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British Forum => Technical Support => Topic started by: SimonM on June 07, 2019, 04:17:59 pm

Title: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on June 07, 2019, 04:17:59 pm
I've just purchased an Anker powercore 20100 and fully charged it. When I plug it in and boot the PAW it gets to the stage whereby the wifi is detectable and connectable but then shuts down.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

For clarity, the PAW powers up fine with my Poweradd battery pack so it's not a PAW problem.

Mods, if this is in the wrong forum please feel free to move it.
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Admin on June 07, 2019, 06:28:18 pm
Hi Simon,
we have worryingly heard a few reports about this powerpack just recently - we think they have changed the design
can you try the supplied cable, users have reported success using that
I have a suspicion they have put some sensing login in the cable

please report your findings back to us
Thx
Lee
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on June 07, 2019, 07:16:13 pm
Hi Lee,
Thanks for the tip and worryingly it seems to have resolved the issue. I say worryingly as it means that I am tied to using a short lead that should it get damaged, will render the battery pack unusable for the RPi.
Simon
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Keithvinning on June 07, 2019, 07:27:58 pm
Hi Simon

One workaround is to add another load on the second port. This shows that it is the Anker being too smart and allows you to use the longer lead.

Keith
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on June 07, 2019, 07:31:36 pm
Thanks Keith, I'll give it a try and get back to you.

Simon
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on June 07, 2019, 07:57:33 pm
Hi Simon

One workaround is to add another load on the second port. This shows that it is the Anker being too smart and allows you to use the longer lead.

Keith

Yes this works too, although not really an ideal work around having additional load on the battery reducing run time.
I have sent an initial message to Anker support and will report my findings to them once a reply has been received.
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: jamespratt on June 09, 2019, 12:28:24 am
Hi,

 I have the same problem - a recently purchased anker 20100 which swtitches off after about 20 seconds. It doesnt work with either the supplied Anker USB cable or the 20Wg cable I have been using up to now. When a 2nd load is plugged in (eg charging my ipad) it stays on, so looks like a load sensing issue.

Is there any point in keeping the 20100 or should I send it back (if I can)?

It would be worth ammending the power supply info as soon as poss to stop other people buying a power supply that won't work.

Any problems with other Anker power packs?
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Paul_Sengupta on June 10, 2019, 02:24:42 pm
If it works properly with both the Pi and tablet plugged in, happy days! A charge normally lasts about 18 hours anyway for just the PAW, so plugging in one's phone or tablet should still get you a fairly good "range".
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Keithvinning on June 12, 2019, 02:50:38 pm
When we first recommended the ANKER 20100 it was perfect as were all ANKER products. However, we heard about this a couple of weeks ago. It seems to be that the 20100 is getting too clever and assumes that the device is fully charged because it isn't drawing enough current.

I immediately bought another 20100 (1 have 3) from Amazon but it didn't show the problem. I have lots of other smaller ANKER units including the smaller snickers bar sized one which works great. The problem is that we have no control over ANKER products.

Anyone listening in please let us know which ones work for you ANKER or otherwise. I will remove the 20100 from the recommended list

Keith
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Ian Melville on June 12, 2019, 03:22:00 pm
Is there an identifying model number on these units. If so then we can specify that to buy or to avoid?

I am assuming the product name is PowerCore 20100, not 21000? Not sure if it is good or bad but A1271 is one of the models.
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Keithvinning on June 12, 2019, 04:35:13 pm
My Original 20100 units are model no A1271 and the latest one bought last week from Amazon is also an A1271 so no clue there

Regards

Keith
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on June 12, 2019, 05:12:19 pm
I'm still in communication with Anker Re. the 20100...here's the latest response....
Quote
Nice to hear from you again.

Please note the minimum current requirement (the lowest amount of power that a device needs to draw from the battery to make it not shut off) of this battery is about 50mA. If your device (like ipod classic) draws a power lower than 50mA, this battery will shut off.

As far as I know, we haven't changed this current requirement. Please let us know the exact model of your Raspberry Pi and inform us the current and voltage of the mainboard.

We also have batteries which could charge small current devices like PowerCore 10000 Redux as below:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DDF8CNK

Please hold down the button until the last LED indicator turns green to enter trickle charging mode to charge small current devices.

Isn't the current required about 2.1amps for the RPi at 5V?
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: JCurtis on June 12, 2019, 05:59:21 pm
A Pi won't draw less than a 100ma but it will vary quite a bit during power up.  In any case detection at 50ma is quite high.  It also seems to be a combined minimum over all the ports on the Anker, as plugging in something into another port will wake them all, is that right?

My chargers/supplies have a threshold of 200uA (0.2ma) to wake any given port, likewise a short or fault on one port will not impact any other port.  I wonder if they actually mean 50uA but got the units mixed up?

I wonder what they have changed internally?

Out of interest, this is a snippet I took ages ago of a PAW unit, the power consumption is not at all smooth at all - there are loads of transients.  The peak now will be higher than this shows, but I haven't done a new one as I don't have Rosetta available.  My meter will do 50k samples a second, and is calibrated.

Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Keithvinning on June 12, 2019, 08:15:22 pm
 
Quote
It also seems to be a combined minimum over all the ports on the Anker, as plugging in something into another port will wake them all, is that right?

Hi J

Yes that is correct one user has used an EBAY sourced MOOD LED to give a quiescent load which seemed to work

Thanks for your help on this

K
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on June 12, 2019, 10:20:58 pm
Just a wondering.... what would be the effect If i changed the wifi setting from 50mW to 100mW? Would it increase range and heat as well as a slight increase in current?
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Keithvinning on June 14, 2019, 10:48:48 pm
Give it a try and let us know

Keith
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: jamespratt on June 29, 2019, 11:48:26 am
This problem seems to have been sorted out (at least for me) by the new software update. I bought a 20100 a few weeks ago and it turned off after a few mins, even using the cable it came with. An additional load (charging my ipad) kept it on, but not a practical solution.

It now stays on and I can use any suitable 20swg cable, not just the anker one.  (I have a classic updated to rosetta, using a pi2b, wifi power is set at 20).  :)
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: GeoffP on July 09, 2019, 07:19:02 pm
I had the same problem with a new 20100. It would turn off after a few seconds, presumably because the Rosetta was just thinking about firing up? The latest software made no difference.
So I followed one of the suggestions above and bought a USB LED light, in fact I bought 3 from ebay for less than £3. Only 1.2W so very little impact on battery life.
This is a clumsy fix but it's cheap and it works
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on July 09, 2019, 10:41:22 pm
My issue may be sorted (fingers crossed) since installing the new update but only if I use the lead that came with the Anker. The Juicebitz leads show throttling on the home page. I had previously tried upping the network settings but that just increased any throttling issues.
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Admin on July 10, 2019, 07:48:10 am
I have tried logging an issue with anker, but cannot seem to get past the forum gatekeeper
Who say no problem, nothing has changed ...
Thx
Lee
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Benpamp on July 12, 2019, 08:59:29 am
I too have had similar issues and thanks to Keith have used the work around. I've requested a replacement from Anker via their Amazon address but no reply.
SimonM, which address did you use to get a response?
Thanks
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: SimonM on July 12, 2019, 09:15:54 am
I used support@anker.com.

The last email I sent them was...
Quote
I am using the Raspberry Pi 3B that uses 5.1V and won't draw less than 100mA even during power up where there is some fluctuation of power required. The maximum required is 2.5A.

and the response I had from them was ...

Quote
Thanks for your information.

The output power of the Power core 20100 is: two Smart USB ports:4.8A max (2.4A per port). In this case, we are unsure if this battery is compatible with your Raspberry Pi 3B or not. I will forward this case to our product manager for further check.

May I know if you can keep this battery as it charges your phone well? If not, you can return it to Amazon for a refund since your order is still under Amazon's 30 days return window.

I didn't want to return it so did not reply. I have heard nothing from the product manager.
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Admin on July 12, 2019, 11:58:54 am
We have stopped recommending the 20100 in our documentation since the change
the current sensor is clearly different to the previous version
Getting through Anker support has also proven difficult for me

thx
Lee
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Benpamp on July 12, 2019, 04:45:34 pm
Might be worth letting Anker know you're doing this as they'll be loosing a valuable free advert and hopefully kick them into some action,
Cheers.
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: TimT on July 22, 2019, 05:45:46 pm
I bought the Anker Powercore 20100 end of April 2019 from Amazon (in California, USA). I connect the Rosetta via a Raysun 90 deg Micro USB Male to USB 2.0 A Male short cable (also available form Amazon).

It works 100% without any problems. The 20100 comes alive immediately when I put the USB connector in, even if no other consumer is connected to the power bank.

The width of the 20100 is equal to the width of Rosetta. And the length of the Rosetta (overall incl aerials) is about the same as the power bank. I taped the Rosetta on top of the power bank, with the aerials at the same side as the status LED's of the 20100 (status LED's hence visible at all times). I couldn't think of an aesthetically or practically more pleasing solution.
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: Admin on July 22, 2019, 06:35:35 pm
It seems not all Anker 20100 are equal.
This issue started occuring very recently, clearly a design change, but they are not too forthcoming with what that is

Thx
Lee
Title: Re: Anker powercore 20100 problem?
Post by: JCurtis on July 22, 2019, 06:43:22 pm
Worth noting that the supply chain could have a mix of old and new stock, stuff could have been sitting on a shelf for a while in some areas.

As for the change, the base design may be the same, could just be the recent (and ongoing) worldwide component shortages have led to a tweak that is causing problems.

I'm still quoted lead times like 34 weeks for basic passive components, whilst the same headline value may be available elsewhere when you check the details they don't behave in the same way.  Even the huge consumers of such components are having to buy stock up to a year in advance to secure stocks.