this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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By chance, do the numbers seem a bit off to anybody else? From what I understand, the battery capacity is 5,000 or 10,000 mAh, but yet it's only being rated for 3,500 and 6,500 mAh. I heard the bottom 5% is being reserved for the mesh node itself, but that should mean the rating should be for 4,750 and 9,500 mAh.
I think they just messed up the units, 6.5Ah * 5V = 32.5Wh which seems reasonable from the 38.7Wh battery, as that's a total of 84% efficiency which is pretty typical for a power bank.
So it should say rated capacity = 32.5Wh.
Most battery banks advertise their raw cell Ah/mAh ratings, which of course isn't the effective Ah at 5V. It seems like Heltec tried listing both ratings here.
Yeah it seems like it. Cell capacity is fine in mAh but output energy should always be Wh
It seems those ratings are the internal battery size at 3.7v, and then the 6,500mAh is the actual capacity at 5V.
Well, your phone needs at least 5 volts. So it sounds to me as though if you're using the node, then it can take advantage of the entire battery. But if you're using it to charge your phone, you can only take advantage of like 70% of the battery.
I don't know, I personally saw it as dodgy marketing honestly.
That's the standard - listing the raw cell Ah - and it always has been dodgy. I guess in this context ironically it seems more dodgy because they also list the effective capacity. :D
Yeah, that's kind of what it seems like to me as well.
I think their marketing just screwed up, they're supposed to rate output in Wh, not Ah.