Yes, per the data sheet, it eliminates two separate channels worth of electronics and soldering
I am planning on using laptop pull panasonics (or sony [the red ones])
Decent enough and can handle 1A charge and has enough mAh to actually be worth it
Panasonic laptop pulls? Link?
That is great 411. The coast looks clear to order more then…
thanks!
AZ
Excellent review, what can we buy if we only have protected cells, like the 3400 Panasonic?
Thanx for the review. I have bought 10 of these and am very satisfied with the performance of each. I use unprotected Sanyo 2600mAh cells and they’re good for at least one charge cycle for my family’s gadgets. 
They are Sanyo laptop pulls…sorry
It’s cheap. But I didn’t see it with a brand li-on battery. Don’t know how long it would last compared to these:
http://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Flashlight-Lightning-Sensation-Thunderbolt/dp/B0084Y47SK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394435881&sr=8-2&keywords=ravpower+3000#productDetails
Ordered 5, no pink tho 
It comes with no battery at all. But I guess if you put 3000 mAh cell of quality brand you will get similar runtime to the RAV power (If the later indeed has 3000 mAh battery inside)
I’ve been cycling one with the top off. As indicated in the review the LED’s are OK when charging but woefully dim when discharging. I can barely see them with the top off….in the dark. Actual charge performance seems OK. Using with laptop pulls.
I have not tried putting the lid on/off yet. I have an identical appearing one I purchased a couple months ago with a battery already installed. The lid is a tad tricky to get off but does if you work it. In the 1st one I got the (no name) battery is permanently installed. I have not idea what it’s capacity is but similar single cell units I have only measured out to 1000mA. I think the new units are a better buy as you can choose your own (decent) battery and replace it easily if required.
Re RAV power: Read the 3* reviews on Amazon. I would not be surprised if the supplied battery is not all that good. For most reviewers it seems to be “I got one, it works, I think it’s fantastic”. They have no data to back it up at all.
Isn’t it true that, ideally, each li-ion have its own charging circuit? I know that paralleling them is commonplace & OK for well-matched cells (not just brand/model but maybe other attributes that change over time?). Talking unprotected cells here.
There are plenty of fleabay USB power packs that clearly & statically parallel 3 or more cells. Wondering, again ideally, if some sort of latch/relay that’d treat the cells separately during charge but parallel them during discharge/use is a better way to go.
Ideally yes they need “balancing” for charging multiple cells, but you can parallel (well-matched as you mentioned) batteries and charge them, is it optimum or proper…no
With that said…got mine in
Plopped in a bunch of Sanyo laptop pulls (I got 20 for $30), kids kindles are charging FAST, I got a few of these cylinder types before to put on the kids kindles so they can use them and not have it die in a few hours, with those el-cheapo types they would push current to the kindle and it would show charging but alas the battery life would slowly tick down (I believe max output was 500mA), with these, the batteries are actually CHARGING and the battery life is showing going up.
I had pre-full charged them about a month ago, two of the units show full charge (blue led) and one went red on charge but went blue pretty quick (I need to find a way to check for parasitic draw though)
The entire unit gets slightly warm as it is pushing 1A continuous (we shall see once HKJ does a full review) but unlike the other ones these are actually charging while using
I got mine for $2.99 and so far pleasantly pleased, the cheapo w/ crap battery cylinder one was $8.99 I believe
Ah, yes “balancing” is what it’s called:)
Want to thank chiefinspectorfinch for a nice, thorough review & others in the thread, I’ve a couple of these on the way.
In time for our camping season, been wanting to pick up one or more of these things for when there aren’t wall receptacles around:)
P.S. I just looked at the chip on mine
FM6316CE
Google translate of the data sheet
Schematic
I believe this may be the current configuration on the board
I think I know found these cheapo cylinder and other “cheapy” type chargers cannot charge devices at high enough speed to keep up with the standard drain
180ohm resistor between D+ to D- (the two inner pins)
Many cheap/generic USB chargers have not done this, and the detection of a short (up to 200ohm) between D+ to D- tells the phone “this is a charging device, so you can take full current” rather than the phone trickle charging only from the charger (in my case… and the phone battery runs down faster than it takes from the charger without that short). See the USB wiki, particularly the charging section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Power
So adding that above resistor on the output of the center pins will let the device know its on a charge device and accept full current rather than trickle charge
Sure enough…just looked, the cheapo cylinder has NOTHING connected to those center pins…hmmm
You do not need a resistor between the data pin, a short is fine.
If you look in my reviews of devices with usb output, I do always specify a coding, this is because there are many ways to signal that you can charge with more than 0.5A. The most commons ones are shorting the pin or using the Apple voltages (Requires 4 resistors).
My 1st one just arrived. It looks pretty good. I’ll pull the trigger on a bunch of these once I confirm it charges the cells correctly & stuff. I like how it looks. It’st least as nice as the ~$20 power bank I bought a few years back(this was before I knew they made user serviceable power banks.) Thanks for the heads up on this item!
*edit - Ending charge voltage on mine was a safe 4.16. I’m using an old battery pack pull so it might be the cell. Anyway these are nice as it charges up my tablet and kindle just fine. I just placed an order for a bunch more. These will make nice casual handout gifts.
I will say this though, don’t expect them to fully charge a device…my kids have kindle fire’s (gen 2 not the HD) and using cheapo red panasoic laptop pulls (maybe 2000mAh) they will put about 20–40 charge on the battery (I believe they have 4400mAh batteries in them) efficiency is fairly high on charge/discharge so they are adequate for single cell mobile power…if these were in 4x or larger box they would alot more versatile but charging them would take FOREVER!
Actually I am thinking of getting a LARGE single cell Lipo battery and making a custom build of one of these
Today I got twoo of these usb chargers/power banks from buyincoins… Its interesting that the white one has ETA9635 and the black one FM6316CE chip. Which one is better? The difference is that on the white one you cannot see the blue led during discharge and on the black one you can - very clearly (I even painted the cover black and you can still see the bright blue led). I will test charging my 9.7” tablet, which is rated for charging at 2A… Great little gadget, especially for the money…
@HKJ: Do you have any plans for testing this thing? I would love to see how it does on your detailed test… 