NanoWave 3 5000mAh USB-C & A Power Bank

A compact, high quality USB-C (and A) power bank, perfect for powering your Raspberry Pi on the go.

NanoWave 3 is a small but mighty pocket sized power bank. It's just 7.6cm long so great for fitting in to small enclosures, powering wearables or mounting atop robots. It has a 5,000mAh capacity (which was enough to keep our Raspberry Pi 4 going for over a working day of frenzied development) and there's both USB-A and USB-C outputs to connect your devices up to. It's perfect for use with all flavours of Raspberry Pi as it can provide a nice stable 5V 3A with no voltage drop, noise or other power related drama, even when the battery is nearly empty.

The USB-C port supports PD (Power Delivery), and the USB-A port supports QC3.0 so they are both capable of charging your devices quickly. The USB-C port is also used to charge the battery and PD means it can do that fast - a full charge only takes 1.5 hours if plugged into a charger that can provide 9V 2A. It comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging.

We've been searching for a good USB power bank to stock for a while and we've tried out quite a few! We always give anything LiPo related a thorough checking over and when we did a teardown of this one we were really impressed at the build quality. The shell is really sturdy, the LiPo cell is fixed in place securely and well protected on the inside and the safety features are all up to spec.

It's the battery we use with Trilobot, but it would also work well with a MyNaturewatch wildlife camera, or to power a string of LEDs in a portable Plasma 2040 project. If you're planning on using it to feed a power hungry Pi 4, bear in mind that you'll probably want to pick up a USB-C to USB-C cable so you can connect it to the 3A capable USB-C output.

Features

  • 5,000mAh capacity
  • 1 x USB-C input/output
    • 12W PD input (5V 2.1A; 9V 1.4A; 12V 1A)
    • 18W PD output (5V 3A; 9V 2A; 12V 1.5A)
  • 1 x USB-A QC3.0 output (5V 2.1A; 9V 2A; 12V 1.5A)
  • Soft-touch peach skin finish
  • Includes USB-C to USB-A charging cable
  • Charges in 3h with a 5v2A charger
  • Charges in 1.5h with a 9v2A charger

Specifications

Number of Cells 1 Cells
Voltage 5 V to 12 V
Capacity 5000 mAh
Watt hours 18.2 Wh
Weight 101g
Dimensions 76 mm x 27 mm x 35 mm
Shape Rectangular

 

Notes

  • Undocumented low current mode!⚡ Like most power banks, this one will shut off power if you're drawing very low amounts of current (from a microcontroller, for example). However, if you hold down the button until the lights come on one by one this will make the power stay on, even if the current draw is low. Note that it does seem to automatically exit this mode after a few hours, so it might not be useful if you need to keep your low-current device powered for extended periods. You can also exit this mode by plugging the power pack in to charge.