Thanks for the link back to this thread. I was here before but lost it. I see tallentcell. I also see all these packs at 10,000 mAH+ $20 or less, and just can’t get over the “other” brand cameras that use battery only on the front door, and last up to 6 months. Granted, I don’t need 6 months, but a week on battery sounds reasonable though.
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Wyze has doorbells and cams that can do that too, but you have to make sacrifices for them to last that long.
Most of the $20 or less power banks (even many of the more expensive ones as detailed here) are going to bounce when the power goes out, though the camera should reboot relatively quickly. They also aren’t intended to be left plugged into power constantly charging and discharging, so you have to ask how much you trust the safety measures (or lack of) in them.
Seems pretty solid so far, I did go with the larger wall wart. No noticeable bounce with a meter, but I did not hook up a more precise device to verify. I am happy and quite impressed.
Thanks (to everyone in this thread) for all of the great info! Today (2/21/25) the Pxwaxpy unit is 28.75. There is a similar-sounding unit from UGREEN unit for 23.99. I will order that one and report back my experiences.
Has anyone placed one of these LFP-based units in a cold location? I have cameras that will experience sub-freezing temperatures. I can shelter the battery and wrap it, but I doubt that it will normally generate sufficient heat. And I wouldn’t want to leave it wrapped in the summer! I guess the only alternative is to bring the battery into the conditioned space and run the USB cable through the wall…
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Please do.
I really enjoy my setup using the Pxwaxpy.
I know for a fact and from experience that lithium batteries will die when charged below zero. They are fine if they just sit there and do nothing, but charging will eventually kill them.
Sounds like you got the right idea. I just got an unexpected 5,000mah… i’m gona measure the in and the draw. and find an adapter that is as close as possible and give it a whirl… If i could put some kind of regulator in between that would be cool to match the out.
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I use lead AGM’s in areas of freezing cold, less issues than LFP batteries.
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Does anyone make a really small lead AGM battery specifically as a 5V DC backup? There’d be no need for an inverter. If you also don’t need a BMS (?), could you just wire it in parallel with the camera?
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I have mine on one of my outside cameras. The battery bank that the camera connects to is in the garage. Definitely gets below 0 degrees. Here, even in the negative numbers Fahrenheit. The battery bank is fully charged, plugged into the charger 24/7, When the camera is on, it’s probably powering directly from the charger and not the battery. Either way, it’s been working great all this time. But I agree, if the battery bank was not charged and you charged it in below freezing temps, that could be a problem. But if it’s already charged, and on the charger, the camera should be powered from the charger and not the battery.
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SLA typically goes in 1.5V increments (technically a bit more than that) so you’re not going to find a 5V one unless it has a voltage regulator on it. The most common SLAs are 6v and 12v nominal (but actual is higher). You’d need to hook up an inverter or regulator to the SLA both to regulate the voltage, and protect your devices when the battery is charging.
I don’t know, but I had two power drill batteries die simultaneously in the shed plugged in and on chargers. Ever since, I bring them inside.
Does anyone know if the Pxwaxpy power bank has issues with powering low draw devices?
I purchased and tested an INIU B5 and can confirm it has passthough but I can’t get it to charge via a solar USB panel consistently.
However, the USB timer relay switch I’m powering gets constantly reset or powered off.
I tried two other power banks (Anker PB-T5, Insignia NS-PWLB80R) I have and neither have passthough and the former also suffers from the same shutoff issue.
From what I’ve read some powerbanks support disabling auto shutoff but I could not do it via the INIU.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB415fDqavo was pretty interesting for looking at powerbanks with built in solar to give an idea of how much charging they can accomplish outdoor, unfortunately it didn’t look promising. What panels are people using to charge their power banks?
I don’t know about that particular one but it is a problem with many battery banks, you have to specifically look for one that does not have an auto power off or supports “trickle” without any sort of timer. Or simply ensure you are running enough load off it to keep it above the power off threshold.
I used a battery bank that I know has an automatic power off when placing and testing many of my cameras and it did not shut off, so I think the cams should draw enough to keep many of them from powering off, but obviously that was just one model from one brand.
Unfortunately it isn’t necessarily an easy spec to find and sometimes you have to look through reviews or even contact the company to find out how much power draw it needs (if any) to prevent it from shutting off.
Which power bank are you using?
While inefficient, I’m wondering if there is a way that a small amount of power can be drawn to bypass the auto-off but then feed this power back to the powerbank along with the solar panel’s output.
The one I used was an Aukey and is many years old, but it is auto on-off and didn’t shut off on me even with the OG cams which draw very little. I honestly don’t know if it supports pass through, I doubt it. Have never tried to use it in that way.
But I have a family member that lives in an outage prone area, and it would not stay on to charge her hearing aids (not sure how much draw they have but probably very little) and we got her a large Anker one that specifically has a trickle charge mode. However on that one the mode only goes for 2 hours (basically just forces the unit to stay on no matter what) then switches back to auto-off mode.
I don’t think you would want to attempt to loop the output to the input, many of them actually have protections to prevent that, it would result in problems or possibly even dangerous situations.
As you probably already know from this thread and your own experience, you also need one that allows passthrough charging if you plan to leave it connected to a power source (solar panel or wall) all the time too. I would kind of suspect the ones that support pass through charging and are targeted toward operating as a UPS type solution probably would not have the auto-off, but again that’ll vary and seems to be left up to trial and error somewhat.
I’m sure it is possible to find a low powered USB LED light or something that would be enough to keep any of them on without wasting too much. It seems the threshold is usually around 1-5 watts, and the cam should easily draw a constant 2-3 at least.
Having messed with them for over a year I believe “Forest Gump” said it best:
“Power banks are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get!”
I’ve also found if you don’t use them for a while they get all screwy, which makes them a bad fit for my family member with the frequent outages. She does still have one 40,000 Anker but every few months I tell her to charge her phone off it a couple times then plug it in to top it off. That seems to keep it calibrated.
They now have two Ecoflow power stations that can stay plugged in 24x7 and have a ton of capacity. The prices have really come down. One of them even has <10ms UPS switchover so that’s running the computer and internet. The older 20msec UPS ones are selling refurb on ebay for like $120 sometimes.
Granted not really the use case for this thread, but I hate to think about what these no-name battery banks have (or rather, don’t have) inside of them for protections and how bad the longevity is going to be.
I believe that is what I ordered and have been using for my v3 cam, but I am only using it as a UPS that is plugged into 120VAC. No issues. Sorry I have no input on using solar to charge it.
I like my Pxwaxpy, but I don’t use it in the manner you are trying. More so just as an UPS. The 2nd one I posted: Amazon.com: Talentcell Rechargeable 12V 3000mAh Lithium ion Battery Pack for LED Strip, CCTV Camera and More, DC 12V/5V USB Dual Output External Battery Power Bank with Charger, Black : Electronics
I have this one connected all the time to my cameras. It works great even when trickle charging. The problem with Solar USB charging is maintaining a constant charge. Cloudy, night, etc. You need a good voltage regulator that can be stable for the 5v USB. Might need a 2-stage. First stage regulates the 5v output for the USB and another stage that when the solar is too out of spec it shuts down. And depending on your charger, make sure it has reverse protection so that when there is no charging, it isn’t trying to suck power back out of the power pack. I’ve seen some cheap car solar chargers actually kill a car battery at night because the reverse protection didn’t work properly.
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