Effects of different voltages

[Xcellerator]

Bit of an odd question, but what effects should you expect to see using a 5v battery as opposed to a 12v one? I really mean as broad as that sounds - any effect at all.

I ask because I've got an Anker Astro E4 which has a 13000 mAh capacity but only spits out 5v at either 1 or 2 amps over USB. It's mainly for charging phones on the go. It powers my pineapple just fine, but I'm just curious as what I should expect before using it on the go!

Thanks for any insight!

[yabasoya]

I find that my pineapple runs fine at 5v running simple constant tasks. As soon as you connect anything usb, it starts to become flakey at 5v. Maybe because 5v is the minimum power spec and if things kick on requiring extra power (deauthing every 10 seconds or something) you can momentarily dip below 5v. Kind of like when your A/C comes on in the car or your house and you notice the lights dim for a second. To be more precise I found my pineapple locking up or rebooting when the voltage dipped to 4.85v, even just for a moment.

[Mit0s1s]

for me it depends on the 5v source, my anker 9000mAh it runs just fine, but other 5v sources aren't as stable. I run into issues with sd card not mounting,so most of my infusions don't load. Most of the time I use a 12v source

[shinew]

I have the same question, and the popular anker E3 actually, wonder if the dev has tested it out and would comment... Since the Anker supports the maximum of 3A out, voltage dipping really shouldn't be an issue.

[Xcellerator]

Well, I've been running it off the 13000 mAh Anker all day just fine. Been using client mode, karma and infusions from the sd card. I've seen no noticeable detriment from using 5 volts so far from the 1 amp usb output.

Does a higher current result in a more stable voltage?

And is there any way to monitor the voltage supplied to the unit? I imagine it would require extra equipment?

[Darren Kitchen]

Feeding the MK5 5v is like putting a 250 Watt power supply in a hard core gaming rig. Sure it'll boot and run Firefox, but launch Half Like 2 and expect a lockup. 9 or 12v is preferred for using the full potential of the MK5.

[SICKFREDO]

Im having issues with mine, I got a MKV but the battery that came with it outputs 12.6v, I cant boot it from the battery at all. What could possibly cause this? It tries to boot but shuts off and wont turn on unless the cable is removed for a little while.

Edited January 11, 2014 by SICKFREDO

[shinew]

Feeding the MK5 5v is like putting a 250 Watt power supply in a hard core gaming rig. Sure it'll boot and run Firefox, but launch Half Like 2 and expect a lockup. 9 or 12v is preferred for using the full potential of the MK5.

But wattage is is the result of Amps x Voltage.

According to the specification for the pineapple power input, it'll will draw the maximum of 12watt(12V*1A), something like Anker 3E can output at max of 15W(5V*3A) even though it's only at 5v, so if the pineapple V only cares about the actual power(wattage) and accepts 5V, then it shouldn't matter.

I would be more interested in knowing the spec for the internal power conversion of the "flexible power" on the pineapple V if you could share some details, as it's not listed under specifications. thank you.

Edited January 13, 2014 by shinew

[Xcellerator]

Yeah, I've noticed a huge stability boost from using the 2 amp usb rather than the 1 amp one. Both output 5v.

[Tex]

To add to this, I was running a few tests today with a 5v pack "PowerPack" and the pineapple would crash if I messed with too many things in the Web UI, or after about 5 minutes. This was on a recently flashed pineapple with about 5 infusions installed. It would do this with and without a USB device connected (in my case, a Linksys WLAN card). Afterwards, I ran the same tests with the 12v Juice over an hour and have yet to crash. It may just be my 5v that causes problems, but I'd just stick with the 12v.