Anyone else got problems when charging with external battery pack?

Hey everyone,

does anyone else have a 2. gen Anker Astro E5?

I started using one one month ago. It charges my FP1 up to about 70% without a problem. Afterwards, at about 80-85%, the charging constantly stops-restarts-stops-restarts, so that the red LED is blinking.

If I turn on the display (set to keep on while charging), this sometimes stops until 95-98%, and then the behaviour restarts until the battery is full.

When I use a generic USB cable (not the one coming with the external battery), the charging most of the time (around 4 out of 5 times) completely stops short above 70% battery capacity.

I wonder if this is FP-related, or the external battery is defective. The manufacturer, Anker, praises itself having developed an intelligent charging system, i.e. the battery is negotiating the energy to be delivered with the phone’s electronics.

I had this trouble from the start, and now contacted their service. They would replace it on warranty, but before doing so, I wanted to ask if anyone on the forum is using the same model and can tell if he/she has the same problem. I don’t want do produce more e-waste.

I also wonder if my phone’s battery could get damaged by the behaviour described. Any comments?

PS:
I haven’t been around much since, uh, August, I think. Hope to be more active again in the near future. But the future is an undiscovered country, so let’s see if this works out. :smile:

Never had any problems with a Waka Waka Power Light, so it’s not a hard FairPhone/external battery problem. It might be the combination of a FP1 with the Anker Astro E5 though. Or maybe even specifically with the one you have.

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Sounds like the “intelligent” battery does not understand one of Fairphone’s core values, namely cooperation, instead of holding back information (energy)… :wink:

I have two different power packs which both work.

The only problem I ever had was when my battery started to bloat. Then it would sometimes not charge at all. However that was independent from the choice of power source.