Power Practical has a new device on Kickstarter called the Pronto, a portable power bank that only needs 60 minutes to fully charge. It employs Lithium Polymer batteries to achieve fast charges, and these are known to be volatile in certain cases. Power Practical looks to avoid issues from a healthy dose of electronics engineering.
Power Practical is bringing tech to your portable electronics that has been available in the radio controlled hobby for a few years. It launched a new Kickstarter campaign, following two other successful projects. The company was invested in by Mark Cuban after a successful appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank. This is by far its most ambitious project yet since there is much more engineering needed on the Pronto. The Pronto comes in two versions, 4500mAh (25W,5V,5A) and 13,500mAh (60W,12V,5A). The first early bird prices were $59 and $99 respectively. Both models are equipped with 2.4A USB ports and charge via a DC wall wart charger. The higher capacity version comes with a 12V output to a car adapter, allowing you to use it to charge a larger variety of items.
Pronto 5 – 4,500 mAh capacity
Pronto 12 – 13,500 mAh capacity
These portable chargers employ Lithium Polymer cells and sophisticated circuits for charging the cells and regulating the power output. The cells are known for their volatility when punctured, shorted, under charged, overcharged, or compromised in other ways. To help prevent these from being punctured or compromised the chargers have a heavy duty die cast hard-anodized aluminum shell for protection. The ports are protected by a cap that has a silicone seal held in place by an elastic band. The upside to using this technology in the chargers is that it will be fully charged and ready to go in an hour or less. This is a massive improvement over other chargers that take many hours to reach capacity.
LiPo cell and circuit board
It sure looks like the company has done its homework on this device to make sure that it will stay safe with use. The project has already reached 200% of its goal in only 4 days. It is easy to see this being the go to charger of travelers within the next year due to being able to reach capacity so quickly. This will definitely allow some people to have more time having fun and less time staring at the charger wondering when it will be done.
Die cast hard-anodized aluminum shell are important for these chargers
