potatodude
New Member
Because they are a safer technology I bought a powerbank made by Tqka to power my car's dashcam when in parking mode. At first it was great, lasting about 48 hours, but now, after only a short while it doesn't charge fully. The display which shows charge up to 100% will climb rapidly in some parts of the charge instead of truly charging the batteries and likewise discharged showing he same rapidly fall. I suspect one or more of the cells are faulty. As there aren't many other LiFePO4 banks on the market I decided to try and fix it rather than send it back.
I managed to take it apart and have ascertained that the four 32650 batteries are hooked up in parallel. The batteries themselves look cheap, there is some corrosion on the ends and what looks like bubbling under the plastic sleeves which I presume is more rust. I can post a photo if anyone is interested. Maybe these are recycled cells or something, the powerbank was not expensive.
Can anyone suggest how I can test the cells? If possible without unsoldering anything? Together, the cells measure 3.3V on my multimeter but that's about as far as my knowledge goes on how to test them out.
If they are dud batteries then I would like to order some new better quality ones and fit them instead. Can anyone suggests where is a good place to purchase high quality LiFePO4 32650 batteries? I want to keep costs down, but get something decent. I'm not in a hurry so it can come from China or wherever, so long as it's good quality.
Thanks
I managed to take it apart and have ascertained that the four 32650 batteries are hooked up in parallel. The batteries themselves look cheap, there is some corrosion on the ends and what looks like bubbling under the plastic sleeves which I presume is more rust. I can post a photo if anyone is interested. Maybe these are recycled cells or something, the powerbank was not expensive.
Can anyone suggest how I can test the cells? If possible without unsoldering anything? Together, the cells measure 3.3V on my multimeter but that's about as far as my knowledge goes on how to test them out.
If they are dud batteries then I would like to order some new better quality ones and fit them instead. Can anyone suggests where is a good place to purchase high quality LiFePO4 32650 batteries? I want to keep costs down, but get something decent. I'm not in a hurry so it can come from China or wherever, so long as it's good quality.
Thanks
