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from the coming-to-a-store-near-you-within-5-years dept.
From the article:
A completely new alkaline battery is rated to generate 1.5 volts, but once its output drops below 1.35 or even 1.4 volts, it effectively becomes useless to many devices. The battery's chemical cocktail is still loaded with juice, but the circuitry in many gadgets (especially more sophisticated ones, like Bluetooth keyboards and bathroom scales) considers the battery dead.
This is where Batteriser comes in. It's essentially a voltage booster that sucks every last drop of useable energy from ostensibly spent batteries. So, instead of using just 20 percent of all the power hidden inside of your Duracells and Energizers, Batteriser makes effective use of the remaining 80 percent.
Voltage boosters are nothing new, but Batteriser scales down the technology to the point where it can fit inside a stainless steel sleeve less than 0.1 mm thick. Roohparvar says the sleeves are thin enough to fit inside almost every battery compartment imaginable, and the combined package can extend battery life between 4.9x for devices like remote controls and 9.1x for various electronic toys.
"The Batteriser has boost circuitry that will boost the voltage from 0.6 volts to 1.5 volts and will maintain voltage at 1.5—which is a brand new battery," Roohparvar says. "There's actually no IP [intellectual property] in the boost circuitry. Our technology is really a miniaturization technique that allows us to build the sleeve. We have some IP in some of the IC circuits that are in there, but the key is we've been able to miniaturize the boost circuit to a point that no one else has been able to achieve. "
This seems like a great piece of tech, right? Almost too good to be true... When that happens alarm bells ring and it's time to investigate further. Here are articles from theness.com and EEVblog.com that say, "not so fast."
From theness.com article:
But can, then, the Batteriser extract 500% more life out of those AAs? I don't think so, and here's why. While it is true that the voltage of an alkaline battery (and all batteries) drops off as capacity drops, the big drop off doesn't occur until around 82% of the capacity has been drained, and therefore only about 18% remains.
So, can this nifty little device, when released, live up to it's claims? It seems doubtful, but if it's only at $2.50, it might be worth a shot.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Informative) by TLA on Saturday June 06 2015, @02:25AM
I don't know anyone that has a proper LED control chip in a flashlight
Uh... HELLO? I have several.
I have a drawer full of examples, in fact.
Luxeon Star Tactical, powered by 2xCR123 lithium cells, brighter than the Sun (rated 3W). These are quad element LEDs driven by pulse timed lasing voltage (which is why they go from being LED to Class III Laser Emitter, they only avoid making Class IV because they have diffusers built in and they're not narrowband emitters - they're pure white emitters, albeit at 3W it's definitely not a good idea to look directly at them because they *will* cause semi-permanent retinal damage).
Lenser Tactical: powered by 3xAAA, this is a single-element Cree to 1W, again a Class III laser. This one is always in my pocket for the simple reason that the batteries are a piece of piss to get hold of.
Lenser Pocket: 3 standard "Hyperbright" LEDs through a pulse timer circuit, which makes them even brighter since the pulse kicks just below lasing voltage. Uncomfortably bright (seeing a pattern yet?) yet not classed as a laser. Don't ask me why, it had no laser warning on the packaging like the Cree or Luxeon ones did. Handy in that it runs off apparently dead camera batteries ("N" size x3).
The commonality of all three systems, from several years of experience with all three so I can tell you which is THE one to have (that would be the 1W Cree Lenser Tactical), is that they will all run their batteries until they are completely dead, afore which time you have daylight in your pocket.
I also have a homebuilt made with a low profile 3mm LED and the guts of a Maglite Duo AA. I say guts, I had to widen the neck on the reflector to accommodate the LED. It's not bad, it lets me see around in the dark but I'm not lighting soccer fields with it. Also, and just because, I have a 120-LED 3D flashlight which uses a combi wiring scheme (I think 3x2 concentric parallel rings of LEDs, so each ring runs 1.5V in series with two others, making two sets of three strings). There's no other components in the torch apart from the barrel switch. Ridiculously bright but with an equally ridiculous beam spread, it's great for a floodlight, less useful for a tactical (also because it's awkward to handle when I'm also trying to scope a rifle).
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2015, @12:37PM
Seriously, I'm sure there aren't that many people with the flashlights you own so using them as a counterexample to the AC's claim won't work so well as using more "mainstream" examples.
(Score: 2) by TLA on Sunday June 07 2015, @02:45PM
stay down in -1 zone, AC, just because I've shown a black swan you have to get uppity because I've just disproved you with not just one but SEVERAL EXAMPLES of *mainstream* flashlight technology. IF you want to get badgy, Maglite sell a 5D unit with a 3W Luxeon Rebel cluster, this is used by law enforcement the world over (the base 5D unit has been around since 1979). Rayovac were among the earliest adopters of pulse timed LED tech in their budget flashlights (talking about the 2AA pocket models), we're talking about 2006 and before. Since hyperbrights hit the market around 1999 the hacker community have been switching out Maglite lead units with LEDs.
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Monday June 08 2015, @09:01PM
also have a homebuilt made with a low profile 3mm LED and the guts of a Maglite Duo AA.
Perhaps I've run my mouth too fast on the flashlights then! On the other hand, I have a flashlight that I cannot take apart, and this one probably has a very poor voltage regulator. It has 4 LEDs, but as voltage on the batteries drop, so does the light intensity.
As for car LEDs? well, look at ebay. Tons of tail lights and others where they just have resistors to limit current. These are not limited to ebay either - they are in local stores here in Canada too.