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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

#191

Post by yellowapple »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #170
atourgates wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at this purely from the standpoint of the benefit to a consumer, it doesn't seem like a great deal. You gain: * Auto-shutoff when your battery gets too low. * Possibly some increased lifespan * ~34lbs in weight reduction, which might deliver a small performance increase. You lose: * 78% of your battery capacity * $20-$150 on the purchase price of the battery Personally, I don't like the idea of paying mor…

I guess the pitch is that you do not need the extra battery capacity? Are you sitting in parking lots listening music these days? That did sound cool when you were kid, but majority will never do that (or take their car camping).

And even if I did take my car camping, I probably wouldn't be using its electricity except in extreme circumstances; I'd sooner bring - at the absolute most - a separate generator (preferably one of those quiet Honda ones) if I really feel the need to be plugged in (which is rarely the case; the point of camping for me is to get a breather from tech).

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

#192

Post by micaeked »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #81
heywire wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nobody with a modern car or SUV is going to get three hours' runtime for their accessory equipment. Really? I've left the satellite radio playing for hours in my 2011 Hyundai Sonata at moderate volume with no hint of problem starting my car afterwards. It has the premium sound system (including subwoofer) and navigation.

There are always going to be anecdotes to the contrary, but the trend is pretty clearly in the opposite direction. Usually what happens in my case is I forget to turn the headlights from 'Auto' to 'Off.' But even with the lights and fans off I don't tend to see more than 20-30 minutes of operation at most. The car's version of HAL 9000 tries to be conservative and shut things down as soon as the battery voltage goes…

That's also anecdotal.

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

#193

Post by jaytaylor »

msandford wrote: post #66
digitalneal wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subaru ECU cold start logic is, well, questionable at best. As a side note, if your car is stalling that frequently, I would suggest adjusting the clutch engagement position. Sounds like its either very low or way too high.

It's definitely driver error and not the car's fault. I try not to rev too hard and slip too long, and it occasionally results in a stall. I'm spoiled from having driven a number of very powerful manuals. Big engines mean a lot of rotating mass which means that no revving is needed, just pop the clutch and go. That extra rotating mass also means that the ECU has more time to notice the drop in RPM and give it a littl…

Just out of curiosity- Do you recall the approximate weight of flywheels in referenced "big powerful manuals"?

IIRC the Subaru flywheels for the Impreza weigh in at about 20 lbs - and this is likely similar or identical to what is used in the Foresters.

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

#194

Post by yellowapple »

VLM wrote: post #94
CamperBob2 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some thoughts: The price point is impressive if you can sell at only ~$50 more than a standard lead-acid battery. If pressed to find a flaw, I think the biggest is one you've already identified: There’s one: you can’t run your lights and/or stereo as long with your engine turned off. Ohm’s battery reserve comes in at 10 amp hours; most lead-acid car batteries come in at about 45 amp hours. If you can run your stereo…

You're probably getting downvoted because a c*4 discharge rate implies over 3 kilowatts continuous draw, which is rather unlikely. Probably your battery is near dead. Also F150 pickup trucks are about $60K when loaded with options. Those guys are free spenders compared to commuter car drivers.

> Also F150 pickup trucks are about $60K when loaded with options.

If you buy new. The parent commenter specifically mentioned a '98 F150.

Personally, though, I'm interested in one of these for my Blazer for the cold-temperature performance alone. If the lower power capacity is an issue, I could always just carry around my jumpbox.

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

#195

Post by rebootthesystem »

A solution looking for a problem.

Sorry, it isn't my intention to be less than cordial. I just don't see a problem screaming for a fix. Nobody I know is screaming about the batteries in their cars. I don't even know (or care) what batteries are in our vehicles and I am far more aware of automotive matter than the average person out there.

Longevity isn't an issue.

Weight? People are far more interested in losing 34 lbs of fat from their bodies than 34 lbs of battery from their cars. The former would make them very happy while the latter is completely off their radar.

"It costs more but it's better" (paraphrasing). The world is littered with the carcasses of businesses who thought "better" was equivalent to "sales". I've done that before and lived to learn a few expensive lessons. This might very well be better in objective terms from a certain point of view but people are not going to hand over another $50 for something they truly don't care about. This isn't an iPhone or a Nest type product where "luxury makes me feel good" is part of the mental process.

I do agree the racing community might have interest in something like this. That said, if I were building a race car I would use Lithium Polymer battery packs that deliver tremendous power at a lower volume and weight. Are there rules prohibiting this due to fire hazard issues?

And yet, I could be absolutely wrong in my view.

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

#196

Post by yellowapple »

jboy55 wrote: post #178
MBlume wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I leave my lights on and kill my battery once every few months, so this is easily worth it for me, but I'm probably an outlier[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivit...

Why not add the smarts to a lead/acid battery? Probably only a few bucks worth of electronics.

My impression was that said smarts are possible in the Ohm because of the otherwise-wasted space caused by the smaller internals.

On the other hand, if there's that much more space, I'm curious as to why some more battery or capacitor banks couldn't be added to address the low-capacity concerns.

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

#197

Post by yellowapple »

baudehlo wrote: post #184
atourgates wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure losing 30+lbs is a big deal in the high-performance automotive world, and Ohm's price premium is nothing compared to, say, replacing structural elements with carbon fiber etc. But I don't think your average mass-market consumer is going to care much about 30lbs, or notice a difference in performance or handling if they did.

I'm not sure why my comment got so downvoted, that's kind of weird as I was just stating facts. Absolutely the average buyer of a Camry is not going to care about this. But that wasn't at all my point. Some cars (more often in Europe/Japan where driving is more fun because they have corners), take weight seriously. I think car manufacturers might take this option seriously in their sport divisions.

> I'm not sure why my comment got so downvoted

Probably because of the "in the real world they're called 'grams'" remark. I vastly prefer metric over Imperial, too, but that came across as a tad snobbish, eh?

I upvoted, though, for what it's worth; weight savings aren't just the purview of racecars.

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

#198

Post by icanhackit »

MBlume wrote: post #173
atourgates wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at this purely from the standpoint of the benefit to a consumer, it doesn't seem like a great deal. You gain: * Auto-shutoff when your battery gets too low. * Possibly some increased lifespan * ~34lbs in weight reduction, which might deliver a small performance increase. You lose: * 78% of your battery capacity * $20-$150 on the purchase price of the battery Personally, I don't like the idea of paying mor…

I leave my lights on and kill my battery once every few months, so this is easily worth it for me, but I'm probably an outlier[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivit...

> I leave my lights on and kill my battery once every few months, so this is easily worth it for me

I compulsively check to make sure my lights are turned off yet my battery still dies at least once a year because I don't regularly use my car, costing around $200 in on-site service and replacement per go. The smart shut-off feature is worth it to me - even if it's just to save time waiting around for someone to perform a replacement. The reduction in weight is a bonus as I have a small car with a fairly humble engine displacement.

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

#199

Post by CHY872 »

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…

Current electric cars and hybrids still all have 12V lead acid batteries in them (Teslas, Leafs, Priuses etc). These are typically used to drive the lights, windscreen wipers etc but also to bootstrap the charging process.

I think in some states it's required by law, and although this is probably an artifact of history (you must be able to run your hazards even if you're out of petrol etc) it still means that cars will all have such batteries for the foreseeable future.

I would seriously doubt the market viability being five years. Car manufactures like homogeneous models where possible - so you'd expect to see batteries until every model in the range was a hybrid. It's otherwise additional complexity, and I'd imagine a right pain to get restarted when flat.

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

#200

Post by TTPrograms »

sandworm101 wrote: post #74
blueintegral wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we're still figuring out the best way to handle collecting the units at the end of life, but there's already places like this that we can send them to and keep it from turning into e-waste: http://www.kinsbursky.com/

You might want to add language re battery orientation. It looks like your device doesn't care about up and down. That's a big deal for car people. They pay extra for a 'dry' battery that can be mounted in weird places and angles. And mention venting or lack thereof. That's another sticking point for people shopping for aftermarket batteries. Also, vibration testing if you have done any. Custom cars and offroad machin…

I wonder if an argument could be made for audio systems. Very "peaky" power draws from sub systems already have some people putting caps in parallel with their batteries (to mixed success).
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