New Phone, Old Charger/s

 Last year I did a post on my portable power station here (scroll to bottom half of post), and I'm thrilled to report the Yilon AC Charger's USC-C port will fast charge my new Motorola Moto G7 Plus as fast as the charger that came with the phone - full up in ~ 30min. 

 

After waiting 18 months I finally snagged this $325 (original price) phone for $120 unlocked at Best Buys ($65 with an AT&T contract). As it doesn't support CDMA I switched to the virtual carrier RedPocket, which is buying time from T-Mobile, the carrier providing the cell service. My pre-paid (no contract) RedPocket service is unlimited talk, text and 1G of data for ten bucks. Yup, you read that right, $10/mo! I transferred my phone number and while RedPocket warned it would take 2 days to 2 weeks, Verizon had it done in ~ 2 seconds. Nice!

Unfortunately, the LIPO battery-based chargers I bought will NOT fast charge my phone, or anything else, because while they can charge it, they can't speed charge it, so it takes hours. Thus I'm now looking for such a battery-based speed charger. 

You may recall I bought two separate devices is because I want the AC charger to be able to charge all of  the stuff on my bike AND the LIPO charger's battery AT THE SAME TIME, so when I have access to an AC outlet I can charge my devices and my portable charger. This allows me to ride all day if I want with only one AC outlet on hand. 

This Anker 10k MAh Power Bank comes close, but as you can see, it takes over 4hrs to fully recharge. My phone wouldn't take the whole 10k, as its battery is only 3k, but it would probably take 4k (a lossy process) and even if just topping off, this Anker would take over an hour. I'd much rather have a 5k unit that fully recharges in 30 min from the Yilon AC charger I already have, so I will keep looking, but if you're training for a Double Century or a long cross country tour, 10k might be nice, and maybe even something bigger like a 25k MAh. Note that with this Anker you'd need a 3:1 "Y" splitter cable, and 4-5 would be better, for charging low-power bike stuff, saving the C-to-C speed charging port for your phone. Amazon seems to be churning them out like hot cakes.

Just a heads-up. When the sun starts to set and you're still not "there", this stuff all becomes a LOT more important. You need those lights to work all day in Day-Flash mode to keep you safe, at night to see and be seen, and to phone home to give loved ones a new ETA and status report.

NOTE: I originally tried to go with a $15 T-Mobile plan directly (not via RedPocket), made an appointment at the local store, and then sat there for 20 minutes while they fiddled with their system until finally reporting the required website was down and they couldn't do anything useful for me, directing me to the Target store across the parking lot. Driving home I decided there's no point in having local "support" that can't get anything useful done for me, and decided putting in my own SIM card couldn't be THAT difficult. It wasn't. I had to wait 2 days for USPS delivery for the SIM card, but everything went smoothly and RedPocket's online support, which was asked some pointed questions BEFORE buying the service, was pretty good. RedPocket has plans as low as $2.50 a month.

Liars and Lumens

My wife surprised me last week, riding up behind, and then along side me while I was riding home on a major thoroughfare. She was returning from an errand on the other side of town, checked her iPhone to check out my satellite trace on Garmin LiveTrack, and decided to see how much lag that system had.

Once along side, approaching a stoplight, she reported she'd seen my light a couple miles before at some distance, but NOT the new Lezyne StripDrive Pro 300, but the CygoLite Dice TL50 light I have Velcro-ed to the back of my helmet. Imagine my surprise :O

The very next morning I was just starting out and was hailed by a cyclist who complimented my wonderful taillight. I of course started telling him all about the new StripDrive. He stopped me and told me it was the light on my helmet he was responding to. Imagine my chagrin.

The bottom line is this, I have been amazed at how effective the 50 lumen TL50 is, weighing less than 1oz with the Velcro mount, while the "300 lumen" StripDrive has been a poor substitute for the Lezyne Laser Drive it temporarily displaced. Particularly surprising because the lens on the TL50 spreads its light out horizontally, so it can be seen from extreme off-angles, or when you turn your head and it's mounted on your helmet. This weakens the beam from any given vantage point to achieve a wide field of view. 

Disappointed with the battery-life of my Lezyne Laser Drive taillight in DayFlash mode, I bought the Lezyne StripDrive for its 5hr battery-life in that mode. Rated 300 lumens, vs 250 lumens for the Laser Drive, it should be brighter. In fact, it's nowhere near as bright. I assume for 1-2 nanoseconds one of the StripDrive's LEDs is pushed to 300 lumens (by some mathematical calculation) but to the human eye, the (duration * intensity) is somewhat less than the Laser Drive's 125 lumen mode, which is once again my go-to light. Sometimes though I want its full 250 lumens, even though it shortens battery life to just over 2:30hrs - despite the nonsense on Lezyne's website.

I've found a solution to the problem of lights and phones running low though, I carry a small LIPO battery powered USB charger and a 3-way split chord in my saddle bag (two for $9), or if I have lights and the USB charger to charge up AT THE SAME TIME, I have found a small, lightweight USB charger with a USB-C port to charge the LIPO battery, and a USB-A for the 3-way splitter to charge my lights & phone. There are combined devices, BUT, they can either do something useful for you, OR, charge their own battery. I wanted to do both at the same time, so WA-LA.

They stack like chord-wood

Folding plug's a big plus for stowing

AtTom 3,000 mAh charger is slimmer than my phone

AtTom charger. Who is Tom anyway?

Amazon marvel. They're the Radio Shack of today

Center cable is data + pwr. L & R just pwr

The Yilon AC charger will charge up an iPhone and iPad at the same time with just a bit of warming. It will charge my headlight, taillights, phone and AtTom without breaking a sweat. You probably can't weld with it, but who cares. Either charger will charge up the Lezyne Laser Drive in 45 minutes, about the time you need to regroup at the 100km point on a Century ride.

If you wake up raring to go and find you forgot to charge your phone, you can head out the door and AtTom will charge it while you ride. Nice. These things are really cheap at Amazon Shack. You might want a USB-C to micro-USB cable as well so Yilon can push power to AtTom. Something short and distinctive you can find back in dim light. Oh, I should warn you off the Nekmit USB chargers - they're HUGE. The pics on Amazon are very deceptive.

So, now you can start your own mini power grid and you don't need to mess with FERC. With social distancing putting a damper on being indoors, plugged into a donor AC outlet, having the LIPO-based charger is a game changer. The Yilon might make you a Starbucks hero and even get you laid! Happy days!