USB power banks are very popular these days because they are a convenient, pocket-sized
portable way to power or recharge your mobile devices.
But the basic concept of a portable, pocket-sized, rechargeable power bank has been around a
lot longer than you might think, because here I have the 1980s equivalent to a USB power
bank: It's the RCA Pocket Power Pack.
Obviously USB didn't exist back then, so what do you think is the next most common way of
powering mobile devices?
Yes, the cigarette lighter outlet, or what is now better known as simply a 12-volt power
outlet.
It has a connector like this, which you can plug into your car, or into this portable
power bank.
And there you have it: 12 volts DC, coming out of this pocket power pack from RCA.
And you can use it just like a modern power bank, with one of these cigarette lighter
to USB adapters.
So, I'll plug in my USB cable going to my tablet, I'll plug that into the power pack,
and now it's charging.
It has a shoulder strap attached, for a handy way of carrying it around, or on the back
it has a belt clip.
But that belt better be securely fastened to your waist, otherwise if you put this thing
on it, you're gonna be sagging like a 1990s skater.
That's because it tips the scales at almost 2 pounds (0.9 kg).
But if you're thinking this contains lithium-ion cells, Pfft!
No, this uses the real stuff: nickel cadmium batteries.
It's the model AV020 from RCA, nominal rating 12 volts, 2.2 amp-hours.
Maximum power output 36 watts, or 3 amps.
And as indicated here, it has LEDs to tell you what's going on: the green LED on under
load indicates the battery is discharging.
If the green LED goes off when it's under load, that means the battery needs to be recharged.
And if the red LED is on, that means the battery is charging.
And there are those red and green LEDs.
And just like USB power banks where you use the same port for charging and output, the
same is true here.
You charge it with one of these.
This one is not RCA-branded, but it's pretty much the same thing: it's the Ni-Pak charger,
from Port Orange, Florida.
It puts out 14.7 volts DC at 5.9 watts, through a cigarette lighter-style plug.
You just plug that in, you plug this into the wall, and you charge your power bank.
Like that... and now you see the red LED is illuminated, indicating it is charging.
And since it uses nicad cells, they typically take around 12 to 14 hours to charge.
So RCA said to charge it overnight, and that's the most convenient way to do it.
As for exactly how old this thing is, I don't know.
I found a reference to a newer model, the AV046, with more rounded styling and a higher-capacity
output of 4.5 amp-hours being on the market in 1989.
So this is some time older than that, maybe 1987, perhaps?
Which would make it 35 years old.
So what do you think the chances are of the 35-year-old nicad batteries in this still
working?
To test it, I have a Quartz Fire 42-watt, 12-volt halogen work light.
This is basically a low-beam headlamp bulb in a portable package with a cigarette-lighter
style plug.
To figure out how much current that 42-watt light bulb is going to be drawing from the
battery pack, let's have some pie.
Power in watts equals intensity, or current in amps, times electromotive force in volts.
So we know it's a 42-watt light bulb.
We don't know the current, so I'll put an X there, and we know it's 12 volts.
So if we divide by 12, we can figure out how much current it's going to be drawing in amps.
So 42 divided by 12 is 3.5 amps.
That's actually above this thing's maximum rated power output of 3 amps, or 36 watts.
So we're really gonna be putting this pocket power pack to the test.
Now I have it plugged into the pocket power pack, and I'll switch it on.
And nada!
It's working.
The green LED is illuminated, and it's putting out copious amounts of light.
And there we have some tests subjects illuminated by a 35 or so-year-old pocket power pack from
RCA, containing nickel cadmium batteries.
Now I don't want to run this too long at more than its maximum rated current capacity, plus
it's not very entertaining just looking at a light bulb.
So how about using it to power a radio?
This radio runs on 12 volts DC, and at a decently loud volume level it draws about 200 milliamps.
So I have it connected to the pocket power pack and I'll turn it on.
"Looks like rain for New Year's Eve, a daytime high of 54, maybe around 50 at midnight in
Times Square.
Accuweather will have four-day forecast in two minutes.
I'm Donna Vaughan, WINS news time at the tone 9:30.
*Beep* Good evening, I'm Suzanne Colucci.
After an epic meltdown that stranded 15,000 travelers in the past week, Southwest Airlines
says it expects to have normal service tomorrow.
This comes with another holiday weekend and many still stuck from..."
So yes, it does work to power a radio.
Now how about a television?
This little LCD TV runs on 12 volts DC, and draws right around 1 amp when using its built-in
digital tuner.
So I'll plug it into the pocket power pack, and the red standby indicator came on.
Now let me turn on the power, and that LED illuminated and the TV is turning on.
"...always obviously is seaweed, and I know you're a fan of both."
"I am a big fan of both.
And as you probably know, Japanese food has always been very popular."
And we're watching TV, on the 35-year-old or so RCA pocket power pack.
Another common use of a power bank today is to recharge another mobile device.
Which is sort of like pouring water from one bucket into another and spilling some of it
on the ground, because obviously there is some loss involved in that process.
But if you really can't live without your smartphone, being able to add some charge
to it is better than not being able to charge it at all.
And of course we can do that with the RCA pocket power pack too.
In this case I'm going to try using it to charge this 12-volt gel cell battery.
But to make things more interesting, I actually just charged this on a separate charger.
And this actually has a higher capacity than the power pack.
This puts out 5 amp-hours, or at least it did when it was new.
This is probably at least 20 years old.
It did add some water to it not too long ago to try to rejuvenate it, but it's still an
old battery -- just not as old as the power pack.
So the thing I'm curious to see is, will the power pack end up charging the gel cell battery,
or will the gel cell battery end up charging the power pack?
This is sort of like putting a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same room and seeing
which one wins.
Now I'm going to complete the connection, and we'll see which LED illuminates: if the
green one illuminates, that means this power pack is charging the gel cell battery, and
if the red LED illuminates, that means the gel cell battery is recharging the power pack.
And if neither illuminates, I guess it's a draw.
So here we go.
Aha!
Green LED.
so the power pack is actually charging the gel cell battery.
Now how about using the vintage RCA pocket power pack to power a computer?
Most laptop computers run on 18 to 20 volts, so this would not be able to power it.
But I have this Brother GeoBook laptop from the late '90s, which does run on 12 volts,
so it's a perfect candidate.
You notice this symbol here?
That indicates this computer runs on center negative on this power jack, instead of center
positive.
So I have my pre-made cable going from the cigarette lighter-style plug, which will go
into the pocket power pack, to a standard center positive barrel plug, but luckily I
have an adapter here, which you may remember from my Orphan Turntables video, which will
convert it to center negative.
I checked it with my multimeter, and with the backlight at full brightness it draws
about 700 milliamps.
And when the floppy disk drive is in use, that adds another 200 milliamps.
Now I'm going to power the Brother GeoBook laptop with the RCA pocket power pack, and
see how long it lasts.
Which means it's time for a time lapse!
[Music]
How did we go so wrong?
I constantly struggle to get more than a few years of use out of modern lithium ion battery
packs, before their runtime declines so much that they're no longer usable, or they fail
entirely.
I even had one that nearly caught on fire!
While this 35-year-old RCA pocket power pack with nickel cadmium batteries was able to
power this laptop computer for over an hour and a half.
In reviewing the footage, I could see that the power pack's green LED went out at one
hour and nine minutes, indicating that it was starting to go low on charge, but the
computer's own low power light didn't come on until one hour and 34 minutes.
And on this computer, that's not messing around.
That means you better save your work and shut it off pretty quick, because only two minutes
later, the computer shut down, but the LCD panel kept going with some strange lines on
it, so I shut off the computer shortly thereafter.
Oops!
I just made a dumb mistake.
I wanted to measure what kind of voltage is coming out of this, now that it's discharged.
So I plugged in my connector, and I went to measure it with my multimeter, but I forgot
I had the leads set to measure current.
So can you guess what happened next?
Yes, it blew the fuse in the end of this cigarette lighter style plug.
There is a little fuse in there, and it's popped.
So evidently, even though this was discharged and could no longer run the computer, it did
still have enough power left to blow a fuse.
You can even see a little burn mark on the glass.
And I know you probably want to have a look inside at those nickel cadmium cells, but
I tried prying this thing open, and it's not budging.
This thing must be glued shut, so I highly doubt anyone else was in here before me, since
this thing was made in the 1980s.
I replaced the fuse, I recharged the power pack, and now we're back in business.
[Music]