SDS100/SDS200: Supplemental 3rd Party Battery for operating the SDS100 (Opinions)

[Omega-TI]

We all know the SDS100 sucks juice from it's battery like a wino chugs wine. I believe I have found a cheaper priced alternative for those suffering from power outages or are taking their radio's camping without a place to charge up.

Amazon has << this 42800 mAh power brick >> on sale for a really good price. It has a decent rating and appears well built (currently $25.00 on sale). It has two USB A ports and one USB C port. I question the solar charging utility, but either way, I was wondering if anyone else here owns and uses one.

 

[Hdc30474]

Solar charging is more a gimmick than a useful feature. It is extreemly slow unless you leave it out in non cloudy high noon sunlight.

I use fast charging USB power banks such as this one for my SDS100.

https://a.co/d/aMPEIDE

There are all sorts of sizes and capacities to consider. For the size of the one you posted. I question the actual capacity. 42800 mAh is quite high. Realize that is 42.8 Ah.

For camping I would suggest using a high capacity 12 volt LifePo4 battery with a 12v to USB power adapter. There are plenty of 12v 20 amps or 30 amps available for around $40 to $60. If you use LifePo4 batteries you must use a correct charger. I use one on my boat to power accessories and the VHF marine radio.

 

[Ubbe]

It has lots of one star reviews. It's impossible to have a 42AH capacity, that's like a car battery, and it claims to have it's LED light running for 100 hours making it more like a 10AH battery. But that's okay for a $25 solar powered battery, if it didn't had all those negative reviews.

/Ubbe

 

[Chris0516]

I don't have that problem with my Uniden batteries.

 

[Omega-TI]

Solar charging is more a gimmick than a useful feature. It is extreemly slow unless you leave it out in non cloudy high noon sunlight.

I use fast charging USB power banks such as this one for my SDS100.

https://a.co/d/aMPEIDE

There are all sorts of sizes and capacities to consider. For the size of the one you posted. I question the actual capacity. 42800 mAh is quite high. Realize that is 42.8 Ah.

For camping I would suggest using a high capacity 12 volt LifePo4 battery with a 12v to USB power adapter. There are plenty of 12v 20 amps or 30 amps available for around $40 to $60. If you use LifePo4 batteries you must use a correct charger. I use one on my boat to power accessories and the VHF marine radio.

You are right, now that I think about it, the stated capacity does seem "extraordinary" when compared to the size of the LifePo4 batteries you linked to. Now @Ubbe mentioned the negative ratings, and that is definitely something to take into account, although I noticed some of those more expensive LifePo4 batteries had negatives between 4 and 14 percent.

I agree totally on the solar charging being more of a gimmick, I even mentioned that I questioned its utility in my original post, which I also believe contributed to it's 11% negative reviews.

I think I'm gonna gamble on this one though, $25 vs $100 - $180 for only a couple of nights of camping. Honestly, I just shelled out over $400 bucks for camping equipment, so another $100 + for a battery isn't in the immediate budget.

 

[hiegtx]

I have a couple of these, and have also given one to several friends:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XM962WX?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_10

Currently "on sale" @ $31.98 for Prime Day.

This has a 36,000mah capacity, and has several different pigtails for connecting your devices. On the same side as the pigtails is the "magsafe" charging area, to wireless charge phones & tablets with that capability. Also has a flashlight.

It does also have the solar panel for charging. Solar current output is not enough to practically charge a almost dead pack. But, if it's charged, you could leave it on a sunny window sill, and the solar would keep the charge 'topped off'.

 

[Hdc30474]

This looks like a reasonable option. I don't need it, but tempted to try one.

https://a.co/d/aBJMnUp

 

[Chris0516]

I have this: Lithium Battery w/ Charger

It works well for me.

 

[Hdc30474]

I have this: Lithium Battery w/ Charger

It works well for me.

I have that too. $20 less on Amazon where I bought mine.

https://a.co/d/592oMVT

 

[BinaryMode]

What's so fantastic about Amazon is that a lot of these products have "sustainability" features even though they're all made in China...

The LiFePO 12 volt batteries are awesome - bar none. They are super light weight and can drain down further than other batteries. This is how I chose to power the scanner in my vehicle. I bought a small plastic ammo box and wired up three of these batteries using the awesome German made Wago (pronounced waaa-go) connectors.

These batteries are the size of the old lead acid crap batteries you'd use for an alarm system or whatever. But believe me when I tell you they are light! Very light. That's why EVs use LiFePO because weight is everything.

Yeah, when I read the amperage on that cheap thing I just rolled my eyes. Nothing but marketing gimmickry. No freaking why you're getting that kind of Ah's out of something like that unless it's a next Gen battery that science doesn't know about yet or is powered by zero point energy one may find at "Area-51"

 

[Ubbe]

This has a 36,000mah capacity, and has several different pigtails for connecting your devices. On the same side as the pigtails is the "magsafe" charging area, to wireless charge phones & tablets with that capability. Also has a flashlight.

It does also have the solar panel for charging. Solar current output is not enough to practically charge a almost dead pack.

Looks similar to the other one but power specification are reduced to 36AH but are larger in size and have two LED lights that can be lit for 100 hours, so twice the power than the 42AH one, but still probably way exaggerated power figures. The photos from both chargers looks to be done by the same company so probably both chargers are done at the same factory.

/Ubbe

 

[Omega-TI]

Looks similar to the other one but power specification are reduced to 36AH but are larger in size and have two LED lights that can be lit for 100 hours, so twice the power than the 42AH one, but still probably way exaggerated power figures. The photos from both chargers looks to be done by the same company so probably both chargers are done at the same factory.

/Ubbe

Oh yeah! I'm pretty sure you are right about the exaggerated specifications. For the price I figured it was worth rolling the dice for just a three day camping trip. I've rolled the dice before on a couple of Baofengs and was pleasantly surprised, so we'll see. It arrived about 15 minutes ago, half charged, so I have it on the charger now. The case seems well built and I think it'll hold up just fine if I ever drop it, but for the price, if it lasts a year I'll feel I got my money's worth and will then get a better one, maybe something like this...

 

[hiegtx]

Looks similar to the other one but power specification are reduced to 36AH but are larger in size and have two LED lights that can be lit for 100 hours, so twice the power than the 42AH one, but still probably way exaggerated power figures. The photos from both chargers looks to be done by the same company so probably both chargers are done at the same factory.

/Ubbe

I have no means available to verify actual power storage capacity, but this will run my SDS100 for an extended time, as well as charging my phone and a couple of tablets a couple times each.

 

[PDXh0b0]

Oh yeah! I'm pretty sure you are right about the exaggerated specifications. For the price I figured it was worth rolling the dice for just a three day camping trip. I've rolled the dice before on a couple of Baofengs and was pleasantly surprised, so we'll see. It arrived about 15 minutes ago, half charged, so I have it on the charger now. The case seems well built and I think it'll hold up just fine if I ever drop it, but for the price, if it lasts a year I'll feel I got my money's worth and will then get a better one, maybe something like this...

I see allot of those in field day pics

 

[Ubbe]

I would probably opt for a small 15AH-20AH real capacity power bank, that many people might already have at home, and add a good solar panel that might be foldable to take less space.

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Charging-Kickstands-Waterproof-Cellphone/dp/B0D6VRQ4VQ/ref=sr_1_44?th=1

/Ubbe

 

[Ensnared]

I have this: Lithium Battery w/ Charger

It works well for me.

I have owned three of these. All worked for a while & then developed a charging light blinking problem. I tried all sorts of ways to get it to work. I thought it was the plug-in, but it was that damn latch on the sides of the battery.

I finally found one that worked to this very day.

Yes, I hate this proprietary Viagra swelling battery.

 

[Omega-TI]

Well, the review of the "real world usage" on the battery...

I used it to charge my cell phone from 60% to 100% about 6 times and used it to operate and charge a battery powered fan (a decent one) over a two day period nearly continuously because it was so dang hot. The battery started out at 100% charge and ended up at 75%. So, I'm satisfied.

I don't consider the solar cell to have contributed anything hanging in the tent which was in the shade 90% of the time.

After I get settled back in, unpacked and rested, I'll set it up to power the SDS100 to see how many hours I get out of a single charge... which will probably give you a better baseline.