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.
Ahh...thank you for the post. I know nothing about batteries from an engineering standpoint. I did buy that cool 4-slot La Crosse charger and a bunch of AA rechargeable Eneloops from Costco. They have saved me a lot of money. The charger has all kinds of options, including draining down your battery and then recharging it fully to reset it or something. I recharge right away and then store them and use them as needed, rotating them throughout all my electronics. They work well and my gear doesn't know the difference.
The only thing is they advertise holding 85 or 90% of their charge for long periods but I've noticed they will get to this level fairly quickly not long after you buy and use them a bit.
Still...I've recharged hundreds of times and until something better comes along, this is a tried and true way to save $$$.
I'm skeptical about the 8x claim. If that were true, seems like someone would have re-designed the batteries already.
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.
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 have to change batteries in the wireless Logitech keyboard. The MTP batteries had to be replaced every three weeks. It wasn't the cost but the inconvenience of changing them right in the middle of working on something. That's what I'm doing now with Eneloop rechargeables.
I stopped using the Magic Mouse. An MTP is much more utilitarian and saves my wrist. Since it doesn't have to be moved like a mouse, I'd prefer a wired MTP and not have to be concerned about batteries.
The headlines on the internet are all parroting the 800% claim of the original article. Total... BULLSHIT.
This product will NOT get you 8X more "life" from a battery. Batteries do not contain 80% of their energy when a given device declares them dead. It varies by device and some (like standard flashlights) can drain a battery to zero while they dim to nothing.
This is way more complicated than I can explain here. let me just say that I worked for a li-ion battery company and know why this is a good idea, but not a good idea at the same time. The 800% number is an exaggeration and not realistic and probably not attainable. I've done battery capacity studies, usable life studies, etc.
Alkalines DO HAVE some energy left when we throw them away. Not every device can take advantage of them. This product may allow some devices to work a little longer. My guess is 1.5-2X, but not 8X.
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.
FYI, SureFire made the original A2 which was a dual incandescent / LED flashlight for with a regulator for the incandescent.
A voltage booster is a great idea. As long as batteries do not leak due to over discharge, it's a valid concept.
Edit: After more thought, this idea has its ups and downs dependent on the application. There are many conditions that go with attempting to use a product like this. Use it on a rechargeable battery and you may only get one charge total due to over-discharge. The Batteriser would have to have a safe minimum-voltage limit and it could vary by battery chemistry.
This idea is not usable for built-in batteries for laptops, cell phones, etc. Why? Because they automatically use the battery to the safe minimum voltage (if designed properly). There is no more usable energy in your MBP when it says it's at zero percent charge. Any more discharge, and the battery will be damaged reducing its life.
My biggest question is that if they are trading current for voltage through a booster circuit, what is the effect on the existing circuitry that detects battery percentage based on voltage? Your mouse / keyboard will now show 100% right until it dies from having insufficient amperage to power it.
And, what effect will having insufficient amperage have? Nothing damaging, certainly; you'll likely see some very odd operation from the device in question - the bluetooth radio will get extremely flaky, the laser in the mouse will blink / go dead even though the bluetooth menu on your Mac says the battery is at 100% (there's still enough amps to power the voltage detection and maybe the radio, but not the laser diode), or perhaps the opposite - the mouse / keyboard will just disconnect even though the little green light is on and your mouse has a laser shining underneath it - it all depends on what is the amperage requirements of each component.
While this might make some batteries last longer in some devices, it certainly won't be a magic cure-all. Also, alkaline batteries tend to start leaking the alkaline material out of the battery if discharged in ways they weren't meant to, such as being overly discharged which causes hydrogen gas to build up inside the battery and rupture the seal. This will lead to a lot of devices that end up on the trash heap because people think the "acid"* has ruined them.
*it's not acid - it's potassium carbonate, which is "basic" rather than "acidic". It results from the potassium hydroxide electrolyte inside the battery leaking out and absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and can usually be cleaned off with a slightly acidic solution on a cotton swab, such as lemon juice. Yay, Chemistry!
The headlines on the internet are all parroting the 800% claim of the original article. Total... BULLSHIT.
This product will NOT get you 8X more "life" from a battery. Batteries do not contain 80% of their energy when a given device declares them dead. It varies by device and some (like standard flashlights) can drain a battery to zero while they dim to nothing.
This is way more complicated than I can explain here. let me just say that I worked for a li-ion battery company and know why this is a good idea, but not a good idea at the same time. The 800% number is an exaggeration and not realistic and probably not attainable. I've done battery capacity studies, usable life studies, etc.
Alkalines DO HAVE some energy left when we throw them away. Not every device can take advantage of them. This product may allow some devices to work a little longer. My guess is 1.5-2X, but not 8X.
Also, tapping every last mA out of an alkaline battery is a great way to have that battery rupture and leak potassium hydroxide into the device, as alkaline batteries create hydrogen in the process of working, and that battery case doesn't make for a very effective pressure vessel.
If one is extracting 20% of the useful energy from a Zn-MnO2 cell, that means there is 80% or 4 times left in the cell at a cutoff of 1.35 volts (which is ridiculously high) there should only be a 400% increase in the available energy. Where is the 800% figure coming from? And since digital cameras need high current outputs, this device won't help there either. I myself used to take my spent cells from a digital camera and save them for my clock. But I got tired of the Duracells penchant for leaking. I now use rechargeables in everything. Disposable 9 volt lithium batteries do go into my smoke detectors. I also have a handful of remotes that require those small cylindrical 12 volt batteries also. With Enelooops as good as they are, alkaline cells are a very poor choice. If I need long shelf life, Li-FeS2 is a superior technology that provides fantastic shelf life and superior current outputs for digital cameras.
I am feeling fairly confident in predicting that this "battery extending" device will have very poor sales.
I agree, this heading is way off. I can't find anywhere that says the battery will last 8 times as long.
From what I gather, you use your battery like normal. After it's dead you can put the sleeve on the battery and access 80% of the energy that's remaining. Is that right?
I don't see how that translates into 8x longer battery life.
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.
Thanks - I've not delved into the chemistry - this is useful - my own experience is Duracell can and do leak occasionally, energizer don't seem to
I don't know where the 800% or 8X claims are coming from. I read it as saying that this little device will let you use 80% of the REMAINING tiny little bit of power that's left in a "dead" battery. Far from extending your device life 8 times, in practice it'll probably be more like an extra half hour.
This doesn't sound like snake oil, but neither is it a particularly compelling value proposition.
Uuh, yes they do. Where is your source that says they don't have a "power supplier or converter"?.
Becuase I took one apart which was not working to see what went wrong. It has minimal circuity mostly the keyboard decorde chip and the bluetooth chip. There is no really power regulation going in in the Apple keyboards just basic voltage regulation.
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.
My statement was about Alkaline batteries not rechargables, when I pulled out the Alkalines out they are not below 1V they were always above 1V so they still have useful life in them. They all start out at 1.65V there abouts and usually need to come out once they hit 1.2 to 1.1 volts. Grant it Alkaline are more graceful when they hit the unknow state, they do not have the voltage clift that rechargeable have so then tend to drop down below the allowable voltage and when the load comes off the voltage pops up and then things start working again then drags down again.
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.
That is my point they have no regulation nor do they need it, the bulb just get dimmer and dimmer until the battery is dead. There is no unknown power state.
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.
Actually I use top of the line LED flashlight with CREE LED and the lights come form Olight which make very good LED lights and they even have over temp protection in them which turn down the brighness verse just turning off like the cheep one. I can tell you the lights just turn off when the Batteries are low either ALkaline or Rechargeable and I have both. Just so you have your facts right the turn on or forward biase voltage for a Cree is about 2.9 to 3.4 volts and the reason is not 0.7 which all LED require to turn on is the fact they Cree use more than one LED in their designs,
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.
Atually not ture any chip design for 1.8V only works on 1.8V. Digital logic started at 5V +/- 10% then went to 3.3V and then to 1.8V and you can not intermix voltages in design, well that is not 100% true since can go through level converts if want to bear the expense. But as soon as your get much below the +/- 10 range things are not longer stable I will assume Apple is using 1.8v technology and to maintan it, they have to have something like 2V or more into the 1.8 Regulator so they means the batteries have to stay above 1V each.
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.
Yeah I been using Eneloops for a while, where I worked we did testing on them for two way radios we sold. Police and such did not want to use the cell phone rechargable batteir packs they want to stay with cyclinders for obvious reasons, they could always put in Alkalines if they could not have time to recharge them. The Eneloops allow for more abuse than your standard rechargeables that are available on the market
While this might make some batteries last longer in some devices, it certainly won't be a magic cure-all. Also, alkaline batteries tend to start leaking the alkaline material out of the battery if discharged in ways they weren't meant to, such as being overly discharged which causes hydrogen gas to build up inside the battery and rupture the seal. This will lead to a lot of devices that end up on the trash heap because people think the "acid"* has ruined them.
[SIZE=11px]*it's not acid - it's potassium carbonate, which is "basic" rather than "acidic". It results from the potassium hydroxide electrolyte inside the battery leaking out and absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and can usually be cleaned off with a slightly acidic solution on a cotton swab, such as lemon juice. Yay, Chemistry![/SIZE]
Just to be clear batteries leak for a various reason, yes draining them too fast or low leakage current and such are the primary reason, but I personally see batteries leak even when not in use, all the other batteries they were connected to were fine still at some norminal voltage like 1.1 volts but one decided to begin leaking since it was sitting for a long time. Some batteries just begin to break down faster then others.
I don't know where the 800% or 8X claims are coming from. I read it as saying that this little device will let you use 80% of the REMAINING tiny little bit of power that's left in a "dead" battery. Far from extending your device life 8 times, in practice it'll probably be more like an extra half hour.
This doesn't sound like snake oil, but neither is it a particularly compelling value proposition.
from the inventors linkedin...
At Batteroo, we have developed a product that will revolutionize the battery industry: the batteriser. Batteriser is a thin durable sleeve that extends the battery life of today's disposable batteries by up to 8x.
Hopefully your device will be ok at the lower current output that the voltage converter relies on. This is not a free linch. There is a reason that devices need to be provided a specific voltgage AND current.
In theory if this "scheme" really worked. An version of this could have been placed In devices themselves.
Somehow this looks like wishful thinking to me. All the electrical engineers in the world just "forgot" to put this tech into my apple trackpad... I think not.
Comments
Total crap. Snake oil to use the American term.
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.
Ahh...thank you for the post. I know nothing about batteries from an engineering standpoint. I did buy that cool 4-slot La Crosse charger and a bunch of AA rechargeable Eneloops from Costco. They have saved me a lot of money. The charger has all kinds of options, including draining down your battery and then recharging it fully to reset it or something. I recharge right away and then store them and use them as needed, rotating them throughout all my electronics. They work well and my gear doesn't know the difference.
The only thing is they advertise holding 85 or 90% of their charge for long periods but I've noticed they will get to this level fairly quickly not long after you buy and use them a bit.
Still...I've recharged hundreds of times and until something better comes along, this is a tried and true way to save $$$.
I'm skeptical about the 8x claim. If that were true, seems like someone would have re-designed the batteries already.
shouldn't Bluetooth 4.0 have accomplished the same thing?
What?
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
Same here, Duracell batteries leaked and destroyed a wireless Apple keyboard.
Mea culpa. The Mobee MTP battery pack is $30. http://www.mobeetechnology.com/the-power-bar.html
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 have to change batteries in the wireless Logitech keyboard. The MTP batteries had to be replaced every three weeks. It wasn't the cost but the inconvenience of changing them right in the middle of working on something. That's what I'm doing now with Eneloop rechargeables.
I stopped using the Magic Mouse. An MTP is much more utilitarian and saves my wrist. Since it doesn't have to be moved like a mouse, I'd prefer a wired MTP and not have to be concerned about batteries.
The headlines on the internet are all parroting the 800% claim of the original article. Total... BULLSHIT.
This product will NOT get you 8X more "life" from a battery. Batteries do not contain 80% of their energy when a given device declares them dead. It varies by device and some (like standard flashlights) can drain a battery to zero while they dim to nothing.
This is way more complicated than I can explain here. let me just say that I worked for a li-ion battery company and know why this is a good idea, but not a good idea at the same time. The 800% number is an exaggeration and not realistic and probably not attainable. I've done battery capacity studies, usable life studies, etc.
Alkalines DO HAVE some energy left when we throw them away. Not every device can take advantage of them. This product may allow some devices to work a little longer. My guess is 1.5-2X, but not 8X.
FYI, SureFire made the original A2 which was a dual incandescent / LED flashlight for with a regulator for the incandescent.
A voltage booster is a great idea. As long as batteries do not leak due to over discharge, it's a valid concept.
Edit: After more thought, this idea has its ups and downs dependent on the application. There are many conditions that go with attempting to use a product like this. Use it on a rechargeable battery and you may only get one charge total due to over-discharge. The Batteriser would have to have a safe minimum-voltage limit and it could vary by battery chemistry.
This idea is not usable for built-in batteries for laptops, cell phones, etc. Why? Because they automatically use the battery to the safe minimum voltage (if designed properly). There is no more usable energy in your MBP when it says it's at zero percent charge. Any more discharge, and the battery will be damaged reducing its life.
My biggest question is that if they are trading current for voltage through a booster circuit, what is the effect on the existing circuitry that detects battery percentage based on voltage? Your mouse / keyboard will now show 100% right until it dies from having insufficient amperage to power it.
And, what effect will having insufficient amperage have? Nothing damaging, certainly; you'll likely see some very odd operation from the device in question - the bluetooth radio will get extremely flaky, the laser in the mouse will blink / go dead even though the bluetooth menu on your Mac says the battery is at 100% (there's still enough amps to power the voltage detection and maybe the radio, but not the laser diode), or perhaps the opposite - the mouse / keyboard will just disconnect even though the little green light is on and your mouse has a laser shining underneath it - it all depends on what is the amperage requirements of each component.
While this might make some batteries last longer in some devices, it certainly won't be a magic cure-all. Also, alkaline batteries tend to start leaking the alkaline material out of the battery if discharged in ways they weren't meant to, such as being overly discharged which causes hydrogen gas to build up inside the battery and rupture the seal. This will lead to a lot of devices that end up on the trash heap because people think the "acid"* has ruined them.
*it's not acid - it's potassium carbonate, which is "basic" rather than "acidic". It results from the potassium hydroxide electrolyte inside the battery leaking out and absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and can usually be cleaned off with a slightly acidic solution on a cotton swab, such as lemon juice. Yay, Chemistry!
The headlines on the internet are all parroting the 800% claim of the original article. Total... BULLSHIT.
This product will NOT get you 8X more "life" from a battery. Batteries do not contain 80% of their energy when a given device declares them dead. It varies by device and some (like standard flashlights) can drain a battery to zero while they dim to nothing.
This is way more complicated than I can explain here. let me just say that I worked for a li-ion battery company and know why this is a good idea, but not a good idea at the same time. The 800% number is an exaggeration and not realistic and probably not attainable. I've done battery capacity studies, usable life studies, etc.
Alkalines DO HAVE some energy left when we throw them away. Not every device can take advantage of them. This product may allow some devices to work a little longer. My guess is 1.5-2X, but not 8X.
Also, tapping every last mA out of an alkaline battery is a great way to have that battery rupture and leak potassium hydroxide into the device, as alkaline batteries create hydrogen in the process of working, and that battery case doesn't make for a very effective pressure vessel.
With the tight manufacturing tolerances of Apple products would batteries with these even slide in to a trackpad/keyboard?
I am feeling fairly confident in predicting that this "battery extending" device will have very poor sales.
I agree, this heading is way off. I can't find anywhere that says the battery will last 8 times as long.
From what I gather, you use your battery like normal. After it's dead you can put the sleeve on the battery and access 80% of the energy that's remaining. Is that right?
I don't see how that translates into 8x longer battery life.
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.
Thanks - I've not delved into the chemistry - this is useful - my own experience is Duracell can and do leak occasionally, energizer don't seem to
I don't know where the 800% or 8X claims are coming from. I read it as saying that this little device will let you use 80% of the REMAINING tiny little bit of power that's left in a "dead" battery. Far from extending your device life 8 times, in practice it'll probably be more like an extra half hour.
This doesn't sound like snake oil, but neither is it a particularly compelling value proposition.
Becuase I took one apart which was not working to see what went wrong. It has minimal circuity mostly the keyboard decorde chip and the bluetooth chip. There is no really power regulation going in in the Apple keyboards just basic voltage regulation.
My statement was about Alkaline batteries not rechargables, when I pulled out the Alkalines out they are not below 1V they were always above 1V so they still have useful life in them. They all start out at 1.65V there abouts and usually need to come out once they hit 1.2 to 1.1 volts. Grant it Alkaline are more graceful when they hit the unknow state, they do not have the voltage clift that rechargeable have so then tend to drop down below the allowable voltage and when the load comes off the voltage pops up and then things start working again then drags down again.
That is my point they have no regulation nor do they need it, the bulb just get dimmer and dimmer until the battery is dead. There is no unknown power state.
Actually I use top of the line LED flashlight with CREE LED and the lights come form Olight which make very good LED lights and they even have over temp protection in them which turn down the brighness verse just turning off like the cheep one. I can tell you the lights just turn off when the Batteries are low either ALkaline or Rechargeable and I have both. Just so you have your facts right the turn on or forward biase voltage for a Cree is about 2.9 to 3.4 volts and the reason is not 0.7 which all LED require to turn on is the fact they Cree use more than one LED in their designs,
Atually not ture any chip design for 1.8V only works on 1.8V. Digital logic started at 5V +/- 10% then went to 3.3V and then to 1.8V and you can not intermix voltages in design, well that is not 100% true since can go through level converts if want to bear the expense. But as soon as your get much below the +/- 10 range things are not longer stable I will assume Apple is using 1.8v technology and to maintan it, they have to have something like 2V or more into the 1.8 Regulator so they means the batteries have to stay above 1V each.
Yeah I been using Eneloops for a while, where I worked we did testing on them for two way radios we sold. Police and such did not want to use the cell phone rechargable batteir packs they want to stay with cyclinders for obvious reasons, they could always put in Alkalines if they could not have time to recharge them. The Eneloops allow for more abuse than your standard rechargeables that are available on the market
Just to be clear batteries leak for a various reason, yes draining them too fast or low leakage current and such are the primary reason, but I personally see batteries leak even when not in use, all the other batteries they were connected to were fine still at some norminal voltage like 1.1 volts but one decided to begin leaking since it was sitting for a long time. Some batteries just begin to break down faster then others.
I don't know where the 800% or 8X claims are coming from. I read it as saying that this little device will let you use 80% of the REMAINING tiny little bit of power that's left in a "dead" battery. Far from extending your device life 8 times, in practice it'll probably be more like an extra half hour.
This doesn't sound like snake oil, but neither is it a particularly compelling value proposition.
from the inventors linkedin...
At Batteroo, we have developed a product that will revolutionize the battery industry: the batteriser. Batteriser is a thin durable sleeve that extends the battery life of today's disposable batteries by up to 8x.
In theory if this "scheme" really worked. An version of this could have been placed In devices themselves.
Somehow this looks like wishful thinking to me. All the electrical engineers in the world just "forgot" to put this tech into my apple trackpad... I think not.