I have a very similar Anker battery pack and that’s exactly right, I plug the usb-C cable into the battery pack and into my laptop and it charges! This one gives me almost 1 full laptop charge when the battery pack is fully charged. It’s been very good for travelling, and works with my Samsung Note20 as well 
I’m struggling to get my RAVPower PD Pioneer power bank to play ball. It can output up to 60w, but when I plug it in, the laptop starts charging the power bank! Any ideas? I’ve tried various combinations of cable and pushing the button on the power bank, to no avail.
Mine does this if the laptop is hibernating, I have to activate it (it’s a button press to do the ~87W) while the laptop is on, or the laptop charges the bank and it refuses to go the other way, so maybe try it with the laptop on and awake.
@behuk
After some research, I was thinking of purchasing the Storm 2
Its has all the bells and whistles one could ask for: Nice design, USB-C1 100 W, DC up to 75 W, adjustable voltage and power control, can charge and be charged at the same time etc…
Yet on their Kickstarter campaign ( April 2021)
The comments range from “have yet to receive mine”, “received mine but there’s some strange noises”, “So far so good I love this unit”.
All of this made me reluctant to purchase one…
If anyone on the forum has one please post some feedback, I shall do the same if I end up getting one 
2 Likes
That’s gorgeous. Although If I ever had to get it out on the tube it’d clear the carriage pretty quick. 
This article from the Wirecutter recommends a few ZMI battery packs because they can also be used as hubs.
1 Like
Just checked them out, they look really nice, unfortunately, their highest output model only delivers 60W. I believe Framework needs 65W
I have used a 30 watt MacBook Air charger to power and charge my Framework while using it.
Anything lower I’ve tried will boost the charge when off, but is not suited for using it.
I picked up the ZMI PowerPack 20K Pro (from the Wirecutter article). It works great with the framework. It’s totally fine that it’s “only” 60 watts (for this use case 60 watts is overkill)
The laptop uses less than 30 watts. When you plug it in, the laptop powers itself first (and any extra power goes to charge the battery). So you could get by with any power bank that outputs 30 watts or more. (as far as I know)
2 Likes
I’ve found anything from 16W output up will charge a Framework (especially when switched off). It’s just down to how fast you want it to charge.
16W alone will hold a charge when idle. I’m using a Anker 30W charger in my laptop bag and that will hold the charge when under full load.
Don’t worry too much about the 65W thing.
The official Framework power adapter is 60W.
An FYI. I have an “Egoway” 100w powerbank with USB-C PD output and when I used it with my Framework, it did work to get it charged up - but the powerbank got HOT, so I won’t be doing that again!
I have the Anker PowerCore and it seems to work pretty well. It has 45w power delivery which isn’t as much as the wall plug, but is still pretty good for a battery pack.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XRJZXKY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Pricey, but it supports charging my framwork over the USB-c port and even while actively using the laptop it was still charging the battery. Only thing to watch out for is that you need a proper cable. The one that comes with it works, but some of my other cables didn’t work right. Also, the laptop thinks its plugged in so I had mine set to run in full power mode by default when connected, which drained battery faster than in “battery” mode. So manually changing power settings is required to get getter battery life.
2 Likes
For those with these high wattage external batteries, are you able to run the laptop purely off the external battery with the internal disconnected? I’ve seen conflicting reports accross the community wrt how much power the laptop really draws, so I’m curious if, for example, the 45w batteries can power the laptop given the right bios configuration.
For more context, I plan on using an external battery to power the mainboard by itself, for use in projects much like you can do with a raspi. I was origanally planning to adapt a 6s LiPO to usb-c using some sort of Xt60-usbcPD trigger board (which itself is a neat expansion card idea), but it looks like the batteries in this thread may be more economical (and also significantly safer for both me and the mainboard).
https://community.frame.work/t/can-you-remove-the-top-screen/4372/10
if you run the system without a battery on a small charger, like a 45W charger you may see significant throttling, or will not be able to support multiple power hungry type-c devices and the system will shut down.
https://community.frame.work/t/can-the-motherboard-run-without-display-battery/1443/2
To get the best performance in that mode, you’ll want a higher wattage power adapter (100W if possible).
This was on sale recently:
GOLABS R500 Portable Power Station, 518Wh Outdoor Solar Generator LiFePO4 Battery Backup with 500W Pure Sine Wave AC Outlet, PD 100W USB C Quick Charge for CPAP Camping RV Travel Emergency Orange : Amazon.ca: Patio, Lawn & Garden
“Portable” is relative…
Would this power bank work?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MBQS368?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
Doubtful. 10 000mAh is not a lot these days, and there’s no mention of USB PD, which would allow higher power delivery.
They mention 3A (current delivery) but nothing about USB PD, meaning it’s the default 5V. 5V @ 3A = 15W. This would function as a 15W charger - if the laptop was operating, it’s not enough to operate and charge and the laptop battery might barely hold its charge level at best. If the laptop was off, it might charge the battery very slowly, but it would deplete itself before it would have any meaningful impact on the laptop battery charge.
An external battery pack will need to be very high capacity, USB PD capable. 30W+ would work. Unfortunately that’s going to be expensive.
2 Likes
Sorry if I’m repeating what’s already been shared (I skimmed and didn’t see it in this thread, but it may be somewhere else), but I backed a couple of products from Zendure on Kickstarter over the years, one of them being their SuperTank Pro:
SuperTank Pro 26800mAh 100WPD Portable Power Bank – Zendure
I’m a Canadian, living in Australia, and I have family in Portugal, so travel adapters are huge for me, and I was looking for a way to reduce the amount of cables and crap that I travel with. Between the SuperTanks, the Passport adapters, and the SuperPort, I’m super set up for power that travels super easy. Also, so long as my laptop charges with USB-C (or I can use an adapter), then the SuperTank (and Pro, I have both) easily powers my laptop for when I’m working out of the office or away from home.
1 Like
Does the charge status related pixels on the OLED display get burn-ins over time?
Sony had a few minidisc units that used OLED displays…and their charge status indicator area get burn-ins (out) sooner than other pixels.