Saturday 26 April 2014

Testing usb powerbank a and other usb power sources

Like many I have a few usb powerbank a, they basically a battery often a lithium poly or an 18650 which are around 4.2v fully charged.  With a bit of circuitry wizardry within the power comes out at a proclaimed 5v and whatever amps, but how do you know this with so many cheap ones and copies out there?

Well I built myself a testing rig comprising of an old usb cable and old multimeter which was cheaper to replace than buy new leads and for the record cheaper to replace than replace the 9v battery within.

So I got the leads and cut them down so the usb lead had just a bare red and bare black wire to solder to the now bear ended (and no pointer pin thing on the end) multimeter cables.

Once soldered it looked like this (electrical tape used to tidy):



Now I can switch the multimeter to voltage and plug it into a usb powerbank or any socket on a usb hub and measure the voltage coming through.


I know the positive and negative are the wrong way round but just for a quick picture it will do.


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