Not a scam. Though I don't have one myself, there are many products for amateur radio transceivers (and others) to keep operating voltage up to nominal levels, even though current has dropped. Especially in an emergency, it's better to be able to communicate at lower transmitter power than not at all. Many of the internal systems need a certain voltage level, but have low power consumption.
I don't know about 80%, but if the application is correct, there should be a noticeable increase in useable capacity. The Magic Mouse and Trackpad used in the example are low wattage devices. I would expect to see a definite increase in battery life for these type of devices.
Apple's wireless accessories don't require 1.5 or even 1.35 minimum per cell to operate. They'll continue to operate below 1.1 volts. In fact, last week my iMac alerted me that my trackpad batteries were low. I ignored the message for several days until the alert changed to "very low" at which point I put the batteries in the charger. One had 1.10 volts and the other had 1.09 volts - the trackpad was still working fine at those voltages.
Most boost regulators of this type are used with a single .7-1.5 Volt battery's for flashlights to raise the voltage to the 3.9 Volts that a white(blue) LED requires. They work great but they have the advantage of an off switch between the battery and the boost regulator. In this case the battery is always connected to the boost regulator, no switch. So the real trick is to minimize the current drain when the device you are providing power to is turned OFF. A lot of boost regulators have a pretty high quiescent current drain.
The second trick is how to make the coil used in the boost regulators external circuit small, really small and really thin.
I think both are possible with enough money for custom parts.
Nobody in their right mind designs a AA powered product that cuts out at 1.35V. That's above the fully charged voltage of both NiMH and NiCd batteries (nominally around 1.25V from 100% to 80% full charge). I generally design for warning at 1V and cutoff at 0.9. There's not a lot of energy left in an alkaline battery below 1V (<10%), let alone 0.9V(<5%).
My Magic Mouse posted a low battery warning last week and is still running fine. I just measured cell voltages of 1.03 and 0.98V.
And using these devices will make the low battery detection circuitry in your device useless. It'll think everything is just fine until the bottom falls out. If you don't mind crash without warning, go ahead and use 'em.
Apple's wireless accessories don't require 1.5 or even 1.35 minimum per cell to operate. They'll continue to operate below 1.1 volts. In fact, last week my iMac alerted me that my trackpad batteries were low. I ignored the message for several days until the alert changed to "very low" at which point I put the batteries in the charger. One had 1.10 volts and the other had 1.09 volts - the trackpad was still working fine at those voltages.
Yeah, I also call bullshit on their claim that Apple devices require 1.3 volts per cell. The Sanyo Eneloop, like other NiMH AA cells, nominally output 1.2 volts.
Nobody in their right mind designs a AA powered product that cuts out at 1.35V. That's above the fully charged voltage of both NiMH and NiCd batteries (nominally around 1.25V from 100% to 80% full charge). I generally design for warning at 1V and cutoff at 0.9. There's not a lot of energy left in an alkaline battery below 1V (<10%), let alone 0.9V(<5%).
My Magic Mouse posted a low battery warning last week and is still running fine. I just measured cell voltages of 1.03 and 0.98V.
And using these devices will make the low battery detection circuitry in your device useless. It'll think everything is just fine until the bottom falls out. If you don't mind crash without warning, go ahead and use 'em.
I agree -this is like probably a solution to get more of the life of a battery when used in some cheap and badly designed products, that only work down to say 1.2V - i can't see people shelling out for this device for those products. Similarly I design to keep full operation below 1V.
In your experience - have you had much problem with low discharge batteries corroding? I have in both my own designs and others (including 2 apple trackpads, and several led flashlights (good 'tactical' types) and its always duracell. (I have stopped using this brand )
Apple's wireless accessories don't require 1.5 or even 1.35 minimum per cell to operate. They'll continue to operate below 1.1 volts. In fact, last week my iMac alerted me that my trackpad batteries were low. I ignored the message for several days until the alert changed to "very low" at which point I put the batteries in the charger. One had 1.10 volts and the other had 1.09 volts - the trackpad was still working fine at those voltages.
I agree -this is like probably a solution to get more of the life of a battery when used in some cheap and badly designed products, that only work down to say 1.2V - i can't see people shelling out for this device for those products. Similarly I design to keep full operation below 1V.
In your experience - have you had much problem with low discharge batteries corroding? I have in both my own designs and others (including 2 apple trackpads, and several led flashlights (good 'tactical' types) and its always duracell. (I have stopped using this brand )
The discharge of alkaline batteries produces water at the anode (+, the steel case) and hydrogen at the cathode (-, the steel bottom). We know what alkaline water does to steel. The deeper the discharge, the more the corrosion. And the hydrogen gas provides enough pressure to push the alkaline liquid through the first gap or pinhole that develops (usually around the bottom seal). The alkaline liquid continues corroding your precious device until all the water available from the electrochemistry evaporates away, leaving you with the crumbly mess.
The deeper you discharge a battery, the sooner the corrosion will (if it ever does) breach the case. For often used devices, it's unlikely there will be much elapsed time before the devices shuts down (without warning if you use these boosters) and you replace the batteries, so cell leakage isn't much of an issue. Flashlights, smoke alarms and other things we rarely use and often forget about are much more prone to cell leakage. These booster devices will have some quiescent power draw, which will unavoidably decrease shelf life in zero current applications like flashlights, or low current applications like smoke detectors. I imagine they'd actually draw more power than a smoke detector. And remember, these booster circuits cannot be turned off. The moment you slide a battery into one, it's sipping some small amount of power.
I really don't like the idea that a devices built in low-battery warning is rendered useless by these things. I have some nifty single AA LED flashlights that gracefully warn me of impending doom by actually dimming the LED as end of life approaches, then flickering (an accidental side effect) for a few minutes before going dark. That gives me time to get out of the basement before I stub my toe on something.
It makes much more sense to avoid poorly designed products than to layer poorly conceived products on top of them.
If the buck converter would allow the battery cells to keep supplying power (which is entirely believable), the manufacturers of those battery powered devices should incorporate the idea into their products. Placing it in the battery is wasteful and duplicative.
If the buck converter would allow the battery cells to keep supplying power (which is entirely believable), the manufacturers of those battery powered devices should incorporate the idea into their products. Placing it in the battery is wasteful and duplicative.
I can see this being useful in developing areas/off the grid situations (or The Road/Fallout-style post-apocalyptic environs), but otherwise this is just polishing a turd.
Disposable alkaline batteries are garbage. Anyone still using those for commonly used household devices — stop and switch to a decent set of rechargeable. Yes, they are expensive in comparison, initially. But I'm surprised at how few people seem to know they last SO much longer for each use than alkaline batteries, completely ignoring the fact you can recharge them.
I'd say that $10 is much better put to use towards a set of decent rechargeables and charger.
I never post on forums. I find it more entertaining to read the comments. I will break my rule however to comment on the Batteriser.
In a nut shell, this product WILL NOT increase your battery life anywhere close to 8x or 800%. YES this product may increase your battery life, but only a little.
Do a google search for "alkaline battery capacity graphs" and look for graphs of Voltage vs AHr (capacity). These graphs show how much energy is left in the battery for any given voltage on the battery. You will notice that for most of the capacity range the voltage is around 1.2V then as the energy is used up (right side of the curve) the curve RAPIDLY drops off to 0.
Essentially when you think your battery is dead (0%), it may have 10% or so of the energy remaining that it originally had. The Batteriser will theoretically help you recover some of this energy by boosting the voltage high enough for your electronic device to use it, but there it is only on the order of a 10% increase in battery life.
I'm sure another Electrical Engineer who has more time to post than I do can elaborate further on my explanation
The key issue is, of course, the useable battery voltage range in the device. The inventor's assertion was apparently that "many" devices require 1.35 V (it actually says 1.3 V on the Batteriser website), in which case the benefit would be close to that claimed. This article did not actually state that he claimed that the 1.35 V minimum applies to Apple Trackpads etc., but the implication was certainly there, especially in the title.
However, as others have pointed out, the trackpad, for example, works at much lower voltages. One of mine is currently indicating low battery, but still working fine at 1.08 V. And as you point out, the stored energy in the battery below that level is, indeed, negligible - less than 10% of the total based on a typical alkaline AA discharge curve.
I wonder which devices or components the inventor is referring to in terms of the 1.35 V minimum. Some examples would be nice, but the website only shows keyboards and trackpads, which suggests an intent to mislead.
I used a Mobee that lasted about two years before the battery wouldn't recharge anymore. It probably would have lasted longer, but I left the charger plugged in and didn't allow it to completely discharge before recharging. The Mobee site shows a recharger for both a MTP and a wireless keyboard. The one I had was just for the MTP. I don't know if they still sell that one or not.
I've gone back to using Eneloop batteries until I order a new $14.95 battery pack from Mobee.
I've been using a $50 Logitech K750 solar (or lamp) powered. Every few weeks I have to hold the keyboard up close to the lamp for a few seconds to recharge it. That beats having to replace batteries.
In principle this should be entirely feasible. If you look at the area under the V - Ah discharge profile for typical AA batteries, the voltage drops below 1.35 V after providing only around 0.4 Ah. There is another 1.5 Ah or so left before the voltage drops below 1 V.
That'd be fine if everything shut off at 1.35v. It doesn't. In fact I don't know anything that does. The Vbe (voltage drop, or sort of voltage "required") of a silicon transistor is about 0.7v, anything lower than that and you can't actually get power through the transistor anyway. So their claim of "down to 0.6v" is tripe to begin with.
Generally devices will run down to about 0.9v, and it's really then about lack of current than lack of voltage. After 0.9v there's very little energy left in the battery anyway, as shown by every Alkaline cell discharge curve. Also, if people use their rechargeables in this thing, they won't last more than a few cycles.
Essentially when you think your battery is dead (0%), it may have 10% or so of the energy remaining that it originally had. The Batteriser will theoretically help you recover some of this energy by boosting the voltage high enough for your electronic device to use it, but there it is only on the order of a 10% increase in battery life.
Exactly. But since every device over a few quid has a buck/boost controller, even 10% would be a long shot. High frequency RF silicon (Bluetooth) can be sensitive to voltage variation, so the voltage is controlled tightly by a regulator.
So in fact, you're just adding another stage (or more with cells in series) of voltage regulation which wastes energy. Plus it seems they're using off the shelf silicon, so it may well be an identical regulator chip to the one already in the device it's providing "boosted" power to. Completely redundant.
Things like the Apple keyboard does not have an onboard power supplier or converter, therefore, the power going to the electronics have to be maintained at a mininum voltage from the battery, otherwise they do not work.
Uuh, yes they do. Where is your source that says they don't have a "power supplier or converter"?
This is why the Apple keyboard and mouse get flacky as the battery voltage gets low.
Above 10%, they are fine. When the battery gets really low, there just isn't enough current to keep the radios running properly, since the buck boost converter that is already in the device has used up all the energy in the battery.
I personally switch to rechargables but I had notice the keyboard says the battery is dead even though when you check the voltage it still have enough voltage to be useful.
Define "enough to be useful". Mine are at about 0.85v when removed from the keyboard and mouse. Anything below that and there's barely anything left anyway (and you damage rechargeables), especially with tiny current draw of the keyboard/mouse. 15 mAh if you're lucky.
as an eample using Alkaline batteries on a flash light what you notice is the bulb becoming less bright until the battery is completely dead. I recently switch to LED flash lights and noticed the light gets flakey before the batteries are completey dead. Yes the LED flash lights last longer than regular light bulbs but they do not run down gracefully like a regular light bulb. The LED lights will flash on and off then eventually you can not get them to turn on anymore even though the batteries are still good.This is because the voltage it too low to turn on the LED anymore.
I don't know of any incandescent flashlights that have a regulator. It's just not worth it for the tiny amount of extra energy/run time you'd get from the battery after it's dropped below ~1v.
The LED torch getting dim is probably because you're using a cheap LED one with no regulator, just a couple of resistors in series with the LED. As the voltage drops, the current through the resistor and then the LED drops, so the brightness decreases. In fact, usually torch manufacturers overdrive the LED to make it brighter, but shortening the LED's life.
A more expensive torch has a boost converter to bump the voltage up to the required amount and maintain it closely (something like 34v for CREE LEDs). They keep working until there's simply not enough current (read: energy) left in the battery.
The issue it when things are Digitally only they need a fixed voltage to work unlike the analog world when things will work on a lower voltage but not as efficently as they could. Old style battiers really do not work well in the digital world unless they have builtin power regulator and most low end electronics take this cost out.
True for silicon that's frequency/temperature dependent, and of a fairly high clock rate. Otherwise it's pretty flexible in the voltage range. ATMEL CPUs generally handle between 1.8 and 5v no problem. Some MOSFETs (whether you can classify them as digital I'm not sure, but still) can handle between 0.7 and 600v.
These old guys figure out how to take $0.50 of parts and sell them to us for $10. If you do not want to pay them $10 just get rechargable batteries.
Or just don't waste your money and get rechargeables anyway. Panasonic Eneloops are about the best you can get, and usually have a longer run time than Alkalines. Plus 2000 recharge cycles.
Is that really worth it? I think I charge the batteries in my keyboard about once every 3 months, and that's with fairly heavy daily use. The mouse is probably every 3 weeks, an inductive power supply for that would be more sensible since it could be in a mouse mat and wouldn't require that dock thing.
There is no reason that consumer electronics need to power off when the voltage goes below any certain threshold. You could more easily incorporated a voltage regulator -> transformer into the the mouse itself.
I never post on forums. I find it more entertaining to read the comments. I will break my rule however to comment on the Batteriser.
In a nut shell, this product WILL NOT increase your battery life anywhere close to 8x or 800%. YES this product may increase your battery life, but only a little.
Do a google search for "alkaline battery capacity graphs" and look for graphs of Voltage vs AHr (capacity). These graphs show how much energy is left in the battery for any given voltage on the battery. You will notice that for most of the capacity range the voltage is around 1.2V then as the energy is used up (right side of the curve) the curve RAPIDLY drops off to 0.
Essentially when you think your battery is dead (0%), it may have 10% or so of the energy remaining that it originally had. The Batteriser will theoretically help you recover some of this energy by boosting the voltage high enough for your electronic device to use it, but there it is only on the order of a 10% increase in battery life.
I'm sure another Electrical Engineer who has more time to post than I do can elaborate further on my explanation
It's more or less as you say. For very low power devices, the energy consumed by the booster circuit will more than offset any additional capacity obtained from the waning battery. My smoke detectors can run several years on a 9V battery (six AAAA cells). I don't know of any boost converter than can do that, even when supplying NO power. And imagine using these things in a smoke detector. Rather than get the low battery "chirp-chirp", it will happily stay silent until the boost converter simply stops working. I wouldn't be surprised if the use of these things in any safety related device would draw the attention of insurance companies and regulating agencies. It's truly a very poorly thought out idea.
The Vbe (voltage drop, or sort of voltage "required") of a silicon transistor is about 0.7v, anything lower than that and you can't actually get power through the transistor anyway. So their claim of "down to 0.6v" is tripe to begin with.
Texas Instruments makes boost converters that run down to 0.3V (TPS61200). They power themselves from the output voltage. And they'll start up from as little as 0.5V. Bipolar transistors do have the 0.7V limitation you mention, but very few things use bipolar transistors these days. That TI boost converter is MOSFET based. You can make MOSFETs that operate (not terribly well) on as little as a few millivolts. Advanced Linear Devices makes such Zero Threshold MOSFETs and TI uses similar technology for the startup circuitry in the TPS61200.
In your experience - have you had much problem with low discharge batteries corroding? I have in both my own designs and others (including 2 apple trackpads, and several led flashlights (good 'tactical' types) and its always duracell. (I have stopped using this brand )
I have experience ridiculous amounts of corrosive chemical leakage from Duracell branded batteries, including leaks from unused AA Duracells still in the original package. Duracells leaked and corroded the metal inside my Apple Mouse--and it leaked before the batteries' voltage fell below minimum operating threshold. It wasn't until I went to change the battery that I found the damage.
Comments
I don't know about 80%, but if the application is correct, there should be a noticeable increase in useable capacity. The Magic Mouse and Trackpad used in the example are low wattage devices. I would expect to see a definite increase in battery life for these type of devices.
Snake oil.
Apple's wireless accessories don't require 1.5 or even 1.35 minimum per cell to operate. They'll continue to operate below 1.1 volts. In fact, last week my iMac alerted me that my trackpad batteries were low. I ignored the message for several days until the alert changed to "very low" at which point I put the batteries in the charger. One had 1.10 volts and the other had 1.09 volts - the trackpad was still working fine at those voltages.
The second trick is how to make the coil used in the boost regulators external circuit small, really small and really thin.
I think both are possible with enough money for custom parts.
Nobody in their right mind designs a AA powered product that cuts out at 1.35V. That's above the fully charged voltage of both NiMH and NiCd batteries (nominally around 1.25V from 100% to 80% full charge). I generally design for warning at 1V and cutoff at 0.9. There's not a lot of energy left in an alkaline battery below 1V (<10%), let alone 0.9V(<5%).
My Magic Mouse posted a low battery warning last week and is still running fine. I just measured cell voltages of 1.03 and 0.98V.
And using these devices will make the low battery detection circuitry in your device useless. It'll think everything is just fine until the bottom falls out. If you don't mind crash without warning, go ahead and use 'em.
Yeah, I also call bullshit on their claim that Apple devices require 1.3 volts per cell. The Sanyo Eneloop, like other NiMH AA cells, nominally output 1.2 volts.
Nobody in their right mind designs a AA powered product that cuts out at 1.35V. That's above the fully charged voltage of both NiMH and NiCd batteries (nominally around 1.25V from 100% to 80% full charge). I generally design for warning at 1V and cutoff at 0.9. There's not a lot of energy left in an alkaline battery below 1V (<10%), let alone 0.9V(<5%).
My Magic Mouse posted a low battery warning last week and is still running fine. I just measured cell voltages of 1.03 and 0.98V.
And using these devices will make the low battery detection circuitry in your device useless. It'll think everything is just fine until the bottom falls out. If you don't mind crash without warning, go ahead and use 'em.
I agree -this is like probably a solution to get more of the life of a battery when used in some cheap and badly designed products, that only work down to say 1.2V - i can't see people shelling out for this device for those products. Similarly I design to keep full operation below 1V.
In your experience - have you had much problem with low discharge batteries corroding? I have in both my own designs and others (including 2 apple trackpads, and several led flashlights (good 'tactical' types) and its always duracell. (I have stopped using this brand )
Snake oil.
Apple's wireless accessories don't require 1.5 or even 1.35 minimum per cell to operate. They'll continue to operate below 1.1 volts. In fact, last week my iMac alerted me that my trackpad batteries were low. I ignored the message for several days until the alert changed to "very low" at which point I put the batteries in the charger. One had 1.10 volts and the other had 1.09 volts - the trackpad was still working fine at those voltages.
Aperture Science AI's operate at 1.1v too.
I agree -this is like probably a solution to get more of the life of a battery when used in some cheap and badly designed products, that only work down to say 1.2V - i can't see people shelling out for this device for those products. Similarly I design to keep full operation below 1V.
In your experience - have you had much problem with low discharge batteries corroding? I have in both my own designs and others (including 2 apple trackpads, and several led flashlights (good 'tactical' types) and its always duracell. (I have stopped using this brand )
The discharge of alkaline batteries produces water at the anode (+, the steel case) and hydrogen at the cathode (-, the steel bottom). We know what alkaline water does to steel. The deeper the discharge, the more the corrosion. And the hydrogen gas provides enough pressure to push the alkaline liquid through the first gap or pinhole that develops (usually around the bottom seal). The alkaline liquid continues corroding your precious device until all the water available from the electrochemistry evaporates away, leaving you with the crumbly mess.
The deeper you discharge a battery, the sooner the corrosion will (if it ever does) breach the case. For often used devices, it's unlikely there will be much elapsed time before the devices shuts down (without warning if you use these boosters) and you replace the batteries, so cell leakage isn't much of an issue. Flashlights, smoke alarms and other things we rarely use and often forget about are much more prone to cell leakage. These booster devices will have some quiescent power draw, which will unavoidably decrease shelf life in zero current applications like flashlights, or low current applications like smoke detectors. I imagine they'd actually draw more power than a smoke detector. And remember, these booster circuits cannot be turned off. The moment you slide a battery into one, it's sipping some small amount of power.
I really don't like the idea that a devices built in low-battery warning is rendered useless by these things. I have some nifty single AA LED flashlights that gracefully warn me of impending doom by actually dimming the LED as end of life approaches, then flickering (an accidental side effect) for a few minutes before going dark. That gives me time to get out of the basement before I stub my toe on something.
It makes much more sense to avoid poorly designed products than to layer poorly conceived products on top of them.
If the buck converter would allow the battery cells to keep supplying power (which is entirely believable), the manufacturers of those battery powered devices should incorporate the idea into their products. Placing it in the battery is wasteful and duplicative.
I can see this being useful in developing areas/off the grid situations (or The Road/Fallout-style post-apocalyptic environs), but otherwise this is just polishing a turd.
Disposable alkaline batteries are garbage. Anyone still using those for commonly used household devices — stop and switch to a decent set of rechargeable. Yes, they are expensive in comparison, initially. But I'm surprised at how few people seem to know they last SO much longer for each use than alkaline batteries, completely ignoring the fact you can recharge them.
I'd say that $10 is much better put to use towards a set of decent rechargeables and charger.
I never post on forums. I find it more entertaining to read the comments. I will break my rule however to comment on the Batteriser.
In a nut shell, this product WILL NOT increase your battery life anywhere close to 8x or 800%. YES this product may increase your battery life, but only a little.
Do a google search for "alkaline battery capacity graphs" and look for graphs of Voltage vs AHr (capacity). These graphs show how much energy is left in the battery for any given voltage on the battery. You will notice that for most of the capacity range the voltage is around 1.2V then as the energy is used up (right side of the curve) the curve RAPIDLY drops off to 0.
Essentially when you think your battery is dead (0%), it may have 10% or so of the energy remaining that it originally had. The Batteriser will theoretically help you recover some of this energy by boosting the voltage high enough for your electronic device to use it, but there it is only on the order of a 10% increase in battery life.
I'm sure another Electrical Engineer who has more time to post than I do can elaborate further on my explanation
The key issue is, of course, the useable battery voltage range in the device. The inventor's assertion was apparently that "many" devices require 1.35 V (it actually says 1.3 V on the Batteriser website), in which case the benefit would be close to that claimed. This article did not actually state that he claimed that the 1.35 V minimum applies to Apple Trackpads etc., but the implication was certainly there, especially in the title.
However, as others have pointed out, the trackpad, for example, works at much lower voltages. One of mine is currently indicating low battery, but still working fine at 1.08 V. And as you point out, the stored energy in the battery below that level is, indeed, negligible - less than 10% of the total based on a typical alkaline AA discharge curve.
I wonder which devices or components the inventor is referring to in terms of the 1.35 V minimum. Some examples would be nice, but the website only shows keyboards and trackpads, which suggests an intent to mislead.
I'd like to trade in my wireless MTPs for wired ones. How about it, Apple? Market wired or rechargable MTPs.
Logitech has one:
http://gadgetmac.com/reviews/logitech-rechargeable-bluetooth-trackpad-t651-review.html
Also, Mobee makes a rechargeable battery pack that replaces MTP batteries.
http://www.mobeetechnology.com/the-magic-bar.html ;
I used a Mobee that lasted about two years before the battery wouldn't recharge anymore. It probably would have lasted longer, but I left the charger plugged in and didn't allow it to completely discharge before recharging. The Mobee site shows a recharger for both a MTP and a wireless keyboard. The one I had was just for the MTP. I don't know if they still sell that one or not.
I've gone back to using Eneloop batteries until I order a new $14.95 battery pack from Mobee.
I've been using a $50 Logitech K750 solar (or lamp) powered. Every few weeks I have to hold the keyboard up close to the lamp for a few seconds to recharge it. That beats having to replace batteries.
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Solar-Keyboard-K750/dp/B005L38VRU/ref=sr_1_2/184-0393975-5901702?ie=UTF8&qid=1433291018&sr=8-2&keywords=logitech+keyboard+k750
Mea culpa. The Mobee MTP battery pack is $30. http://www.mobeetechnology.com/the-power-bar.html
That'd be fine if everything shut off at 1.35v. It doesn't. In fact I don't know anything that does. The Vbe (voltage drop, or sort of voltage "required") of a silicon transistor is about 0.7v, anything lower than that and you can't actually get power through the transistor anyway. So their claim of "down to 0.6v" is tripe to begin with.
Generally devices will run down to about 0.9v, and it's really then about lack of current than lack of voltage. After 0.9v there's very little energy left in the battery anyway, as shown by every Alkaline cell discharge curve. Also, if people use their rechargeables in this thing, they won't last more than a few cycles.
Exactly. But since every device over a few quid has a buck/boost controller, even 10% would be a long shot. High frequency RF silicon (Bluetooth) can be sensitive to voltage variation, so the voltage is controlled tightly by a regulator.
So in fact, you're just adding another stage (or more with cells in series) of voltage regulation which wastes energy. Plus it seems they're using off the shelf silicon, so it may well be an identical regulator chip to the one already in the device it's providing "boosted" power to. Completely redundant.
Uuh, yes they do. Where is your source that says they don't have a "power supplier or converter"?
Above 10%, they are fine. When the battery gets really low, there just isn't enough current to keep the radios running properly, since the buck boost converter that is already in the device has used up all the energy in the battery.
Define "enough to be useful". Mine are at about 0.85v when removed from the keyboard and mouse. Anything below that and there's barely anything left anyway (and you damage rechargeables), especially with tiny current draw of the keyboard/mouse. 15 mAh if you're lucky.
I don't know of any incandescent flashlights that have a regulator. It's just not worth it for the tiny amount of extra energy/run time you'd get from the battery after it's dropped below ~1v.
The LED torch getting dim is probably because you're using a cheap LED one with no regulator, just a couple of resistors in series with the LED. As the voltage drops, the current through the resistor and then the LED drops, so the brightness decreases. In fact, usually torch manufacturers overdrive the LED to make it brighter, but shortening the LED's life.
A more expensive torch has a boost converter to bump the voltage up to the required amount and maintain it closely (something like 34v for CREE LEDs). They keep working until there's simply not enough current (read: energy) left in the battery.
True for silicon that's frequency/temperature dependent, and of a fairly high clock rate. Otherwise it's pretty flexible in the voltage range. ATMEL CPUs generally handle between 1.8 and 5v no problem. Some MOSFETs (whether you can classify them as digital I'm not sure, but still) can handle between 0.7 and 600v.
Or just don't waste your money and get rechargeables anyway. Panasonic Eneloops are about the best you can get, and usually have a longer run time than Alkalines. Plus 2000 recharge cycles.
Is that really worth it? I think I charge the batteries in my keyboard about once every 3 months, and that's with fairly heavy daily use. The mouse is probably every 3 weeks, an inductive power supply for that would be more sensible since it could be in a mouse mat and wouldn't require that dock thing.
I never post on forums. I find it more entertaining to read the comments. I will break my rule however to comment on the Batteriser.
In a nut shell, this product WILL NOT increase your battery life anywhere close to 8x or 800%. YES this product may increase your battery life, but only a little.
Do a google search for "alkaline battery capacity graphs" and look for graphs of Voltage vs AHr (capacity). These graphs show how much energy is left in the battery for any given voltage on the battery. You will notice that for most of the capacity range the voltage is around 1.2V then as the energy is used up (right side of the curve) the curve RAPIDLY drops off to 0.
Essentially when you think your battery is dead (0%), it may have 10% or so of the energy remaining that it originally had. The Batteriser will theoretically help you recover some of this energy by boosting the voltage high enough for your electronic device to use it, but there it is only on the order of a 10% increase in battery life.
I'm sure another Electrical Engineer who has more time to post than I do can elaborate further on my explanation
It's more or less as you say. For very low power devices, the energy consumed by the booster circuit will more than offset any additional capacity obtained from the waning battery. My smoke detectors can run several years on a 9V battery (six AAAA cells). I don't know of any boost converter than can do that, even when supplying NO power. And imagine using these things in a smoke detector. Rather than get the low battery "chirp-chirp", it will happily stay silent until the boost converter simply stops working. I wouldn't be surprised if the use of these things in any safety related device would draw the attention of insurance companies and regulating agencies. It's truly a very poorly thought out idea.
The Vbe (voltage drop, or sort of voltage "required") of a silicon transistor is about 0.7v, anything lower than that and you can't actually get power through the transistor anyway. So their claim of "down to 0.6v" is tripe to begin with.
Texas Instruments makes boost converters that run down to 0.3V (TPS61200). They power themselves from the output voltage. And they'll start up from as little as 0.5V. Bipolar transistors do have the 0.7V limitation you mention, but very few things use bipolar transistors these days. That TI boost converter is MOSFET based. You can make MOSFETs that operate (not terribly well) on as little as a few millivolts. Advanced Linear Devices makes such Zero Threshold MOSFETs and TI uses similar technology for the startup circuitry in the TPS61200.
In your experience - have you had much problem with low discharge batteries corroding? I have in both my own designs and others (including 2 apple trackpads, and several led flashlights (good 'tactical' types) and its always duracell. (I have stopped using this brand )
I have experience ridiculous amounts of corrosive chemical leakage from Duracell branded batteries, including leaks from unused AA Duracells still in the original package. Duracells leaked and corroded the metal inside my Apple Mouse--and it leaked before the batteries' voltage fell below minimum operating threshold. It wasn't until I went to change the battery that I found the damage.
http://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/45069-duracell-batteries-leak-normal-use-class-action-claims/
http://reviews.duracell.com/8105/coppertop-alkaline-batteries/duracell-brand-appliances-duracell-coppertop-reviews/reviews.htm?page=2&sort=reviewTextLength&dir=asc