Premium Members Imran Naqvi Posted March 12, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 12, 2009 Lighter Lithium Ion batteries that charge in a few minutes? The best part is it's apparently an easy change! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7938001.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Jess Haas SOC Posted March 12, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 12, 2009 Looks promising. Will probably be 5-10years before they actually become readily available for our use but I would love to be wrong about that. ~Jess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Imran Naqvi Posted March 13, 2009 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 13, 2009 True, but it's unlikely to make it into many consumer items because the charger would apparently be expensive, I assume because the amount of current you have to supply to charge a battery that quickly. We however are already used to dropping $1K on a charger.... Lets keep our fingers crossed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Jess Haas SOC Posted March 14, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 14, 2009 If anything I would actually say chargers could be made cheeper. You don't have to charge them as quickly as they can handle and the less picky you make the battery the easier it should be to charge. If nothing else it should allow the same charger circuitry to be used for a wider range of battery sizes which should keep prices low with economy of scale. Of course these batteries may require some new crazy charging method which could invalidate all of what I just said. Of course the real exciting thing about these batteries is their potential for electric cars. Which of course could end up delaying the release if certain companies buy up the patents. ~Jess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Erwin Landau Posted March 15, 2009 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 15, 2009 We have the technology and means to build cheap batteries and fast chargers. The problem is again you get what you pay for. You can buy batteries from Dewalt or Hakama or other power tool manufacturer. They are cheap, under $100.- bucks, they charge fast, 30 min. and guess what they don't really last that much if used every day. That's why they are cheap... it's volume, the more you make the cheaper they will be.... and they are not very sophisticated. Even Broadcast style batteries... The Hytron 50 where over $500.- when they came on the market in '99, now you can get them for a little bit over $200.- because they sold in the tens of thousands. It's Volume... There were and still are this huge capacity batteries with ridiculous short charge time. Make a search and check with military suppliers and you will find cells that are huge (100+ Watt Hours) charged in minutes not hours... but the price is also steep as the quantity is fairly low and the quality is again ridiculous. I have seen a charger and battery set up with the qualities we want: High current draw, extremely high cycle capability, recharged in 5 to 10 minutes, lasting for ever and a day. But the charger was a little shy of $10K and the batteries north of $1000.- a piece. There is a new manufacturer that makes cells that would work for us with the characteristic that we need, high current, quick recharge, etc even the price for batts and charger are more then reasonable. Guess what?... The form factor is wrong, there is no proper attachment to the rig available, neither to hold it in place nor to provide power into the rig... The charger is cheap but designed to be build into a larger apparatus... in parts with exposed wires consisting of several components... You save money but you have to build your own casings and a housing for the charge unit... I was taught the triangle conundrum: Put at each point of the triangle the following> Cheap, Fast and Good... you can only reach 2 sides at the time. For our batteries put: Cheap, fast charged and long life. Same problem, you can only have two out of three... Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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