Repair and teardown of Coghlan's Power Pack 6000mAh  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: jtu
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 07, 2018, 08:52:55 pm
content: I bought the power pack few years ago. It had the problem that contact was lost more often than not while charging the pack. Wiggling, angling helped. It went dead after a short time, few uses, I got a new one within warranty. The next one was ok initially, but showed the same symptoms. I used it rarely because I have another one, smaller capacity, it was enough. But recently I needed this one, took with me and it went dead on me. Same symptoms.Warranty expired, show timeI opened it and, honestly, this is fraud / counterfeit. This pack was 84 Eur, 71 after discount. Seeing insides, it is 10 buck shit. See soldering quality yourself inthe gallery. Expect cold joints any day. And this I bought in the semiprofessional outdor sports shop. It is meant to be taken out while hiking, climbing, hunting. Seriously?The best part, can you guess what the problem was? Micro-USB port used for charging the pack was not soldered in! Just pins pushed against solder covered PCB placeholders. Flapping in the air. No solder applied.Producing something like this must be punished... Any ideas how?Working nicely now, after applying a little bit of solder.

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2018, 11:58:33 pm
content: Wow! You actually bought that? (I only by broken stuff now, at least I know what to expect.)No solder? A Chinese child didn't get his pay the previous month, that was sabotage.I totally agree with your idea of punishment, I'd start with the seller not the manufacturer though. As for ideas, I have loads, can't help you though, they're good enough to get myself banned.

author: jtu
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 15, 2018, 02:03:41 pm
content: Quote from: shakalnokturn on June 07, 2018, 11:58:33 pmYes I did. It was before I took electronics as a serious hobby. Even if I did back then, I was hunting for something reputable and I relied on recommendation. Obviously, it did not work out well.But now I see that I could make it ok myself. Enclosure seem good. Resolder bad ones, replace 18650 elements, tie wires, use some goo, make it splash resistant. I could add more capacity too if I chose to sacrify manual generator. Or add external battery option.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2018, 02:46:08 pm
content: I'd start by punishing the idiot that bought it. However in the absence of a time machine, and assuming you have learned your lesson, we'll have to let that one go.Small (pocket sized) solar panels and hand-cranked generators are seldom worth the hassle except in true wilderness survival situations where taking several days to get enough charge to run a satphone, radio or GPS may be acceptable.As-is you'd have to crank for hours to get a full charge into two high capacity 18650 cells, or about a week of desert sun, reorienting it every two hour during daylight to keep the panel directly facing the sun. That's just not practical for most hobby usage - you've got better things to do than risk a repetitive strain injury cranking it, and finding somewhere you can leave it in the sun long enough without it getting damaged or stolen is problematic, even if your idea of fun is spending a week camping at one fishing spot in a canal round a deserted polder!For most applications you'd be better off with a higher capacity ordinary powerbank with vehicle and mains chargers. If you are really going off-grid for extended periods, you should consider a decent sized flexible solar panel that can be rolled round your bedroll, and fit a direct charging jack on the power bank so you can use a high efficiency MPPT battery charger circuit.