Omnicharge Omni Ultimate Powerbank (USB-C, AC out, DC out, 12x18650)

It’s not the price that’s making me angry though.

If they recalled wanted to get higher performance for a lower price, just go with a 2000-2500mAh 15-20A Chinese cell.

That would’ve been understandable. Not good, but at least understandable and better than this crap.

Seems like they were planning all along to use NCR18650GAs in their 1st product to get some good review, and then they went to make a 2nd gen with the original expectations.

After their official statement and test results that are nothing but pure BS, funniest part being even the cell they supposedly chose for its glorious high discharge capabilities, also got over 65°C at a low discharge rate of ~15W/cell.

Good and bad news….

Bad news is they admitted the use of Chinese cells and are not planning to deliver the promised and advertised product, they just changed the specs instead. Specs no longer says 40,300mAh now just 34,800mAh instead. So we’re either keeping a $350 powerbank with about $12 worth of Chinese cells inside, or receive a full refund.

That that’s where the good news comes in… I’m not sure if this applies for everyone but Omnicharge is offering me a full refund as long as I return the Ultimate and all the accessories, also they might request me to cease fire to their IGG comment section, which I admit it was driving some people crazy. Some of them simply didn’t care for whichever cells were inside they just wanted to receive it.

So what do you think, should I return everything and get my $500 back? My reasoning says yes, but my heart says no, I had so much faith in this product and found a lot of uses for it.

No, don’t get a refund.

You’ll have to ship back a lithium ion powerbank via air!
That is going to cost a stupid amount of money to ship.
I think they are trying to bribe you out.

Even if they are willing to pay the full amount including shipping, I’d still stir up the pot so they feel the fire under their feet.

It still boggles my mind they were using NCR18650GAs in their 1st product, but then swapped them in the 2nd product.

IF THEY REALLY WANTED HIGHER PERFORMANCE AT A LOWER COST, they should’ve went with Samsung 30Qs instead.

I have the impression they got their cells at 1$US/each, which is 2-3x what Samsung 30Qs/NCR18650GAs cost in bulk.

No actually I’m unable to ship anything with any kind of batteries in it via air so they accepted to not return the battery pack.

And even after I return my unit they can’t shut me up on any of the platforms, maybe except their campaign page.

To be honest I’m pretty tired of the situation, I tried my best to summarize everything on the reddit thread and will be uploading some test results soon, but have spend so much time… do you say I should get a refund without returning the product?

Yes, get a refund.

In the meantime, try to get everybody to request a refund.

Even better yet, request Omnicharge to get a % refund based on the capacity loss.

40,300mAh/34,800mAh = 1,16 = +16%

IMO, they should just give a 20% refund to everybody on the kickstarter. That would help to soften the blow.

Just got my Omni Ultimate.

This is what I find strange. On the MR30 DC output connection the grouped ones are negative and all the adapter cables have them shorted while the isolated pin is positive. Why the different setup on the connections? Could they be using a diode as a way of measuring temperature of the battery pack by measuring the voltage drop on the other pin.

The manufacturer said that they include an adapter with every spare battery to charge it outside of the device with the included Meanwell DC power supply. I wonder what that adapter is like. Also, is there a boost circuit in the battery or adapter itself, since the DC supply is only 18V?

Weirdly the one MR30-DC output adapter cable that came with the powerbank reads DC12V IN on it. But those pins don’t match the polarity on the battery. This might be a bit hazardous if you mix up the cables and try to charge the spare with the wrong one.

Glad you got yours, it’s been a long wait for sure.

This is why I didn’t use the factory MR30 connector to test the battery, that would basically short the “signal” negative output with the positive, very odd indeed. The MR30-DC connector has negative shorted with the middle pin.

It would be very interesting to find the charging circuit all inside the battery pack. But if that’s the case their decision to cheap out on the cells is beyond my comprehension. So much engineering and design just to make it all worthless by pairing it with mediocre cells.

I’m curious to see your tests with the Ultimate. Specially the 12V2A discharge test via USB-A so we can compare it with my results.

I’ve got a busy couple of days, but I managed to do an AC discharge test with a 60W incan bulb. Total capacity was 101.32Wh. I still have to discharge the battery to find out the true efficiency.

One thing that was a bit of a disappointment was the decline in AC voltage during the test. The original Omnicharge didn’t exhibit this. The Ultimate started out at 230V unloaded and dropped down to 213V after turning on the bulb. Just before cutting out the power the voltage had dropped to 198V. With an incan bulb this means a significant decrease in light output over the battery life. With universal voltage SMPS devices this doesn’t matter though and I would rarely use anything with a linear PSU with the powerbank.

The battery voltage was 3.2V (19.14V/6) when empty (had some time to bounce back though) so they are pretty conservative with the LVP.

Verified that the center pin of the battery is used for battery temperature monitoring and the temperature indicated on the display is measured from the battery (just like it says).

Four data points with the hottest (40°C) after 100W discharging, 30.2°C right after charging, 21.5°C after overnight in room temperature and 14.8°C after a while outside.

USB-A QC 12V/2A: 112.17Wh. Very much in line with 125Wh battery capacity with 90% efficiency.

Measured the battery capacity straight from its MR30 connector at 123Wh. Discharged at 25W constant power down to 3V per cell (18V).

Actually that’s not bad, just ~1Wh per cell shy of the Sanyo GA.

The adjustable CV/CC output works nicely with a string of LEDs. Here’s four Nichia 144AMs in series (4x6V) run at 1 amp. Just set the output voltage above the forward voltage of the LEDs and adjust the brightness more precisely with the current limit. Just have to use LED (s) with a Vf over 5V since that’s the minimum the Ultimate does.

How are these holding up?

Did they cut any additional corners besides swapping in cheaper batteries?

Sad to see quality fade happen in real time.

Is the Indiegogo page claim (also for the replacement battery they sell) of “40,300 mAh” supported?

No, it’s actually 34800mAh now.

Is the OmniCharge good enough for a UPS replacement, presuming just 3 devices (laptop, cable-modem, wifi router)?

I would split the task to modem+router and notebook.
But what do you need an UPS for a notebook?

Hi I’m new to this forum.

I have purchased a omnicharge 20+ and the dc tip set
.
I’m a guitarist and wanting to power an line 6 helix hx stomp from it from the dc output.

I have found out from a line 6 engineer that the hx stomp requires 1.5 to 2 amps at 9 volts.

The hx stomp dc input is a 2.5mm x 5.5mm barrel plug. The dc polarity is Tip Negative.

My question is about the tip being negative.
Is the tip of the omnicharge cable and tip set, negative?
Is there anything I need to know here before plugging in the hx stomp. I dont want to damage the hx stomp in anyway. Also the plug being a 2.5mm x 5.5mm barrel plug, does the tip set and cable provide me with what I need?

Using the ac output is no good for electric guitar. The modified sine wave causes hum buzz to amplified into the guitar signal. So the dc is a cleaner better power to use.

I’m new to all of this so please forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject.

Thanks for any help advice with this.

Whats the best way to achieve a set up where can create ac pure sine wave power from a portable battery pack.

I’m a guitarist. The omnicharge and other products like the ravpower with an ac output use modified sine wave which causes hum buzz in the audio signal.
I need pure sine wave ac output.

How best to achieve this?

If I use a power inverter powered by a battery pack will i lose energy efficiency in the conversion process?

Can i take the dc or usb c output from the omnicharge and use it to power a pure sine wave inverter?

I cant find a inverter powered from dc or usb c, only from car lighter socket. Would be great to be able to power an inverter from usb c but not sure it’s possible or a product available that achieves that.

I see I can buy a usb to female 12v car lighter power socket, then could plug in an pure sine wave inverter into the car socket. Is this an really inefficient method?

Sorry I’m learning here and new to all of this.
A shame the ac out on the omnicharge is modified sine wave, wish I could find a good portable set up for pure sine wave ac power from a battery storage.

Thanks for any help advise and is there somewhere else I should post this that would be more suitable?

Jeb77
Im not quite sure i completely understand the question if you are looking for a DC Pure Sine-Wave Inverter we use this, to power our laptop computers while installing software in construction equipment out in the field. https://lindelectronics.com/product/inv1215us1p/

And these adapters if a cigarette plug-in is not available.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G8WLX78/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G8WLX14/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1