Dynamo Lights

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moog
Cinq5 news

The usb multimeter arrived, I thought I’d do a test using mains plug before going out on the bike.

Test 1: New RavPower power bank, ‘not working’ cable from previous tests.
- Current draw is 1.5A, as expected this is above the Cinq5 limit and causes it to turn off.
Test 2: New RavPower power bank and ‘working cable’ from previous test.
- Current draw is 0.15A, this shows why these cables are working with the Cinq5 but it also means the power bank / device is getting so little current it would take days and days of riding to charge up.
Test 3: very basic cheap 1200mAh power bank and ‘non working’ cable
- Current draw is 0.9A which would work with the Cinq5.
I’ll do some more tests at the weekend on a ride but for now I’m at a bit of a loss of what to do and think I need to choose one of these options.
1. Find a dongle which acts as a current limiter and stops devices drawing too much current. I don’t know if such a thing actually exists.
2. Buy the power bank that Cake suggested and I know is compatible. Downside is that it’s very expensive compared to other power banks and if I need a replacement when on a tour this could be tricky.
3. Get a new dynamo usb charger. The Cycle2Charge is looking like a good value option at the moment, a bit bulky but I can live with that.

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Grumpy_Git in reply to @moog

Would be interested to know the origin/brand of the different cables.
Usb-c has communication between devices and only pass an agreed current between them. 150mA is the USB3.0 unit load specification so that cable is not to spec and is only allowing the minimum current to pass.
900ma is the USB3.0 high speed limit so there is some sort of communication happening. The 1.5A appears to be handshaking the devices properly as it's allowing the proper USB-C current to pass. This is the cable I would trust with a £500 smart phone.

I'd spend £10 on a decent cable from a reputable brand before binning the cinq and buying new. (Or buy new and post me the cinq to play about with)

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moog in reply to @Grumpy_Git

thanks for the reply and adding some knowledge

I think all of the 150mA cables are very old, one is branded Sony Ericsson so it's probably from a phone I had in 2010.

The cable that came with the RavPower should be fairly good quality, I think the problem lies firmly with the Cinq5's design and the built in current limiter / cut off circuit.

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