iTron: Recharge for 3 mins. for 1 phone battery!

[Kalidor]

https://igg.me/at/simpizitron/x/10280792

Some red flags:
- Goal $30000, you can not produce such a device with that amount of $.
- Flexible Goal, IGG concept for scamming.
- No pictures, all CGI renders, -> no prototype.
- Timeline, complete joke, delivery in May
- Inconsistency of team size 2 vs. 7
- All 7 have manager titles, where are the engineers
- They cannot ship to Croatia and Guadeloupe, but North Korea isn't a problem??

[Dave Atom]

Only another $6,000 and they get a NEW colour - hope it's not an old colour, like red or blue, that would be boring 

[sk2593]

30 amp charging speed? what batteries can take that?

[tszaboo]

30 amp charging speed? what batteries can take that?

It claims a 9Ah battery inside. That is 3C charging, some batteries can handle that. If they oversize the battery and only using like 70-50% of SOC, it is even more doable.
I dont think anything technically extraordinary is claimed in the campaign. It will not fast charge the phone. It is doable.
And completely missing the point, as I cannot imagine anyone not having enough time to charge a power bank, but they have the time to plug the stupid thing into their phones.
Charging some power into a power bank in 3 minutes... So what? Buy two and charge one while the other is used, DOH!

[station240]

It's hideous 
People are going to carry that around with them all day, and yet it has all those channels so when it does get dirty, you've got bugger all chance of ever getting your grubby paw prints off.

[macrop]

Looking at all the comments on that page, a lot of people are assuming it fast charges their phone at those times listed. They are going to be bitterly disappointed, even though the makers make it clear (further on) that it doesn't change their phone's charging speed. The animation they use at the top of the page is a bit misleading.

I love this Q&A from the FAQs...
What’s the total amps it holds?
iTron can hold 5 amps.

[edy]

Let me get this straight... If I buy 10 smaller "power banks" and plug them into 10 different wall sockets (or a 10-plug power bar wall socket extension).... I can fill up each power bank in very little time because they have 1/10th the mAh capacity required to be full as the one larger battery. As long as I don't blow my current fuse in the basement (what is it 15 A?) on that circuit I should be ok.

Now I take all 10 power banks with me, combine them into one unit... and if I need to charge my device.... I start plugging in each of them one by one... When one powerbank is empty, I plug in the next, and then the next, etc... until my device is charged.

... Or.... have it automatically cycle to the next power bank as it detects the current/voltage drop and sequence through all 10 of them until they are done.

So I think it is entirely feasible to do this kind of thing. And perhaps in the future even the batteries in the cell phones and other devices will be "massively parallel" instead of in series. Then you could charge up the devices much faster. But there will be more regulatory circuitry needed to "hand off" one cell to the next, and perhaps greater inefficiency due to having residual capacity remaining in multiple parallel cells as compared to the one single series cell.

Yes I agree with previous post which says that users may be confused that they can charge up the power bank very quickly, but yet still take a long time to charge their devices. Given that most people charge up their power-bank over-night, I don't see the issue being difficulty accessing an outlet to charge the powerbank. I think most people are willing to pay a premium to have their device go from 0% - 100% rapidly, not a power bank (which for the most part is usually not an issue having time to charge).

[suicidaleggroll]

Let me get this straight... If I buy 10 smaller "power banks" and plug them into 10 different wall sockets (or a 10-plug power bar wall socket extension).... I can fill up each power bank in very little time because they have 1/10th the mAh capacity required to be full as the one larger battery. As long as I don't blow my current fuse in the basement (what is it 15 A?) on that circuit I should be ok.

Now I take all 10 power banks with me, combine them into one unit... and if I need to charge my device.... I start plugging in each of them one by one... When one powerbank is empty, I plug in the next, and then the next, etc... until my device is charged.

... Or.... have it automatically cycle to the next power bank as it detects the current/voltage drop and sequence through all 10 of them until they are done.

So I think it is entirely feasible to do this kind of thing. And perhaps in the future even the batteries in the cell phones and other devices will be "massively parallel" instead of in series. Then you could charge up the devices much faster. But there will be more regulatory circuitry needed to "hand off" one cell to the next, and perhaps greater inefficiency due to having residual capacity remaining in multiple parallel cells as compared to the one single series cell.

Yes I agree with previous post which says that users may be confused that they can charge up the power bank very quickly, but yet still take a long time to charge their devices. Given that most people charge up their power-bank over-night, I don't see the issue being difficulty accessing an outlet to charge the powerbank. I think most people are willing to pay a premium to have their device go from 0% - 100% rapidly, not a power bank (which for the most part is usually not an issue having time to charge).

No, because the rate at which you can charge the battery is not fixed, it depends on the battery capacity.  Make the battery 1/10 the size, and you have to charge it at 1/10 the speed.  Charge/discharge rates are rated in "C".  1 C means you're charging at the rated battery capacity (1 C on a 1 Ah battery is 1 A).  This means that a 1 C charging rate will ALWAYS charge the battery fully in 1 hour (ignoring the slow-down at the end of the cycle), regardless of the battery capacity, series, parallel, etc.  Standard lithium ion batteries can be charged at a maximum rate of about 1 C including some small permanent damage.  If you want to reduce the damage you need to lower the charging rate to <0.5 C.  So regardless of the battery capacity, series/parallel, etc., if you don't want to damage the battery you should always take at least 2 hours to charge it, whatever current that ends up being.

The only way to charge it faster without damage is to change the battery chemistry to one that allows faster charging, or oversize the battery to the point that even if it would be full in an hour, it still has enough charge to be useful after 15 minutes.

[edy]

No, because the rate at which you can charge the battery is not fixed, it depends on the battery capacity.  Make the battery 1/10 the size, and you have to charge it at 1/10 the speed.  Charge/discharge rates are rated in "C".  1 C means you're charging at the rated battery capacity (1 C on a 1 Ah battery is 1 A).  This means that a 1 C charging rate will ALWAYS charge the battery fully in 1 hour (ignoring the slow-down at the end of the cycle), regardless of the battery capacity, series, parallel, etc. 

Ok, thanks, that helps clarify things a lot. I guess the issue is the "h" in "mAh" which basically ties it back down to the time factor.

So if a battery is 500 mAh and another one is 5000 mAh, I would be limited to supplying the 500mAh a charge current of 1 C or 500 mA for 1 hour? And I could theoretically provide 5A to my 5000 mAh battery and have it also charge in 1 hour? So even if I had 10 of the 500 mAh batteries I would still need 1 hour to charge them all (in parallel) because I am limited to the current I can push into them by the 1 C factor?

What if I push 5A into that 5000mAh battery and 1 hour later it is charged. If I could miraculously chop it up into 10 pieces, each one 500mAh... I could only discharge each battery by 500 mA safely.... over a whole hour. I could not draw more current out faster? Yet I can draw 5A out of the 5000mAh battery over that same hour? Like the 5000mAh battery is a parallel combination of 500mAh batteries? 

[suicidaleggroll]

No, because the rate at which you can charge the battery is not fixed, it depends on the battery capacity.  Make the battery 1/10 the size, and you have to charge it at 1/10 the speed.  Charge/discharge rates are rated in "C".  1 C means you're charging at the rated battery capacity (1 C on a 1 Ah battery is 1 A).  This means that a 1 C charging rate will ALWAYS charge the battery fully in 1 hour (ignoring the slow-down at the end of the cycle), regardless of the battery capacity, series, parallel, etc. 

Ok, thanks, that helps clarify things a lot. I guess the issue is the "h" in "mAh" which basically ties it back down to the time factor.

So if a battery is 500 mAh and another one is 5000 mAh, I would be limited to supplying the 500mAh a charge current of 1 C or 500 mA for 1 hour? And I could theoretically provide 5A to my 5000 mAh battery and have it also charge in 1 hour? So even if I had 10 of the 500 mAh batteries I would still need 1 hour to charge them all (in parallel) because I am limited to the current I can push into them by the 1 C factor?

What if I push 5A into that 5000mAh battery and 1 hour later it is charged. If I could miraculously chop it up into 10 pieces, each one 500mAh... I could only discharge each battery by 500 mA safely.... over a whole hour. I could not draw more current out faster? Yet I can draw 5A out of the 5000mAh battery over that same hour? Like the 5000mAh battery is a parallel combination of 500mAh batteries? 

All correct, assuming 1 C is the charge/discharge limit for the battery chemistry you're using.

[Kilrah]

Discharge capability is usually faster than charge capability though.
A typical 18650 would usually be rated at 0.5C charge, 2C discharge.

But some battery types (particularly those used in the RC world) can take charge at up to 5C and extreme discharges at 20C (meaning you empty the battery in 3 minutes) with "acceptable" wear.