Test/review of Xtar PB2 Charger & power bank

It is smooth, but the fell is a bit like rubber (It is some sort of coating).

Thanks, that sounds good. Was hoping for a rubbery coating (better grip) for travel.

Is the 0.1 mA and 0.5 mA discharge you listed the drain from the batteries when stored in the charger? i.e. if I throw this in a bag with cells in it for the weekend, it will slowly lower the charge at 0.1 mA?

Thanks for review.
It has output voltage problem, huh? I hope Xtar will fix it.

The 0.1mA means it will empty 2800mAh batteries in about 3 years. In praxis it will take longer than that, because the draw will be lower at lower voltage, this means you will get 1 year more before the batteries are completely discharged (Assuming no self-discharge in the batteries).

As you can see it takes a bit more than a weekend before it is significant.

I will not directly call it a problem, but a more stable voltage is better.

Thanks for the review HKJ. Entertaining and informative as usual. I’m waiting for 2 these babies.

Thanks for the nice review. Mine should be arriving soon but I never knew it could not fit protected batteries, which all mine are!

How dangerous/bad for electronics is 287mVpp and 405mVpp noise? This is nearly 4-5x the noise levels of the similar Tomo M2 18650 powerbank.

My typical use case will simply be charging my iPhone.

Nothing dangerous really.

There will simply be a bit higher power loss going to the phone, making it charge slowler.

It is not dangerous. Voltages above 5.25V may be dangerous, it depends on the phone (I would not expect any danger below 5.5V). High noise levels may interfere with the touch screen and with receiving, but it will depend on the frequency content and level of the noise and how sensitive the phone is for noise. It is not dangerous for the phone.

This looks like an excellent charger/powerbank combination for travelling light. Thanks for the review.

Hi HKJ

Any chance you will disassemble the powerbank to take a look at the internals? Anyone seen the PCB before? No idea why the PB is designed so large with so much space wastage on battery bays (the sides). It could be very much smaller.

What does this mean?

I would want it a bit longer in the bay to accommodate button top cells. And the worst flaw of all is its inability to charge low draw items, ie: Nitecore TIP/TINI/Tube, Sansa/Sony MP3 players, UltraTac K18 mini charger, MecArmy SGN5, and anything drawing less than 300mA.

Not handy at all on a long trip. Why did they limit it so?

UPS is “uninterruptible power supply” and means the device will switch smoothly between input power and battery and back again to always supply output power.

No, I do not want to break it open. The width of the sides are probably to support the magnets.

Okay, I understand what a UPS is. What I don’t understand is where you said it turns off when USB power is removed. Do you mean that it turns off briefly or turns off completely, and something has to be done to turn it back on?

If input to the Xtar drops, then recovers, the Xtar will carry on charging as before, but the output of the Xtar to a connected device will drop, and not resume until the Xtar button is pressed.

Okay, thanks for the explanation Zulumoose! It seems like a weird bug. I hope XTAR fixes it in the future.

2A output is important for me. Can you recommend a similar power bank that has lower noise.
Doesn’t have to be 2 cells. 3, 4 or more cells would be even more great :slight_smile: