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Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

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41–50 of 201 posts

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#41

I suspect the 100% charging time was miscalculated. USB power is 5volts, so a 1A charger meants 5W of continuous power. Battery charging, especially past 85% is not very efficient, so I suspect total charging time will be more in the neighborhood of 20 hours.

My guess is those times are assuming a 2A charger, which isn't particularly uncommon nowadays.

They call that out as taking half as long. My guess is they calculated the charge time using 1A but the voltage from the output (17v?)

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#42
They claim that their 50 Whr battery can power a MacBook Pro for 6 hours, a MacBook Air for 12 hrs. By my math, that would mean that the MacBook Pro would only be consuming an average of around 8.3 watts an hour, the air only around 4.2 watts an hour.

That seems absurd to me, considering the power supplies that ship with the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air are 85-watt and 45-watt respectively. They are assuming that each only draws about 10% of the power that the official power supplies are rated at. Anyone have a Kill-A-Watt to see the actual draw of their device?

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#43
post #10
post #2

Here is a classic example of a startup launching an Altair Basic with the potential produce a Microsoft-like giant. Incidentally, I think this is also the first father/son team we've funded.

What is the strategy for when Apple disallows sales based on the Magsafe adapter? This happened to HyperMac (now HyperJuice) batteries back in 2011. I still have mine, ordered before Apple lawyers went after them. It's wonderful. Edit: Adding link to Wired article: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/hypermac-is-back-with...

From the pictures, it looks like the strategy is to use a MagSafe-to-MagSafe2 adapter.

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#44
post #12

Does Apple allow licensing of MagSafe now?

That was my first thought. I remember reading a few years ago that a company actually had to stop making Macbook compatible external batteries because Apple threatened to sue them over use of the MagSafe connector. EDIT: I found the article, and apparently the company was sued for using actual recycled connectors, not just using the design. http://appleinsider.com/articles/10/09/21/apple_sues_hyperma...

But they used recycled connectors as a way of using the legal argument their product was a "customer modification" of a licensed and paid for product. You sent them YOUR charger and they modified it to work with their device.

They STILL got shut down by Apple because the Mag Safe also used circuitry inside the brick that they "hacked" to make their brick work like.. Basically DRM and DMCA for power bricks shut them down.

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#45

They're making some pretty strange claims about capacity and number of cycles. In electric RC heli circles, batteries come along once in a while claiming to use previously unknown techniques to improve the performance of existing cells and a few gullible people buy them. They never deliver on the promises. People who make (established) battery management circuits understand very well how to care for the cells, and cl…

Yeah, it's obviously snake oil. If you had a technology that increased the charge-cycle lifetime of a battery by any substantial amount, you wouldn't be marketing a stupid plastic box for mactards. You'd be cashing billion-dollar checks twice a day.

How would you know your technology worked? Maybe a good test would be to build a plastic box for mac users.

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#46

They're making some pretty strange claims about capacity and number of cycles. In electric RC heli circles, batteries come along once in a while claiming to use previously unknown techniques to improve the performance of existing cells and a few gullible people buy them. They never deliver on the promises. People who make (established) battery management circuits understand very well how to care for the cells, and cl…

Yeah, it's obviously snake oil. If you had a technology that increased the charge-cycle lifetime of a battery by any substantial amount, you wouldn't be marketing a stupid plastic box for mactards. You'd be cashing billion-dollar checks twice a day.

It turns out that even the most amazing technologies don't just automatically get you huge checks overnight. You have to build a business, starting with a first product, and grow from there.

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#47
post #10
post #2

Here is a classic example of a startup launching an Altair Basic with the potential produce a Microsoft-like giant. Incidentally, I think this is also the first father/son team we've funded.

What is the strategy for when Apple disallows sales based on the Magsafe adapter? This happened to HyperMac (now HyperJuice) batteries back in 2011. I still have mine, ordered before Apple lawyers went after them. It's wonderful. Edit: Adding link to Wired article: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/hypermac-is-back-with...

Yep; I have the hypermac as well; it is very great. I buy new ones all the time. The magsafe thing is a bit (not much) of a hassle though. Curious as well how that will be handled.

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#48
post #10
post #2

Here is a classic example of a startup launching an Altair Basic with the potential produce a Microsoft-like giant. Incidentally, I think this is also the first father/son team we've funded.

What is the strategy for when Apple disallows sales based on the Magsafe adapter? This happened to HyperMac (now HyperJuice) batteries back in 2011. I still have mine, ordered before Apple lawyers went after them. It's wonderful. Edit: Adding link to Wired article: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/hypermac-is-back-with...

Likely they will continue building the product described on their website:

"A battery management system (BMS) that increases battery capacity and cycle count"

I'm sure they can apply this to devices other than the 12% of laptops sold that are made by Apple.

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#49

They claim that their 50 Whr battery can power a MacBook Pro for 6 hours, a MacBook Air for 12 hrs. By my math, that would mean that the MacBook Pro would only be consuming an average of around 8.3 watts an hour, the air only around 4.2 watts an hour. That seems absurd to me, considering the power supplies that ship with the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air are 85-watt and 45-watt respectively. They are assuming that…

The Air has I think a 50 WHr battery and will last 11-12 hours for Wi-Fi surfing. I think the idle load is just a couple of watts. Peak load is of course higher.

Re: Gbatteries (YC W14) Launches BatteryBox, A 50Whr Backup Battery For MacBooks

#50

They claim that their 50 Whr battery can power a MacBook Pro for 6 hours, a MacBook Air for 12 hrs. By my math, that would mean that the MacBook Pro would only be consuming an average of around 8.3 watts an hour, the air only around 4.2 watts an hour. That seems absurd to me, considering the power supplies that ship with the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air are 85-watt and 45-watt respectively. They are assuming that…

The difference in power draw between idle and 100% utilization on a modern computer is enormous.

The power adapter needs to be able to handle 100%, but the sort of usage where you get 6-12 hours of use while on battery is very much near idle almost all the time.

I have a 15" MacBook Pro, which has a 95Wh battery. Apple claims 8 hours of battery life on it, and in my experience that's an understatement. It also ships with an 85W power adapter.

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