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

Post by mikeash » Mon, Mar 24, 2014, 7:42 PM UTC

qwerta wrote: post #101

My laptop has swapable battery. I can also swap HDD bay from my desktop when I am traveling. It is really funny to see Mac fans excited about simple external battery. This stuff is around for decades!

Post by bittercynic » Mon, Mar 24, 2014, 7:50 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #97

bittercynic wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by rdl » Mon, Mar 24, 2014, 7:51 PM UTC

XorNot wrote: post #71

Blahah wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The box, judging from that patent, is unlikely to benefit from what they're doing. In fact I can't see how anymobile devices would - a laptop has 6 - 9 Li-Ion cells and needs all of them to run all the time. A cellphone has exactly 1. The patent is proposing they're going to use capacitors/inductors to do some type of pulsed battery charging/discharging while not connected to AC power. The thing is, there's no room t…

Post by rasz_pl » Mon, Mar 24, 2014, 7:54 PM UTC

post_break wrote: post #67

mabhatter wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

I have one of the original cables before they got shut down. It's just a magsafe end with a barrel connector on the other. No DRM voodoo.

Post by josh-wrale » Mon, Mar 24, 2014, 7:56 PM UTC

XorNot wrote: post #60

toyg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.