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

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

#51

Post by Snail_Commando »

gopalv wrote: post #6

Why Macbooks? Is Apple friendly towards people who replicate their connector interfaces? Or are Macs the only popular device out there where people wish "I wish I could carry an extra battery!"?

High end laptops are a good place to start when you are selling a ~$140 accessory.

I would be shocked if they didn't have plans to expand to other products/devices. My guess is that they are betting that Macbook owners are most likely to pay right now. I'm not certain, but I'm willing to bet that Macbooks have a majority chunk of the high end laptop market.

So if I were in their shoes, I'd probably start with macbooks in order to gain a foothold.

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

#52

Post by JSadowski »

rayiner wrote: post #49
JSadowski wrote: post #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…

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.

Good point, I didn't think to check the capacity of the Air's internal battery.

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

#53

Post by marvin »

pg wrote: 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.

Battery storage will be absolutely huge in a few years. There is so much potential that has gone unexplored, since batteries have traditionally been heavy, low-capacity and short-lived. At least some of the people in this space who are in the right place at the right time today, are going to win big. Someone will have to build all these batteries.

Everything from cars to renewable energy to light aircraft is going to be battery-powered in the future. It will be very exciting to see what happens in this space, and I'm bummed that I'm largely unable to invest in this space myself. Best of luck to the YC-backed companies :)

(Case in point: Tesla Motors have announced that they're building the world's largest Li-ion battery factory, to the tune of $5 billion).

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

#54

Post by pg »

_jss wrote: post #10
pg wrote: 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...

I don't remember the details, but IIRC they are Apple proof.

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

#56

Post by thrownaway2424 »

Blahah wrote: post #36
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

if you read the article, you'd see they're working on OEM deals to get the tech into batteries across the board. The Box is just a nice consumer demo so people can get their hands on it now. Actually a pretty smart PR move. Also, the patent: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2013142964A1

That's a patent application, yes. Are you aware that the USPTO gets so many applications for perpetual motion patents that they have regulations forbidding them? Patent application does not in any way indicate feasibility.

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

#57

Post by noonespecial »

Blahah wrote: post #27
klaruz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They say they have a patent pending, that should have more details. I would like to read it, can anybody find the filing? http://www.gbatteries.com/technology/

pretty sure it's this one: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2013142964A1 basically the technique involves pulsing the current during (dis)charging, and optimising the length and timing of the pulsing in real-time, because the optimal settings change through the life of the battery.

I'm kind of a battery nut. I've been building various pulse chargers and capacitive current limiting chargers for years. Without fail all of my most promising pulse charge/bleed schemes that yielded faster charges and greater runtimes have done so at the expense of cycle numbers. Usually by a factor of 10 or more. I hope they've outsmarted this, but I have my doubts.

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

#58

Post by oddevan »

mrfusion wrote: post #55

Would this be useful for Tesla?

Absolutely. And Apple, and Dell, and anyone else that uses rechargeable batteries that degrade over time. This solves the degradation aspect of batteries, so it would improve the longevity of devices.

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

#59

Post by bnejad »

pg wrote: 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 makes you think this? Portable batteries like this are dime a dozen (maybe not for macs, I don't own one). Or the real play is licensing the battery tech which doesn't really seem Microsoft like at all since the company would likely fade into the background as the big battery companies use the technology.

I don't mean to be offensive, just curious why you are so confident this company or product is a industry game changer.

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

#60

Post by XorNot »

toyg wrote: post #25
_jss wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I think that it's not about the BatteryBox product per se, but about some technology inside which is supposed to reduce long-term capacity loss. The box itself is basically a demo to sell or license the actual tech to OEMs.

This is straight up not possible. Lithium-ion batteries degrade irreversibly as they're used - the only way to reduce capacity loss is to reduce the depth-of-discharge: add more cells, and discharge them less per cycle.

Unless they're fiddling with the actual chemistry of the cells, it's unlikely they've changed anything.

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