With great power needs, comes great batteries
I picked up the Jackery Explorer 240 power station as a way to power all of my astrophotography gear as well as general camera needs.
I use a lot of batteries and often find myself in my car struggling to find enough spots to plug them all in to recharge them on the go. This power station has enough energy to recharge all of my camera and drone batteries dozens of times and even provide some juice to my laptop.
It supports pass through charging so you can plug in the wall charger, the car charger, or one of Jackery’s solar panels while it charges other devices. However, the input to the power station is limited to around 40 watts so if you’re charing more than 40 watts worth of other devices, the battery will continue to drain, albeit at a slower rate.
Specs:
Capacity: 240 Wh
Charge Time: 8.5 hours via wall AC or car DC
Weight: 6.6 lbs (3kg)
Maximum energy draw: 200 watts continuous (400 watt surge)
Ports:
1 200 watt AC US outlet
1 12 volt car outlet
2 2.4 amp USB-A ports
1 charging input port
I also picked up some Jackery PowerCables that plug into the Car charger on the power station. These connect to an automobile lead-acid battery and can recharge it. Note: this is not like jump starting your car. For these to work, you have to connect them and wait 10-15 minutes before disconnecting the battery and then attempting to start your car.
I fortunately haven’t had the need to test these out. They are made from plastic with no exposed wires and feel very light and safe to use.
In the video below, I pushed the power station as far as I reasonably could without intentionally killing it. In the end I was able to charge the following at the same time:
14” Laptop at 61 watts
15” Macbook Pro at 85 watts
iPad Pro at 15 watts
Pixel 4 at 2.5 amps
Osmo Pocket camera at 2.5 amps
See the test and the unboxing in the video