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Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

trontium.com

21–30 of 85 posts

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#21
Two things from the website : >We created Trontium to drive humanity forward Ok I cant discuss the reasons why you created trontium and driving humanity forward is indeed a great goal but wow this is just a (rather cool) battery.

Plus I think the keyboard (a yamaha psr E403 I think) featured in the pictures is not usb powered.

Other than that I'm impressed by the 8 charges you can make with the dewalt drill. Great to build something far from power outlets.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#22

How are you the first "USB Power Delivery battery"? What's a Mophie?

Note that Power Delivery here is not just using Marketing Caps, it's an actual thing. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#USB_Power_Delivery. It's very new, based on USB 3.0, so it is probably a valid claim.

I wonder if this will sprout a power supply accessory, i.e. a device that speaks to a USB PD source and lets you locally set the output voltage to whatever you need. That way you could use the PD source to charge "legacy" products that don't support PD.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#23

The should include a camera in the device as well - just to record reactions when people take it out of their bag at airport security checks. The only way I can see they could have made it look more threatening would be to write "Atomic Bomb" in large letters down the side and have a large LED display counting down to zero in 15 seconds or so. Edit: The perfect add-on for your reactor: http://www.instructables.com/id…

Oh don't worry officer, it's just a trontium reactor.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#24
post #7

Wow. This seems like a direct competitor of Gbatteries (YC W14). Link to discussion on Gbatteries: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7459435

Except this team does not seem have problems with math 101. It's 'just' promises a well-designed, cleverly thought out product. I like it, to be honest.

I don't understand the first line of your comment.

Mind clarifying?

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#25
post #3

From FAQ: >> Can I bring a Reactor on a plane? > Yes. Per FAA rules every traveler can carry-on up to two Reactor sized batteries. Well, if supposedly[0] a charged laptop battery can be shorted to unleash energy equivalent of a small hand grenade, how strong a bomb made of two Reactors would be?... [0] - so I read at random places in the Internet.

I doubt that you can do take these batteries on international flights at all: http://www.britishairways.com/cms/global/pdfs/lithium_batter... states that no Li batteries with >160wh are allowed on board or in checked baggage. The Trontium has 290wh.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#27
For $299 I can sure buy a lot of lithium ion batteries. There are already many such products out there that are very cheap. 290w/h is 58000 mah at 5v. I can buy a 11,000 mah pack for 29.99 on Amazon and surprise it weighs 1/4 the weight. Even if I bought 5 of them to equal the energy capacity it would be 1/2 the cost. (But it is not a REACTOR) There really is nothing novel at all about this product, and it is overpriced. I guess I am doing something wrong when shoving 3 lbs of commodity Li ion batteries into a tube and making some fancy name can yield a 100% profit margin.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#28
post #17
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thats probably intended. A mash of thorium and strontium maybe.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

I don't get the fanciness. Thorium reactors are a dead-end, as European research found out. They had stopped all work years ago. There were major accidents with this type of reactors and one even happened at the same time as the Chernobyl disaster: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_THTR-300#St.C3.B6... For some reasons some countries don't want to learn from history. Edit: English language links: http://en.w…

For some reason users who post links don't want to read them. From the first paragraph:

"Despite its designation as a thorium reactor , it was essentially a normal on uranium fission ( 235 U) based reactor"

Additionally, a lot of the recent hype on thorium reactors is that they are actually molten salt reactors (see the oak ridge national lab experiments - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment). By using a liquid fluoride salt, you can run a thorium reactor at ambient pressure and high temperatures, leading to safer operation and better utilization of thorium in feed stock. I think one of the main concerns for this implementation is material durability and corrosion resistance. If we can figure this stuff out, this reactor model looks promising. See Kirk Sorensen's company Flibe energy and the wiki for the LFTR - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LFTR.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#29

How is this even legal, if it contains actual trontium? Who wants to walk around with a radioactive material in your pocket, irradiating your genitals? Scary idea.

Er, what's trontium again? Must have missed that in Chemistry 101.

Re: Show HN: Trontium Reactor, the first USB Power Delivery battery

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the fanciness. Thorium reactors are a dead-end, as European research found out. They had stopped all work years ago. There were major accidents with this type of reactors and one even happened at the same time as the Chernobyl disaster: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_THTR-300#St.C3.B6... For some reasons some countries don't want to learn from history. Edit: English language links: http://en.w…

I always find it amusing when links provided by "nay sayers" present contrary evidence or no evidence at all. From the link: The nuclear power plant THTR-300 ( thorium high-temperature reactor) was a helium-cooled high-temperature reactor of the type pebble bed reactor in North Rhine-Westphalia Hamm with an electrical output of 300 megawatts . Despite its designation as a thorium reactor , it was essentially a normal…

Dear diary: My most bizarre moment on HN so far. Someone referenced my tiny (ugly) birth town in a discussion about energy.

On topic: It didn't look impressive. :)

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