USB Powerbank Compatibility Issues for Beacons | Marvelmind

0:00 Some power banks are too smart. They switch off the electricity when they don't sense the load. Let's experiment. So I just enable the power bank, and you can see this USB tester is showing their output voltage. And let's see, because the USB tester consumes very, very little, and the internal circuitry of the power bank is basically testing whether there is load or no load. If there is no load, or it thinks there is no load, it simply cuts off the electricity on the USB port. And if you have a low-consuming load, then the slot just will be left without any electricity, like now. After less than 30 seconds, the power bank switches off completely. And for example, in our case, if the Super-Beacon is in low consumption or in sleep mode, the power bank will disconnect the USB power.

0:59 The power bank will be full of energy, their beacon will need the energy, but there will be no voltage available at all. And that would be okay, but the problem is that if this beacon is placed somewhere in an accessible place—for example, on the ceiling—in order to start the game you need to either press the button and start it or connect and disconnect the USB. But if the beacon is not accessible, it will not detect there is a load. And if there is a load and need for the load, it will simply not switch it on back, and you will not have their beacon charged. It should mean that you'll have a full power bank and no charging at the same time when there's a need. So, as you've seen, this power bank was too smart. So let's check another one, for example, this one—just a model, another model—and let's start again. Okay, as you see, it keeps running. Not a problem.

2:05 Again, it doesn't mean that this power bank is better than this power bank. This looks much, much more solid, and you know, much heavier capacity, but it cuts off. And if your application requires that you have the electricity running, then this power bank is simply not suitable. For example, when you connect our mobile beacons to this power bank, the power bank will switch off when the beacon is fully charged, and that's it. You will not have their charging again. You need to disconnect and connect again. What could be other—oh, this, for example, I will not run the same, just not to bore you, but we have tested. So this model also works well. So what are these models? So this model and this brand seems to have it, and the same brand but different form, and this model. But why does it happen?

3:05 Why does their power bank switch off their output? It's very, very simple. There's a converter which converts from the internal leaky polymer battery, which has a different voltage than plus five volts USB. And since the converter consumes the energy, even if you don't plug any supply or any load, it consumes the energy. So in order to preserve the energy, it naturally switches off. Why does other power banks not switch off the electricity? It's very, very simple. Well, first of all, they may have a different converter and different types of converters. They may consume in this no-load mode significantly less energy. So it may be just a more efficient converter, or maybe opposite. So they say, okay, I don't care about this self-discharge because I have large battery anyway. And maybe they're simple. So in this case,

4:03 maybe this more advanced power bank is less, yes, less useful for, let's say, for applications if you want to charge our mobile beacons or stationary beacons from them. Then simpler and less efficient power bank