Once you enter the DIY space, pretty much anything is possible! I’m sure you could find a solution to integrate the USB power bank functionality (5v) into the “support cell” housing to have a clean unit.
Looks like there are companies that make charger/USB power bank devices that would work with the 18650 cells. Charge the cells and use them in your light when you need them, charge your GPS via USB when you need it!
I could take some photos of my battery setups if you are interested. They aren’t consumer-level polished, but they work and that is most important to me!
That looks cool! A great expandable solution, it’s a shame it doesn’t seem to support PD charging otherwise I’d be looking to get one. I love the idea of an expandable battery solution depending on the situation. I wonder if that can charge the exposure lights.
I ended up taking the following two for the GBDuro:
Zendure was my backup so I knew I’d have 10k mAh spare if I crashed or broke my bike or something and got stranded in the middle of nowhere. I never used it and probably could have gotten away with something half the size, but I’d also happily rely on this for an Audax or something similar as my only powerbank.
Baseus caused a world of pain. It charged my devices just like it had in testing without fail, but charging the powerbank itself was the problem. After about 2 days it would only charge when plugged into a USB-A charger via my Wahoo’s USB A to C charge cable, which meant it was limited to charging at 18w (or less?). The whole point of relying on this unit was to be able to charge at 65w (or 57w as-measured).
To make matters worse, if I plugged anything else into my Ugreen wall charger at the same time as my Baseus powerbank, the powerbank reset itself every 5-10 seconds which meant the charger renegotiated wattage with all connected devices and none of them ever ended up charging. So I had to charge the powerbank all by itself at 12-18w either before or after recharging all my other devices, which made everything take longer. And the trial-and-error of testing to find out what device or combination of devices were the source of the problem ate up loads of valuable charging time too.
About halfway through the race I bought one of the Apple USB-C iPhone chargers with the folding plug tip so I could at least charge one other device at the same time as the powerbank. Unfortunately I couldn’t connect the powerbank to the Apple plug charger as the Baseus wouldn’t take a charge over USB-C to C.
As soon as I got back I raised a support ticket with Baseus and basically told them I want nothing to do with their product and they should take it back and give me a refund. I haven’t even received a response and it’s been 3+ weeks.
A shame to have that happen with such a promising product, but based on that experience I don’t think I could ever trust anything from Baseus during a race again. Serves me right for running something from an unknown brand. But now none of the rest of you can say you didn’t know!
Just a quick post to thank the thread for the heads up. My power banks didn’t work with the exposure USB cable, but they did work with a USB-C to USB-A adaptor, which I then connected to said cable. I’d have been screwed without that!
I used an INUI 20000 mAh for LEL last year on an Exposure Race in-line charging while riding and using and worked fine! It is a really old light so maybe is missing some smarts that newer ones have…
Doing some testing right now. The Anker 537 powerbank seems to charge the Exposure Strada Mk11 SB AKTiv when plugged in with the Exposure USB cable. My only question is that since the connection doesn’t seem to weather sealed with that standard USB cable could you use the extension cable for the support cell plus the female to female adapter so that you move the non-weather sealed connection away from the light and into a bag?
Alternative can I just get an adapter so I can use the support cell to charge my phone also?
FWIW the problem here is selecting the wrong Dynamo for the usage;
Some Dynamos (Son Deluxe) are designed to not slow you down much, but only generate good voltage once you’re moving at a decent speed. Road use basically. You need to do 15kph to get decent lighting, and there’s obviously not much headroom to charge on top of running lights.
Some Dynamos (Son 28) are designed to generate lots of power at very low speeds, required by German law, so they’ll be fine for both lights & charging. But at the cost of being more draggy in use and a bit heavier.
Understandable of course not switching to a dynamo system, it’s a lot of faff, a new wheel and a pain if you ride multiple different bikes. I’m currently in a similar position but planning to go with Outbound lighting, pass-thru charging from a powerbank etc.
My light’s charging requirements are less specific, but I still want a good re-charge speed for the powerbank and light weight, so this thread has been helpful. I’ve gone with an Anker battery pack that does 65W in & out & weighs ~440g for 20000MAh, so 1.5 hour full charge with a nice small Gan 65w charger.
Thanks for sharing, it’s great that this keeps getting updated! Great news about the Iniu in particular - I’m pretty sure that’s the #1 selling brand on Amazon at the moment.
I think my partner has a different model Iniu so next time I get a chance I’ll try it out and share what I find.
The INIU I own is an “older” model, but it has what’s called “trickle charge” function.
I was experiencing similar issues with my hearing aids’ charger… Where low absorption causes many power banks to stop charging.
This INIU is the only one that does the trick for my H.A.
