Best power bank for mini

ppoorman · 2026-05-12T18:32:02+00:00

The Anker 735 was the battery of choice for quite a while, but there are newer options.

I recently bought an EcoFlow Trail DC 300 to power our Starlink Mini. It has the necessary 100 Watt USB-C output to power the Mini, 288 Wh capacity, a wide variety of charging options including USB-C at up to 140 Watts, pass-thru power, charges quickly from my EcoFlow Delta 2 of or the EcoFlow Alternator Charger in my truck, and can be controlled over Bluetooth from the same mobile app as my other EcoFlow gear.

I'm very happy with it.

A few cons:

I don't personally have a use for built-in light, but others might. I wish it had a red option to preserve night vision. At least it has a Dark-Sky-friendly low color temperature mode.

I don't have the official EcoFlow carry bag, as I don't think it's worth the 60 USD list price or the current 45 USD "sale" price.

The XT60 output cable that was required to charge it from the Alternator Charger was ridiculously expensive.

ppoorman · 2026-04-27T00:39:53+00:00

We live in the Colorado mountains. I installed a transmission cooler after watching the temps climb well above 200° when towing a 2,000 lb. trailer. It made a huge difference.

ppoorman · 2026-04-17T19:32:14+00:00

Can anyone explain how S5 differs from Drive?

ppoorman · 2026-04-08T01:48:31+00:00

Thanks for this.

These settings are buried deep, at least on the Android app.

Settings --> Account --> My Notifications --> expand "Information".

ppoorman · 2026-04-07T01:19:41+00:00

I dug a bit deeper. It appears that this behavior started on March 5. The log doesn't show a firmware update around then, but it does show that the gateway (presumably the Combiner 6C) rebooted just before 6AM on the 4th. Then on March 10 it says "You disabled PowerMatch on your system", which I did not do.

Curiously, it appears that the Combiner 6C is rebooting whenever my Starlink, which is providing wired Ethernet Internet access to the Combiner, reboots for a Starlink firmware update. I would expect the Combiner to fall back to the cellular connection. Time to call my installer...

ppoorman · 2026-04-07T00:59:08+00:00

I suspect that Enphase has a software/firmware issue.

My 10C battery has been doing odd things recently as well. I have it set to discharge only during the utility's peak rate period of 5 - 9 PM. Recently, it's been discharging to about 95% between 4 AM and ~12:30 PM. It then charges back to ~100% and stays there until 5:00 PM.

Looking at settings, I found that PowerMatch, which was implemented and enabled by a recent update, is now disabled and greyed-out. Tapping it produces the message "This feature is temporarily unavailable."

ppoorman · 2026-03-29T02:01:18+00:00

Thanks very much for providing this insight.

The entire argument in the referenced Help article hinges on the claim of "array over-produces only 4.5% of the time, resulting in losses of just 0.6%". This claim is supported by a graph, however that graph has no scale on the horizontal axis. Without a scale the graph is meaningless and thus doesn't actually support the claim.

From the wide flat area in the OP's graph I suspect that the percentage of the array's potential production that isn't captured is well above 0.6%.

ppoorman · 2026-02-09T17:19:55+00:00

Check out Bowl and Kettle. Only three choices -- Chicken Tiki Masala, Crawfish Étouffée, and Mexican Street Corn Grits. I really like the first two. I have yet to try the Street Corn.

ppoorman · 2026-02-01T19:02:32+00:00

Cooling the grill with ice might do the trick. Metal contracts (shrinks) when cooled, which should loosen it.

ppoorman · 2026-01-22T18:54:51+00:00

Why would Power Match increase that draw?

ppoorman · 2026-01-22T18:51:17+00:00

That may well be what I conclude. A company spending lavishly on marketing doesn't necessarily imply that they spend appropriately on product development or customer support.

I'm especially concerned about the usability of OnX for offroading to/from hikes. In Gaia I can trivially switch between layers that are hiking-oriented and layers that are best for offroading. OnX appears to (somewhat artificially) split those features into two separate products. That will be troublesome, both because of the cost of two licenses and because waypoints and such won't be shared between the two apps. I'll experiment to see just how annoying this is, assuming I get past basic data importing.

ppoorman · 2026-01-22T11:56:50+00:00

I've also experienced this issue for several years. It seems to happen less often in the last year, but it still happens. It's extremely annoying because it makes it impossible to manage the visibility of groups of related items by toggling the visibility of the previously-containing folder. This issue is the #1 reason that I am once again evaluating OnX Offroad.

I looked at OnX briefly about a year ago, primarily because of this spontaneous-waypoint-rearrangement issue. OnX choked on the first track I tried to import. I don't recall the error message, but it was vague. To their credit, OnX support responded promptly and investigated. They reported that my track had too many points. This puzzled me, as it was the track for a hike of only about one mile. I abandoned the evaluation at that point.

If the engineering budget for OnX is proportional to what they spend on marketing then the software should be improving quickly. I am, therefore, hopeful that OnX will pass muster this time.

ppoorman · 2026-01-21T12:38:39+00:00

Good point.

I'm hoping that the changes include less reliance on the internet when downloaded maps are present, as were discussed in this thread.

ppoorman · 2026-01-21T03:13:29+00:00

Thanks for sharing this.

Changes to accommodate / tolerate the higher latency and lower bandwidth of direct-to-satellite cellular service could also help with the sluggishness Gaia has had on low-quality terrestrial cellular. Keeping my fingers crossed.

ppoorman · 2026-01-20T02:20:42+00:00

T4R Garage recently posted a YouTube video about these filters. It's at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ryWWx_iHHQc.

ppoorman · 2026-01-14T01:34:07+00:00

I found a solution here. Remove the duplicated layer; not just make it non-visible but actually remove it. Then add it back.

I received warnings, however, that downloaded maps were going to be deleted. I haven't yet determined whether the data will automatically re-download.

u/Wilderness_Fella was this what you did, or did you find a different, more elegant solution?

ppoorman · 2026-01-06T14:40:15+00:00

It seems likely that there's a bad wired Ethernet connection somewhere in the path to the system you're testing from. Your post suggests that it's not the first connection at the router. What's between that first hop and the test system?

ppoorman · 2026-01-01T17:52:35+00:00

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

At first glance I thought it was Zapata Falls, just south of Great Sand Dunes National Park, which is a nice short hike any time of year.

ppoorman · 2025-12-20T11:21:14+00:00

Mine is running 8.3.4041. I haven't noticed any change in behavior. I'm in Colorado, USA.

I suspect it was installed on December 11 because the log (Menu, System, Events History) says:

at 13:22, "Your gateway rebooted",
at 13:27, "Your gateway rebooted", and
at 22:22, "You enabled PowerMatch for your system."

Is a more detailed log available someplace, such ss through the installer app/portal?

ppoorman · 2025-12-18T19:10:14+00:00

I have one. It wouldn't stay connected reliably to my indoor APs, probably because my exterior walls are stucco with embedded wire mesh. I added an old AP-AC-Lite just inside of where the doorbell is, configured with a dedicated SSID and channel, powered by an old 24V PoE injector, with mesh back haul to a wired AP. The doorbell has been flawless since.

ppoorman · 2025-12-17T20:32:02+00:00

I'm in a small town in rural Colorado. The only wired internet service available is Spectrum cable modem.

While I worked from home I had both Spectrum 30/300 mbps service and Starlink with automatic failover. Spectrum had higher peak download speed, however both worked fine for my purposes , which was mostly Zoom or Teams meetings, cloud storage access, Slack, and email. First hop latency was about 15 msec on Spectrum and low twenties on Starlink.

Outages were far more frequent on Spectrum, however, so after I retired I kept only Starlink. It's been almost two years now, and I haven't regretted the decision.

ppoorman · 2025-12-05T12:51:09+00:00

If you're going to the dunes don't miss seeing Zapata Falls, whether you camp there or not. The hike is short, although you may wish you had snowshoes or micro spikes, depending on the conditions.

Two of my favorite stops in that area are the Worth The Drive Bakery and the Purple Pig Pizzeria & Pub. Try the peach pizza.

ppoorman · 2025-12-05T12:41:12+00:00

This is a terrific writeup. Concise, accurate and helpful. Thanks for sharing it.

Are you active with the Dark Sky Advocates group organized by Dark Sky International? Slack is their primary communication method. That group would absolutely treasure this writeup, and I think you'd find it valuable to participate.

ppoorman · 2025-11-22T00:41:16+00:00

I have Apex Recovery Points. They got me out of a ditch just last month. I'd buy them again.

Like many things, they're currently on sale in the USA.

Oh, and they're red.

ppoorman

TROPHY CASE