Facts you didn't know about power and power banks

Understanding Power Banks and  Power cables

Is it possible for a small battery to outlast large batteries?

Not all Power Banks (or External Batteries) are the same.  Power Bank capacity is usually measured in mAH or WH.  Most of the time you'll see the capacity measured in mAH.  The higher capacity the longer it will keep your device powered.  So, for example, a 52,800mAH battery will last longer than a 32,400mAH battery.  So...if you would like to keep an iPhone 6Plus running for about 11 recharges, you should consider a battery like our "executive" that is 34,200mAH.  I'll normally try to stay away from doing math but here you go :-)  (34200mAH / 2916mah = 11.11)

"Executive" Battery

As I am saying this, I bet you are thinking: "But I've seen a tiny battery on eBay and/or Amazon showing a 200,000mah how can that be?" In short, they are being mislabeled.  The best way to tell the difference between two battery capacities is simply to look at its size.  Think of batteries like a bottle of water or a gas tank.  If you have a small battery claiming to be 200,000mah and is the size of a pack of gum and a battery like our "executive" that is 34,200mah that is a size of a book.  It's quite obvious that the bigger battery will outlast the smaller battery!

Can all Power banks charge Laptops or large devices like powered coolers, etc?

Most small batteries have a small USB power port - normally only around 5v. They are intended for small devices like cell phones and tablets only.  They do not have the capability to power or recharge large devices like laptops.  MCT-Tech's main focus has always been to make batteries that can power both.  Even our "Little Giant" (which is our smallest power bank) can recharge a laptop, because it has both a USB power port and a high power port.  Keep in mind again, however, that the "Little Giant" will not last a long time with a laptop. It is only recommend when needing to few more minutes before your internal battery on your laptop dies.

What is the lifespan do you expect for your Power Banks?

Our Power banks are built to last approximately 500 cycles.  The more you discharge it from 100% to 0%,  the more you will 'wear' out the battery. Good practice is to recharge the Power bank before it fully depletes.

Will standard Power Banks charge all laptops?

No.  A lot of laptops these days employ a special sense pin that will not turn on unless a factory power adapter is used.  The most notable are Apple's MacBook line of laptops.  They have a "MagSafe" connector that Apple has a patent on.  In the early days, even if one was able to clone the connector, it would still not charge because it lacks the special IC built into the Magsafe connector (This was also part of Apple Patent).  We are actually the first to pioneered car adapters and batteries for the full line of  MacBook's by cutting off the MagSafe cable from the AC adapter and putting it on car adapters and batteries.  
Today, however, Chinese manufacturers have almost perfected the Magsafe cable and unless you have a trained eye, you would almost not be able to tell the difference anymore!

This same goes for the Microsoft magnetic cable too.

MCT-Tech has also helped many customers from HP, Lenovo, and Dell who are using special cables to be able to utilize our batteries well.  If you have a device that won't charge, contact us! This is our passion.

On this note, we would like to use segue to announce that we are shifting our business model to helping our customers get power from any number of sources.  We are going to be focusing on converting devices that are normally only AC power (household) DC power, like we have with The AppleTV (and hopefully if you ask for it) DC source for the new Apple HomePod.

In short, our motto will be "Engineering alternative efficient power sources for your Devices".

We will be discontinuing some of our batteries and Car adapters and only focusing on direct power solutions and would love to hear your thoughts on our ideas.

Until next time,

Stay powered up!  

Mike

MCT-corp.com

30% discount on our Batteries!

30% discount on our Batteries!

We are increasing our summer sales of our batteries to 30%!

Please use discount code:
30Disc when purchasing

Please note that for larger devices like the Macbook Pro 15" Touchbar, we only recommend our larger batteries (the "CEO" and the "Executive")

Why not make hay while the sun is shining hey?

Limited time offer - get yours now.

Stay powered up!  

Mike

MCT-corp.com

Hurricane, No Power, No Internet, Oh my!

Hi everyone.

As you know Hurricane Irma visited us recently.  I wanted to thank everyone who emailed us their well wishes during her visit.  It was really nice just knowing you guys were out there! We were lucky enough not to have suffered major damage, but this was the first time in my life I had to prepare for a hurricane of this size.  In the past, it has been mostly just removing all loose items in the yard. The real challenge with Irma came in her aftermath actually.We had no power for a whole week, which was the longest I have ever been without power.  That meant no internet, little to no cell phone coverage and, for us, no water. One doesn't realize how reliant we are on power and you only truly start appreciating it when you don't have it!

Fortunately, a good friend gave us a generator last year and I could not thank him enough during this time!  We used it to run our refrigerator and portable AC unit.

Lucky for us, we had plenty of batteries! :-)

My wife and I each used one of our "Executive" batteries for our cell phones and it they kept both phones charged the WHOLE week!  I also had the "CEO" ready to go and used that for our Macbook Pro's, hooking the portable printer up to it too just in case we would have to go a week more.

Because we had little internet, we didn't use our laptops much, but by mid week I noticed that cell coverage improved so I started making alternative plans should we not get power.  That meant subscribing to mobile hotspots for internet and finally beginning to process our backlog orders.

I did a lot of thinking in that week in the dark. I have been thinking of a shift in our business model. I have done a lot of things for our house that border on "off grid" living including the way we keep the water running (we are on a well and not dependent on city water).  To blog about all my ideas would take up a whole new series of blogs...so...in short...I re-piped our well so that we have a secondary lower powered pump for water. I learnt that you need to be more efficient with your power resources when living off the grid.

Have you been thinking of ways in which to be more efficient with power should it ever run out? Does off the grid living interest you? Send us your emails or simply comment below.

Ok, well...Storms gone, and I still have much to do.  Thank you for your patience with our orders.

Stay powered up!  

Mike

MCT-corp.com

USB-C Video

Check out our USB-C Video!
https://youtu.be/agGHBpkaMBo

Final Update 5: USB-C charger adapter - NOW AVAILABLE!

Hi Everyone,

We're proud to announce that our USB-C Car and External battery adapter is NOW available!!

Charge your Macbook Pro 15" touchbar or any other larger device with our USB-C adapter.
It can plug into any car cigarette plug and any external battery power bank that output's 12-24vdc.

Do you have a battery that has a special connector, we'll modify it for you!

Get yours here now!!!

Stay powered up!  

Mike

MCT-corp.com

Update 5: USB-C charger adapter - Pre-Order here!

Hello,

Just wanted to update everyone, that we've posted more pictures of our final product!

It looks beautiful in shiny White! Click here 

Stay powered up!  

Mike

MCT-corp.com

TSA and external batteries

Hi all,

Do you remember the last time we wrote about being stopped by Airport Security (TSA)?  For those of you who missed it, please check it out here: So I got stopped at #TSA ~ #TravellingTips #TravellingTales

I recently had another opportunity fly and keeping in mind what happened last time, I decided to see what would happen if I took our "Executive" battery along for the ride.

On arriving at the TSA, we had to perform the usual drill: put iPad in separate bins, take off shoes....etc. Not sure of what to expect, I left my 34.2ah battery (127wh) in my bag and shoved it through the X-ray machine. Well, I ended up walking through the body scanner and picking up my backpack (with my battery inside) on the other side. They didn't stop me, there were no delays and everything went quiet smoothly! All I kept thinking was: "Damn, I am not going to have much to blog about!"

Besides my disappointment at a lack of blog content though 😂, I am happy to report that it seems that even our Executive may at times makes it through TSA.

So with nothing else to blog about, I thought I would use this space just to answer a recent question by one of our battery users. He was asking us how we calculate our battery capacities (thinking all our batteries where over the 100W max for airlines). We calculate our battery capacities by multiplying the voltage of the individual cells inside the battery by it's total Ah.
For example  - with our "executive" battery, the cells inside are each 3.7v so we take 3.7v x 34200mah which would then = 127wH.

If you do these calculations with all of our batteries, you will actually see that technically, the only two batteries that are not TSA compliant are our "CEO" which is ~195wH and our "Executive" which is ~127wH.  All the rest of our batteries (which we call the platinum batteries) are good to go for TSA.

Why am I telling you this? Are we telling you to break the law or that you won't ever get stopped at TSA if you carry our CEO or Executive?  No.  Remember, your 'mileage' may vary, and you could end up having your battery confiscated or worse. Also remember...there is a reason they call me Mikegyver!! 😂

I have always wondered though, what the difference is between taking two 24aH batteries on a flight (177wH in total) and one big battery (like our Executive) that is 127wH. We would love to hear your thoughts on this one or any stories you might have of getting any of our batteries through TSA.
So what do you think? Is it the same as taking two batteries or one large one?  Is it worth the risk?

Stay powered up "SAFELY"!  

Mike

MCT-corp.com