Company Extends Alkaline Battery Life With Voltage Booster 243
New submitter ttsai writes: Batteroo is a Silicon Valley company preparing to release its Batteriser product in September. The Batteriser is a small sleeve that fits around alkaline batteries to boost the voltage to 1.5V. This means that batteries that would otherwise be thrown into the trash when the voltage dips to 1.3V or 1.4V could be used until the unboosted voltage reaches 0.6V, extending the useful life of a battery 8x, according to the company. This product has the potential to reduce the number of batteries in landfills as well as increasing the time between replacing batteries. The expected price of the sleeve is $10 for a pack of 4 sleeves.
Too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
The article presents some info that just isn't quite right. The device will probably be useful but not nearly as good as they claim. Instead of 8 or more to one times the typical battery lifetime, it will be more like two times. Google "joule thief" and read the articles and comments carefully. This device works the same way; just in a compact package.
Re: (Score:3)
There are lots of good comments posted after the original article.
Re:Too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
My intuition as well. In fact, when looking at discharge curves for alkaline batteries and assume than any reasonable gadget will use them down to something like 1.15V (otherwise it does not work with NiMH accumulators which only have 1.22V when fully charged), I expect that you will get less than an 80% boost. That is a bit different from the claimed 500% to 800% and explains why the battery industry does not care much. (Discharge curve e.g. here: http://www.stefanv.com/electro... [stefanv.com])
Of course a device with brain-dead power engineering that claims that batteries are dead at 1.4V would get something like an 1000% boost, but such a device is broken by design and also does not work with accumulators in the first place. Also note that if said device is an LED flashlight with step-up regulator (single-cell ones all are), it already does what this thing is claiming to do.
The break-in story adds to my impression that this is nowhere near as good as claimed.
Re: (Score:3)
When my beard trimmers, yes that's a thing, from 1998, go dead (3 AA), or my elliptical from 2004 (4 D), or any number of remote controls for my DVD, Xbox, roku, tv, or receiver, die, and I have to rotate batteries to charge them, I would prefer to eke a few more minutes with this.
Alternatively, a charge level indicator so I know going in if I need to rotate and charge.
Build this into devices, switching when the battery dies, would be cool, but additional drain like a charge indicator.
As a guy with batterie
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
otherwise it does not work with NiMH accumulators which only have 1.22V when fully charged
No, NiMH and NiCD cells are at 1.41 volts when fully charged. By the time they hit 1.22 volts, perhaps 60% of the energy that was in the battery is gone.
I do not know why primary cell voltages are given at their very highest possible voltage and secondary cell voltages are given approximately at the middle of their useful range -- it basically turns the "1.5v vs 1.2v" thing into an apples to orange comparison, when saying "1.5v vs 1.4v" would be far more accurate.
That said ... how useful this device would
Re: (Score:3)
I do not know why primary cell voltages are given at their very highest possible voltage and secondary cell voltages are given approximately at the middle of their useful range -- it basically turns the "1.5v vs 1.2v" thing into an apples to orange comparison, when saying "1.5v vs 1.4v" would be far more accurate.
The different chemistries are described this way because of the characteristics of the discharge curves. As you can see here [stefanv.com], the NiMH battery (and NiCd is similar) spends most of its life at 1.2V, while the ZnMnO2 batteries have no such plateau.
Under any considerable load, both battery types will drop from 1.5V/1.4V very quickly, so measuring 1.2V across a loaded NiMH battery doesn't mean that 60% of the energy is gone. Self-discharge alone will drop most NiMH/NiCd cells to below 1.4V pretty quickly.
Re:Too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
One doesn't have to look hard to find [powerstream.com] that an alkaline cell drops to 1.4 V when only about 10% of its energy capacity is used. So I can believe the claim, even though it's exceedingly misleading. I can't think of a device designed for alkaline batteries which would fail to work at even 1.0 V/cell.
From the article: "Batteroo is a Silicon Valley company preparing to release its Batteriser product in September."
And don't forget, it's Batterrific!
Re: (Score:3)
There are actually poorly engineered adgets out there that cut off well before an alkaline is tapped. They are the same ones that have trouble operating off NiMHs.
(Whereas the ones the SP mentions that drain the hell out of batteries need to be used with care with NiMH as they can decrease rechargeable shelf life by doing that.)
Ever since LSD NiMHs hit the market I have not bought a single alkaline oter than to put in gifts given to someone who can't handle rechargeables.
Difference between lifetime and energy recovery (Score:3)
The voltage curve for most Alkaline batteries hits 1.3 volts after about 20 to 30% of it's usefully extracable energy. then the curve flattens out dropping the next 0.3 volts to 1 volt after about 70 to 80% of the energy after which is drops like a rock.
So if you could reclaim that 80% energy that might seem like 4x more or a total of 5x energy recovery. But the boost to 1.5v takes the energy out faster so in terms of time rather than energy recovery the lifetime is not increased so much.
let's make some
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
it's means it is.
Not necessarily. You fucking poser grammar Nazis don't even know the rules, yet you try to enforce them. Pathetic.
It's been fun owning your ass, though.
not new (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:not new (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:not new (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
So why is this not built in the devices that need it?
but it is.
Re: (Score:2)
As the baby chick said, cheap cheap cheap!
Re: (Score:3)
So why is this not built in the devices that need it?
Because it cuts into profits.
Don't see this taking off (Score:5, Insightful)
It's going to be limited to low power device, which generally don't cut out when the battery drops to 1.4V. A lot of products are designed to get the most out of a battery, which is around 0.8V per cell.
High power devices cut out quicker because the internal resistance increases, and when a large amount of current is drawn the voltage drops significantly.
These little devices don't have much power capability if they're to be so small as to fit in existing products along side the batteries. They're also not going to be 100% efficient, so in a well designed product, they will decrease battery life.
Re: (Score:2)
This made me wonder why this or similar voltage boosters aren't simply used in the circuitry of the devices that they are powering .. which it sounds like some already are.
Re: (Score:2)
Because they cost money.
Re: (Score:2)
And damage rechargeable batteries by draining them below their safe discharge threshold.
It's just joule thief (Score:4, Insightful)
It's just joule thief, thing is not all batteries can tolerate being over discharged and may fail catastrophically.
Re:It's just joule thief (Score:5, Informative)
Carbon-zinc and alkaline (MnO2) batteries will go to complete discharge without any danger. You're thinking of various rechargeable chemistries that either suffer loss of capacity from excess discharge (Pb Acid, NiCd, NiMH, etc.) or have the potential to fail horribly (lithium chemistries).
Lithium AAs, while they exist, are fairly rare and not the same chemistry as the rechargables. As far as I know, there's no danger in taking them all the way to dead either.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
"Carbon-zinc and alkaline (MnO2) batteries will go to complete discharge without any danger."
Bullshit. Carbon-Zinc batteries use the Zinc can as the cathode. Guess what that means?
As you continue to discharge the battery, the case falls apart because it is eating itself. You get a leak.
Re: (Score:2)
That's why they have a steel casing around the Zinc, genius.
Re: (Score:2)
It still gets corroded through and leaks.
Re:It's just joule thief (Score:4, Informative)
Leaks and corrosion isn't "fail catastrophically", and typically happens after the battery has been dead for some time and the seals fail. Taking them to zero wasn't the problem - not removing them after they were dead was where the problems started. Many rechargable lithium chemistries, however, will generate oxygen and/or pure metal in bad places if excessively discharged (or charged), which then can translate into burning and toxic gases. Now that's catastrophic.
Re: (Score:3)
Look up the word "catastrophically".
Then look up the word "fail" to find a picture of yourself.
What I imagine will happen from this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Not very useful (Score:3)
There aren't many devices that are both low power and require a steady 1.5V operating voltage. Most will tolerate 0.8-1.2V as their low end. In a high drain device, the number of watts left in the cell when the voltage drops below that low end is minuscule, so this sleeve will only buy you a few more minutes of use. In a low drain device, it can give you a significant amount of time but most low-drain devices that would benefit already have a similar circuit built-in. Logitech's wireless mice and keyboards that use alkalines and last months, for example, have this voltage boosting circuitry already, and tuned to the minimum voltage the mouse requires to reduce conversion loss.
Re: (Score:2)
"There aren't many devices that are both low power and require a steady 1.5V operating voltage."
Cameras are quite voltage sensitive. Example, two cameras I own came with 1.2V cells. Two for a total of 2.4V. Recording video in bright lighting conditions is fine. The second you drop past a certain light level, the audio capturing/encoding gets beyond fucked, and everything sounds like a chipmunk, even sped up. This does not happen with 1.5V alkaline batteries inserted.
Re: (Score:2)
What you're saying is you have a camera with a very poorly designed power system. Case in point a high discharge device being designed to be used with a non-rechargable chemistry. If a camera can't handle 1.2V cells and runs from AAs then the designer should have their ass kicked.
Re: (Score:2)
Kodak Easyshare C633.
Great on fresh alkalines, take a dozen flash shots, it's fucked. Or is it?
Drop the batteries into an LED flashlight like a "Lenser" which are loaded with Cree electronics, and they'll last another three years.
Source: I have a drawer full of cameras and flashlights are the cornerstone of any discerning hunter's day pack.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I believe it. I came across it on an older Olympus model too. That's no excuse for crap design though.
Re: (Score:2)
Shit you even got almost the EXACT models of camera down. Easyshare C643 and C743. My Z981 doesn't have this problem.
Still waiting for 1.6V Ni-ZN batteries to get their whiskering problem fixed.
Already within power circuit or useless (Score:2, Insightful)
When a device power circuit already integrate a voltage regulator, this is yet another battery scam.
If not, it is either a cheap or old piece of electronic.
This battery extender _is_ yet another battery scam.
Next expand your car mileage by adding a water sprayer, magic canister?
This is not news for nerds.
_This_ is scamvertisement.
Re: (Score:2)
1.5V alkaline vs 1.2v NiMH (Score:5, Insightful)
"A completely new alkaline battery is rated to generate 1.5 volts, but once its output drops below 1.35 or even 1.4 volts, it effectively becomes useless to many devices. "
And yet I can't recall any device that didn't work happily with the 1.2v supplied by a rechargeable NiMH.
Re: (Score:3)
And that is exactly the problem with this "invention": And sanely designed device these days assumes batteries may be NiMH. These start at around 1.22V when full and are empty at somewhere around 1.10V. That means this "magic" "invention" will boost battery life by something like 70% or less in such a device. And using NiMH in the first place is a better choice anyways in most applications.
Re: (Score:3)
The catch is, not all devices (especially devices more than a few years old) ARE "sanely designed". I remember quite well that the original Palm III had fairly demanding battery requirements... it was good for about a month with Duracell or Energizer alkalines, but only lasted 2-3 weeks with store-brand alkaline cells, and only lasted a few DAYS with NiMH cells. Ditto for my piece-of-shit Minolta d'Image DSLR, which was good for about 10 photos on brand new alkaline batteries before shutdown.
That said, the
Re: (Score:2)
If you didn't select the correct chemistry it could report the batteries as being dead or almost dead when they still had lots of life left.
I had a Palm IIIx that I used for many years and I ran it
Re: (Score:2)
And yet I can't recall any device that didn't work happily with the 1.2v supplied by a rechargeable NiMH.
To add to this good statement: Alkaline batteries have high internal resistance, so when they are highly loaded, their voltage drops dramatically (and therefore become useless to the device they are powering). NiMH have low internal resistance and can delivery drastically more amperage before their voltage drops. Many devices completely work with 1.2v just fine, but alkaline batteries drop below that too easily.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, the 1.35 or 1.4 number is total bull$#@!. Almost everything these days will run on the 1.1-1.2 of NiMH, as you point out. Even at that point, the remaining energy in a common alkaline (manganese dioxide) AA cell is nowhere near 80%. Alkaline goes "over the cliff" - the sharp point at the end of the discharge curve where there's no energy left and the voltage plummets - at about 0.8-0.9V. Even at 1.1V, there's only about 10% of the energy capacity left for a typical alkaline.
Look up "alkaline disch
Re: (Score:2)
"A completely new alkaline battery is rated to generate 1.5 volts, but once its output drops below 1.35 or even 1.4 volts, it effectively becomes useless to many devices. "
And yet I can't recall any device that didn't work happily with the 1.2v supplied by a rechargeable NiMH.
The remote for my old Sony TV refused to work with NiMH's, but since the remote lasted for a couple years of regular use with a pair of Alkalines, this $10 battery booster wouldn't really be worth it.
Digital cameras (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
All the devices I happen to have that use AAs will work just fine down to at least 0.9 v. Some of them work to 0.7 v.
Re: (Score:2)
older digital cameras.
source: I have many, and they all suffer the same problem: they don't work on NiMH chemistry. ANY of them.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You can go back even further than that with the PowerShot line. I have one from 2007 that works fine with NiMH.
Re: (Score:2)
Great, add this boost converter to the battery, and watch the quiescent current flatten the battery faster than the clock you're trying to power!
Re: (Score:2)
This is no joke. I made a clock once with a circuit like this and the quiescent current did exactly that. I removed the booster, and just ran the clock on two batteries and it runs a long time now.
Re: (Score:2)
I had walkie talkies (the biiiiiiiig ones) that used this scheme.
Re: (Score:2)
yep, I had two that had that. One was a Harvard Multi (UK, CEPT & sidebands), the other a Radio Shack 80-channel (UK & CEPT). Both ran on 12V (8xMnO or 10xNiCd - 8xNiCd wouldn't work). I was so happy when I got my Yaesu VX-5 apart from the fact that it doesn't cover MPT-27/81 or CEPT, 49MHz unlicensed or anything above 999.90MHz. Guess I'm stuck using terrestrial bands that everybody else uses. :(
I'm not impressed. (Score:4, Insightful)
However, there's a problem here: Most even vaguely well designed widgets already tolerate some amount of voltage variation. Especially because NiCd and NiMH rechargeables are only good for ~1.2v(maybe 1.3-1.4 hot off the charger, for a few moments), alkalines for ~1.5; but with well known droop as they are exhausted or if discharge current is too high; and lithium primary cells in AAA or AA packages are up around 1.7, with less droop; you simply can't build a consumer widget that is too picky about battery voltage. If you do, you'll be flooded with unhappy and confused customers and probably lots of expensive returns.
This seems to constrain the useful market for this product to a very narrow, rather weird, niche: Anything that already tolerates voltage droop well will see very limited benefit. Anything with very low power draw will also see very limited benefit, because even badly depleted batteries slump as discharge current increases. Devices with very high power draw might see a benefit; because they will drive the battery to slump most quickly(and, according to the discharge curves for most alkalines, very high currents will cause substantial slump well before the capacity is exhausted); but the DC-DC converter will need even higher discharge current in order to keep power output constant as voltage drops, which will exacerbate the voltage slump, and likely hit the wall where the effective internal resistance of the battery is high enough that it simply won't deliver any more current.
So what actually gains? Devices that are maldesigned enough to brown out with even modest voltage droop; but also sufficiently low drain that the draw of the converter will remain within the battery's 'best-case' discharge cycle; but not so low drain that the (modest; but nonzero) losses in the DC-DC converter increase the overall drain by a substantial amount.
Anyone have a device or devices in mind?
Bull. Shit. (Score:2)
If this "technology" actually worked and the only innovation here is the miniaturization, it would have been built into the battery compartments of devices already. It sounds almost as legit as magnetic fuel optimizers.
Not a linear relation (Score:2)
Impractical (Score:2)
AA batteries are $1 for a four pack at the dollar store. That's 25 cents per battery. Admittedly, these batteries are low end. If you use one of their coupons, Harbor Freight sells their private label AA batteries for about 25 cents when you buy 24.
Let's say that I'm using a 4 AA cell device, my old camping lantern. It has one dollar worth of batteries and $10 worth of these devices. The lantern itself isn't even worth $10. Seems like an awful lot to spend to me, because the $10 investment becomes a permane
May be of some use (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Why? That just doesn't strike me as being very cost effective.
If the plan is to sell a pack of 4 sleeves for $10 to go with a pack of 4 alkaline batteries ($3 for Rayovac, $6 for Duracell around here), you could instead buy 4 Panasonic eneloop Ni-MH AA batteries for $13. You would, admittedly, have to pay for a charger and charge them beforehand, but you'd save lots of money over the life of the rechargeables. The Panasonic chargers go for between $7 and $14, but I highly recommend a La Crosse Technology
Re: (Score:2)
D'oh! My bad.
Darned my eyes... I saw the 1.5 V and the 1V, but completely missed the 1.34V in the GP post. Probably because I did see it, but found it too incredulous to process. I may have presumed it to be a typo. Most any use of say, 100 mA would drain a Duracell battery below that voltage within 3-4 hrs of use. But, if this device pulls 500 mA, it'd only take about 10 minutes to go below that mark.
http://lygte-info.dk/review/ba... [lygte-info.dk]
I guess the real question is - what devices require 2 to 4 AA batter
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
However, virtually all of the devices I have quit working when the cell voltage gets below about 1.34 volts.
This is strange. All the devices I have work just fine with NiMH batteries and these are 1.2V. (LED flashlights, basic remote controls, Harmony-with-screen remote control, 2 wireless keyboards, 1 wireless mouse, 3 alarm clocks, SLR camera flash, bathroom and kitchen scales, cd player, 90's walkman, cordless phones)
Re: (Score:2)
For the sensors I am using the average current drain is in the microamp range except when transmitting a reading, which takes only a few milliseconds, and are several minutes apart. The transmit current is in the low milliamp range, but so brief that the average current drain is less than one milliamp.
I d
Re: (Score:2)
Any piece of modern day electronics of any value is already using an internal voltage booster if low current and long battery life is expected.
"Of any value" is the catch here. Eliminating the boost circuit makes the device cheaper to manufacture and offloads that cost to the operating cost for the user (which means higher profits for the manufacturer). The devices that he's talking about (remote thermometers, rain gauges, etc) probably tie him to a single manufacturer, so there's no competition anyway.
Modern day engineering of consumer devices is almost completely rooted in "value engineering". For an expected level of function, everything that i
Hey, c'mon everybody! (Score:2)
It's a battery for your battery.. Where's all the yo dawg shit?
Fit problems (Score:2)
So this device fits around an alkaline battery. I've got a Wensn decibel meter that has a battery compartment big enough for alkaline AAs, but too small for any of my rechargeable AAs. The rechargeables have a slightly bigger diameter (the difference is 0.2-0.3 mm).
So there's a chance alkaline batteries using this device won't fit.
Would this work for NiMH Rechargeable? (Score:2)
There is some use (Score:2)
How about a flashlight where the bulbs don't get slowly dimmer. Its basically adding voltage regulation and boost to simple devices that don't have that.
other batteries (Score:2)
Primary alkaline batteries can be recharged (Score:2)
This would be great for improving NiMh batteries (Score:2)
Re:If it sounds too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
And there's math behind it, too. To raise the volts, you have to lower the amps. It'll work until it can't provide enough current for the device that it's powering. The form factor is the tricky part, because you need to fit a boost coil and a capacitor in there somehow, and they might have to custom-wind the coil to make it fit, making it more costly to manufacture than it would be with off-the-shelf parts.
It would also have to know when the device is turned off. I think the Joule Thief design puts its power switch before the boost converter. You can't do that when wrapped around a single cell.
Another "too good too be true" is if you have a "pipe"-style battery compartment and the batteries leak, it could be harder to extract them. Tray-style battery compartments should be no problem.
But if they really work like they ought to work, I want some. Even if it's only a 2x lifetime, I want to use them in an IR remote control. One big problem with IR remotes is as the batteries get weaker, contact resistance becomes a problem. You can make batteries last longer by rotating them in place a little, which I guess cleans the contacts a tiny bit. Just boosting the voltage should help things right there.
Re:If it sounds too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
If it holds a constant 1.5V output the current draw from the device will also remain constant. What *will* happens is that as the battery terminal voltage (input to the boost converter) drops, the current drawn from the battery will go up, not down. It effectively turns the load into a constant power device.
I am skeptical about the life-saving claims. Alkaline battery-power devices are typically expected to operate down to about 1V terminal voltage. Since the primary effect of discharging is ion depletion, the internal resistance of the battery is what is changing, meaning by the time you get to doubling the current at low states of charge, you will be depleting it much faster. So the time of use will fall off a cliff very abruptly at the end.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, that has been my experience.
For a long period of time, batteries seemed to be pretty clean. In the past few years, however, I've seen a lot of leaky batteries. Not so much C and D cells, but AA's and disc batteries - some of which have leaked in the original packaging.
In fact, it's been fairly common for me to discover that a device that was still functioning was also corroding the battery compartment.
Re: (Score:3)
Nah...
It also works on NiMH batteries (1.2V.)
Excellent. I like Eneloop NiMH quite a bit, but my camera doesn't. It's very voltage-picky. In fact, its voltage requirement for the adapter is 3.7V, even though it's a 2xAA device. Needless to say, it reports "low battery" from the very first moment with NiMH -- and then runs for many hours flashing that warning. The problem is that I get no warning when it really is about to keel over, and that this happens only about 50% of the way through the charge.
The reason we use Alkaline batteries is for the long shelf life, not the use life.
Eneloops again. They'll hold most of their charge for
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I get a bit more mileage out of batteries by starting them off in a higher demand item (like an XBox controller) and when the battery is no longer powerful enough for that, I put it in a bin to be used for TV remotes.
Re:If it sounds too good to be true (Score:5, Insightful)
This will be totally unsuitable for remote controls and will dramatically reduce the life of batteries used in them. Remote controls spend most of their time idle, drawing only a microampere or two from the batteries. Unless you intend to physically switch these cells on/off every time you want to use the remote...
Quality remotes have their own boost circuits to do this kind of thing, controlled by a microcontroller that turns them on when you press a button. Most are designed to work down to at least 1V, if not 0.9V. The 1.4V figure from TFA is nonsense; NiMH cells start at 1.2V when fully charged.
This is the wrong solution. The boost circuit needs to be part of the device, not part of the battery.
Re: (Score:2)
NiCd starts at 1.2V. But nobody (should be) use(ing) those any-more. My experience is that most good NiMH cells start at 1.4-1.5V and maintain 1.25V during most of their in-use-time.
It shouldn't be too hard to switch on the boost circuit this Batteriser supposedly has, only when a reasonable current is drawn by the device. A current sensing circuit should not add that many components. That should prevent the Batteriser from drawing power to keep the boost circuit running when the device is switched off...
[e
Re: (Score:3)
I feel like the best application, if this works as promised, is to raise NIMH cells from 1.2v to 1.5v. Sure, they work just fine in most applications, but for some they are borderline or don't work at all. I'm thinking specifically of my camera that will only work with Alkaline or NiCad.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:If it sounds too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
Because the device can't tell whether you're using an alkaline battery or not, and if you run a rechargeable battery down to an alkaline battery's minimal voltage, you'll permanently damage the battery.
Re:Info needed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:If it sounds too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
The deceit is obvious if you look at the discharge curve [google.com.au].
Yes, if you throw it away at 1.4V under load, most of the capacity remains. But it is bullshit because nobody does that.
High-drain devices will cope with much lower voltage, and low drain devices (like remote controls) will almost completely deplete the battery before you notice a drop in effectiveness.
For real high-drain devices like cameras, most people use NiMH, which has a nominal 1.2V only.
Re:If it sounds too good to be true (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is that many devices require ridiculously high minimum threshold voltages just to work.
TI, for example, sells a remote control IR encoder that requires a supply voltage of 2.7V. That means two AA batteries in series run down to below 1.35V apiece will not run a device with that IR encoder.
A typical AA battery will deliver only about 0.40 AH before it runs down to 1.35V. That 0.40 AH is of a 2.1 AH total. That's a huge waste.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you're trying to use 2 AA batteries to power a 2.7v device, you're just stupid. You don't get to blame the semiconductor company and the laws of physics for your inability to make a design that functions.
Rechargable AA cells NEVER REACH 1.35v to start with.
You're essentially bitching about the fact that you under power the device because of a bad design.
Or use the 1.8v version of the device.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
(1) an adequate electric device will drain a cell down to 0.9-0.8v. For a good 1.5v alkaline cell this is about 80% of the energy at all possible. Further, the internal resistance limits kick in. For a good 1.2v NiMH at 0.9v you are at 95%-or-something-like mark. Not much to save by draining more. "Salt" batteries leak electrolyte when drained too low.
(2) booster efficiency. 'nuf said. Space constraints and the very small coil don't help either.
(3) idle consumption = ?
Ge
Re: (Score:2)
Technology may get better, but the rules of electrical circuits, physics, and so on rarely change enough to make a difference on a planetary scale. Unless there has been some earth-shattering change in the way electricity works, it's a scam.
Re: (Score:2)
chances of them finding out some new chemical properties universal to all batteries and announcing them this way: 0.000000001%
chances of the tech being already existing and integrated into most devices that would benefit from it: 99.99999%
they're more like a posse of people trying to sell you a ram packer that will make your 640k function like 5120k
Re: (Score:2)
Too bad that "640K ought to be enough for anyone" was an urban legend.
Re: (Score:2)
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
- Digital founder Ken Olsen, 1977, and yes he did in fact say this at the World Future society event in Boston during a talk.
Re: (Score:2)
Gotta love context-free quotes!!
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/k... [snopes.com]
[That interpretation of my comment] is, of course, ridiculous because the business we were in was making PCs, and almost from the start I had them at home and my wife played Scrabble with time-sharing machines, and my sixth-grade son was networking the MIT computers and the DEC computers together, hopefully without doing mischief, using the computers I had at home. Home computers were a natural continuum of the "personal computers" that people had at work, in the laboratory, in the military.
Re: (Score:2)
Most button cells are actually "lithium primary batteries", not considered "alkaline" in common parlance.
Re: (Score:2)
Came here to say the same thing, and their target price is WAY too high, I got Amazon LSD AA batteries for $1.50 a piece, you can even get the Eneloop manufactured white amazon basics for under their $2.50 price point.
Re:Sounds suspicious (Score:5, Informative)
The boost converter will run as low as 0.6v. That IS an improvement, since most devices DO power down at 1.0v. But I also call hogwash on the "no extra risk of leakage". Alkaline cells use an inner layer of the case as the cathode. This inner case is invariable damaged by discharge. The deeper the discharge, the more severe the damage. Most reasonably modern C/Zn and AM cells have a second can outside of the first one to reduce the risk of leaks. But the battery may still fail and leak, and the fact that you have a weak battery in your device for longer RAISES your risk of a leak.
Plus, more hogwash. The "voltage drop slows at lower voltage levels". Alkaline batteries really do have a fairly linear discharge curve for SoC. The dubious claim that it slows is assuming a continuous resistive load, which by Ohm's law says that power will drop 4x for each 2x drop in voltage.
Not to say these boosters aren't useless. If your device shuts down at 1.3v (not unreasonable for older generation digital devices), you can use that battery for a lot longer. And where these things really come into their own is on rechargeables that OCV at a lower voltage that may fail to drive certain devices.
There IS a caveat though. A very, serious, caveat.
You lose ALL SoC INFORMATION IN THE BATTERY.
When you connect a booster, you forfeit all advance warning that your battery is low. You're at 1.5v until you aren't and you're high and dry.
And of course battery companies are going to be thinking of chemistry. Because implanting a $10 booster into every $1 AA alkaline battery is going to make these cells prohibitively expensive.
It's definitely a cool device, but it's not worth the hype this author is giving it.
Critical warning. This is an active circuit you're placing on your battery. Alkalines have always shined in very low current applications. Attaching an active converter circuit will put a continuous (though light) load on the battery, slashing its shelf- and very-light-duty life.
Over the span of 60 hours in a Game Boy, it's not much. But over the span of a year or two in a desk clock, it becomes significant.
Potentially significant enough to fully offset and even overcome the "unlocked" power now available to you by using it at the lower voltage.
Depending on what you're doing with your battery, you could see -50% through +300% lifespan. Degradations are for microamp-scale super long life devices, where the load of running the Batteriser forms a significant fraction of the running power. Biggest boosts are for devices that shut down at abnormally high voltages.
Re: (Score:3)
The boost converter will run as low as 0.6v. That IS an improvement, since most devices DO power down at 1.0v.
Funnily enough I actually built something like this for a school project a little under 20 years ago. Naturally the batteries were external and the convertor box was large, but that's not the point. The point is that the battery discharge curves are very far from linear.Just google "battery discharge curve". While they vary, the essential characteristics are the same:
http://robotics.stackexchange.. [stackexchange.com]