DIY Power Bank - Make Your Own External Battery Pack,2 Output 3 Input (Mirco,Type C,Lighting) - Battery Not Include (Black)

Bought a bunch of these through temu and they are out of stock there so bought this one here. The difference between this one and the ones at temu is that this one snaps together and so the cells you put into it, be sure they are healthy and wont need to be swapped out in near future, as the 6 that I bought through temu had screws to screw them shut and if needed unscrew to replace failed cells.

Its exactly as advertised. Great for utilizing some leftover 18650s from dead battery packs. The light is pretty weak but who uses those anyways

Day 1 use is pretty good. Little finicky putting the cover on, but otherwise works well. I scrap laptop batteries and damaged power banks, leaving me with a lot of 18650 batteries with plenty of life still in them. This makes it quite easy to give them another purpose in their life. It is possible to remove the cover using plastic shims and prying tools should you need to remove, replace, or test individual 18650 cells.I'd recommend doing a charge/discharge test on the cells to get their voltage and capacity prior to installing them. Not all 18650 batteries have the same capacity, it helps to match them and gives you an estimated capacity of the DIY battery

Well I finally got the right batteries for this. Apparently, this requires "non-protected" flat top 18650 types. So I put them in and then tried to place the top. Like the directions said, that can be an issue because it is apparently impossible to remove the top without breaking the retainer tabs. The directions didn't tell me that it's best to insert the end that is on the long face of the front. Those tabs are shortest and are most easily inserted first, then the end with the ~10mm flange which is the front right side of the cover that has some flex will snap into place. 50/50 chance and I muffed it. When I pried it apart to operate the alternate I see that 1/2 of the tabs are busted. So, 2 out of 4 tabs per side might be enough to keep this closed (maybe) but if I drop this there will be batteries everywhere.Ok, so I bought another, but there aren't many others out there, but it would take much to beat this. I'll have to pull some tape over that seam so it does just fall apart for vibration.

I already wrote this review once, but amazon denied it so this is gonna be much less organized.The power bank appears to have a 1A port and a 2.1A port, though they behave similar.The input current with the included apple cable is miniscule (that cable also refuses to work on the iphone I tried it on). The input with a quality charger and usb-c cable is acceptable but slow. About 6 watts. With a full set of cheap batteries (1.5ah) this bank could hit 45 wh, thats 8 hrs for a full charge. Higher quality cells like I am usually are over double that.I was able to pull about 11w out of a single port before the power bank would shut down, but the voltage would drop significantly in doing so.Not a fan of the case being (effectively) permanently sealed once closed, especially woth the low input current.Someone mentioned that the batteries will get hot if you put in unbalanced cells.......um, ya? If you don't know that you need to balance charge and capacity check the cells you are putting into a parallel group you shouldn't be touching this product.

I have around 15 of these black and blue, love them

It's ideal for a DIY person like me.This is a convenient way for me to use my leftover 18650 cells from other projects.I made sure my 18650 cells were the same voltage and installed them into the case.I tested and verified the assembly before I attached the lid.I checked the basic functions, then completed the assembly.I am satisfied the pack works as expected.I like the convenience of assembly and the simplicity of use.This is an ideal way to make something useful from leftover 18650 cells.

The media could not be loaded. I did not have a chip resistor so had to use a axial leaded resistor 220 ohms. Asked them how the flashlight function works and they told me to press the power button twice to turn it on or off but you have to hold the power on for three seconds to turn it on or off. Since the top cover is hard to remove according to other reviews and this charger on this unit is very slow to recharge the batteries I opted to cut the locking tabs so I can easily open and close the top cover and recharge the batteries with a good charger as needed. So it was originally designed to work so so, but not great. You get what you pay for. If you get one built correctly and it had all the parts installed and are not missing you may get a working unit for a lower cost. So I only rated this power bank two stars for me getting a unit with a missing resistor but it did work fine after I fixed it.