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.

Not so fast...

[crazyjeremy]

Not so fast fellow /.ers. This new product may not be all it's cracked up to be for their price... Unless you have lots of extra ports on your computer and your electronics do not need strong batteries.

USBCELL batteries have a capacity of 1300mAH which is in line with most NiCd and NiMH batteries though some do go all the way up to 2500mAH. It takes five hours to charge a completely flat battery and an LED on the side will light up to indicate charging, flash for 10 minutes after charging is complete as an alert and switch off after that.

Uhm... First of all, using USB for this is generally a bad idea. But if you do want to charge batteries via USB: 1300 mAH is NOT in line with most NiCd and NiMH batteries selling these days. The standard for 4 off brand NIMH batteries from Walmart right now is $6 for 2000 mAH to 2500 mAH (depending on if they've restocked recently as the Generic Brand has upped their standard capacity for AA's).
Let's break this down.

4 batteries - $6 at Walmart for off brand or $10 - $15 for 4 name brand rechargables.
Cheap AA/AAA USB Charger $8 from tiger direct. [tigerdirect.com]
OR
Better AA/AAA USB Charger $20 from tiger direct. [tigerdirect.com]

The cheapest route gives you 4 batteries, each with twice the mAH for $14 plus shipping. The most expensive route gives you the same thing for $30 plus shipping. Either way, buying a battery with only 1300 mAH nowadays is like buying a midsized car with a 50 hp engine.

Bottom line? For novelty reasons, these batteries look interesting and you do not need to carry an additional charger. But at around $16 US apiece they are expensive and WAY underpowered. Additionally, you need one USB slot for each. If you buy a regular USB charger and use standard rechargeable batteries, you can charge several (up to 4) with one USB slot and spend half the money.

Conclusion? It's a neat novelty backup backup. But it is way to expensive.

Re:$12? Where is this from?

[blitz77]

erm, it said 12.99pounds for TWO-which then is similar to 12 dollars each.

Not really new...

[Rorschach1]

I used to have 'D' cells that'd plug in to a wall outlet, too. Trouble is, a large portion of the volume is devoted to the connector and charging circuit. But if 50% capacity is enough, I suppose they'll work.

Not all AAs are created equal

[texaport]

The first rechargeable AA batteries were properly 1.5V each. Then 1.25V became the norm and my devices requiring six volts from regular batteries are only getting five.

In the last couple years they've dropped rechargeables to 1.2V which means normal batteries are delivering 25% more power if the amps stay the same. I don't want 'em.

1300 maH?

[duplicate-nickname]

I just replaced all of my regularly used rechargeable batteries with 2500maH sets and I will never go back to lower rated batteries again. On my vacation last week I shot over 400 photos and about 4 minutes of video on my Canon S1 IS and I only recharged the batteries once.

You don't have to worry about charging on a USB port if your batteries don't die all of the time.

Nope, still not of any use...

[raehl]

"Hey look, this battery dies twice as fast, but if it's dead, you can recharge it on USB!"
"Uh, yeah, couldn't I just have used a regular battery that wouldn't be dead yet?"

You can have:

- an expensive, dead, 1300 mAh USB battery that you need to recharge on your laptop (good luck on your laptop battery not going dead first!)

- a cheap, half-full 2500 mAh regular rechargable battery that you don't need to recharge at all.

Re:Not all AAs are created equal

[Wordplay]

I suspect this has more to do with labelling than actual capacity. Rechargeables have been putting out a 1.2v for years now. They are around 1.25V just after charge, and it's possible they were claimed as such by some manufacturer or the other. I've never seen a 1.5V NiCad or NiMH.

Anyway, alkalines are only 1.5V out of the box. When they're "dead", they're at around 0.6V, and it's a fairly linear decline over time. In fact, electronics made to run on alkalines are generally fine down to around 0.9V or so, since the decline is expected.

NiMHs and NiCads are ~1.2V after a charge, and stay there until just before they die, when they nosedive. This is why cameras recommend non-alkaline batteries--the flash actually requires that the voltage is somewhere around the maximum; alkaline batteries drop voltage so quickly that the flash only works a relatively small number of times.

It's about the chemistry

[backwardMechanic]

It's all about the chemistry, not some kind of voltage deflation. Zinc cells give 1.5V (alklines, etc). NiCd and NiMH gives 1.2V. Lead acid gives 2 and a bit V. You can't make a NiCd battery at 3V. A battery is a stack of cells, so it can only provide an integer multiple of the cell voltage (2.4 or 3.6V is as close as you'll get with NiCd).

Re:Yep...and...

[pAnkRat]

Take a look at the Palm Treo 600/650/700p series.
It's a triband cellphone, palm OS5, blue-tooth enabled, MMC/SD card, all in one thingie.
With pocket-tunes it an MP3 player (mp3, ogg, flac), with TCMPMP you can watch the simpsond on a plane,
heck you can even use it as an GPS navigation system over bluetooth.
Runs VNC and SSH too if you want.

It can do just about anything you can throw at it.

But, the build in camera is real crap though, don't even think about making a decent picture with it.

Re:Yep...and...

[emlyncorrin]

look at Samsung/LG. 5MP camera in a cellphone. Crap? I think not.

Just because it has 5MP, doesn't mean that the optics are any good.