×
SparkFun will be closed on Tuesday, November 5th to support our team in being able to go out and vote! Orders placed after 2 pm MT Monday, November 4th will ship on Wednesday, November 6th. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
- Home
- Product Categories
- Battery
- Lithium Ion Battery Pack - 5Ah (USB)
Lithium Ion Battery Pack - 5Ah (USB)
Power on the go? Why didn't you ask? We've got plenty! These portable, rechargeable lithium ion 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 the USB-A port on the battery pack, and that's it! A four-tier status LED will alert you to the charge level of the battery and start powering your device. Each battery pack is equipped with an attached microUSB to charge your chosen device. To recharge the battery pack, just plug it into your computer or phone charger using the included USB micro-B cable.
This particular battery pack has a 5,000mAh capacity and will source 1,000mA at 5VDC. We use these battery packs almost exclusively in our Spectacle product line, though we are sure you can find plenty of other uses for them!
Note: This item may take longer to process due to battery installed in the equipment and therefore does not qualify for same-day shipping policy. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
- 130mm x 67.5mm x 9mm
Lithium Ion Battery Pack - 5Ah (USB) 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: Competent - You will be required to reference a datasheet or schematic to know how to use a component. Your knowledge of a datasheet will only require basic features like power requirements, pinouts, or communications type. Also, you may need a power supply that?s greater than 12V or more than 1A worth of current.
See all skill levels
Comments
Looking for answers to technical questions?
We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.
Customer Reviews
No reviews yet.
Do these units act as a power "pass-through"? As in, can they be simultaneously (safely) charged and discharged?
Any help with the following would be much appreciated. - How many charge-discharge cycles can this pack handle before capacity degrades significantly? - What lithium ion battery chemistry is used? - Is there a minimum load requirement for this pack to operate? Packs like this usually have an internal dc-dc converter that steps the approx. 4V from the battery up to 5V delivered to the output. Does this dc-dc converter remain on even when the load is very small, e.g. 50uA? - Can the four-tier status LED be disabled to conserve power? - Does the pack have current limiting and/or short circuit protection? How will this pack respond if I (inadvertently) apply more than the 1A rated load? Will it survive?
Unfortunately, we don't have a data sheet for these. A data sheet probably doesn't even exist for them.
SparkFun doesn't manufacturer either of the USB battery packs for the Spectacle kits. They are essentially "off the shelf" USB power banks that we were able to obtain at a good price from a manufacturer. The status LEDs can't be disabled, but likely only consume a few mA of current when active so they wouldn't have much of an impact on battery life anyway. The status lights only come on if you have a heavy load on the output so for low current use, (like with Spectacle) they won't ever be an issue.
At light / no loads, voltage is always present. We don't have schematics for these, but from watching the output on a scope, it appears that there is a capacitor across the output that gets charged up and is monitored for voltage. When the voltage falls below 5 volts, a DC boost converter very briefly comes on to top off the cap and maintain voltage. When you're using these with a low current load like a Spectacle Director board, the boost converter comes on more frequently, but the pack never activates the boost converter full time.
I have not tested an over-current condition with these, but similar packs I have tested automatically limit current to 1 amp. I have plugged my 2 amp phone into one and it charges slower that if I charge at 2 amps so it looks like these are limiting current to 1A automatically. The charge pump inductors DC to DC converters eventually saturate and don't have the ability to deliver more than their rated current protecting the entire device.
Seconded... all important questions, the answers to which, can be found in the datasheet. Errrr, wait, there is no datasheet.
Sparkfun, ALL of your similar portable battery packs need to have this information. Most of these that I have seen do have a minimum load current spec, below which, they shut off. And of course, behavior at high currents is also a valid question.