EE power bar recall

I really do wish these companies actually tested their products before releasing them in the wild. This all follows the Hoverboard fiasco going on at the moment...

But then 40 years ago, TVs had a tendency to spontaneously combust and that was just taken as a risk that came with its ownership. I remember reading a manual for a Russian 60's B&W TV, which stated that "if you see any black spots developing on the screen during its use, turn it off immediately".
 
I'm sitting here looking at my EE Power Bar suspiciously. The serial number wasn't included in the previous recall and, to be honest, all I've done is charge it up once and never used it in anger. It was just there for a rainy day.

Wonder what the problem really is? I would suspect that the internal circuitry isn't correctly limiting the charging current but maybe that's only for cells sourced from one supplier. It's probably a 18650 cell inside.
 
Captain Jack said:
I remember reading a manual for a Russian 60's B&W TV, which stated that "if you see any black spots developing on the screen during its use, turn it off immediately".
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Wasn't that due to the vodka, not a component failure?
 
^^ Its worth 20 quid to you now Paul :D

Although consumers did not have to pay for the Power Bars, the firm is offering a £20 voucher to those who return the devices.
 
I know, I can buy a few 18650s with that!
 
Hmm, just looked the bar itself and states that output and charging voltages are 5v.

Given that nearly all Li-ion cells are 3.6v it makes me wonder how that's achieved. Do they have a single cell and then use some kind of voltage doubling and regularising circuit or are there two smaller cells inside which are charged in parallel and then discharged in series through a regularising circuit.
 
PaulR said:
Do they have a single cell and then use some kind of voltage doubling and regularising circuit or are there two smaller cells inside which are charged in parallel and then discharged in series through a regularising circuit.
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The former, inside this particular EE branded power bank, it's a single 18650 lithium cell (hence the explosion risk) with a booster circuit that pushes the voltage up to 5v, other power banks can have two, three or more 18650 cells to increase the capacity (I have three Xiaomi 10,000mAh power banks, useful for more than just mobiles, and contain 3x Panasonic cells per bank, rather than cheap five H one Tee chinese explode-o-matic cells), I'll let Doctor Clive explain:

 
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Mmm, interesting. I'm at work at the moment so will view that when I get home. My musings were all off the cuff so it's good that one of them was not far off the mark apparently.
 
I like USB power banks, they're handy, as the likes of ikea sell USB LED lights for £2 (bendy ones called Jansjo) or £3 (clip-on ones on a wire called Varva), and one of my banks (2x cell) can run one of those for about 70+ hours straight, which is not only impressive, but also pretty useful if the mains power were to crap out... :)
 
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