Whats the energy/volume comparison between standard AA batteries and li-ion batteries?
Ode to the AA Battery
21–30 of 181 posts
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#22> run at a nominal 1.2V instead of the 1.5V of alkaline batteries. I've suddenly figured out why so many toys don't work with rechargeable batteries
I believe I have zero Alkaline batteries left in my house and I'm relatively surprised that pretty much everything works fine. If anything, I suspect the only problem is that some devices have an inaccurate account of how dead the batteries are. But I use Eneloops on everything, even things surely not designed at all to run on them. (And I reckon you could probably make more devices work if you really wanted to; addi…
I think I have only one device that uses AA - my central heating's radio thermostat. This thing has caused me untold hassle, which is only partially down to the batteries, but still...
Totally OT, but does anyone have a good link on how the thermostat gets paired with the boiler? I'm thinking of getting replaced and would like to talk to the gas fitter from a vaguely informed point of view.
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#23Am I courting disaster by reviving won't-charge pouch cells by just manually running a bit of current through them until they're nonzero volts and then a normal charger will do the rest? So far, in the maybe half dozen times I've tried it (rectangular battery blocks for old digital cameras, the pouch cell inside a long-disused Kobo Reader) it's worked. They charge right up, they don't swell, and they still have decen…
I've jump-started my share of batteries this way. Such a deep discharge might affect lifespan but it's typically old devices we do this to anyway.
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#24I invested a few hundred dollars into Eneloops, but they kept disappearing. Turns out my kids were throwing them away, thinking they were disposable (cry).
I’ve since trained them and rebuilt my stockpile but that was painful, at what was then $2 a cell. (Now $3-4.)
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#25Am I courting disaster by reviving won't-charge pouch cells by just manually running a bit of current through them until they're nonzero volts and then a normal charger will do the rest? So far, in the maybe half dozen times I've tried it (rectangular battery blocks for old digital cameras, the pouch cell inside a long-disused Kobo Reader) it's worked. They charge right up, they don't swell, and they still have decen…
I've thought before that it'd be nice to have some kind of device that would do this in a safe(r) fashion wherein you'd connect the 2 charging leads to the dead battery plus a temp sensor pad and it'd slowly bring the charge up to the minimum required for charging by a regular charger.
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#26Designers have a choice in lithium-ion though. 18650 is is pretty large cell but there's 14500 which is AA sized or 10440 which is AAA sized. They make versions with the usual battery "nub" rather than the flat faces for spot welding, and built-in protection circuitry to prevent over-discharging. You probably would want to use ones of a different size than normal 1.5v cells though. A personal favorite of mine is RCR1…
>Meanwhile, alkaline batteries can go to hell. You might as well plan on one leaking in the battery compartment.
On the other hand, alkaline batteries never burn your house down.
I also feel like they serve different purposes. Needed for long-term storage and only used in an emergency? (eg, a flashlight for power outages) You're probably better off going with old-fashioned alkaline batteries. Duracell claims they're good for 10 years. Needed for day-to-day usage? Lithium might be better: you can monitor for swelling, the battery recharge-ability is probably more important than any of the downsides that come with lithium ion batteries.
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#27> run at a nominal 1.2V instead of the 1.5V of alkaline batteries. I've suddenly figured out why so many toys don't work with rechargeable batteries
That's not the reason. Alkaline batteries only have 1.5V for a short time. In practice, toys are designed to opeerate off of 1V to 1.5V, because Alkalines vary _wildly_ in voltage during use. NiMH at 1.2V _STAYS_ at 1.2V, even when drawing 1Amp or more (under these conditions, Alkaline would have long dropped below 1V). EDIT: This is also a problem because "nicer toys" will measure the voltage assuming an Alkaline is…
I had an issue with the original Apple Magic Mouse that would not work correctly with NiMH batteries but work fine with disposable AA. The mouse would be fine for a few days then randomly stop working; using fresh NiMH would revive it again. I assumed it was due to 1.2v vs 1.5v but perhaps that particular mouse (or all Magic Mice) was just bad.
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#28The Xbox 360 was the most gamer friendly console (play your open music during games?!?) but one feature i loved was the battery packs. Your controller died? Just swap a pack - two seconds. And the packs could be rechargeable or AA so you could have a bunch of rechargeable AA for a fair price and never get bogged down waiting for anything to charge.
Series X controllers still work this way. Takes standard-ass AA batteries, including rechargeables; or you can buy a bespoke charge pack[1] which actually supports charging while in the controller. [1] https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/batteries-chargers/pl...
I really wish more devices went this way. In devices these days the thing that will fail first, long before other components, is usually the battery. It seems disingenuous of manufacturers to claim that rechargeable batteries are good for the environment and then ship devices without user replaceable battery packs.
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#29My Xbox 360 controllers are still in use. Meanwhile, I've resigned myself to never using any PlayStation controllers for more than three or four years. AA and AAA batteries are great. I wish using them weren't considered a negative by many hardware reviewers.
You can get replacement parts for PS controllers, although they can be rather fidgety to open up.
Re: Ode to the AA Battery
#30Speaking of which, I really hate those chargers that force you to use two batteries instead of one. I get that it is cheaper to design it that way, but come on.
Speaking of which, I have yet to see a consumer battery charger that isn't incredibly cheap feeling. Even ones for charging different chemistries or that let you set current rates are a mess of low-quality molding and cryptic button presses.