The Xiaomi 20,000 mAh Power Bank and the IMOU Cue 2 Home Wifi Camera. The question is quite simple yet interesting. As the backup power source, if the power went out, for instance, but you still need the video surveillance, how long will such a camera last on such a battery? And now we’ll find this out.
Let’s Count and then Test
We begin with calculations. The power brick that comes within the box with the camera is 5V 1 Amp, yet the camera itself requires even less power. As specified in the device specs list, it consumes no more than 3.1 Watts, and the Power Bank we’ve got is 20,000 mAh, which is 20 Amps..
And now we need to convert Watts into Amperes, here’s the formula:
We divide Watts by the Volts, 3.5 Watts 5V, and we get 0.62 Amp, which is 620 mV. Then we divide the capacity of our battery by 20,000 milliamperes by 620, and we get 32.25 amps per hour.
Yet, we have 2 unpredictable factors in our way – the real power consumption and the battery wear. In the specs sheet, we’ve got 3.1Watt. maximum, but that’s an interval. In reality, it can be less, and most likely will be. That also depends on how far the camera is away from the signal source and what the scene intensity is – the more or less it will consume. And the next is the real battery capacity. Yes, we have 20,000 milliamps here, but lithium-ion batteries wear out and lose capacity over time. Nevertheless, I think we can count on a 24-hour shift with such a bundle.
Bottom Line / Results
So, IMOU Cue 2 in the continuous non-stop recording onto the MicroSD-card, with Wi-fi turned on so I could access it anytime, with IR night vision – definitely stands 21-hour recording shift with 20,000 mAh. battery, and would have most likely stood even more time. And concerning other popular cameras, Ezviz C1C will stand around 25 hours, following the same formula. Pan-tilt IMOU Ranger 2 will make 28 hours, and the Pan-tilt Ezviz C6CN will stand no more than 20 hours due to that the power consumption in it reaches 5 watts, equal to 1 Amp, and we’ve got a total of 20 Amps. As a matter of fact, you cannot count on more than a 1 full day of work and recording on such a backup power source with similar cameras, but yet, this is a confirmed and working way.