Power Banks that aren't "Made in China" ?

Or part of another plan, the UK has reduced imports of Australian coal for ten years in a row, down to about 1 shipfull per year now, only gets used in the winter and even then only when the wind stops. China is committed to doing the same.


The world would be a far worse place if every country only purchased what they produce themselves, no country has enough people to be able to specialise to the extent the whole Earth working together can. Maybe with powerbanks, every country could produce them themselves, at much higher cost, but even China doesn't produce many of the image sensors in our dashcams, or the lenses, or the memory cards. China does of course buy a lot of UK exports, cars, aircraft etc. Always best to buy home produced if there is a reasonable choice, especially when there appears to be a trade imbalance, but there is no need to take it to extreems, that only leads to trade wars, inferior product choice, loss of respect - think Trump's America, and eventually real wars!
It's potentially "real wars" that we are financing, that's part of my concern.
 
There cannot be any "real wars" among the superpowers or the whole world ends. What there can be and is happening just as it always has is 'wars by proxy' where superpowers back smaller non-nuclear nations, sometimes overtly and sometimes clandestinely. Your decision to not buy from China will not change that, not even thousands of us. Do what you wish and I support you in having that choice, but don't delude yourself into thinking that it will make any difference to anyone or anything else because it won't.

Phil
 
Some or all of the electronic components which control the charging will be made in China with RAVpower, and maybe even the cells inside too. Nobody makes what you want even if there are many good powerbanks on the market.

I recall some time ago a new member here wanted an American made dashcam- he got the same answer: You can't get what isn't being made. Nothing you or I can do at this point is going to change things. The transfer of industry and wealth to overseas has been happening for decades and there's no getting it back.

About 25 years ago I needed some hardware for a project. "Stanley" brand had always stood for good quality and had just finished a "Made in the USA" advertising campaign so off to the store I go feeling patriotic. The parts are on cardboard hang-tags and I grab them, but I notice that some cards are slightly different than the others. When I get home I notice the difference is that some have a "Made in the USA" logo at the bottom and some don't. On the back of those in very small lettering at the bottom there was a "Made in China" line, I'm like "WTF?" and I go back to swap those for US made Stanley parts, but of course there aren't any- moreso the guy running the store tells me it's been this way for years. So now what do I do- my project was designed around that hardware and while it can be changed, I can't find a single company who makes all the hardware I need in the US. It's either mismatched stuff or buy something made overseas. I end up with Stanley as I'd planned to.

Fast-forward to today >> Stanley is marketing more products than ever which are made in China. I still buy them for their quality which is still among the best. I still use only Stanley tape measures because they are the best; more than that they are one of only two brands widely sold here which have been consistently accurate when checked against properly used precision surveying measurement standards. I don't like the other brand but I note that they are the same as Starret who make precision measuring instruments. I don't give a rats heiney where my tapes are made- I want the best and Stanley is it. I'd be stupid to use something else and to do that I'd only be hurting myself and my customers to change which I refuse to do. If I stopped buying Stanley they would not notice or change a thing. A thousand of me would have the same effect in getting that changed- none. It ain't going to change until it's more profitable for Stanley to make their stuff in the USA like they used to. That's never going to happen because we have no supporting industries, the laws here create an unfriendly environment for manufacturing what they market, the energy costs are higher, and the workers here will not work for the wages which Stanley pays to get the same thing done now elsewhere. Change "Stanley" to any other brand; it's all the same.

So buy local and nearby when and if you can, but don't delude yourself thinking you can bring back the lost industries because you can't- not even thousands of you and me together can do that. If industries are to return here they will have to be ones making something more economically than can happen elsewhere. It can be done- that's already happening here where I live. This was once the textile manufacturing center of the world; that's all gone now, replaced mostly by automotive manufacturing and it's supporting industries. BMW, Michelin, Volvo and Boeing could have opened plants in Detroit but they didn't, mostly because the manufacturing costs would be much higher there. They have the mindset of labor unions and 'closed shops'; we don't. They have high taxes needed to deal with snow on the transport network for a third of the year; we don't. They have higher energy costs than we do. They have an overall environment which is not conducive to manufacturing which is why they lost theirs and that is permanent now- it's gone and it's not coming back, nobody is even considering it. Much went overseas and some came here because we adapted to the world as it changed while Detroit didn't. They largely killed their own chances and while that's sad, it's also normal and predictable. Of these great corporations I mentioned only Boeing is American, and they're steadily losing ground to Airbus, their only competition. We've been doing it to ourselves for so long that it's irrecoverable at this point. The only viable local products are those where distances and shipping costs and shipping times make inherently viable- the rest will be done elsewhere.

Even if we all immediately stop buying anything from overseas the end result is going to be the same so it's pointless to hurt ourselves by not taking advantage of the lower prices which Chinese goods give us. We can't match them or even get close enough to be viable. Spending wisely will extend our time as self-ruling entities and that's the best we can do at this point. In the end China will own most of the world regardless and not because of them, but because we let it become that way our own selves.

Sorry that you choose to not have a powerbank but the only effect that will have is on you.

Phil
I hear what you say, I have seen and experienced the same myself, but there comes a point where "enough is enough" right now it may seem that when we want "something or other" that we have little choice other other than to turn our $'s over to a regime that has little respect or regard for it's own people, let alone citizens of the Free World. But, no matter how hopeless it may seem "Every Tide Turns" what once was Great Britain found that out years ago, the same thing is happening with the USA, it's just a matter of time before China finds it can't climb any higher and then tumbles, as all Empires have tumbled. It used to take a thousand years or more for that to happen, Colonialism lasted a few hundred years, Nations now rise and fall in little more than scores of years.

Don't upset yourself about me not having a power bank, there are options out there for products assembled in countries other than China assembled from parts "Made in Japan" or South Korea. I have the time to find them and the $'s to pay what may be seen as a "premium" price. I'll buy Homeland or Neighborland in the knowledge that I've done my bit to keep fellow countrymen in employment.

I haven''t always thought this way, but it's hard these days not to notice that we are becoming dependent on China, that weakens us. Some folks are recognizing how dangerous that could be when we leave the back door open to folks like Huawei.

The bottom line Phil is, in our free world we have choice, I wouldn't mock or deride your choice, you are as entitled to it as I am to mine. Do you think folks have the same right in China, more so in Hong Kong ? that's a bad place to be right now for folks who have experienced Democracy.

Canada Bob.
 
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There cannot be any "real wars" among the superpowers or the whole world ends. What there can be and is happening just as it always has is 'wars by proxy' where superpowers back smaller non-nuclear nations, sometimes overtly and sometimes clandestinely. Your decision to not buy from China will not change that, not even thousands of us. Do what you wish and I support you in having that choice, but don't delude yourself into thinking that it will make any difference to anyone or anything else because it won't.

Phil
I don't want this thread to become Political, we don't all see things the same way, we live different lives and that tilts the scales one way or another. I'll close by saying, you are probably right about real wars, my Great Grandfather an artillery gunner in WWI was luck enough to come back in one piece to tell us all, as many did, that that was The War to end ALL Wars, how wrong were they !!!

As for "proxy wars" I'm not sure how the British Dreadnoughts with their strategic nuclear missiles (costing £32 Billion) could play a part in a proxy war, or why the US spends Billions of $'s on USSF (United States Space Force) projects.
Due to the shortage of crystal balls and the absence of Nostradamus (where is he when we need him) it's not a good idea to bet our lives on what we think will happen.

Anyway Phil, in the spirit of the season I'll wish you and your family a safe (from Covid) and Happy Christmas.

Canada Bob.
 
If industries are to return here they will have to be ones making something more economically than can happen elsewhere. It can be done- that's already happening here where I live. This was once the textile manufacturing center of the world; that's all gone now,
Over time things are leveling out, places that had cheap labour are heading towards average, many places that had expensive labour are also heading towards average, at some point there is nowhere left with cheap labour and then the industries can return to local production.

In the UK, everyone knows our textile industry closed down years ago just like yours, and yet, until covid, it had increased for nine straight years. We don't make cheap clothing, but the market for specialist stuff is good, and that is often cheaper to make locally.
In 2019, approximately 7.1 billion British pounds (GBP) worth of apparel and clothing accessories were exported from the UK
replaced mostly by automotive manufacturing and it's supporting industries. BMW, Michelin, Volvo and Boeing could have opened plants in Detroit but they didn't, mostly because the manufacturing costs would be much higher there. They have the mindset of labor unions and 'closed shops'; we don't.
Unfortunately, that is a somewhat artificial situation created by excessive import taxes on those products, not really a good solution long term. If your production is uncompetitive without the taxes then you are taxing yourself and making the products unaffordable to yourselves!

there are options out there for products assembled in countries other than China assembled from parts "Made in Japan" or South Korea.
Remember than in WWII, it was Japan that occupied China, South Korea, and many other countries, they were the enemy, China was on our side and has never occupied another country. Maybe be a little careful of what you believe from the press, every country has a few problems, the press don't present them all in the same way!
 
The situation here with automotive manufacturing isn't all about import taxes. Part is that we're a big market so it makes sense to avoid shipping costs and build here. Another part is that the vehicles are going to be made somewhere then exported elsewhere, and the US has leverage for making good export deals with most other nations. Similarly we're also making home appliances here. In the investing world these are known as "large durables" where size and weight make local manufacturing more feasible than importing them from long distances does. We're actually beating Chinese prices with the appliances because of that; they can make them cheaper but once shipping costs are added they can't compete, even with them having the most efficient seagoing shipping system in the world.

In my own business of home construction, the work of framing homes was once done with local labor and paid fairly good wages. But there's been an influx of Hispanic labor who are generally not qualified to do high-precision jobs yet, but who frame homes and do drywall work for less than the local crews cost. These are labor-intensive jobs the average person doesn't want. So now there are almost no homes being framed or with drywall hung by SC natives, and those natives who want to remain in the building industry have had to adapt or leave for other fields. Even if my health and age allowed I would not try to compete with them in framing or drywall because the profit margin is small; instead I take advantage of that by giving them that work with me sometimes getting a small margin on top of that. In a generation or two they're going to advance their skills to doing the upscale and precision parts of this work which I now do, and they'll do it cheaper than the natives same as has happened with framing so I no longer recommend that anyone enter my industry because there's now a steadily lowering cap on the possible profits to be made doing this work. And yet one generation before me a local man started by himself what became and was once the second largest construction company in the world. Things change, sometimes drastically, and those who do not adapt to the changes fail.

Refusing to buy from overseas sources is not adapting to the changes. When there's a viable local alternative you use that, but when it loses it's viability you and them both need to change to something more viable or failure will always be the end result for you and them both.

Phil
 
From April 2020 I'm testing LiFePO4 and LTO power bank fully manufactured in the UK, Manufacturer planning to open second manufacturing line in the Germany (there will be stamp "Made in Germany").
I have received two battery versions for testing purposes (based on LTO and LFP Cells).

Power bank will be available in Q1-Q2 2021, manufacturer also declare that the prices will be in around:
£169 for the LiFePO4 (6200mAh@12.8V)
£109
for the extended LiFePO4 (12000mAh@12.8V)
£199
for the LTO version (LTO has lower capacity 4500mAh but battery charging time is just 10minutes!!)

Here is some pictures of the product and specification:

LiFePO4 power bank specs:
- Rated Capacity: 6200mAh@12.8V (measured capacity is 6342mAh with the Viofo A129 DUO 2CH)
- Charging time: 1h 20 minutes via cigar lighter plug
- Compatible with 12V and 24V (works with standard cars and also with lorries, busses)
- low voltage protection cut-off (if input voltage is lower than 12V power bank will stop charging also RED light will appear)
- Battery cycle life 5000+ 80% DOD (13years every day charge / discharge)
- 12V output and ACC +12V (for the dash cams with parking mode)
- Build in 5V efficient step down converter (Monolithic Power Systems from USA) less than 1% energy looses on conversion.
- 10Sec delay start charging (easy to start engine in winter time)
- based on 4 large Lifepo4 Cells (means low risk of damage power bank compared to the Cellink NEO6 which uses 16 cells, if one cell is damaged all power bank is not working completely).
- Full aluminium body
- Extended connection to the another dedicated LiFePO4 battery (extra 12000mAh for less than £109)
- Easy installation with spring connector, no soldering required, no screwdriver, just press orange button and put unshielded cable inside (connector secure wire very well)
- Power bank use smart LTC charging controller (Smart charging chip made in USA)

Safety Features:
- OTP - Over-Temperature Protection (60C or more = STOP charging & RED Light )
- SCP - Short Circuit Protection (RED Light & STOP charging)
- RVP - Reverse Voltage Protection (RED Light & STOP charging)
- OCP - Overcharge Protection (Internal BMS with CV,CC)
- 10sec soft start charging delay
- no fire, no explosion thanks to the LiFePO4 cells (4S)

Dash Cam running times on a single charge (1h:20min):
Viofo A119 V3: 50h
Viofo A129 DUO: 31h
Viofo A129 DUO 4K: 25h
Viofo A129 (1ch): 49h
Blackvue DR750S 2CH: 22h
Blackvue DR900S 2CH: 16h
Thinkware F800 PRO 2CH: 23h (Parking mode: Motion detection)
Thinkware Q800 PRO 2CH: 22h (Parking mode: Motion detection)

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