A great story about politics!

Bit off topic I know, but this is very good indeed. Maybe not off topic as in fact it is kind of about Heavenly level politics LOL

I think the crucial thing about this series is, it relies on a supreme authority (King/Queen/Emperor/Whatever) that is more interested in “higher things” than debauchery and money.

Of course debauchery and money are very attractive. And positively promoted by all western media!

And I would add I think “debauchery” is more than sex, drugs and alchohol, these holier than thou bunch of the vaccine drive, or the “global warming” bunch with an actual, would not be fair to call her a “tard”, as their figurehead, are as debauched with “groupthink-righteousness” (and actually probably also in a lot of cases also sex and drugs and alchohol and food or some other vice like seeking a genuine “damien hirst pig in makeup” or whatever).

New four cell 18650 “V9 battery shield” from China, is better than expected.

I received a new four cell battery holder from AliExpress and fitted four unused brown 18650’s also from AliExpress and was expecting maybe 30 hours out of it but it is still good 45 (and counting) hours later, so maybe these batteries are just better/fresher or maybe they have improved the efficiency of the battery shield.

V9 Battery Shield on a 3d printed coaster I designed in the awesome OpenScad

The shields are a nice design in that you can fit 2 pin DuPont headers on both a 3.3v rail and a 5v rail to power several devices simultaneously and then you can use heavy duty copper core wire and solder that to the power-in pads of the Raspberry Pi rather than use the tiny cores of a usb cable. This will provide better power efficiency and much longer power cable lengths.

Verdict: Recommended!

(I have had three of the two cell battery shields in use for a couple of years which are still rock solid except one failing to charge through the micro-usb port which may have been due to a dodgy cable, but that one still charges OK through the usb-c port)

Also I would recommend with any battery that has been used outside, like now these batteries are operating in occasionally sub-zero temperatures, allow the batteries to warm to room temperature for an hour or so before charging.

Note: Do not put them on top of the fire or radiator.

The batteries themselves which have actually been sat doing nothing for over a year I think except a charge or two in a digital display 4 cell charger from guess where? (China of course), all seem quite balanced in the shield all discharged to either 3.04 or 3.05 volts before the shield shut down.. so all good!

Update:

OK, as is quite common with stuff from AliExpress these have an oddity, they stuck a new switch on so it operates in two modes… one mode the power status led’s stay on, and a double click on the white button will power it down… but!!! in the other mode, when you power it off it is still putting out 2v on both 5v and 3.3v rails so ????? Well as long as you know that!. And now you do!

Also I guess there are a lot of subtleties about usage modes for longevity of 18650’s I think these do (well they state they do) discharge to 2.5v while on power and then when it cuts out actually the cells recover to 3v… so only time will tell if you were to conduct simultaneous experiments of absolute discharge levels vs. numbers of recharge cycles which is best mode.

anyway, 46 Hours was not bad… and nice to know it can go that long, probably will swap them over at around the 30 hour range at which point they are not so discharged but will go through a recharge cycle…. which is most damaging? deep discharge or the actual recharge cycle? I guess that is the question?

Update:

Probably there is a difference in the quality of charge using a more expensive charger than these shields, Like this pack long term is getting 30 or so hours recharging using the shield. Which is in line with the longevity of the 2 cell packs I have had in use for a couple of years, so 600 or so cycles later on each of them still getting 12+ hours. The extra quality required if I was specifying the pack is missing. I guess dual rails are a power waste if you only want 5v or 3.3v for starters. Still as a general purpose thing, not bad. Could be aliexpress stuff from certain suppliers is better or worse. I Won’t mention names, they know who they are already.