- Uses USB to charge up to two pair of rechargeable NiMH batteries. Uses AA Alkaline or NiMH rechargeable batteries
- Provides a whopping 1000mA output
- Regulates output voltage. It has charging circuitry that will not overcharge your rechargeable batteries
- Connects to any USB device cable
The best feature of this charger is that it uses AA batteries. I keep NiMH rechargeables in it. This allows me to use my good charger to maximize battery capacity, but if one of the cells failed while I was out & about, I could put in a set of alkalines. In most of the backup battery units, if a cell fails...you're hosed and have to replace the entire unit. But here you'd just replace the bad cell and be running again. I carry one of these when I travel for work. When out of the office I'm on my iPhone constantly, and always need to re-charge during the day. This allows me to recharge without being tied to a wall or my laptop; perfect in a cab, on a plane, etc.
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I bought this along Sanyo Eneloop batteries, and they works very well as a combo.
Be aware, that cheap batteries will give cheap results. I had other NiMH AA batteries which I used on flashlights and small gadgets, they did were not upto the task when used with this product.
Cheap batteries are good enough for flashlights and even some cameras, but they lose voltage when sustaining a constant discharge for a long time.
A USB port needs to provide 5V with current between 500~1000 mah depending on the device, so many cheap batteries alcaline or NiMH run out quickly before starting to charge to a respectable degree. And sometimes the current draw is to much and they wont hold for more than a few minutes.
If you see 4800 mah or 5000 mah AA batteries, distrust them. They are most of the time counterfeits or cheap low quality chinese batteries. At best 600~900mah, they don't hold their charge well when heavily strained and their voltage is max 1.3V when fully charged. Good NiMH reach a maximum ~1.4V when not on continuous discharge.
The Sanyo Eneloops are rated 1900mah, but deliver like 2000~2100 mah. This japanese batteries deliver more than what they are rated. You will find many literally over-rated chinese batteries, be careful.
This device is a emergency USB charger, is not meant for fully charging any device.
For example:
The 3.7V 1000mah Li-Ion on my hand held camera is charged to 66~80% with 4 Sanyo Eneloops on this device on aprox. 6 hours. Then the sanyo batteries are fully drained. With the result of a little over an one hour of runtime on the charged camera. The usual fully charged runtime is 1 hour and 30~45 minutes depending on various settings.
The more mah the battery of your device require, means more hours and more sets of batteries. So if your device is power hungry, you'll have less talk/filming/music time.
If you power exclusively various USB devices you might prefer buying dedicated USB chargers with integrated Li-ION batteries. If just one USB charged device like an android phone, just by extra dedicated batteries for that device.
I used AA devices and various USB Li-ION powered devices, so this product is a convenient jack of all trades.
A warning related to this device. When it finish charging your device, meaning the AA batteries are depleted, its capacity light go off automatically, do not fall on the trap of turning the switch it off and on again with your device connected. It will start to draw off energy from your device, discharging it. This product is also a USB AA battery charger for AA batteries, when you turn it off/on again after depleting your AA batteries it will try to charge them. This is a convenient feature to charge your AA batteries from your computer or wall-socket adapter. So if your mp1580 is with only one of three capacity lights (33% or less charge) is probably not a good idea to charge a device with it. Because after fully depleting the AA batteries, after a while it still lights up one light after an off/on on the switch. Since that one light means 1-33% which is not helpful.
So after this product shut off automatically after charging a USB powered device, either fully recharge or replace the batteries before trying again to charge a USB powered device. Do not fall on the illusion that you can take extra juice from the depleted batteries. I'm being overly redundant, but is for a good reason.
This issue is my only problem with an otherwise excellent general purpose device.
With the above caveats general use is simple and straight forward. The case is small and reasonably sturdy plastic. Is not meant for high impact, treat it as you would your camera or your smart phone.
In short this product is a convenient general purpose emergency charger for your USB powered devices and USB powered charger for your NiMH AA batteries to charge from your computer or wall socket if you have the wall adapter.
I repeat again if you only want to power USB devices, get a Li-Ion backed powered USB charger, they are bulkier, heavier and more expensive, but they hold charge for more power hungry devices. Some high end models can even recharge your laptop batteries or powered it like if you were had it connected to the wall. Most if not all are chinese, I can not recommend any in specific, I saw some generic no-name which worked well and other which did not.. Most "branded" models seem re-packaged versions.
AS is, I'm satisfied with this particular product.
Update: 2012-08-08
I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S3, which has a 3.8V 7.98Wh battery, With the Sanyo Eneloops this product charges 60% of that battery in 2 hours, while it takes over 6 hours to charge my camcorder 3.7V 3.7Wh battery. This difference obviously has something to do with the internals of each device charging electronics. My camcorder can charge from my PC USB ports, but the S3 can't. The wall charger for the S3 is rated at 1A over USB cable. So it seems that different electronics will give you different results.
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This product is a great idea but sadly the quality of this manufacturer's attempt is lacking.
First, the case is all plastic. The picture looks as though the silver strip might be metal but it isn't. This isn't necessarily all bad but the plastic they used feels very light weight and cheap. It is not solid feeling at all but rather is the kind of chintzy plastic feel you get with stuff that soon breaks from light use.
Second, and most importantly, it does not work with my Android phone. I purchased this for use specifically with one device and it just will not work with that device at all. I'm not sure exactly what is happening but it appears that there might be some type of communication trying to take place which goes wrong somehow and the power pack shuts off and stays off until power is cycled. If the output of the unit is shorted momentarily drawing excessive power it will shut down but then immediately recover as soon as the short is removed. I also measured the current used by my device and it is about 770mA which is well with in range. So the problem is not simply my device trying to draw too much power.
Third, it gets hot and shuts off even when not overloaded. I plugged another device in to the power pack and began to charge it. After a few minutes I noticed the LEDs on the power pack were out again. I switched it off and back on and it started working again but a short time later it did the same thing. I measured the current load of this device and it was around 750mA which again is well within spec. The unit was quite warm to the touch.
I first attempted to use the power pack with some NiMH cells but it seemed to keep shutting off from low battery when it was under load. I then used a set of fresh alkaline cells for all the tests above.
I would really like to find a quality implementation of this idea.
I really need one that works reliably.
-Eric
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I purchased from Amazon the previous version (Tekkeon 1500) some three years ago. Only difference is that my version can produce 800 mah, while Tekkeon 1580 can produce up to 1000 mah. In every other aspect they are identical.
I really love my Tekkeon, its the smartest way to have backup power. As it uses AA batteries, I can swap depleted Nimh batteries for new ones and keep charging USB devices, or I can recharge the batteries I just used from any USB port (from a computer or USB charger).
Tekkeon does what it was designed for but it has some flaws. They can still be found in the MP1580. For me they are minor as I found a solution, and I can still use it. They are:
Tekkeon sometimes shuts off some seconds after I plug my HTC smartphone
I suspect it occurs because the phone draws more power than what the Tekkeon and/or the batteries can withstand.
The solution: I leave the phone idle or even better turn it off so that the phone consumes less power. It will also charge faster and longer. For iphone/ipod users that say Tekkeon only charges 10%: try this method (turn the device off) I'm sure it will charge much more. Also, the phones will draw less power if they have 70% remaining than say, 30% or 10%.
After a few weeks in storage, the device didn't work the batteries were depleted.
As stated in other reviews, Tekkeon consumes a little power even when it is off and no usb device plugged in: With freshly charged eneloops and tekkeon set in the OFF position, after a few weeks (or months, I don't remember) the batteries were completely depleted (their voltage was so low that no smart charger could charge them).
The solution: Either remove the batteries when storing, or put some small paper or plastic between two of the batteries and Tekkeon, so they make no contact. When I un-store it and want to use, I remove the plastic.
And some other tips:
Tekkeon can charge the batteries, but it is a dumb charger: charges in pairs and it has a timer to stop the charge. Because of this, it is best to completely deplete the batteries before charging (batteries that are 3/4 full might get overcharged and shorten its capacity/number of cycles). Or better yet: charge the batteries in a smart charger.
It can provide power from, or charge 2 or 4 AA Nimh batteries, although I strongly recommend to always use it with 4 batteries at the same time, it not only gives you more charging capacity but its better for the batteries.
Also, there are other devices that have the same function and a few more uses, although they are more expensive. They are:
Goal0 11401 Guide 10 with 4 Goal Zero AA Batteries: Same functions, and:
has a led light that can run for 40 hours
can supply usb power while charging AAs (using it in this way will charge AAs way slower)
can charge the batteries faster by plugging it in to the Goal Zero 12301 Nomad 7M Solar Panel
It can only be used with 4 batteries at the same time
Duracell Mobile Charger With 2AA And 2AAA Pre Charged Rechargeable Nimh Batteries, CEF23DX4N same functions as the tekkeon, except it doesnt accept charging AAs from usb.
Can charge AAs from: 12v, 110v or 220v ideal while travelling by car, boat or abroad
Charges faster (as USB charging that the other devices use is limited to 500 mah)
can provide USB power while plugged to 12v, 110v or 220v (but it cant provide USB power and charge AAs at the same time).
It is a smart charger: charges the batteries independently (to their full capacity) and its better for the batteries.
It is way bigger than the Tekkeon or the Goal 10.
This unit uses 4 AA batteries, so you're not going to be using it to charge your iPad or Android tablet with it. You should get about 3-4 cell phone charges and maybe 2 iPod charges using NiCad/NIMH batteries. A couple of nice features about the unit: there is a mini-usb plug next to the standard plug that is used for charging the unit. So if you're already using a USB to mini-USB cable, you can recharge the batteries right in the unit by just reversing the cable and plugging it into a Desktop or Laptop's USB port. There is also a small LED on the back of the unit that shows when the pack is charging and when it is done.
If you combine this item with the Powerfilm Solar Charger, you could go off the grid completely for some of your power needs.
