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Everything with a battery should have an off switch

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Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#351

Post by HPsquared »

Nanite wrote: post #4

Examples lying around in my house: Bathroom scale: lovely it powers up when you tap it, but eats up 2 button cells a year for a few dozen uses a year Kitchen scales, bit more use, at least once a day but again 2 button cells a year electronic caliper: Same, eats up 1 button cell a year, just sitting in my toolbox Strangely enough none of our kids toys with batteries seem to suffer from this problem How much extra cos…

It comes down to the electronic design: specifically, low current draw when "asleep". Obviously it's possible to make electronics that costume a tiny amount of power (think quartz watch that lasts for years with a very small button cell). It's just poor workmanship by the designers or penny-pinching.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#352

Post by ars »

kemayo wrote: post #324
ars wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely fair to blame the book when the book gives advice that is impossible to follow. If it's not possible to always give help and advice, sometimes you have to give an error message and unless the book mentions that then it is definitely fair to blame the book.

Eh, I read the book as presenting a maximalist vision: in a perfect world, all error messages would instead be help that lets you resolve your issue. Since it says to hide error messages and instead provide help, anyone who hides error messages and doesn't provide help can't really be said to be following the book's advice. It feels wrong to me to blame the book for not, in every bit of advice it offers, saying "don'…

It's not a very useful book if it doesn't provide advice that works in the real world. I have not read the book - does it give advice on what to do if it's not possible to give help? Or does it just assume that it's always possible to be perfect?

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#353

Post by rootusrootus »

ars wrote: post #341
te_chris wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus Christ that's dystopian.

Not really. The device belongs to the insurance company and they're only willing to pay for it if it's actually being used. They are quite expensive machines, and they don't want people having them in their house, and not actually using them (CPAP has a very low patient compliance rate). And that's why they have tracking built-in. You're perfectly able to buy the machine yourself without insurance and then you don't…

IMO it's a misuse of the technology. Controlled remote access was a good idea for doctors to see how therapy was working and adjust when necessary. I'd argue that newer APAP machines are so good at self-adjusting that it's less clear that remote access is necessary. And using it for insurance purposes should never have been permitted to begin with. Price it into the premium and skip the dystopian monitoring part.

Personally, I just bought my machine outright. Yeah, it was close to a thousand bucks. But it's been going strong for years, so I'm happy with the investment. It has never been allowed to connect back to resmed.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#354

Post by jwilk »

aulin wrote: post #347
johnsonap wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foone's pronouns are they/them

how is one supposed to know this from the twitter thread in this post? I even tried to actively look them up and couldn't find any info about it.

https://twitter.com/Foone

> Hardware / software necromancer, collector of Weird Stuff, maker of Death Generators. (they/them)

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#355

Post by Cd00d »

Buttons840 wrote: post #17
Nanite wrote: post #4

Examples lying around in my house: Bathroom scale: lovely it powers up when you tap it, but eats up 2 button cells a year for a few dozen uses a year Kitchen scales, bit more use, at least once a day but again 2 button cells a year electronic caliper: Same, eats up 1 button cell a year, just sitting in my toolbox Strangely enough none of our kids toys with batteries seem to suffer from this problem How much extra cos…

Both bathroom and kitchens scales are large enough they can run on AA / AAA batteries and casually go a decade (or more) without replacement. Tangentially: I used to have a 3 button timer, it was a little LCD countdown display and 3 buttons. One button set hours, one minutes, and one starts / stops the countdown timer. I found this timer when I was a kid, used, and the 1 AAA battery it had lasted into adulthood, lite…

Batteries are sold with an expiration date on the package, and I don't think that's usually decades out.

In the 80s I remember seeing expiry dates on AA packs of 99, and my child-brain thought they didn't expire so they put a meaningless number there instead - I couldn't process the idea of the year 1999.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#356

Post by Jiro »

Aissen wrote: post #231

HOT TAKE: maybe not. Just make it default off. Official switch pro controller does not have this issue because it's always off, unless you press buttons, then it connects. Corollary: you cannot store it in a place where buttons might be pressed, or it will indeed drain the battery like in the post. (Edit: if you disagree, please tell me why. With proper design, it's possible for every button on this type of controlle…

If it's able to connect by pressing a button that is not a physical on switch, it's not off.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#357

Post by johnsonap »

aulin wrote: post #347
johnsonap wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foone's pronouns are they/them

how is one supposed to know this from the twitter thread in this post? I even tried to actively look them up and couldn't find any info about it.

it's in their twitter bio

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#358

Post by S0und »

johnsonap wrote: post #328
rahimiali wrote: post #306

Basically, Foone ends up disassembling a device that has no off switch, and leaves it disemboweled on his desk as a warning for other devices.

Foone's pronouns are they/them

You've posted this "fun fact"? 4 times already. Are you this bored?

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#360

Post by Aissen »

Jiro wrote: post #356
Aissen wrote: post #231

HOT TAKE: maybe not. Just make it default off. Official switch pro controller does not have this issue because it's always off, unless you press buttons, then it connects. Corollary: you cannot store it in a place where buttons might be pressed, or it will indeed drain the battery like in the post. (Edit: if you disagree, please tell me why. With proper design, it's possible for every button on this type of controlle…

If it's able to connect by pressing a button that is not a physical on switch, it's not off.

You can have an electronic circuit that is open, unless you press a button, then it's powered on and keeps power until a timeout/event. I know, it requires some more complex concepts than a bidirectional physical switch, but it's doable.

The twitter thread complains about controllers which empty their battery between uses because they keep trying to connect; but it's not something that's mandatory: an at-rest device can stay at rest without user interaction. I've used hardware on which the battery was still usable after years without use; it does requires very careful design, though.

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