Anyone test external Laptop Battery packs yet?

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Mine hasn’t. That said, it arrived during one of our many covid lockdowns when I was living in Melbourne, and I’ve since gone fully remote for work, plus haven’t left the country either… so it hasn’t gotten the workload I was expecting it would. I use it a few times a month now, say when I go to the city for work or for a weekend, or just generally at home if I’m sitting too far from a power outlet and I want to charge my laptop or my phone. :crazy_face:

Actually, I did use it daily for 2 weeks when I was on scout jamboree (I used to be a leader), so it has had some spells of consistent use.

Sorry I know that’s not super helpful!

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I was able to run mine using this one, but never disconnected the battery. It would power the laptop for a good 3-4 hours full throttle, no settings change from regular desktop usage. But I only use it for development, not gaming or video rendering.

Recently I bought an external portable power bank - OmniCharge - Omni 20+ 220v - Basic. I guess this website and the 220v model are useful for the countries in Europe. In general, the website https://omnicharge.co can be useful to find your preferred model.

The power bank can connect with solar panels as input. In my use case, I want to supply electricity to not only a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, but also other electronic devices. So, I bought this model. For a supply from the power bank to the Framework Laptop, my Framework Laptop can charge 90% (I am limiting the charge limit as 90% in the BIOS) from 10 or 20%.

The Omini 20+ 220v has both 100W AC and 60W USB-C as output to supply the electricity to the laptop. However, I couldn’t charge the electricity from the 60W USB-C. I was able to charge it from the 100W AC. The weight is 611g. A bit heavy to carry it in the bag.

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My Mophie Powerstation that charges my Flow X13 doesn’t seem to work with my Framework. Need to try different cables before I say for sure, but I’m docked most of the time so the opportunity doesn’t come up very often.

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Hi, if you use this powerbank, how much more battery life can it provide to framework laptop? You are using Linux right?

I didn’t check carefully it. Sorry if my info was wrong. In my experience, the power bank can provide more than 80% of the full battery. Yes, I am using Fedora Linux 36 right now. That means I use the power bank with the 10% battery, then I connected to the power bank, and continued to use the laptop, and I saw it reached from 10% to 90% (I am limiting the maximum battery to 90% on BIOS). And then I saw the power bank is almost empty. So, the power bank can provide 90% - 10% = 80%. But I am using the 2 USB-C, 1 USB-A, and 256 GB disk expansion cards. That means my Framework consumes electricity more than the case of the 4 USB-C expansion cards.

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On the official power bank page, it says the power bank can charge a 15-inch laptop up to 1 charge. I assume it means up to one full charge.

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Thanks for your info.

I am thinking, if designing an efficient motherboard is so hard for Framework so far,
I hope they can build a new bottom frame, which is compatible to current one, but much thicker to fit a much larger battery in it to extend battery life to 20 hours.
Then most of people would be happy :joy:

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Wait what? People want a powerful machine… and then complain about it needing a lot of power.

Well it shouldn’t be a surprise that powerful hardware needs a lot of energy.

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