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Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

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Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#21

Post by tomkinstinch »

blueintegral wrote: post #2

Hey everyone! I'm Hunter, one of the cofounders of Ohm. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Great product idea! One possible side market: have you looked at adapting the capacitor+battery combo for electric bicycles? It could be a great application: batteries for energy density, a capacitor as a buffer that can be filled quickly in a pinch (for charging while out and about, or from regenerative braking) and the capacitor could be discharged quickly for high-power acceleration. For short trips the capacitor would bear much of the load, saving battery cycles. The total capacity may need to be somewhat higher than 10Ah, but probably not much higher.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#22

Post by fn42 »

eggoa wrote: post #4
blueintegral wrote: post #2

Hey everyone! I'm Hunter, one of the cofounders of Ohm. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Will this work when its -30F?

Not exactly -30 but I know this guy had some success with off the shelf caps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUXM1XuLUIs

There's a few other vids on this topic if you search through the channel

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#23

Post by daniel-levin »

eggoa wrote: post #4
blueintegral wrote: post #2

Hey everyone! I'm Hunter, one of the cofounders of Ohm. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Will this work when its -30F?

>> Rated for -30°C to +50°C [1]

-22F ~ -30C

[1] http://www.getohm.com/

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#24

Post by allworknoplay »

This is cool. Rarely in such established industries do people step back and reconsider the actual product requirements in such a practical way. Car batteries serve two TOTALLY distinct purposes (starting engine and running electronics), and this is a great solution for those.

I'd be worried about the impact of rapidly increasing electrification (including hybrids) on the high end market (the most likely consumers for this), but it's such a huge market at present that it probably doesn't matter.

Kudos, guys.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#25

Post by mankyd »

hughes wrote: post #14

Can this battery be used to jump another (traditional or Ohm) battery when required?

Usually, when jumping another car, you are supposed to leave the car running, getting power off the alternator rather than the battery.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#26

Post by tomkinstinch »

Sanddancer wrote: post #20
Cshelton wrote: post #5

So yesterday Audi/Porsche/VW announced a new v6 engine that will be used in variations across all their vehicles. Further down the line, they said that engine would include an electric drive component as well, incorporating a battery, effectively making all their cars "hybrids". This seems to be the trend, see racing tech (Formula 1, WEC, etc.). We will probably see this in all new consumer cars sometime soon. Once e…

A lot of hybrids, like the Prius [1] have a second battery designed for turning over the engine that are designed for different usage cases than the drivetrain batteries; it's also why this battery has a supercapacitor for starting, and lithium polymers for the rest of the time. Additionally, there are a lot of people who like older cars, think hotrodders, etc, where a battery like this would also be useful. It's def…

Slight correction as a Gen II Prius driver: In the Prius, the 12V battery only runs the control electronics of the car (and a few small motors like the wipers); the engine is turned over by a high-voltage motor running from the main "traction" battery. The smaller 12V battery is charged from the high-voltage battery which is itself charged from the gasoline engine via the hybrid transmission. All that is to say that the 12V battery doesn't see huge load spikes like a regular starter battery (even the air conditioning compressor runs off the high-voltage pack). It would be GREAT to have a supercapacitor bank backing the traction battery in parallel though, particularly for storing the energy recovered from regenerative braking.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#27

Post by sandworm101 »

(1) Those nasty things inside car batteries are easily recycled and in fact are recycled more often than not (like 95%+)

(2) Car batteries do not last only 3-4 years as per the OP. Car batteries can last decades. There are many variables, but the car in my battery is far older than 4 years. (lol)

(3) Replacing an easily-recyclable product with a less-recyclable one is no step forwards.

(4) XX addressed by OP comment, see below XX This thing is a capacitor? What's the voltage potential in there? Any device with internals significantly beyond that may be a serious fire risk in a crash..

(5) Car batteries are not needlessly heavy, nor are they a stock size. Manufacturers do care about performance. If they thought the car could do with lighter battery they would use one. Have some respect for the thought behind stock engineering before replacing it.

(6) Shutting down the voltage supply can be a real pain. A "dead" battery generally still has enough juice to keep electronics ticking over. Cutting it completely is not like turning off a switch. It often means resetting/rebooting stuff once the voltage is restored. For some (BMW) it can even mean a trip to the dealership for a special new battery ritual. http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1355106-Why...

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#28

Post by sokoloff »

> Oh, and its lifespan (7 years) is about twice that of a lead-acid battery (3-4 years).

I live in Cambridge, MA (so we get winters) and I can't remember the last time I've had a regularly driven car's battery fail in under 7 years.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#29

Post by chrisBob »

devicenull wrote: post #18
blueintegral wrote: post #2

Hey everyone! I'm Hunter, one of the cofounders of Ohm. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

> if it’s ever about to reach the point that it’ll no longer be able to start your car, it’ll just turn itself off. Your lights will fade out and the radio will go quiet — but once you turn the key, everything will spring right back to life, no jump start required. How does that work? If the battery stops providing current to prevent itself from being fully drained, you're not going to have power to the car's compute…

And will I have to reset all of my radio stations every time I leave the dome light on? With a manual I would almost rather run the battery until it is nearly dead.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#30

Post by bluehawk »

sokoloff wrote: post #28

> Oh, and its lifespan (7 years) is about twice that of a lead-acid battery (3-4 years). I live in Cambridge, MA (so we get winters) and I can't remember the last time I've had a regularly driven car's battery fail in under 7 years.

In Arizona, you're lucky if it lasts for 2 years. Batteries don't like being in 120 degree heat all day or something.
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