50000mah battery - auto power off

[mikgol]

Hi there,

I've got one of these 50000mah batteries ...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Portable...33?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item2c84f89131

... I was hoping to use it to power an arduino, but it shuts off after a few seconds. I'm guessing that it has an auto-shut off if it detects not enough current is being drawn. Can anyone suggest a way to "hack" this battery to disable the auto-shut off function? Or would this be too difficult/impossible?

Thanks

 

[Harald Kapp]

The ad says short-circuit and overcurrent protection. No word about a minimum current.
Measure the current drawn by the arduino in this setup. Is it within limits of the power bank? Is the power bank fully charged?

 

[Gryd3]

My wife has the same problem when charging her 'fitbit' ... It does not draw enough current while charging and the battery turns off... It's a dual usb port battery... so we just make sure her phone is plugged in as well to keep the load up . Additionally, you can waste power with a big resistor.

Other than that, you need to crack it open to determine what current sensing method is employed... It could also be monitoring the data lines, as many usb devices treat the data lines differently to request higher charge rates and such.

 

[mikgol]

Thanks for your replies guys. The arduino draws around 50ma. I was hoping to use this battery to power one for a long time. It's a good suggestion @ drawing more power with a big resister but in my case it will defeat the purpose. The battery is cheap, so I may have a crack at opening it up and determining the current sensing method, but I don't like my chances as I'm an electronics noob

 

[Gryd3]

Thanks for your replies guys. The arduino draws around 50ma. I was hoping to use this battery to power one for a long time. It's a good suggestion @ drawing more power with a big resister but in my case it will defeat the purpose. The battery is cheap, so I may have a crack at opening it up and determining the current sensing method, but I don't like my chances as I'm an electronics noob

Well step one is usually disassembly and research. Take notes and lots of pics as you take it apart so you can git it back together. If anything can be identified on the board that may stand out as the current sense portion of the circuit we can look closer and see if it can be modded.
You wont touch a soldering iron to it until you documented it and figured out if it's possible first

Share some of the details and we'll see if we can help.

 

[BobK]

This is not just a battery. It is a 3.7V battery plus a boost converter to get 5V output. The boost converter has a minimum current to work properly. I doubt that there is any easy fix to use it for a 50mA application and not simply waste power.


Bob