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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

#91

Post by post_break »

mcmillion wrote: post #80
dotBen wrote: post #61

Mentioned in passing in child comments below, but worth highlighting - the HyperJuice Battery range of products (eg http://amzn.to/1mqK9ap ) already does this, at a similar price point, and is available for purchase today. In fact they're already onto the second generation of the product, with minor bugs and issues with the first gen already ironed out. I get this GBattery has a new "BatteryOS" management feature but…

We bought a HyperJuice 2 for use on trips. It's terrible. It'll charge a 15" rMBP about 10-15% before it's completely dead.

It's not made to charge the laptops. It's made to keep them running. The rmbp will suck any battery dry trying to charge and run at the same time. Keep the rmbp at 100% and plug in the battery and let me know how long it lasts.

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

#92

Post by roc »

mcmillion wrote: post #82
pg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I have a feeling that if it can connect to a MagSafe port and work, Apple has control over it.

The claimed performance would provide a huge competitive advantage. If it worked as advertised and Apple had control over it, they'd integrate the software into their products and this box would never see the light of day as a third party product.

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

#93

Post by akramhussein »

BatteryOS seems to be the most important aspect here. Consumer electronics manufacturers have different goals than this class of product, which may not always align with every consumer. So if they are abstracting all that logic into their own MCU OS, that is pretty smart. I can see an iPhone/Mac app to tune your BatteryBox to charge faster at the cost of life time/cycles(?) (clearly telling you this!) or vice versa...allowing you to tailor the solution to your needs. This is different to what Apple would offer as they need to find a one size fits all solution and that is usually some sweet spot for high cycle count + low charge time and long battery life.

Going one step further, possibility for some ML to learn your use case and charge your MacBook accordingly. Regardless, the battery is irrelevant, the OS is key.

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

#94

Post by rasz_pl »

hackcasual wrote: post #41
jmgrosen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?)

>nine hours for 100 percent charge on a 1A power supply

They are simply LYING, probably learned from the same Chinese that will build it for them using 5000mAh* Ultrafire 16850 cells ;)

*400mAh when tested

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

#95

Post by rasz_pl »

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? its just a powerbank, plenty of those on scambay

they even lie about capacity/charge time just like Chinese

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

#96

Post by qwerta »

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.

I have similar battery from APC. It is 5 years old and still holds most of its capacity. That super software is called battery calibration.

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

#97

Post by selectodude »

bittercynic wrote: post #68
johnrob wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You would know by testing it. This company is making an extraordinary claim regarding capacity and cycle-life, and they aren't showing extraordinary proof to back it up.

I mean, they're letting you buy the damn thing, so once you purchase it, you can see if it holds up.

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

#99

Post by chillingeffect »

bittercynic wrote: post #68
johnrob wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You would know by testing it. This company is making an extraordinary claim regarding capacity and cycle-life, and they aren't showing extraordinary proof to back it up.

For what it's worth, they have a graph of a test of a 2 (!) cells at [1]. From a sample of two, it is quite extraordinary, indeed. I find it very hard to believe in the Altair->Microsoft hypothesis. Altair to microsoft was a new practice overlooked by the big guys. Lithium charging is a very concentrated area of research with lots of investment.

For comparison, I found [2] which is a test done of pulse-charging by Electrochem/ENREV and a university. This area of research has been going on for almost two decades. I've found a number of studies on the topic. [3][4][5] I don't have time to analyze them all today, but #5 looks really good at first glance.

[1] http://www.getbatterybox.com/bos.html#highexpl [2] http://www.electrochem.org/dl/ma/197/pdfs/0111.PDF [3] http://www.che.sc.edu/faculty/popov/drbnp/Ramadass/June2002.... [4] http://www.researchgate.net/publication/242110481_The_effect... [5] http://kohl.chbe.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/linked_files...

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

#100

Post by wmf »

mxfh wrote: post #40

Maybe this feature was a bit underreported: the current line of Lenovo 's Ultrabooks, the ThinkPad X240/T440s allows for hot swapping the battery pack while running on a secondary built in battery. Adding up to 23.5 Whr built in plus up to 72Whr per battery pack. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/t440s...

So they're catching up with my old Pismo. It could even sleep for a few seconds with no battery at all.
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