Author: HOBOTECH Tom

BougeRV JuiceGo 240Wh Ultra Portable Power Station Solar Generator

Posted on by HOBOTECH Tom
bougerv juicego

BougeRV JuiceGo 240Wh Ultra Portable Power Station Solar Generator

The Professor reviews BougeRV’s new JuiceGo 240Wh LFP ultra portable power station with 50w folding solar panel.

bougerv juicego
Watch it here.

BougeRV, the brand known mostly for their solar panels and 12v fridges, is releasing a new line of portable power products in 2024. Their latest offering is called the “JuiceGo”, it’s an ultra portable LiFePo4 micro power station, designed for folks on the go. Is it any good? Let’s check it out!

The JuiceGo sports a 240wh LiFePO4 battery with a 3500 cycle life in a compact case that’s only 10 and a quarter, by 6.7, by 2.6 inches and weighs in at a measly 6 and a quarter pounds.

You carry it upright using this strap and when carried this way reminds me of a vintage camera case or maybe even a tri-corder that Spock used on the original star trek [image]

What’s different about this micro sogen is that unlike a lot of the competition, this has a built in color LCD screen that gives you all the necessary information like input/output watts, battery state of charge percentage, AC & DC output icons, and an error icon.

This mini power station is also very simple to operate. You have a single power button that you hold to turn the unit on, then press again to turn on the AC inverter. Yes, this has a built in 150w modified sine inverter on the back. The main purpose of this tiny inverter is to charge up your laptop but you can run other small devices too such as a fan, LED lights, a TV, radio, CPAP machine, or even a portable telescope. With the upcoming once in a lifetime T coro-nae borealis nova about to blow, I’ve been shopping for a good telescope, and the JuiceGo would be a great way to power it in the field.

As for DC outputs you have plenty on the front. The “Juice” offers a 13v regulated cigarette lighter accessory socket good for 10A or 130w total, a pair of USB-C ports – one is 100w bi-directional which means you can charge this with USB-C PD, and the other is a 30w output only perfect for phones and tablets. It also sports a single USB-A quick charge output great for powering anything USB. It’s actually very well rounded for a micro power station.

As for ways to charge there are 4 total, with one caveat. The JuiceGo doesn’t actually charge directly from AC wall power as there is no AC adapter included. However, an AC adapter is sold separately that simply converts AC power into 100w PD. You may already have one of these in your home.

So your choice for charging out of the box, is either going to be from solar, with 12v/24v from the included car port adapter, or if you have your own USB-C PD output (like from another solar generator) you can charge it that way. All four ways to charge are hard capped at 100w each so they all take relatively the same time, or 0-full in about 2.5 hours.

There is no simultaneous charging support on this product, so no you can’t charge with two methods at the same time. It does support pass through charging which means you can use both AC and DC outputs while at the same time charging. The maximum combined AC+DC output is 410w.

Solar is hard capped at 100w with the input limited to 11-32v @10A. The JuiceGo does come in a bundle with a very nice and compact 50w solar panel. Under ideal conditions you can fully charge the JuiceGo with their 50w panel in about 5 hours, or one typical solar day. You can use your own solar panel up to 32v and 100w to charge it in under 3 hours, but be aware the solar charge port is a 7909 or 8mm input. This is the same size solar input used by smaller Bluetti and Jackery power stations. You can of course use an MC4 to 8mm adapter to run any solar panel you like as long as it’s under 32v Voc, and those adapters are available at gohobo.io/adapters.

This product can be discharged in temperatures as low as –4F (or –20C), and can be charged in temperatures as high as 104F (or 40C).

As for auto shut off, the AC will turn itself off after 1 hour if under a 5w load, and DC will turn itself off after 1 hour if there is no DC load. This means it will power a DC refrigerator without issue as long as it cycles at least once per hour. If you’re camping in below refrigerator temperatures and the JuiceGo does power down your fridge, you can simply turn the LED light on and that should be enough load to keep the DC side running. 

Speaking of that light, do you think it has the infamous SOS feature? Let’s see… 

I did perform a DC battery capacity test at 8A and it scored 230wh out of 240 for a very impressive 96%. No one is going to care about anything else on a DC focused product such as this, so I didn’t bother with any of the other tests. We know that the 100w bi directional USB works just fine because that’s how I charged it up.

So there you have it, the JuiceGo by BougeRV. I think it’s pretty cool and I can certainly see several use cases for something of this size. It is designed for personal power only, and not for running your RV, home kitchen appliances, or anything like that. 150w won’t even run the smallest coffee maker so don’t even try. But if you need to throw a couple of charges into your laptop, or want an easy to carry CPAP battery, this is certainly a solid choice.

GET THE JUICEGO: https://gohobo.io/juice use code HOBOTECH20 (valid until May 31st)

SOLAR ADAPTERS: https://gohobo.io/adapters

 

Reviewing Amazon’s CHEAPEST Gaming PC Computer! Dell OptiPlex

Posted on by HOBOTECH Tom
dell optiplex $125 pc

 

dell optiplex $125 pc
Click HERE to watch!

 

Reviewing Amazon’s CHEAPEST Gaming PC Computer! Dell OptiPlex

 

The Professor reviews Amazon’s cheapest Windows 10 Pro, Intel i5 quad core, 4K FULL PC desktop computer with HD LCD monitor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Keyboard / Mouse that’s gaming and workstation ready!

  • No, this isn’t click bait. You can actually buy a modern 64 bit, quad core desktop computer with LCD monitor, keyboard, and mouse for only 125 bucks. It also includes WiFi & Bluetooth, and comes preloaded with Windows 10 Professional, meaning it can run virtually any PC software, including most games. If this sounds too good to be true, it’s not ,because I bought one myself to ask one simple question, is it any good? Let’s find out!
  • So what’s the catch? First, these aren’t brand new PC’s, but ones that have been refreshed by qualified Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers. These aren’t fly by night companies but ones that have a proven track record of professionally refurbishing Windows PC’s. Being in this program allows them to install fresh, new copies of Windows at virtually no cost. Which is one reason why they are so inexpensive.
  • These PC’s originally started as new computers that were likely used in a corporate environment. When a business gets new PC’s, for example to move to Windows 11, the old PC’s get recycled to refurbishers that then clean them up, and flip them for resell in bulk. What this means for you, is that you get what looks like a brand new, totally clean, and fully functioning computer for pennies on the dollar. In most cases you won’t even know the parts were used because they are cleaned, tested, hard drives are wiped, and anything broken has been replaced. The PC I bought also includes a refurbished monitor, a new keyboard & mouse combo, and a full copy of Windows 10 Pro pre-installed in that $125 price. Amazon Refurbished does provide a 90 day warranty and some of the companies selling these bump that up to a full year.
  • Before we take a look at the PC in detail. You may ask why you even need one to begin with.
  • In 2024, there are still many reasons to own a desktop PC. While it is technically feasible to do most things online with a modern cell phone, there’s a lot of software out there that still requires a PC or Mac to run. Many tasks are simply easier on a big screen with a full keyboard and mouse. If you type a lot, need to multi-task, or use spreadsheets you know what I mean.
  • Yes, you can use a laptop but even the cheapest Windows laptops start around $350 and are honestly, garbage. They have horrible screens, mushy keyboards, and are slow as molasses for any real tasks. Let’s not even talk about Apple products because we all know what those cost – even the used market is crazy.
  • While the $125 PC I’m about to show you isn’t a power house by any means, it is far better than a cheap $350 laptop and is almost as portable. These are compact “flat top” or horizontal cases that can also be ran in the vertical position. They include a DVD drive so you can install software from CD’s or DVD’s as well as watch DVD movies. There is no floppy drive but they do support boot loading from flash drives. The included monitor is 19” which is just the right size to stick on top of the case as you see here and takes up very little space.
  • If you’re saying, well laptops have batteries and you can use them anywhere. My answer to that is “I have dozens of reviews on small micro power stations that will run this PC probably a lot longer than your cheap laptop.”
  • Okay, let’s get on with the review – starting with the basic specs of this PC.
    • This model is the Dell Optiplex 5040 with an Intel Quad Core I5-6500 processor clocked at 3.2ghz but boosts to 3.6ghz. This CPU made its debut in 2015 but is still a 64 bit processor that supports most of the modern Intel features such as Speedstep & Virtualizaion. This processor does include Intel HD 2500 graphics and supports up to 3 monitors using InTru 3D and Clear Video HD technology. All this means is that videos and graphics will look great. While I’m not a fan of processors with built in graphics, they do keep the price down. I do have an upgrade path for better graphics planned towards the end of this video.
    • This PC comes with 8GB of DDR3 memory which is fine for most tasks and can be upgraded to 32GB. We will add additional memory during testing for $20 to see how much faster it gets.
    • It also includes a 500GB SATA hard drive which can be upgraded later if needed. That should be plenty of space for most.
    • At this price point, it also comes with a 19” LCD monitor, a new keyboard and mouse, and Windows 10 Pro which is nice because Windows 10 Home sucks.
    • Now the reason I chose this specific PC is because it is still modern, and comes with enough power and memory to handle the majority of tasks. While it won’t handle the latest Call of Duty or edit 4K videos, you can get pretty close with a few choice upgrades.
    • What I will do first is test it as-is with a benchmark program to get a baseline then run a few popular games to see how it does. Then I’ll upgrade the memory and run the same tests again. Finally, I’ll upgrade the graphics and see how much improvement we get.
    • First, let’s put the thing together…

 

  • Default tests: PCMark, GTA5, Minecraft, Skyrim
  • Added GPU, repeated tests.

Opinion:

  • Wow! I have to admit I’m really shocked just how fast this thing gets with just a few minor upgrades. Yeah, I doubled the price of the PC doing it, but we’re still under $275 with all of the upgrades and the result is a PC that can handle some pretty serious gaming and is pretty snappy when it comes to programs. The major bottleneck is that clunky 500GB hard drive. I bet if I swapped that out for a SSD this little box would scream even with only 16GB of memory. [See YouTube Video after upgrade]
  • This goes to show you that just because you’re old, doesn’t mean you’re dead. While there are some amazing high end processors out there you have to realize that most of the software on the market today is far behind today’s monster processing power. A lot of stuff runs just fine on 10 year old hardware as long as you have half decent graphics and memory. A quad core 3.5ghz processor is generally “good enough” for anything short of high end gaming or video editing. If you’re not a serious gamer and you just tinker with photo/video editing, and want a much better experience online than a tablet or laptop … this is a real eye opener and a huge value when it seems like everything is just getting more expensive. They are also so easy to upgrade with the tool-less design that anyone can do it. I would totally buy one of these PC’s as a gift to anyone that wants or needs a computer. At $125 that’s less than the cost of a decent night out with the family. Instead of dinner for mother’s day, get her a PC! Kids need a computer for school? Bam. If they break it, so what. With the included DVD player and HDMI output it would even make a great entertainment center PC for your TV. The applications are endless at this price.

Pricing

  • On a final note about that price. I’ve been calling this the “$125 PC” because that’s what I paid for mine from Amazon Refurbished just a few months ago. This particular model’s price varies depending on which reseller that day has the “buy box” and that’s not always the one with the lowest price. I’ve seen this same PC go for as low as $121 or as much as $139. There is a lot of competition with this model so you may spend a few dollars more or less than the quoted $125. I purchased mine from the seller “United PC Tek” and if you get it from the same seller it should be identical to mine or somewhat close. I know some of the other sellers may offer the same product in a different Dell case or may include a different brand monitor of the same size. Since this stuff is refurbished and limited to product in hand, what they sell over time is likely to change.

CHECK IT OUT HERE: https://gohobo.io/dell7010

Graphics Card Upgrade: https://gohobo.io/gt1030

Memory Upgrade: https://gohobo.io/ddr3l

Speaker Upgrade: https://gohobo.io/IEbm

SSD Hard Drive Upgrade: https://gohobo.io/evo870

DVI to HDMI Cable (for graphics card upgrade): https://gohobo.io/QhGZ

CFORCE Portable Monitor: https://gohobo.io/bJlh (2.5K version – 4K sold out)

WANT A FASTER PC? Dell 7020 i7 with SSD $161! https://gohobo.io/dell7020

 

BLUETTI AC240 2400w IP65 Water Resistant Modular Solar Generator Battery Power Station

Posted on by HOBOTECH Tom
bluetti ac240 b210

 

bluetti ac240 b210
Watch here: https://youtu.be/K3SnGM3fzho

 

BLUETTI AC240 2400w IP65 Water Resistant Modular Solar Generator Battery Power Station

The Professor reviews the IP65 water resistant Bluetti AC240 solar generator and B210 modular battery bank good for up to 20kWh of power and 4800w output in parallel mode.

  • Bluetti has released yet another AC200 series power station that oddly seems to compete with it’s own most recent release, the AC200L. Despite having a smaller battery, this one is called the AC240. So what’s the big deal? Well the AC240 comes packing some new features not supported in any of their other midsize offerings. Such as an inverter parallel ability only found in their flagship products (so you can hook two together for more power), direct battery expansion support up to 20kWh with their new B210 battery, a new app-free interface that lets you change all the settings without needing an app and then turn off all WiFi and Bluetooth, and last but not least… IP65 water resistance. It certainly ticks a lot of boxes. But, is it any good? Let’s find out!

Features

  • Battery Capacity/Tech/Cycles: 1536wh LFP battery rated 3500 cycles to 80% capacity and can be expanded up to a whopping 10kWh of capacity (20kWh if in parallel mode) using the new IP65 rated B210 expansion battery we’ll check out in a bit.

  • Size/Weight: It measures a tall 17 x 12 x 16 inches and weighs in at a meaty 72 lbs – this is 10 pounds heavier than the AC200L, that has a larger battery and same size inverter. Not really sure where it packed on 10 extra pounds but mcdonalds did reintroduce the double big mac recently. Hmm… 

  • Design/Display: The AC240 rocks the same high quality color LCD as their other models, and this one shows you everything you need to know from watts in and out to time to charge and discharge. I counted 29 total pieces of information on display. Dang.

  • Inverter Size/Type: This has the same power inverter as the AC200L or 2400w with a brief 3600w surge. Of course they offer their proprietary “power lifting” feature that claims to power resistive devices up to 3600w, but it does this by dropping the voltage of the inverter. I always suggest turning this feature off to prevent damaging your appliances.

  • Ways To Charge:

    • The AC240 can charge via AC wall outlet or grid power using the included cable, up to 2200w for charging from 0-80% in 45 minutes. However, this product is factory locked to 1800w and in order to unlock faster charging you need to get a pass code from support. Just be aware of that.

    • It can of course charge from solar with the built in 1200w MPPT controller in a “theoretical” 2 hours under perfect conditions. However, unlike the AC200L’s 145v controller, this one is limited to a maximum of 60 volts at 21 amps. That’s right. 60 volts. That’s going to make it quite difficult to hit that magic 1200w mark because you’d need the perfect series-parallel combo of panels to reach 60 volts at 21 amps without over volting. Remember, “you can over amp but you can’t over volt”. Over volting a power station will result in either a shut down, or smoke. We’ll get deeper into this situation, in a moment.

    • Last and certainly least you can charge from a 12 or 24v source at 8.2 amps that’s good for 100w and 200w of charging respectively.

  • 12v Output Types: Bluetti decided to ditch the fancy new proprietary 48v output on this model and go back to the very useful 30A 12v output that van lifers, RVers, and hobbyists love. There is also the standard 10A lighter socket for powering your retro items.

  • USB Output Types: The AC240 offers the typical pair of USB-C 100w PD outputs alongside a pair of 18w USB-A QC ports. This is standard fare nowadays with most midsize power stations.

  • Other Outputs: Note that Bluetti doesn’t seem to be offering wireless charging pads anymore on their latest offerings and this product is no exception. I personally miss the wireless pads. Maybe because this is a stackable product they opted out this time.

  • Other Features:

    • The AC240 does offer the aforementioned Parallel ability where you can use an optional hub to connect two AC240’s together. This shares the inverter and battery power between the two units equally and will split the loads. However, this parallel ability has a very important limitation that we’ll review in a moment.

    • App haters rejoice! You no longer need an app to change the major behind the scenes settings in your AC240. You can also opt to disable all wireless access permanently until you decide to turn it back on. 

    • The AC240 and B210 are rated IP65 dust proof and water resistant. This means dust can’t get inside and you can shoot a ¼ inch stream of water at 3 gal/min from any direction into the unit with zero damage done. This is very handy if you need power outdoors in severe weather or on a boat.

  • Warranty: 6 year warranty for both the AC240 and its B210 battery

Testing

  • DC Battery Capacity Test (time lapse): 1210wh/1536 for 79%. If you were paying attention to the time lapse you’ll notice I was using the 30A output instead of the cigarette lighter. I did this to speed up the test thinking that it may score better around 20A. It certainly didn’t help. The AC200L scored 5% better on this test, but it doesn’t offer the coveted 30A output of the AC240 so it’s going to be more efficient at DC.

  • AC Battery Capacity Test (time lapse): 1270wh/1536 for 83%, which is average for the industry but nowhere near the 91% scored by the AC200L. I assumed these two inverters at 2400w were identical but they can’t be, and we’ll verify this in a moment.

  • Phantom load / Parasitic drain test

    • DC consumption: used 177wh (%) over 12 hours or about 354wh over 24 hours. This is on par with other midsize stations and pretty close to what the AC200L scored.

    • AC consumption: used 109wh (%) over 4 hours or about 654wh over 24 hours. If you left the inverter on it would totally kill the battery in under 3 days. This is literally double the idle consumption of the AC200L, so this tells me that they are using a totally different 2400w inverter on the same 51v battery architecture.

  • I’m always asked how long stuff will run. Compensating for usable capacity, you can pause this chart to see approximately how long common appliances will run on this unit.

    • 13500 btu RV a/c (1200w @50% cyc): 2 hrs

    • 6000 btu window a/c (400w @50% cyc): 6 hrs

    • 20cuft modern fridge (1.2kwh/day): 1 day

    • 1500w heater: <1 hour

    • 1200w microwave (1800w): 40 mins

    • Keurig coffee maker (1200w 60wh/c): 20 cups

    • Instant Pot (1000w @50% cyc): 3 hrs

    • Hot plate (500w): 3 hrs

    • 55” LED TV (80w): 15 hrs

    • Macbook (60w): 20 hrs

    • Box Fan (50w): 24 hrs

    • CPAP (30w): 40 hrs

    • Chromebook (15w): 3 days

    • Tablet (5w): 5 days

     

  • Sine wave check under load: 120v / 60hz

  • Inverter capacity test (max): 3200w >5s

  • Cooling ability test (rated @ 5mins): 2400w max

  • Inverter fan noise db: 49

  • Max Charge Rate AC @ watts/volts: fast w ; quiet w; standard w

  • DC Input Range: 12-60v

  • Max Charge Rate DC @ watts/volts: 12v 100w; 24v 200w; 48v 1050w; max 60v 1020w (equipment limited)

  • Charging fan noise db: AC max 43db ; AC min 0db ; Solar 0db

  • Simultaneous charging ability: 1020w solar + 1180w AC = 2200w (amp limited)

  • Pass thru / UPS: 15ms pass with PC test

  • DC Output(s) Max Rate: 10A 12.6v; 30A @ 360w pass

  • 12v output(s) regulated: 13.6v

  • USB output rate check: 2x 100w pass

  • Wireless/other output: na

  • Amp interference test: pass

    • AM radio test: inverter noisy

    • EMF test: 70 (very high)

My Opinion

  • The AC240 is another fine product from Bluetti, a brand that releases more new products each year than most hobos change their underwear – present company excluded. The new parallel ability is very cool along with the ability to store up to 20kWh of power if you max out the battery capacity with 8 of those B210 batteries. I like the new B210’s. They’ve managed to squeeze 100wh more power than the B230 for only one extra inch of space. However, like the AC240, it’s quite a bit heavier. Like 14 more pounds than the B230. So this doesn’t make sense to me. Does IP65 water resistance really create so much more heft? I suppose with the water proof chambers and this mysterious bleed valve system it can. But for the customer, is the extra size and weight worth it? I’ll leave that up to you.

  • One thing that I know app haters will adore is the ability to change all the major settings and totally disable WiFi and Bluetooth. I was literally just asked this question a week ago, if such a modern power station exists. Now it does.

  • Where the AC240 falls flat in my opinion is the limited solar charging voltage. It maxes out at 60v compared to the rest of the 200-series 145v limit. Maybe Bluetti was trying to reduce the heat inside of this sealed up case? Because of this limit, those that charge with big panels are likely to choose one of the other Bluetti models.

  • The AC240 does shine when it comes to upgradability. If you really need 4800 watts of power in a portable package this is definitely the way to go. Two of these units can be easily placed in just about any vehicle and with a true 30A RV outlet available, you can power a ton of stuff at 120v. Just be aware that the 50A RV outlet on the hub is NOT 240v and will NOT power a 50A RV or any 240v appliance for that matter. I found this out the hard way, and this by design. I did write to the CEO of Bluetti with my complaint, and a dire warning that offering a 240v style NEMA 14-50R outlet that only outputs 120v is going to put them on the chopping block with some customers. I’m hoping that they will update this product or the hub to output split phase 240v as it would be a simple process of running both inverters in opposite phase with each other instead of in the same phase.

Pricing and Competition

  • Product Price with current discount:

    • The AC240 lists at $1399 on Bluetti’s website which happens to be the exact same price as the AC200L. Go figure. However, I do have a discount code in the description of this video that will knock $100 off the AC240 for a limited time until April 29th.

  • Recommended Solar Panel Type/Size:

    • As for solar, you can use a pair of Bluetti’s PV420’s in parallel and charge at a solid 800w with no issues, or go for 4 of their PV200’s in series-parallel for the same effect. The PV420 is my go-to choice for a portable panel when camping and I’ve beat the tar out of mine for about 2 years now with zero issues. If you’re looking for something for a more permanent install, check out my list at gohobo.io/solar for ideas.

GET THE AC240: https://gohobo.io/ac240 use code HOBO240 for $100 off!

(also score $150 off using code HOBO150 on the AC240 + B210 + 2x PV200 bundle!)

Prefer the AC200L? https://gohobo.io/ac200l

Solar Panel options at: https://gohobo.io/solar