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Next Gen Oxyride Batteries Coming Soon
marksilverman writes "The New York Times is reporting that Panasonic will start selling (Biometric scan required to prove your value as a human being) next generation Oxyride batteries soon. They last twice as long as premium alkaline batteries, they deliver more power, and they're cheaper. They're already popular in Japan. The downside? They have a shorter life in a "rundown test" where you put the batteries in and leave the power on until they're drained. In real-world scenarios (like how many digital pictures you can take) they do really well."
From the article:
Never mind that the 'car', a spindly little affair on 3 bicycle wheels, only achieves a speed of about 0.88 m/sec, and the 'driver' is a 50-kg (110 lb) female....this is still damned impressive. Not just the batteries, either...I'd like to see the motor that was able to do this on only 3 volts.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
How in the world can they last both twice as long and half as lon at the same time. 2!=2^-1
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. -- FDR
Oxyride huh? People still use disposable batteries? I'm a NiMH guy myself. The initial investment in NiMH is greater, but your cost in the long run is far cheaper. Plus, it keeps a lot of batteries from being thrown away.
If these new batteries last longer than alkaline, maybe fewer will be sent to the landfill. I wonder how toxic they are compared to alkaline?
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
The Cost of Energy
I guess there's always the problem of where to get that damn methanol from though...
"Nickel-metal hydride does suffer from a memory effect; nickel-cadmium, however, does."
they both do?
On my Fuji Finepix 4700 camera, 2 NiMH at 1.6Ahr can last about 70+ pictures. I bought some new higher capacity NiMH battery for a buck a piece.
I have tried alkaline and they lasted about 4-6 shoots before they die. These are brand name stuff.
The camera draws about 1A of current (LCD+backlight etc not including flash) which the regular battery have a really hard time supplying without getting hot as they have much higher internal resistant than recharables.
For much lower current applications, the regular battery is great for shelf life.
Battery technologies have been arriving at a faster and faster rate.
Lead acid - centuries.
NiCd - couple of hundred years
NiMH - Decades
Li-ion - Just about a decade now.
Next generation - Probably Li-S in a year or two.
Technologies inevitably arrive slower than demand. Fact of life. Demand says "Hey I need X" and someone goes away and makes X.
"Really the next power supply for small electronics will probably be micro fuel cells that are fueled with methanol."
Bet they won't. When you run out of methanol you can't just plug it into the mains and make more, you have to lug a bottle of the stuff around with you.
"any advancement in battery technology any (like the Li-Ion electrode materials advancement) will also be available to fuel cells".
Except that's fairly unlikely. You're talking about applying engineering solutions from one technology to another. Sure, they have a way of depositing Li to provide a very high surface area in a li-ion battery. Does that same technique apply to platinum in a fuel cell?
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
About 20-25 years ago I remember seeing a demonstration of a full size car moving slowly around a circle. The man giving the demonstration said the power source was about the size of a 9V battery. He also claimed it would run forever and that the technology could be scaled up to move full size cars at highway speeds. I never saw any follow up on it but have always wondered what happened to him and his invention.
/.er out there that saw the same thing, I know I didn't dream it.
There must be some
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Uhm, no, the time to pour money into battery research was about two centuries years ago. Do you know who invented the battery? This guy. Look at how old he is. Were he alive today, our batteries would be instantly recognizable to him. For all their new oxides and ions, the simple truth is that batteries are the same expensive, bulky, heavy, short-lived, inefficient and environmentally unfriendly means energy portability they always were. Spend your research money on fuel cells, an affordable hydrogen distribution network, whatever--just please stop beating the dead horse that is battery power.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.