I have a robot project with 12V and 5V power needs. I have used USB 'power banks' for the 5V need. These are the type used to charge phones, 2600 or 5200 mAh capacity, I believe they have 18650 batteries inside. Unfortunately 2 of the power banks have been damaged such that they no longer charge. I would like to get opinions on the situation as I do not wish to ruin more batteries. The robot currently has high power leds that run on a large 100Wh 12V Li-ion battery; 5V power banks power a servo, an IR sensor, and an mp3 player.
I found recently from scoping the sensor signal it was very noisy @50Hz when the servo was running, so I tried a separate battery for the servo. I also tied the battery grounds together. This removed a lot of noise on the sensor output, as did adding a RC LPF circuit on the sensor output. Strangely when I added a 100uF capacitor across servo power the noise amplitude increased (resonant circuit??) significantly on the IR sensor output, at least doubled. I also tried using the separate 5v battery on the sensor instead, but the 50Hz noise remained prominent. All the devices are within about 1-2ft of each other, the longest wire is ~1.5ft long. In this testing work of a period of a few days I used 3 batteries and 2 of them no longer charge and I was wondering what can I do to prevent this battery damage. Is this a common problem with this type of battery and how could I avoid or improve the situation. Thanks.