Care Package 5.0: What I Plan to Do With All Those Lithium Batteries

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So I've been thinking about what to do with the revived 18650 lithium batteries. I have six of those, plus one that came with a fan that I have since replaced with a higher capacity cell. That's seven lithium batteries I need to find a purpose for.

I don't want to put them all together in a power bank because they are degraded to different extents. Some measure 4.18 volts when full, others 4.15, and so on. It's bad to put them in parallel (as in a power bank ) because when it's fully depleted, the safety circuitry stops it at an average voltage for all 4 cells (or however many).

This means if one is lower voltage than the rest, it will get over-discharged every time. Conversely if one is higher voltage than the rest, it will get over-charged during every charging cycle. Cells used in power banks should be brand new and identical voltage.

However, nothing stops me from using them in devices that take a single cell. like these wonderful lanterns I discovered while browsing Amazon:

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As you can see, each lantern is powered by a single 18650 cell. This eliminates the charge balancing problems discussed above. It also means these little lanterns are quite powerful for their size and will run for a long time on a charge. More importantly though, it doubles as a power bank itself!

That's right, you can plug a usb cable into the lantern and use some of the energy to charge a phone or whatever else you have that can charge from USB. This is really crucial because of how many employers only accept online applications these days.

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Of course charging a phone will deplete the entire cell. I think these are like 2,200mah so it'll charge a typical modern smartphone maybe once. Or not even that, up to like 90% from zero. Still, that's quite useful, especially when you consider that it has a solar panel on it:

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Now of course, that's a pitifully tiny panel. Probably it won't charge fully even after an entire day in the sun. But it's something. It's a free source of energy they can use to keep their most important possession running. Without a phone, escaping homelessness is all but impossible.

Besides hanging it in their tents as a light source at night, it can also be held horizontally and used as a flashlight. If solar charging doesn't cut it, the unit can be USB charged though a micro USB port, same as most modern phones. It can then be used as a backup energy reservoir that will make them less dependent on public outlets.

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Crucially for such a wet, rainy state like Oregon, it's water resistant as well. Can't allow a shorted out battery to burn their tent down or something dreadful like that. It's not rainy at the moment with Summer approaching, but then what better time to hand out a solar powered device?

It's just one item. Care Package 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 were much larger with ten or so items inside, but I'm struggling financially at the moment. A lot of my whales have either forgotten I exist or unfollowed me for some reason. I used to be doing 30-50 SBD per post pretty reliably a few months back. Now I just barely subsist on ~5 SBD/post, about 4 of which comes from me.

But like I've said before, that's no excuse to sit by and do nothing. There are people out there who have less than I do, and who are struggling just to put food in their stomachs. If I say "I don't have enough for myself, so I won't give", where does it stop? No matter how much someone has, won't they always think "I will start giving when I have just a little bit more for myself"?

Besides, this item is like several gifts combined into one. A flashlight, a lantern and a solar powered battery bank for charging phones. It's got all the right features to be helpful, especially at this sunny time of year. I can only give oout 7 because that's how many cells I have, but 7 of these lanterns will cost about $91.

I am unsure where that money is going to come from at present. There's still a lot of stuff I need to pay for just to stay in this house, like a lawn mower (My landlady gets calls from the city if I let the grass go for too long). My car insurance auto-deduction is coming up, and there's student loans to pay down as well.

I'm going to keep at this no matter what, but your support would be dearly appreciated. If you don't have me on auto-upvote, please consider it, as it's not just me you'll be helping out.

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^{Stay Cozy}