Break science with this one weird trick

Fire hazard speed run

129

I don't think it would it be too bad since it'd have a current limiter would it?

16
- It will only charge as fast as the output of the power bank.
  
  26
- this assumes it's not a dogshit quality power bank
  
  5
- i have a similar one and its shoddy enough that i wouldnt bet on it.
  
  1
Just don't let a dog do a bad chew.

8

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/work-and-energy/work-and-energy-tutorial/a/what-is-conservation-of-energy

Jokes aside, this is something an astonishing number of folks know less than nothing about.

102

Are you claiming to refute the hard evidence OP has presented?

65
- He's saying if you plug the charger in it can transmute the energy into work, meaning when you exit the room you may come back to finding it sitting on the counter unplugged. As your partner wouldnt have wanted it to put a hole in the roof so they unplugged it and put it on the counter.
  
  6
Lisa!

In this house we obey the laws of THERMODYNAMICS!!

57

AFAIK, those things estimate charge based on voltage. If a battery heats up, it’ll have higher voltage. Not necessarily for a good reason…

100

No.

He broke science.

56
- So did that dog chewing through one of these in the other post recently, subsequently broke the mattress and house apparently, haha
  
  4
Is that why they're so inaccurate that they always die around 20-30% and never charge to 100%? I figure that phone battery meters are accurate cause they can track usage habits, but how would you do something like that with a power bank?

5
- Yep. State of charge is almost entirely voltage based.
  
  As a battery loses charge, the voltage sags.
  
  What's happening in the OP is that the batteries are getting a voltage bump, likely from the conversion to/from 5v on the output and the conversion back to battery charging voltage on the input (or the thermal/internal resistance is changing).... One of those things.
  
  Either way, the conversions are not 100% efficient, so basically all this does is turn your battery bank into a heater, slowly sapping the power away from it as heat until dead.
  
  With phones, it can also be battery degradation, that the voltage drops off at a higher "state of charge" level than when the battery is new.
  
  Voltage sags can also be induced by load. If you go from a high drain state on your phone to a low drain state (say, going from playing a 3D mobile app to idling at the lock screen) the state of charge % can actually increase.
  
  Cold temperatures can also increase the internal resistance and cause batteries that are not fully discharged to stop operating as well, only to work again after being warmed up.
  
  Current battery tech is wild, and the state of charge indicator of voltage can be extremely inaccurate.
  
  4
- Pretty much, yeah. https://www.scienceabc.com/innovation/what-are-the-different-methods-to-estimate-the-state-of-charge-of-batteries.html
  
  1

My powerbank just detects that it is connected to itself and does jackshit.

62

Just buy another one and plug them into a ring.

17
- Just like at work: Forward office calls to your mobile. Forward mobile calls to your office phone.
  
  Get your work done until everybody finds out and starts wasting your time again 😂
  
  15
I wonder by what method it does that? put out a pulse code on the power out and look for it? Some USB cables don't actually carry the data lines through, so.

14
- I imagine plugging a powerbank into itself just causes a short circuit. Detecting that isn't the most uncommon thing fafaik.
  
  15
- Something something ground loop detection, maybe.
  
  11
- You either have a ping before connecting and if you get a response don't do it. Or you send some high frequency wave additionally to the power. You can detect that signal and then stop accepting the power.
  
  Basically like ethernet over powerlines work.
  
  5
- Probably just sends a number as data, and if it gets it back then doesn't charge.
  
  You're right that some cables don't carry data, but most do and as long as the cable that comes with it does then it's going to be fine for 99% of cases.
  
  There'll often be a way to break it like going through a USB hub, but most people aren't actively trying to damage things. I can see people wrapping the cable around it and plugging both ends in to stop them flapping about though.
  
  1
Big oil strikes again!!

8

Firefighters hate this one easy trick!

54

DON'T DO THIS. i did that by mistake once and it grilled my powerbank. was completely broken after. this is beyond stupid.

51

What's stupid is buying cheap AliExpress power banks that don't mitigate this situation safely, and instead simply explode, burning your house down...

32
- They are cheap and if you don't need an expensive product, they are mostly fine, but I got a free powerbank with some crappy teen magazine (when I still ocasionaly read those ad filled pieces of shit) and it died on the second charge.
  
  -3
Assuming it was either 15 years ago or your powerbank is a budget one.

My powerbank would just flip me off and tell me to go fuck myself if I did plug it into itself.

(seriously tho, it would just cut power and turn off immediately. If your powerbank doesn't do at least that, then discard it and get another one with more advanced protection features)

28
- was around 10 years and Anker
  
  7
Just put it in the microwave to super charge it smh.

11
- Nail it to the side of your house, in the sunlight, for a totally free charge from the sun
  
  8
the hazards of perpetual energy

5

[The Free-Energy Trick Big Companies Don't Want You To Know]

33

I once charged my phone by holding it over an induction cooktop. Only for a couple of seconds though as I was afraid to fry my phone, but it did it over 40cm

20

That's actually kind of valid. Though, the induced voltage might be a lot more than phones can typically handle via wireless charging.

Not recommended, however, induction cooktops and wireless charging are the same underlying technology.

I wouldn't gamble that the phone has sufficient over voltage protections on the wireless charging to survive. YMMV.

7
- Yeah, I had the exact same thoughts about the risk to the phone, but curiosity got the best of me. The phone worked fine for several years afterwards so no harm done.
  
  2
I always wondered what would happen…

3
- You're welcome, now you don't need to risk your own phone in order to know :p
  
  3

You shouldn't charge a battery pack at the same time you're discharging it unless it's specifically designed to allow that. Most consumer power banks are not designed to do that.

It's doubly stupid to charge it from itself.

19

I once did that with a Samsung powerbank I have. Daisy chained the powerbank to charge itself and a phone in sequence.

The only thing that failed afterwards was one of the cables, but suffering a loss was definitely the reason I didn't attempt to do that again.

4
Seat's taken

1

I used to take those 9-volt battery connectors, wire them up together and then recharge a dead 9-volt with a brand new one until the tester strip thing showed they were both even. Surprised they never popped because they would get really hot lol

18

My dad used to recharge alkaline batteries with a special charger, but that was quite useless

4
- Those chargers are really dangerous. It is technically possible to recharge a disposable alkaline battery a few times, but you're never going to get more than a half charge, and it will fuck up the internal chemistry turning each battery into a tiny potential pipe bomb.
  
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