC Datasheet
- [MSDS](http://cdn.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Prototyping/Lithium Ion Battery MSDS.pdf)
USB Battery Pack - 6600 mAh Product Help and Resources
Core Skill: Electrical Prototyping
If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Noob - You don't need to reference a datasheet, but you will need to know basic power requirements.
See all skill levels
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Customer Reviews
4.4 out of 5
Based on 5 ratings:
1 of 1 found this helpful:
It does not work with arduino
It works fine with a pandaboard (like a beagleboard). But it does not work with an arduino uno or nano. The arduino module powers up, but powers down after 8 seconds.
Hi, The Arduino is a low power device. It may be that your Arduino is simply not drawing enough current to keep the device from initiating the automatic shutdown feature of the battery pack. If your Arduino draws more current, it should stay on. We use these to power small Arduino projects all the time. Thanks
I have owned mine for a couple weeks, use it almost every day at work, no problems. Verry nice looking. (The Pictures make it look dull.) definately worth the price. :-D
Awesome charger.
I have owned mine for a couple weeks, use it almost every day at work, no problems. Verry nice looking. (The Pictures make it look dull.) definately worth the price. :-D
Does what is says it does
Simple and sweet. Was able to charge both an iPhone 6+ and iPhone 5S from nearly dead to nearly full. Not sure about longevity, that remains to be seen.
I have other USB battery packs that have more mAh but I love the compact size of this one . To me, this one actually charges my cell faster and I get more charges per charge of the battery pack.
I just used this to power a Raspberry Pi with the PiCamera for a high-altitude balloon experiment. The battery easily lasted for the 4 hours it took to recover the payload, with about 3/4 charge remaining.
Can this (or any of the other units) be charged and supply power at the same time? I also second the request for the weight of these units.
i was wondering this too
It weighs 6.6 oz (185 g).
Is it 6600mAh at the 5V output (33 watt-hours) or is that the total capacity of the 3.7V batteries (which would be more like 25 Wh)?
That is actually a really good question. . .one that I would like to know the answer to as well.
Judging by the batteries in the pic of the internals, it is the capacity of the batteries, not the 5V output. Those cylindrical cells are usually around 2200 mAH each.
Does anyone know what the minimum draw is to make sure it doesn't turn itself off automatically?
From testing my project the pack stayed on when sourcing about 160mA and turned off when sourcing 80mA. My guess would be the minimum "stay on" draw is probably 100mA.
The picture says "Output2: 5V/5A", is that a mistake?
The port on the other picture says 2A, so I'm betting yes.
Does this unit have OCP/OVP?
Edit: heh, well it seems to have some sort of fault mode where after a short you need to plug a charger back in to reset it. Think I'll add a fuse to my circuit just in case.
Are those 14500s I see?
Hi I just purchased this battery pack! Could anyone help me with what each of the 4 light indicators mean?
how long will this last
Can you ship this to the Netherlands already ?
Does anyone know where I could get a good price on just the batteries? All the batteries on sparkfun seem rather overpriced.
Me again!
After owning this wonderful product for a year (its been many places, powered many things) I've finally broken it. Not that the product is poorly made, I'm just a clutz! I've managed to break the micro-USB charging port (common thing for these connectors) off and its fallen inside the casing.
Unfortunately once this connector has broken off, you're left with a significant challenge of reattaching / replacing it as there's practically no room to get a soldering iron in. Your only hope is either replace it with a fly-lead (and then it'll be tricky) or use a reflow oven.
Here are some high-res photographs of the issue (circa 2-3 MB each);
Photos may be reused under the Creative Commons "CC BY" license.
Hope this information benefits someone!
Anyone figure out a good way to keep the pack running, short of keeping the button pressed down? When my lilypad restarts, my LEDs go off for a few seconds... aaaand the pack kicks off.
Place a 50 ohm, >1/2W resistor in parallel to your actual load. It will draw the ~100mA required to keep the battery on. Kind of a waste though....maybe try adding more LEDs until you're drawing enough current.
I'd like to use with the BBB and the barrel 5v rather than the usb. I can get a usb to barrel connector no problem - should I expect any problems from the pack when doing this?
Can this power a beaglebone over the USB port? The bb has a wifi adapter on it which requires a 1A power supply to BB. Will it take it over the USB port or would I need a USB to barrel jack connector and connect it that way to the BB?
so it would seem my unit will not charge anymore.it has 2 lights showing and when i go to charge it the lights will no longer light up the way they use to. i think its pouched....
I want to use this as a sort of UPS for a Raspberry Pi to properly shut it down in a car. I was wondering if it's suitable for this purpose and what else I'd need to accomplish it. Basically, when I turn off the ignition, power to the 12V outlet is instantly cut. I'd want the Raspberry Pi to continue to receive power for a few minutes while it can cleanly shut down. I read in the comments that the device can supply power while being charged at the same time (and I assume there won't be a momentary drop in output power when the input is cut), but does it automatically start outputting power when it senses input power? I don't want to have to manually push a button after I start my car, just instantly turn the Pi on.
Thanks!
Hi friend!
Do you know if it is possible? I want to do the same. When the current is cut, I need that my raspberry still turn on.
This is a great battery pack, used it to charge phone/tablet - that is until I left it on an airplane today! :-0 Will re-order as soon as they're available.
two questions: Will there be any problems charging this with solar panel? Can you use both 1a and 2a ports at the same time?
Can I use both the 1A and 2A ports at the same time? I want to use this to power a raspberry pi and a touch screen from www.chalk-elec.com.
It's worth noting that although not part of the products spec, you can power a device and charge the battery pack at the same time, so it'll make a great UPS :)
I tested this overnight with an mbed LPC1768 + XprotoLab (drawing an estimated 200mA~), charge stayed at 99% the whole time, never showing as completely charged but never dropping.
There is also no apparent interruption to device power when switching to / from the charging state and you can also potentially daisy chain battery packs for even longer runtime. Perfect!
There is some caveats to using the product like this though;
If your device pulls more than the input current, power to your device will be supplied up to the input current with the battery pack discharging to provide the remainder. So with a fully topped up battery, you can power a 2A device for 50% longer with a 1A input compared to just powering your device from the battery, at which point you may have a brown-out.
Power output to your device can only be switched on when the battery pack isn't being charged. You can keep the power on button depressed permanently, but to switch it on you'll need to temporarily cut power to the charging supply.
Once the battery pack is switched on, your device will remain powered under the following conditions (match only one);
a. Indefinitely if charging power is constantly applied and current draw doesn't exceed the charging current
b. Until the battery pack runs out if drawing more power than the charging current
c. Until the battery pack runs out whilst running on battery power
d. Until the device stops drawing current on battery power (unless the power button is held down, in which case the battery pack will stay powered on until the battery is flat)
Some further notes on condition "C", by permanently holding the power button down, you are disabling the internal IC that protects deep discharge of the battery inside the battery pack. Once you reapply charging power to the battery pack, your device will power up briefly whilst enough charge is accumulated in the battery to reactivate the internal IC, at which point it will sever power to your device and continue charging the battery.
At this point, if you attempt to temporarily sever and reapply charging power to re-power your device, it will re-power your device briefly (2~ seconds) before cutting power again. You must leave the battery park charging for about 10 minutes before attempting to interrupt charging power to reactivate your device permanently.
I've uploaded a video demonstrating this behaviour on Youtube here, hopefully some clever soul may be able to use a hi-cap, ultra low power IC such as an ATMega85 and a normally-closed solid state relay to achieve this after a 10 minute timeout.
Hopefully this info helps someone build a fantastic battery-backed project :)
Just curious - how would you daisy chain these together?
Your device plugs into output port 1 on battery pack A, then battery pack A connects from it's USB mini charging port to output port 1 on battery pack B, then battery pack B's mini charging port connects to another power source, etc. Basically you're charging one battery pack from another so that by using two packs you double the storage capacity (minus the current the battery pack's internal circuitry uses).
Sparkfun, can you hook up a decade box and let me know what the min "no load" shutoff is. I'm having trouble powering my digital projects.
Would this work for a mobile raspberry pi?
Yes, it should work fine for RPi
awesome
So, it says it draws 1A when charging (from USB). Isn't USB only allow to draw 500mA?
It says it will source 1A, that means it gives out 1A. So you can run some more power hungry USB devices off of this.
If it was sinking 1A, that would cause a potential problem on most USB ports.
Edit: Example: Someone just asked if it will work fine for a mobile raspberry pi. And if it was only capable of 500mA, it would not be good. As it's more capable than that, it's fine :).
A device can draw up to 1A if it detects that its connected to a charger-only port by sensing that D+ and D- are shorted together. It's standard and is how USB chargers for burlier gadgets work. A device connected to a computer port should not draw more than 500mA. Unfortunately some devices need even more than 1A, notably iPads, and Apple has its own proprietary sensing system which a few people have reverse engineered to supply even more current. It would be helpful to know if this device was properly sensed by an iPad.
Yes, the spec is 500 mA, but most ports provide 1A now a days to support USB mobile hard drives.
That's a really good price, so good it is setting off my "too good to be true" alarm. It's not UL, do you know if they plan to get UL certified?
hi, could you(or someone who already own one) try if this device can really supply 2A at 5V? thanks
Is this going to charge an Android phone at USB or AC rates? I don't want to have to crack it open and short the data pins myself to get it to work right.
I see a CE stamp on this. but no product name or manufacturer? How can we tell if this really is CE tested? I've seen a ton of these battery packs that are designed poorly and are basically portable disasters you can put in your pocket.
I have found the same to be true. You basically have two options:
A. cheap- to reasonably-priced, no brand name or somethingFire, iffy operation and internal electronics that only barely seem to resemble anything that does what it's supposed to.
B. expensive, brand names usually sold at airports for high mark-ups, work well, but tend to have capacities to laugh at... unless you go for the ones that are just plain unaffordable unless you're flying business class.. in which case you've got a few USB ports and regular outlets to draw power from anyway.
There are some good ones out there, but even the usual certifications say little about whether it is a good device and more about radio interference and separation of high from low voltage (in the case of portable chargers that charge straight from mains such as the Duracell ones).
Designing a proper one could be a good project for somebody who knows what they're doing, throw it up on a crowdfunding site (look at the ones there now - either they're iPhone cases or giant solar panels / other crazy contraptions) or shoot it to SFE as a widget for them to sell.
Unfortunately the 'knows what they're doing' part, last I looked into it, was really more daunting than expected. From the basic electronics (charging / charging+direct sourcing / sourcing) through proper charging profiles to somehow making clear to the user that they shouldn't drop a LiFePo battery in when the selector is set to Li-Ion, nevermind case design... it's no wonder people find no decent middle ground and just enjoy the portable disasters.
How much does it weigh?