Xiaomi 16000 mAh Power Bank

It should be pointed out that for all practical purposes applicable to dash cam users, the Xiaomi 16,000 mAh power bank is not really a 16,000 mAh capacity battery bank as implied by the way it is marketed. This rating of 16,000 mAh is based on a current draw of 3.7V/1A. According to the specs from the company, (and prominently mentioned on the GearBest page, to their credit) this battery bank will have an actual capacity of only 10,800mAh @5V/1A. Since dash cams (and most USB devices) require 5V, rather than 3.7V, results will differ.

I know this is an old post but I think something needs to cleared up here.

From here, italics mine: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-battery-packs/

"We need to explain one technical detail about testing USB battery packs. As Gary Kwok, the applications engineering manager who ran our tests at Cadex, told us, the packs’ internal battery cells operate at 3.6 V, while USB runs at 5 V.
...

Battery makers, however, report the capacity of their products in milliampere-hours, a measurement of current flowing over time at a given voltage. Since we’ve changed the voltage for testing purposes, our 5-volt tests don’t offer an apples-to-apples comparison with the manufacturers’ stated capacities in mAh. The higher voltage allows less current to transfer more energy faster, so we get a lower number. But because most smartphones and tablets (and dashcams) use lithium-ion batteries with a voltage similar to our packs (and according to the laws of physics, charge is conserved, regardless of voltage), we can convert our test results back to the original 3.6 V for comparison. This step lets us directly contrast the advertised capacity in mAh (at 3.6 V) of the batteries against the tested amount of power they can deliver to a smartphone or tablet (or dashcam) operating at a similar voltage. A small amount of loss occurs in the conversion process
..."

TL;DR, don't worry about the advertised mAH being at 3.7V. It's just a number used to compare one battery against another.
 
Hahaha... my 30,000mah doesn't have any other spec printed so it must be 30,000mah. :D
Update on my 30,000 mah generic battery pack.
I opened it up and it has 6 1500mah batteries so that's 9000 mah.
Maybe 30,000 mah is at 1v. :D
 
Update on my 30,000 mah generic battery pack.
I opened it up and it has 6 1500mah batteries so that's 9000 mah.
Maybe 30,000 mah is at 1v. :D
Haha, I guess so.
You can usually tell if the claims are totally outrageous by how big the pack is. There is only so much capacity you can cram into a given size using cheap battery cells. Look up the size of cheap cells and see how many you think would fit. If it doesn't look like you can cram that many in there, it's probably a fake spec, like how all off brand headphones claim to do 20Hz to 20kHz.
 
I have few SOLOVE battery packs and some of them do have the specs in both 5.1v as well as 3.7v so there are few companies already doing that.
For example https://www.amazon.com/gp/B019032GKO is marketed as 10000 mAh and the specs on the back have this:

9500/10000mAh 35.15/37Wh(MIN/TYP)
6300 mAh 5.1V (TYP, 1A)

IMG_20160705_150059.jpg
 
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