A Geek Goes Flying

Hooked an iPhone 12 Pro up to an Anker PowerCore Fusion 10000 via an Anker USB-C to Lightning cable (through a Klein ET920 to measure performance). Started with the phone reporting 23% battery charge (the phone is about a year old and iOS reports the battery has degraded to 85% of its original capacity). The phone was kept on but unused, screen off, all radios (cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth) hot. The Anker charged the iPhone at about 18W (~9V ~2A) and after about 50 minutes, the phone is reporting 88% charge, charging has slowed to 5W (5V 1A) if not lower (I’m often seeing, e.g., 5.08V at 0.55A, about 2.8W), and 6 of the 8 “charge status” lights on the Anker remain illuminated. I can definitely live with those numbers. It took about another hour, and one more “dot” on the Anker, to bring the phone all the way up to 100% charge reported. The Klein logged 1343 mAh, and 9.925 Wh, of power transmission. The stock iPhone 12 Pro battery is a 10.78 Wh unit, probably closer to 9.2 Wh now. If 9....

Klein measuring MacBook charging from Anker battery I picked up a cheap “early 2015” MacBook 12" . It came with a 29W USB-C charger that, according to a Klein ET920 , is currently pumping out around 14.67V at 1.87A ( the specs say either 5.2V2.4A or 14.5V2.0A; nothing’s perfect). The internal battery is degraded a bit, as you’d expect from a 7 year old set of cells with hundreds of cycles. Current capacity, according to coconutBattery, is about 4200 mAh @ 7.55 V, or 31.7 Wh ( (mAh)*(V)/1000 = (Wh) ). I thought the PowerCore Fusion 10000 would be a great on the go companion to the MacBook. It turns out, it’s just okay. (For this purpose. As a super-convenient charger + battery pack in one, it’s a great device!) On paper, at first glance, it seemed like it would fit the bill. 10,000 mAh of capacity should (even with power loss through conversion, etc) be enough to recharge a 5260 mAh MacBook battery fully, and the 20W output should be enough to allow light use and simultaneous cha...