Slashdot Mirror
USB Batteries
An anonymous reader writes "Tired of paying for new batteries all the time? Tired of searching for the charger for your rechargeable batteries? Worry not, because these new AA batteries will recharge direct from your USB port! This is such a cool idea, that I cant believe that no one has done it before." At $24 each I would hate to lose or break them on a regular basis.
And not affiliated with the product in any way.
Thanks for another Slashvert.
A USB 'phone charger is great for travelling abroad. I plug my laptop in in a hotel, and I can charge my 'phone and iPod from it without having to carry a load of mains adaptors around. I would probably fall right into the middle of the target market for these devices, and even I can't see a use for them. Who buys equipment which takes AA batteries these days? I can't remember the last thing I bought that didn't have a custom Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer battery.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
That sound you hear is the joke whooshing over your head. The Simpsons quote should've been a major tipoff.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
There's more geek factor here than real usability. Anyone had their charger melted to slag because of leaky batteries? Yeah, me too. Personally, I wouldn't mind too much if a $10 charger got toasted, but not my $1xxx laptop. I can garentee that they won't be held responsible should anything get toasted with your lappy...besides, there has been enough troubles with the official laptop battery blowing up without throwing something like this into the mix...
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
in addition to having less capacity, and being very much more expensive, they recharge more slowly than regular rechargables do in a dedicated charger. If you're putting them into a USB port which is ultimately AC powered, well, why not just use a faster, cheaper, charger.
And if someone plans on charging off a notebook running under battery power, do they really intend (or are they even able) to run the notebook for the 5 hours needed to recharge these?
This makes no sense at all, and are certainly nothing to be "excited about." So much for "trusted reviews."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
I have a 15 minute quick charger (by Rayovac) and I would hate to go back to having to actually wait hours for my batteries to charge. This is a cool idea, but lets try and speed it up and then I'll be interested.
For the longevity of your batteries (ie, the reason you pay about 4x as much for rechargeables in the first place), you really should use an intelligent trickle-charger (around C/10) with an automatic pre-charging discharge. I seriously suspect the battery manufacturers (such as Rayovac) came up with the idea of a 15-minute charge just to drastically shorten the life of your rechargeables. It has to seriously hurt their profitability that we can now use a single set of batteries that will last for five to ten years if properly maintained.
It amazes some of my friends (who, like you, use a 4C flash charger) that I have 5 year old NiMH batteries that, after several hundred charge cycles, not only still work, but still hold over 90% of their stated capacity. Well, now you know the secret. Stop abusing your batteries, and just let them charge overnight.
Keep the flash charger in the car for emergencies, but unless you absolutely need a battery now, don't use it.