What is shared power bank composed of?

We will give you a comprehensive introduction to the components of shared power bank and its corresponding functions from the external structure, internal structure, control system, battery, software and payment methods of shared power bank, and comprehensively analyze the specialized knowledge of shared power bank, so that you have a clear understanding of what shared power bank is.

Part 1: Charging cabinet

1.1、External Structure

Designed according to the number of chargers, generally 4/ 5 / 6 / 8/ 12/ 24/ 32/ 48/ 72/ 96/ 120-port and 216-port integrated super large cabinets.

According to the needs of different scenarios, it is divided into outdoor waterproof and indoor scenarios (desktop, wall-mounted, vertical, etc.) according to functional areas

Vertical cabinets are usually placed in shopping malls, airports, railway stations and other places with high traffic flow, and their height is usually around 1 - 2 meters, which is convenient for users to operate; desktop cabinets, on the other hand, are smaller and suitable for placing on desktops in restaurants, cafes, and other small commercial places. Outdoor waterproof cabinets are suitable for placing in squares, parks, and scenic spots and other places with a large flow of people.

Common plastic shell and metal shell. Plastic shell is generally used ABS engineering plastics or PC plastic, with good insulation, lightweight and a certain degree of impact resistance. The metal shell is mostly made of alloy, with good pressure resistance and anti-theft properties; the main role is to protect the internal components.

1.2、Internal structure

Silo channel structure , the main role is to rent the charging treasure when returning and ejecting the limitation of the position, to prevent the charging treasure directly pull out and take away to cause damage

Slot design: used for storing and fixing the charging treasure, the size and shape of the slot matches the charging treasure, and some of them have a certain tilt angle, which is convenient for users to access the charging treasure, and there is a charging interface inside the slot, which is connected to the charging pin of the charging treasure to realize the function of charging for the charging treasure.

Inside the cabinet, there are several slots dedicated to storage and charging, and the size and shape of these slots are customized according to the size of the shared power bank. Typically, the slots are deep enough to ensure that the chargers can be securely placed in them and will not fall out when the cabinet is moved or subjected to minor external forces. The number of slots varies depending on the size of the cabinet and the purpose for which it was designed. Smaller cabinets may have a few to a dozen slots, while large vertical cabinets may have dozens or even hundreds of slots.

Installed in or near the charging slot, used to detect the insertion and removal status of the charging treasure, when the user inserts or removes the charging treasure, the inductor will send the signal to the control system, in order to carry out the corresponding billing, management and other operations. 

The earliest because of the immaturity of the technology using solenoid valves to control the rental and return of the charging treasure pop-up and return, but due to the high failure rate and give up, most of them have now adopted a more stable form of motor drive, precise control of the pop-up distance and strength, to reduce the failure to enhance the user's experience.

Shade components are set up at the front of the charging slot, when the charging treasure is removed, the shading plate is automatically closed, mainly used to prevent dust and debris from entering the warehouse channel, reduce cabinet failure to enhance the service life of the cabinet.

1.3. Control system

PCBA motherboard, the core component of the control system, on which various electronic components are integrated, such as microprocessors, memory, communication modules, power management chips, etc., is responsible for controlling and managing the operation of the entire cabinet, including charging control of charging treasure, rental and return process management, data statistics and transmission and other functions.

Some cabinets will add different versions of Android to run different programs of shared power bank to realize different functional requirements.

Communication module: It realizes the communication connection between the cabinet and the server or cloud management platform, and usually adopts 4G, 5G and other wireless communication technologies, uploads the status information of the cabinet (such as charging power, rental situation, fault information, etc.) to the server, and at the same time receives commands issued by the server (such as remote control commands, price adjustment commands, etc.); in some areas, it can adopt the network interface and WiFi module to solve the network problems. Problems. The inconsistency of the network system of each national region leads to the price of communication module varies, of which the communication module of GSM is the most expensive.

Power management module: It is responsible for distributing and managing the power supply of the cabinet, on the one hand, it converts the AC power into the voltage and current suitable for charging the rechargeable treasure and other components inside the cabinet, and on the other hand, it monitors and protects the charging process, preventing over-charging, over-discharging, short-circuiting and so on.

Power supply: Convert AC power into DC power to supply power to the rechargeable battery and the cabinet control system by means of an adapter which is suitable for the voltage and current of the cabinet.

Display: Installed on the surface of the cabinet, it is used to display the rental process of the charging treasure, use instructions, charging standards, cabinet status and other information, which is convenient for the user to operate and understand the situation of the cabinet, and part of the display also supports touch operation, so that the user can rent and return the charging treasure by touching the screen and other operations.

Indicator light: Different colors and states of indicator lights are set on the surface of the cabinet or near the charging slot to indicate the working status of the cabinet, such as power indicator light, charging indicator light, fault indicator light, etc.. For example, the charging indicator can show the charging progress of the rechargeable treasure, and the fault indicator light indicates that the cabinet is in trouble and needs maintenance personnel to deal with it.

Cooling Fan: Installed inside or on the side of the cabinet, when the temperature inside the cabinet is too high, the cooling fan will start automatically to accelerate the air flow, discharging the heat out of the cabinet, lowering the internal temperature and ensuring the normal operation of the equipment.

Decorative components: RGB color adjustable ambient lighting, adjusted according to the decorative style and personal preferences.

Other components:

①.POS machine bracket: for example, in order to facilitate the user to use our self-developed external different POS devices, fixed POS machine in shared power bank cabinet, convenient for the user to swipe the card to rent, rather than using APP, to enhance the convenience of the user to use shared power bank.

②. Wall-mounted component, hang the shared power bank on the wall to save installation space for users to borrow.

③. Floor stand, the shared power bank is mounted on the stand and can be placed anywhere for customers to see and use.

④. Built-in functional components, for the sake of aesthetics and ease of use will be different POS machine bracket on the inside of the cabinet, to realize the card leasing

User interaction interface: In order to facilitate the use of users, the cabinet is usually equipped with a user interaction interface. This interface mainly includes the display and operation buttons. The display screen is used to show the user information, such as the rental process description of the rechargeable battery, the remaining number of rechargeable batteries, rental fees and so on. The operation buttons are used for the user to perform the operation of renting and returning the rechargeable treasure, for example, the user can start renting the rechargeable treasure by pressing the “Rent” button, and complete the return operation by pressing the “Return” button.

Part 2：Battery

Generally 5000/6000 mA rental users emergency charging after return, the advantages of charging treasure product price is relatively low, lack of charging speed is not super fast charging fast, generally half an hour to charge 30% or so, to meet the user wants to quickly full of cell phone battery needs.

With the maturity of the technology and the development of the industry, super fast charging will slowly replace the ordinary charging treasure, super fast charging basic battery capacity of 8000 mAh and above, can quickly meet the user's charging needs, charging half an hour to reach about 60% of the power.

Material: mostly PC and ABS fireproof material, plastic and other insulation materials

Role: to protect the internal components, to prevent external impact, collision damage to the internal circuit and battery, but also play a certain insulation and aesthetic effect .

Type: Usually use lithium-ion batteries, or lithium polymer batteries.

Role: It is the core component of the rechargeable treasure, responsible for storing electric energy and providing power support for external devices 1.

Circuit components: integrated with the main control chip, battery protection chip, charge management chip, communication chip and other electronic components 

The main control chip is responsible for the whole machine control, responsible for input and output control and other functions 

Battery protection chip is used to prevent the battery from over-charging, over-discharging and over-current.

Charging management chip controls the charging process of the battery to ensure safe and efficient charging.

The communication chip realizes the communication between the rechargeable battery and the cabinet, so as to manage the operation of renting and returning.

Function realization: realize charging and discharging management, power monitoring and display, output control, communication with cabinet and various protection functions of the battery. 

Interface type: Usually has a variety of output interfaces, such as Micro USB, USB-C, Lightning interface, etc., to meet the charging needs of different brands and models of cell phones on the market.

Charging Contacts: There is a charging contact on the bottom or side for connecting with the shared power bank cabinet to realize the charging and data communication function.

Indicator light: Generally located on the surface of the rechargeable treasure, it is used to display the power status, charging status and other information. There are indicator lights or indicator rings on the top or front of the shared rechargeable treasure, which indicate different power level and working status through different colors or flashing methods. 

Buttons: Usually there is a power button, which is used to turn on or off the output of the rechargeable battery.

Charging port: Type-C port, if the customer buys the charging treasure directly, he/she can charge the charging treasure himself/herself to use.

Thermistor: used to detect the battery temperature, when the battery temperature is too high, it can trigger the protection mechanism to prevent the battery from overheating damage or even danger. 

Anti-theft locking slot: some rechargeable treasure is equipped with anti-theft locking slot on both sides of the rechargeable treasure, with the anti-theft lock of the cabinet, to prevent the rechargeable treasure from being maliciously taken out. 

Part 4：Payment:

Payment channel development required documentation / SDK, etc., for the use of is the scanning code payment collection issues.

User operation and data transmission

Scanning code identification: Users use their cell phones to scan the QR code on the shared power bank equipment, this operation will trigger the cell phone application or applet to obtain the unique identification of the equipment and other information, and then transmit these data to the shared power bank operation platform through the network.

User Confirmation: After the platform receives the information of the device, it will push the rental fee, the remaining power of the charger, the duration of use and other related information to the user. After the user confirms the rental and selects the payment method, the user will encrypt the payment instruction and related payment information and then transmit them to the operation platform again.

Order generation and billing: After receiving the payment instruction from the user, the operation platform first generates the corresponding rental order, records the rental time, charging treasure number, user account number and other information, and calculates the cost of the rental according to the preset billing rules, such as hourly billing, package billing and so on.

Payment interface call: The operation platform calls the corresponding third-party payment interface according to the payment method chosen by the user, such as WeChat Pay, Alipay Pay, etc., and passes the encrypted payment information and order amount and other data to the third-party payment platform.

Payment verification and authorization: After receiving the payment request from the operation platform, the third-party payment platform verifies and authorizes the user's payment information, including checking whether the user's account balance is sufficient, whether the payment password is correct, and whether the bank card is valid.

Funds transfer: If the payment verification is passed, the third party payment platform will deduct the corresponding rental fees from the user's account and temporarily freeze or directly transfer the funds to the account opened by the operator of the shared power bank in the payment platform, and at the same time return the notification of successful payment to the operation platform.

Order update and feedback: After receiving the successful payment notification from the third-party payment platform, the operation platform will update the order status to “paid” and feedback the successful rental information to the user, and at the same time, unlock the charging device and allow the user to take it out and use it, thus completing the whole payment process.

Data Recording and Analysis: The operation platform will record the relevant data of this transaction, such as payment time, payment amount, payment method, etc. into the database, so as to facilitate the subsequent statistical analysis of data, financial accounting and provide a basis for operational decision-making.

Almost everyone in China has two payment software, Alipay and WeChat, only need to open the payment software to realize the rental of shared power bank, simple and efficient.

In other countries and regions mobile payment may not be particularly popular, and there are a variety of payment companies, the payment environment is more complex, so this is also an obstacle to do shared power bank project outside of China.

January 7, 2025