Hey Everyone !
Was just checking my emails and saw this sweet deal! Seems to be the cheapest it's been yet !
Enjoy!
Mod: This item & seller are from overseas and thus doesn't have an Aus tick to ensure safety of the product. Buyer beware
Referee gets $2 in coupons. Referrer gets 10% off (if referee spends over US$10)
This can't do fast charging can it.. Noticed it can only output 5v
Noticed it can only output 5v
Maybe that's because 5v is the standard for just about all devices…
5VJV
I propose this to be a droid name in a the new star wars movie
i meant quick charge, see here
http://www.amazon.com/Qualcomm-Certified-Tronsmart-Charger-I…
charges at 9v …
Fast charging is more amps , not more volts. All devices require a small range of volts and from that suck so many amps. YOu cant just double the volts it will kill the device.
Actually the newest fastcharging tech by qualcomm is via 9.6 Volt 1.67 amp - http://www.gsmarena.com/charge_test-review-1239p2.php
It's been ages since I did any study on electronics but I'm pretty sure there's less of an issue with voltage drop the higher the voltage is?
Xiaomi also uses even 12V - http://www.gizmochina.com/2014/09/28/xiaomi-mi4-vs-oppo-find…
It's been ages since I did any study on electronics but I'm pretty sure there's less of an issue with voltage drop the higher the voltage is?
Sort of. Transmission lines uses high-voltage (132,000V) because it's more efficient, but that's because the cable is kilometres long. For your mobile phone charger the loss is too small to bother with, no matter what the voltage. That's not the reason to use higher voltages for chargers.
The real reason is a lower voltage needs more amps to supply the same power. That means thicker cables to handle the higher amps. And cables aren't cheap. Copper is very expensive metal. The manufacturers would rather use a thin cable than a thicker cable. So that means more volts.
Same reason why your house uses 240V instead of 12V. To power a washing machine off 12V you'd need a cable as thick as the jumper leads for your car, instead of the really thin cables they actually use to wire your house.
Unfortunately USB was defined as 5V. So fast chargers (up until very recently) have been just upping the amps. But they're already hitting 3A (15W) and that's a very thick and expensive cable. So recently they amended the USB standard to allow for 12V and 20V for charging purposes only.
The only device I know using the new USB charging standard is the Apple Macbook. It's up to 5A at 20V for 100W of power. That's heaps for a laptop.
But most of these fast-chargers are just 5V, standard USB, with more amps.
This charger says 5v for all its ports. Even apple chargers are always 5v for the old stuff.
don't get too carried away with "copper is a very expensive metal"
Current [rice is around 5 USD /kg. There will be less than 5 grams of copper in a charger cable, so about 0.5c for the copper. This is what sh*ts me about so many cheap goods, for a couple of cents more they could be made to function better and last significantly longer.
Fast charging is more amps , not more volts.
NO, it is not.
You need to educate yourself before blurting out such statements!
You really need to read the bounds of sub which are 5volts +/- 5%.
This device even tells you this itself the fast charge ports are 2amp while the regular are 1 amp. They both are five volts…
Go back to school du,bass.
Isn't rapid charging bad for the life of the battery?
Isn't rapid charging bad for the life of the battery?
The battery gets charged at whatever rate the device manufacturer designed it to do. SO the batter's charge controller will define the optimum charging profile.
Generally you can hammer a Lithium battery very hard, and with a quality charge controller the charge rates can be very fast.
Isn't rapid charging bad for the life of the battery?
Short answer, yes.
However most people prefer the convenience of fast charging, and with mobile phones being replaced every 12-24 months the slight reduction in lifetime hardly matters. You'll still get about 500 recharge cycles even with fast-charging. That's one fast-charge a day for nearly 2 years. Heaps.
The main thing that destroys a battery is not letting it fully discharge before charging. You should always let it reduce down to 10% before recharging back to 100% on a standard slow charge. Do that and you'll get 3000 recharge cycles out of the same battery.
BTW: slow charging rate is about 0.1C which means 5000mAh battery should be charged at 500mA, which is exactly the charging rate for standard USB. Fast charging is about 0.5C which means 2.5A for the same battery. That's why the fast-chargers all advertise about 2A.
Another way to damage batteries is heat. When you charge faster, you are pushing more amps, which make the battery hotter, and it can't cool itself down which causes damage. This kind of damage reduces the capacity, so your 5000mAh battery eventually becomes a 3000mAh battery.
TLDR; fast-charging does damage your battery, in several ways, but it's so convenient!
The main thing that destroys a battery is not letting it fully discharge before charging. You should always let it reduce down to 10% before recharging back to 100%
Could you link to a source? I'm almost completely certain that you're supposed to do the opposite with Li-ion - overly discharging a Li-ion cell is very bad for it, while it doesn't exhibit any memory effects. What you describe was correct for NiCad (and became ingrained as "common knowledge" for rechargeable batteries, while it was only correct for that one chemistry), but not even correct for NiMH.
In fact, the only possible reason for that to be better would be that one 20%=>100% would be fewer cycles than 60%=>100% twice. Whether that outweighs the damage caused by the greater discharge? Hard to say. Probably mitigated somewhat by the phone not allowing it to fall below a certain charge.
Edit: here's a source for what I said. In fact, they even claim that lifetime should not be measured in a hard number of cycles since the depth of discharge heavily affects lifetime. Judging by their typical discharge<=>cycle table, you'd probably get similar or even slightly less damage by discharging/recharging at 60% twice than 20% once.
On the flip side, it's bad to hold a Li-ion cell at high charge, so you'd get the longest lifespan out of a battery by holding it within a region of maybe 40%-80%. Evidently not practical, but intentionally discharging to 10% is just about the worst thing you could possibly do without outright destroying the battery.
@elusive: you are orrect. Charge up to 85%, no lower than 20%, don't charge while using, store device (eg. Drill battery) at 40%.
Reference,
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_…
I'm almost completely certain that you're supposed to do the opposite with Li-ion - overly discharging a Li-ion cell is very bad for it,
10% isn't over-discharging. It's the correct level to let the internal circuitry recalibrate for the reduced battery capacity, because capacity reduces naturally over time.
What you describe was correct for NiCad
Nope, I'm definitely talking about lithium.
Could you link to a source?
Your link is for unmanaged lithium cells, as used in RC toys and army field equipment. It has nothing to do with mobile phones! Your link is talking about electrical and chemical effects of each individual cell. You can't extrapolate that discussion to consumer grade mobile phone batteries!
When your phone says 0% and turns off, there is still charge left in the cells, but the circuit is protecting the cell from damage! Same for 100% charge; the circuit won't allow you to overcharge the cells. The people who design lithium charging circuits aren't stupid. They know that people are going to leave their phones plugged in and charge to 100%, so they calibrate the charging circuit to stop at appropriate levels for the cells.
That's why you should discharge your mobile phone fully, because the phone designers have calibrated that "0%" level correctly to the actual cell charge that will maximise your battery life. And same for 100%. Just use the mobile phone like an idiot, because the mobile phone is designed for idiots!
The advice I gave is correct, and the important point I wanted to get across is fast-charging will reduce the lifetime of your battery.
Correct. With the new batteries you don't need to do that.
A case of out dated old habits now doing people more harm than good
This is my face palm moment of the month.
Lithium-ion cells don't exhibit the "memory" effect like NiCad cells. Discharging it completely has literally no benefit.
I didn't think Lithium Ion batteries had that same limitation (about waiting to run down to 10% before charging)?
I can understand that the mobile phone is designed to shut down at, say, 2% to protect its battery from overdischarging. What I'm unsure of is whether it's the mobile phone's circuitry or that of the charger that prevents overcharging. If it's the former then that implies that the type of charger used is less important than what OEMs tell us.
It's the correct level to let the internal circuitry recalibrate for the reduced battery capacity, because capacity reduces naturally over time.
Yes, on some phone models occasional full discharges can aid calibration. However, that does not mean doing it every time.
Your link is for unmanaged lithium cells, as used in RC toys and army field equipment. It has nothing to do with mobile phones!
…it explicitly talks about typical consumer devices including mobile phones. The table I referred to was a test of a mobile phone battery.
When your phone says 0% and turns off, there is still charge left in the cells, but the circuit is protecting the cell from damage!
Yes, I'm not saying there's "zero" charge left. If you ever reach that point, we'd be talking about complete cell failure to the point where recharging could result in venting.
However, battery degradation isn't black and white. You don't suddenly get or prevent damage at some magic number. There's a scale, and it just happens that Li-ion cells attain maximum life at around 50% discharge per cycle. Higher and you lose life from the deeper discharge, more than you gain from the freer cycles. Lower and you lose more life from the extra cycles than you gain from the shallow discharges.
Phone manufacturers put in some minimal effort to protect the battery, but they're not going to throw away half the capacity for extra lifetime. You'll find that a modern smartphone tends to cut out somewhere around 3.6V. Given the discharge curve with a typical load, this gives you maybe 10% usable capacity left, max. So your recommendation of 10% indicated is more like 15-20% usable, where you'll be seeing some increased damage.
My main point here is that intentionally discharging to minimum every time is more likely to increase rather than reduce harm. If you're going to use that much anyway, sure, fine, but don't do it for the sake of the battery.
Agree with you that fast-charging will also increase battery degradation, though I'm not sure on the numbers and just how much, say, going from 1C to 0.5C helps.
P.S. Regarding the max charge - "100%" on a phone is pretty much the maximum the battery can sustain, 4.2V. If held at that voltage for an extended period, you'll lose more lifetime than holding at ~80% (~4.0-4.1V). I know of some laptops that will hold at a lower voltage, and some phones might do that as well - but I can tell you the phones I've used/tested (incl. Galaxy S4 GT-I9505, Galaxy S2 GT-I9100G, Y201 Pro, Lumia 520, etc.) all hold at 4.2V. The little bit of extra daily life matters more to phone manufacturers - and is more visible on benchmarks and reviews - than long-term battery life. I wouldn't be surprised if they optimise for the expected 1-2 year replacement cycle; they don't really care about your phone working 4 years down the line when everyone has forgotten about that model already. So they'll do enough to prevent extremely early failure or possibility of physical failure, but otherwise they'll push as much time-per-charge as they can.
I think this comment thread made me stupider.
May god have mercy on our souls
The "Comment score below threshold" has saved me somewhat.
Anyone bought these before can comment?
Do you know if there's any different between the two colour?
Just the colour …
A steal at this price. Replaced all the charges in my house, even Apple, just have this hanging off the wall with 5 cables. Perfect for travel too.
That what I was planning to do, realised I have too many devices that uses USB charging.
Yep - I keep one permanently in my travel bag and have one in each room of the house. It's great as it can sit neatly on a table or shelf and is quick and easy to access.
Nope
Sometime it show $28.98 and sometime it show $14.35.
Something wrong with the web site? Added to cart it show $28.98.
Same here it shows up as $28, then flashes to $14. Add to cart at $28.
Using the App I got it for $14.35.
Had to wait abit on the computer, then it dropped to $14.35.
I noticed it took a little time for the "Anniversary Sale" banner to show up, then the price would update. I ordered three, so can confirm it does work.
REMINDER: Pick the option "AU Plug"
paypal checkout still says 28.98 :(
I just placed another order for the black and completed paypal payment $14.35 and emailed them and hope they will cancel the white one and give me refund.
But now when I go to check my order details, the black one didn't show up?
Their web site is so slow now, ozbargaining ……..
It didn't show up immediately for me either, but it's there now.
Still not there, when I click on the invoice link from the email. it gave me a black invoice page.
I think they may have a problem with their system. I have ordered a few things tonight and some show up in computer but not from app. The black charger showed on app but not on computer.
Finally show up in my computer.
hmm, I already have a similar Tronsmart but with Quickcharge too, do I need another one HMMMMM. Great price!
At this price, YES.
I've the Transmart one too, but brought another one coz the price
Where did you bring it?
u mean Tronsmart?
Lysdexic maybe? :)
Got one. When it appeared at full price, I hit reset and it came back to half price. Checked out successfully.
How did you pay? When it gets to Paypal, it says 28.98…
For me it was $9.90 USD or $14.51 AUD
Is each port 2.1 amps? If I plug 5 devices in at once will they each receive 2.1 amps?
Yes that is correct.
No it's not…
No, you can only get total 40W.
which equates to a total of 8 amps.
Also be aware that the quality of your charging cables will have just as much effect on the ability to charge quickly as will the charger, a 2.1 amp capable charger with crap cables will not be any faster than a standard charger unless you get some decent quality USB cables.
Without getting ridiculously deep into it many USB cables are only 28 AWG cables which isn't good enough for a decent charge rate, especially at longer lengths, generally you will want 24 AWG or better cables to get a good result, they are not hard to get with a bit of googling, a 6 pack of 20 AWG usb cables should be 20 bucks max.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/171917078378?_trksid=p2060353.m27…
I've ordered those and they should be good based on what I have read, 20 AWG power cores and 28 AWG data (which is fine)
Will be interesting to see what they are like when they arrive.
so far I've only gotten a max of 1.4A with my ipad mini using apple's original cable. I've tried using it with my oneplus one which gets around 1.1A with the original oneplus cable and around 0.8A with the tikbro 1m 24AWG cable.
Not sure if its the cable, device or charger that is affecting this. But oh well it charges so the job still gets done.
Yeah it was information on the Oneplus forum that pointed me to these cables in the first place but I suspect the theory behind it translates to most other devices as well. I have had a few USB cables i have bought over the years be a bit hit and miss with certian devices and i have always just put it down to the vagaries of electronics, didn't really occur to me that the cable would make that much difference.
I could be wrong, but it looks like the eBay seller with the cables quoted above isn't actually in Australia. Lots of overseas sellers seem to be saying that they're in NT nowdays.
haha, No i think you are right, It's obviously so their results show up in an "Australia Only" filtered location search.
I had picked up on that figuring they could claim that as they were in Darwin the shipping time to the rest of OZ was longer due to them basically being as far away as possible from 99% off the rest of the population, which if you are in the business of shipping products to customers is ludicrously insane if it were actually true :-)
Betting the post mark on the package doesn't have Darwin on it…..
I didn't particularly care where they were shipped from, as long as they arrive in a reasonable timeframe.
Thanks OP. Hard to resist. Already got one previously for $22. This is such a bargain!
Remember to use cashrewards for an extra 4.8% cashback!
Is this suitable for LG g3?
Thanks…grabbed one.
Dam paid 22 feel ripped off now.
I think I paid 17 still feel ripped lol
want to get another one - but I dont have that many devices in the house…..
Get more devices.
The obvious solution
Last time I ordered something from GearBest and it took them 10 days to send out and 7 weeks to be delivered. So yeah, enjoy the wait!
but ..this is banggoods?
ah crap. mixed up them two.
Ordered and +ve
This is BangGood, which has worked for me every time so far.
Their Xiaomi Power Banks were certainly legit.
GearBest is crap.
But yeah: GeekBuying, GearBest, BangGood - they're all starting to sound the same to me.
Wow that was painful.
Price wouldn't drop using my phone unless I was in desktop mode, then kept saying empty cart when I click on pay now.
Ended up remote logging into my pc to buy it.
Cheers op. I didn't need it until I saw everyone else buying it..
I had to refresh a few times, but i'm on a desktop.
Yeah, was already looking for some discount code or so cause it didn't show the right price. After a refresh the price suddenly changed.
Thanks OP!
I've been waiting for one of these. AU$14 can't go wrong iphone, ipad, gopro, fitbit and bike lights
To the mod who added the note about safety compliance:
1) There is no such thing as an "Aus tick" and never has been
2) The A-tick and C-tick are deprecated and rolled into the RCM mark for safety and compliance for new suppliers and existing suppliers must change over in the next few years.
3) The site linked to does provide good information but is simply a commercial entity providing testing services. Official references
- http://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Suppliers/Supplier-resources…
- http://www.erac.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=art…
Thanks for that.
So what does this mean to the mug punter?
I bought one.
Hope it doesn't kill me.
1) Yes to be sold by a local entity and it should be compliant too. The mark just means the supplier is legally declaring it is compliant. For a personal use product like this it should meet EESS safety requirements.
2) No it needs to be registered as compliant on the database.
3) There isn't although technically by importing it by buying it from overseas, technically the buyer is the one making it non compliant not the supplier. A supplier can't necessarily be expected to cover every requirement from all over the world. US has FCC requirements, Europehas CE requirements etc. Similar to the GST issue that was recently brought up in the news.
It's not a very well regulated area in terms of importing personally. Technically they should be stopping everything at the border and seizing if non-compliant but that is not really feasible. They do need to prevent the use of the poorly isolated devices in particular e.g. the phone charger that killed someone because of it's poor design and/or failure.
For your peace of mind the pics in one of the reviews linked above show decent isolation and the above is the reason it is specifically called out. It doesn't cover everything but if they've put that much space in they have some idea of what they're doing. The transformer could also be a weak point but not easy to view. I think the review said they actually tested the isolation and it passed which is a good thing.
Thanks for explaining all that.
I had wondered how these kind of regulations apply when items are imported, and you've clarified that.
I was reassured by the review.
I'm trying to work out how these things might kill me.
Somehow i think i need to get mains through me.
Within that review they said:
They also state in relation to the high voltage test:
In terms of (1):
In terms of (2):
Haven't really thought about this in detail till now…
BTW, the pic for the white (SKU212420) shows a plug with earth, while the black (SKU212468) here doesn't. He tested the black.
@steamtrain: Assuming there is a short then you could be electrocuted.
There are many things to put in to make the circuit safer (I only learnt a little about this and it seems to be a massive field).
The distance he was talking about is called clearance and is the shortest distance in air between uninsulated conductors. If the voltage difference is high enough then it can arc through the air. There is also creepage which is the shortest distance along the circuit board and components between the two uninsulated conductors, this also accounts for things like the conductance of the circuit board material when it has broken down. Also to account for are things like conductivity of dust or moisture in the air.
Both the white and black do not have ground. The British plug has shutters that close the holes of the live and neutral unless the ground pin is plugged in.
@steamtrain:
1) Yes that's the main issue. There is space (usually an air gap but also done with plastic etc) between the LV side (240V is considered "Low Voltage") and the ELV side (5V is "Extra Low Voltage"). The transformer needs isolation as does any component bridging the gap. If you look at the PCB you'll see a large channel devoid of components and copper tracks with only these few components bridging them. They and the gap is what's protecting you from 240V. If the gap is too small it is possible that the voltage could arc across and that's when it goes bad. Those components and the gap is safety critical
These devices have no earth as noted so should be double insulated (or have reinforced insulation). Usually this requires a mostly plastic casing too. This charger has no earth. Look at the charger end, it's just a figure 8 connector.
A Megger test also attempts to measure the resistance of the isolation / insulation.
2) Yes one of the tests is to apply a high voltage like 4000VAC RMS across the barrier (i.e. one connection on each side). If it flashes over it fails. It's not the only test but is the main one. Isolation/insulation can break down from other over stresses such as impulse (lightning generally). Often an impulse test will be done and then followed by an AC voltage test to make sure the insulation hasn't been compromised. Doing the test looks for short comings in the design. Sometimes components fail, sometimes the design has parts too close together between the sides.
I appreciate you going to the trouble.
I do understand what you've said, and it's good having that explained to me in the context of this particular item.
The main thing i'll be taking away from this is to be cautious with items of this nature - basically anything without an earth. Build quality is important.
None of it matters much. There are SPECIFIC tests that are required, and those are detailed in the respective Australian Standards.
The Australian Standard is harsher than the IEC (international) standard on which it is based. The test voltages for durability testing are higher, as are the needle flame tests that check the self-extinguishing properties of the materials and components.
US standards are completely irrelevant - they have 1/2 the voltage, so their surge tests etc are way less demanding than ours.
The bottom line is that if it's not CERTIFIED, then it is illegal.
If it passes the Australian Standards, then there is no particular reason that it wouldn't be certified (it only costs a couple of hundred dollars for the certification). The larger test labs like TUV literally "throw in" certification for the common countries (UK, AU, D, NL, DE, etc) as a package deal when you book full electrical safety test with them. The testing however is costly, perhaps $15,000 or much more.
Since these are international products it makes sense to design them to the harshest standard then organise all the various country-specific deviations so that the test report shows compliance with numerous standards. Most of the power supplies that we import have test reports like that - and thus they are able to be certified in almost any country in the world.
But Chinese care little about this stuff, especially if their primary sales outlets are Chinese sites like Taobao, Gearbest, DX, etc that sell direct to consumers. The Australian responsibility lies with the company that sells the product, or they can pass the compliance etc back to higher members of the supply chain (ie: Harvey Norman would sell based on Samsung's compliance). The buck stops at the AU Border - everyone can pass the buck up the chain but not to an overseas supplier. If nobody else has certified the product, then the importer is who's liable if there is a safety related incident.
Products like this are probably "designed to meet" the standards, but almost certainly have never been tested. The average consumer doesn't care. Australian commercial entities (retailers, etc) would demand compliance documentation, and if none they would refuse to sell the stuff irrespective of how good it might be. It's all about who will be legally liable IF there is a safety incident, and that's the purposes of Certification and EEES, ERAC, etc.
here are a few useful links,
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_…
http://lygte-info.dk/review/USBpower%20BlitzWolf%2040W%205%2…
When dealing with lithium ion batteries, you prolong the life by
- only charging to 85%
- not letting the charge fall below 20%
- leaving stored devices (eg. Drill batteries) charged at ~40% until the day of use
- avoiding using and charging at the same time
- only charge a battery when it's not hot or very cold
- don't use a poor quality charger or cheap cable
Eg. If you store a drill charged at 100%, you will reduce the capacity by 20% in the first year alone. If you combine it with other misuses, you can easily trash a battery in 12m.
I duplicated this down here because the threads above were hidden.
No offense, but what has that to do with the deal?
Most of our USB charged devices use lithium ion batteries. It's only semi relevant but still useful info..
Thanks OP.
Thanks!!
I have one from previous deal. It works very well. Other junk USB chargers that are meant to be 2.1amp won't keep my tablets charged whilst running. This unit will and will also charge a smartphone simultaneously. I selected the EU cord for travels. And I like the fact I can just grab a power cord for the region I'm going to be needing a plug adapter and then trying to get it to plug into a wall socket and hanging off (so many hotel power sockets are loose).
No fast charging then?
no
Well, fast but not fastest. More than the normal 5w charger. Nearly 10W(2A) per port? How do they get 40W from 5 ports on 5v? …
great price!