Tesla has made something new: a wireless charging power bank.
It's slightly more expensive than your average power bank, of course, because you're buying
it for the logo and not for the juice inside.
Today we're going to open it up, see how it works, and more importantly, see if Tesla
has integrated the same cylindrical batteries that they use in each of their cars.
This massive chunk of power is one of the 16 modules that make up the Model S battery
pack.
Each module has about 400 individual batteries inside, and maybe Tesla has used the same
style of batteries in this smaller wireless charger.
There's only one way to find out.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
Wireless chargers are an interesting piece of technology.
They use electromagnetic induction to safely transfer energy in between devices without
wires.
An unsafe method of transferring energy is with a short circuit, which can apparently
happen if you set something metal down on top of a bare Tesla battery pack.
Rooky mistake on my part, for sure.
I probably just ruined my chances of ever working at the Gigafactory.
Let's just all agree not to tell Elon.
I'm going to move this somewhere more safe.
Alright.
Where were we?
Oh yeah, wireless charging.
So this time around, Tesla added a built-in USB-C cable for those of us with Android phones.
To get the power bank to start transferring power, a button on the bottom of the bank
needs to be held down for 3 seconds, and that will get the juices flowing.
Same steps apply for the wireless charging.
Android phones have been able to wirelessly charge for the past 5 years or so.
Apple, on the other hand, just recently got into the game with their iPhone 8 and iPhone10
last year.
Usually takes Apple a few years to understand the new technology, but better late than never.
There is a little rubber strip across the top shiny black plastic layer to keep the
phone slightly elevated from the surface of the wireless charger.
This is purely cosmetic – probably so the charger won't get scratched by any of the
camera bumps that exist on the different phones as they get set down into place.
There are also a few rubber strips on the bottom for stability.
My razor knife was melted in a few different places from it's Tesla battery pack encounter.
But I'll just flip the blade around and we'll be good to go.
The construction is rather simple, actually.
It's just the plain glossy black plastic layer, which is very securely adhered over the charger
body.
So with a lot of caution and a little PTSD from the last battery I touched, I'll pry
the top away from the housing, exposing a little masking tape and the thick circular
induction coils.
We still don't have our answer to the battery style question yet.
We still have to see if this charger is using this cylindrical 18 650 cells that Tesla has
inside of their cars.
To get deeper, we'll need a Phillips head screwdriver to remove the 9 silver screws.
I'll link all the tools I use in the video description.
Then we can pull off the plastic mid plate, exposing the upper circuit board and a pouch
style lithium ion battery that we see inside of most cellphones.
Three more screws hold the motherboard down in place.
And the battery itself, while not the same style lithium Tesla's using in their cars,
it's still pretty powerful.
So I'll take special care not to puncture and short-circuit this one.
I actually still want this charger to work when I put it back together.
This wireless charger has a 6,000 milliamp hour battery inside - over twice the size
of the iPhone 10's battery.
One important thing to remember with wireless charging is that it takes much longer for
the energy transfer to occur with inductive charging versus just plugging your phone in
- sometimes even twice as long.
So if you need your phone charged fast, just plug it in like a normal person.
The Tesla charger also includes a standard USB port for charging other accessories.
Wireless charging overall is pretty cool, just a bit slower and slightly less efficient.
The circular pad inside of this power bank transfers power to the circular pads we've
seen in all of the other wireless charging enabled cellphones.
You need both components in order for it to function.
It would be interesting to know if Tesla has ever looked into charging their cars wirelessly.
The coils and induction field required to charge an entire vehicle would be massive.
Either way, at least we know Tesla has their eyes on the technology even if it isn't worth
implementing yet on a vehicle scale.
At least we get it for our cellphones.
Putting the whole contraption back together was easy enough with it's 12 total Phillips
head screws and top plastic adhesive plate.
It's a very sleek and simple design with probably massive profit margin on Tesla's end, which
I'm fine with.
I'll support an industry I believe in all day long.
I'll link the chargers down in the video description.
Do you think wireless charging is the future?
Let me know down in the comments.
I'm going to go make sure my punctured Tesla battery pack doesn't catch on fire, but thanks
a ton for watching.
I'll see you around.