A couple of years ago I bought a Ravpower 30W USB PD powerbank with one USB Type-C port, and two regular 5v USB ports.
It was a little quirky. Sometimes it would start charging itself from the laptop until I held the button down for 5s. At some point the behavior started getting worse, to the point that last summer I left a poor review. The seller contacted me quickly, and I had a replacement within a week. The replacement fixed the problem.
That left me with the defective unit. Today, I decided to take it apart and see what’s inside.
The highlights are:
- A sturdy ABS case
- 8x LG F1L 18650 cells
- One PCB
- Sonix SN8F57 8-bit 8051-based microcontroller
- Cyprus CYPD2122 USB PD port controller
- Southchip SC8802 buck-boost charge & discharge controller
- Regulation of voltage and current for lithium ion battery charging for 1s-6s battery packs (4.2-25.2v)
- Charging current to 10A!
- Input voltage from 2.7-30v
- Output to load from 2-30v & 60W
The pack sells for ~$75. To put things in perspective, you can buy eight FL1 cells for $4.41/each, which works out to about $35. That price drops to $3.56 each through a grey-market seller if you buy a thousand at a time. Ravpower is almost certainly paying less than that.
You can see more in the YouTube video I shot of the process:
Datasheets:
great job i have these and the old non PD also with 8x LG F1L all in Parallel
BTW did you ever find a another way to open them
I never found another way in. If I remember right the case seems to be solvent or ultrasonically welded and the joints don’t yield to impact.
I can’t say I’m too happy with mine. The replacement still exhibits a tendency to suck power from my laptop, rather than provide it.