What are attachments for power banks that keep them always on called? I need an always on power bank to power my UKRAA PicoMuon muon detector during my trans-atlantic airflight of month for my altitude muon detection experiment

They’re usually called “keep-alive loads” or “dummy loads” (less commonly “load resistors”).

In practice you’ll see them sold under a few more consumer-friendly names:

• USB keep-awake dongle
• Power bank keep-on adapter
• Constant load resistor (USB load)
• Trickle load / minimum load adapter
• Anti-auto-off adapter

What they do

Most power banks switch off when the current draw is too low. These little plugs deliberately draw a small steady current so the bank thinks something is still connected.

Typical form

Usually a small USB-A plug with an internal resistor (sometimes a resistor + capacitor network), e.g. drawing ~50–200 mA continuously.

Related feature (not hardware)

Some newer banks instead have:

• “Low-current mode” / “always-on mode” (a button setting rather than an attachment)

15 June 2026: I purchased from Lidl, UK, an Ultimate speed power bank with compressor UPK 10 H5. This power bank provides 12V and 5V output with USB-A and USB-C outputs. Trials have shown that it remains on for several hours with the UKRAA PicoMuon detector, solving the powering issue for me.