[HN Gopher] Michael Bluejays Battery Guide
___________________________________________________________________
Michael Bluejays Battery Guide
Author : Tomte
Score : 65 points
Date : 2021-01-27 09:43 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (michaelbluejay.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (michaelbluejay.com)
| alanbernstein wrote:
| I love the idea of rechargeable batteries. I started buying
| Eneloops, and they work alright.
|
| Now I own 16 more electronic devices (8 AA, 8AAA), and I have to
| keep track of what device they're in, their charge state, and
| their long-term health. I don't have a great way of tracking ANY
| of those things.
|
| Part of my motivation was to use them in camera flash units,
| where a small change in the battery life can result in the flash
| cycle time changing from ~1s to ~10s, without any warning - while
| I'm trying to take a photo of something quickly - so this sucks.
| This is a minor pain, because I can swap out for some fresh
| alkalines, but in that case, why even bother with the
| rechargeables?
|
| They're still nice in most other devices.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Chargers like a LaCrosse BC-700 can give you an approximate
| capacity measurement for a battery, you could use that to bin
| them into rough capacities and color code with stickers.
|
| But if the charge time is changing that drastically, it sounds
| like more of a maximum current issue. I've been under the
| impression that NiMH batteries can deliver higher current than
| alkaline, but I've never tried them for something like a camera
| flash.
|
| EDIT - higher end chargers can measure the internal resistance,
| which I think is the number you need for issues with limited
| power draw. With a BC-700 you can apparently approximate this
| by using its discharge mode and seeing how a battery's voltage
| changes when you're drawing power from it. Discussion here:
| http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?338786-Qu...
|
| Or a BC-1000 will do it for you.
| nicbou wrote:
| I still have the set of 8 eneloops I bought a decade ago, and
| they still fulfil their duty. I wrote my name of them because I
| didn't want people to take them. It was one of those great
| purchases I never really stop to think about.
| cellularmitosis wrote:
| Michael Bluejay is one small piece of the quirky charm of Austin.
| It has been somewhat sad watching Austin's charm get diluted and
| steamrolled over the past decade.
| TwoBit wrote:
| Nice but the page looks like it's old and somewhat stale.
| unwind wrote:
| I agree; no mention of Ikea who are thought to build their
| NiMHs in the Eneloop factory (same capacity at 2.450 mAh for
| AAs, made in Japan) but _much_ cheaper.
|
| The price in the US seems to be $7, for a pack of four.
| pinko wrote:
| The chatter on slickdeals.net forums (yes, Someone on the
| Internet Told Me...) is that Ikea has switched to a lower-
| quality Chinese supplier, and theirs are not white-labeled
| Eneloop anymore.
| unwind wrote:
| Okay, hadn't seen that (I'm not really that far into
| battery geekdom). That's kind of depressing, I thought it
| was a fun fact (or assumption, perhaps) about their
| batteries that made me a bit more happy to buy them. :)
|
| No way to tell country of origin from their web, and
| obviously I don't visit their stores all that often right
| now.
|
| I guess I will have to include some the next time we order
| stuff for safe pick-up and have a look at the packaging. :)
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| The cynic in me wants to point out that IKEA doesn't have
| affiliate links.
| bxparks wrote:
| I've had so many leaking alkaline batteries, particularly the
| Duracell brand, that I've replaced almost all my batteries with
| NiMH Eneloops, the LSD white ones. Even for low current
| applications (e.g. remote controls) where the simple calculations
| say that alkalines are cheaper, if I include the cost of the
| damaged electronics, I probably save money with the NiMHs.
| CharlesW wrote:
| This is a _great_ tip. I started to do the same thing after
| having been bit by the same problem with Kirkland batteries,
| which are also made by Duracell.
| elil17 wrote:
| I'd be curious to know how lithium ion batteries compare given
| that they're now available in AA.
| mnw21cam wrote:
| Wouldn't they be the wrong voltage?
| rainbowzootsuit wrote:
| LiFePO4 chemistry is at about 3.2VDC so a blank/filler will
| make it a drop-in for 2X alkaline which is what I see a lot
| of devices use. You can get "AA" size ones in the garden
| light section of home centers as they're used for solar path
| lights.
|
| Lithium primary batteries are available in 1.5V nominal --
| not sure if they have any circuitry.
| amluto wrote:
| There are tiny little converters inside.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| A typical lithium ion "14500" battery has that issue, yes.
|
| There are some more unusual ones such as Kentli, which have
| built-in buck converter to give you 1.5V as a substitute for
| normal AA batteries. It's a clever design where the top of
| the cell has two separate contacts, the normal button-top
| gives you 1.5V, and a recessed ring around that hooks up to
| the actual battery cell for charging purposes. So you need a
| special charger for these.
|
| Images and more info here: https://lygte-
| info.dk/review/batteries2012/Kentli%20AA%20280...
|
| I've never actually seen any of these (have a bunch of NiMH
| cells and one fancy charger already) but it's a cool system.
| I don't think the capacity is significantly better, but
| devices that have trouble with NiMH's lower voltage would do
| better with these.
| jablan wrote:
| sometimes they go in packs together with "blanks" so that in
| total they provide similar voltage as 3xAA
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-01-29 23:02 UTC)