Does anyone know whether any of the Anker Powerbanks are compatible with this watch. Or any other brand of powerbank that you have experience with. Going backpacking shortly and will be in the wilds for 5 days at a time so will need some lightweight power source.
I've been owning my fenix 5 since a few days only now, but my RAVpower 6.700mAH powerbank worked always fine with my vivoactive 3. But powerbank may turn off when watch is charged about 90% because the watch will change to trickle charging then and therefore will draw only very few power. But no problem for your needs I guess.
I've used Fenix 5 with RAVpower (15,000) while backpacking last weekend. It charges without issue as it should, though as schlezifish said, it will not charge all the way to 100%. At around 90% the power draw is so low that powerbank just shuts down - this confused me at first until I figured out what's going on. You can get around it by charging something in another port at the same time (like phone), if your powerbank has two ports, but it's not really an issue.
I would assume most powerbanks should work just fine, unless they have superagressive shutdown policy, since this watch never draws huge amounts of power while charging.
Some powerbanks have some specific mode for wearables and other low-power devices. On my Xiaomi powerbank, I have to double-tap the power button on the to enter the mode. In this mode, the powerbank charges even if the power consumption is quite low.
Every random USB charger I have will charge the watch. One thing to keep in mind though is that if you want to record a track while charging, I have come across some chargers that stop/save the track, so test ahead. Also, pressing buttons on the watch, changing screens while it's charging can also stop charging.
With Xiaomi NDY-02-AN, I was unable to charge. Maybe it starts charging, but it soon detects low power being drawn from powerbank and shuts the port down.
With Xiaomi PLM02ZM, I can charge by using low-power mode (double press power button).
Yes, charging during activity is tricky. I have some experience with a stopped activity: forums.garmin.com/.../940073
I've had several power banks over the years and all have worked fine with my Fenix watches (3 and now my 5x.) However, as others have noted, it won't charge all the way -- it'll shut off at some point as the power draw gets too low for it to continue. The one I have now is an Omars, which I bought as it has USB-PD and thus re-charges a LOT faster, never mind being able to feed my phone at "full speed" as well. I've previously had a RAVPower which also worked ok.
