Qball's Weblog
Quick IKEA Solbana Powerbank review
I recently was at the IKEA and saw the solbana powerbank for around € 15,– (combination of two discounts). Given my old powerbank was crap and I already re-used the battery for another project. I decided to get one as a possible source for more cheap cells.
Specifications
Energy | 37 Wh |
Max Output | 5V 2A |
Charge Current | 5V 2A |
Charge port | Micro USB |
USB port | USB A |
Tear down
Battery
The battery is a Pow-Tech PT925675 3.7V 5000mAh, FCC Info. There are two stacked together, making total of 37Wh.
There is a small NTC taped to the batteries under the yellow tape.
PCB
The front looks pretty decent:
The back is a bit more spotty (nothing IPA cannot fix), but a few of the soldering connections could be touched up.
On the PCB we find a MCU Holtek HT46R003B Datasheet. And a AXV6ZE power management chip?
Measurements
I did some measurements using a USB Power meter (UM25), 2A charger and a (35W) dummy load.
Charging (2A) | 44Wh |
Discharging (2A load) | 32Wh |
Discharge Voltage 2A | 4.8V |
Assuming it charged the full capacity of the battery pack (37Wh
), this gives a charging efficiency of around 86%.
Discharging it gives around the same efficiency, 86%.
If the load exceeds 2.1A, the powerbank turns itself off.
Under full load or charging, it only get slightly warm (even though it is 38+ degrees celcius outside ).
All in all, not a bad result.
Slightly less great
The powerbank has an auto-power down function that is very annoying, if the load is under +-0.5W it turns itself off after a while.
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