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.

"An anonymous reader writes..."

[Anonymous Coward]

And not affiliated with the product in any way.

Thanks for another Slashvert.

Useless junk.

[Registered Coward v2]

Let's see - 5 hours to charge so you either leave a laptop on and run it's battery dead - wait - that little 3 prong hole in the wall - AC power - I can plug my laptop in there save its battery or I can plug in a real battery charger and fast charge my much cheaper, higher capacity AA/AAA's.

A battery charger is small, small, lightweight and can be has with dual voltage. Mine is 6 years old and weighs a few ounces - including cord and EU adapter.

If you really don't want to carry a charger you can buy a dozen high capacity rechargable AA's at the price of these - and simply carry them with you. (If you really would use that many you probably would carry a charger anyway).

This is an expensive answer to a question no one is asking.

Slashdot - we now spam the globe for you...

Re:The answer to a question nobody asked

[TheRaven64]

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.

Re:You can't charge laptop batteries via USB.

[ncc74656]

Well sure, for AA it's pointless. But what if you could charge a laptop battery with it? With two of them you could charge the main battery and the spare and never run dry!

Do you understand the power and current it takes to charge a laptop battery?

That sound you hear is the joke whooshing over your head. The Simpsons quote should've been a major tipoff.

Cool idea, but no thanks...

[Chabil Ha']

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...

Yep...and...

[msauve]

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."

Then why not sign-off with a ./ ID?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're going to post product promotions and endorsements at least have the 'nads (and honesty) to divulge your vested interest in the product.

Re:Combine this with 15min quick charge

[pla]

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.

Re:Yep...and...

[snarkh]

Very simple -- if you are travelling, you can recharge them from your notebook when it is plugged in. You don't have to carry an extra charger with you.

Charging your gadgets directly via the USB

[Thomas Henden]

I really wonder why charging of ALL sorts of gadgets which run on one lithium-ion cell isn't automatically done when you anyway connect that thing to the PC to transfer data?
The USB port has 5V and one lithium-ion cell has a maximum of 4.15 volts, (So there's enough voltage difference to properly charge the lithium cell).

A few gadgets already does get charged when they anyway are connected to the PC, why not ALL of them?

I would be happy to save the cost for the regular charger, and find it very practical to plug it into my PC to have it charged, and for those few who doesn't have a PC, or for whom it would not be practical to charge via the PC, a regular charger or a solar charger with a "USB"-plug, would be an obvious accessory.

(I really wonder how much extra money I have paid for all those chargers sitting around unused, from gadgets that broke or went out of use. Worst of all, all these chargers are still in working condition!)

Then we would also have gotten the bonus of a 5V charger plug being standarized, so that any one lithium cell-gadget can use any 5V charger, including any USB port, ending the trouble with the pileup of orphaned chargers.

Also, the regular plug-in of your whatever type of data collecting and/or processing gadget into your PC to get it charged, probably will be god for your (at the moment non-existing?) habits of taking backups of it before you loose it or break it - that is, if you also take regular backups of your hard drive...



End Of Utopic Dream

USB spec?

[Bassman59]

Obviously, this thing doesn't meet any of the applicable specs, especially the specs that address power consumption when a device is not configured. I don't see a USB logo anywhere on their web site.

Use at your own risk.

Re:Yep...and...

[msauve]

You can easily find rechargable AA cells with twice the capacity of what they offer, and if you're travelling, Sanyo and Maha both make fast rechargers that don't take up any more room than a pair of socks. I have a Sanyo NC-MQH01U, which I got from Costco, complete with 6 2500 mAH AA cells and 2 AA cells, for a bit over $20, less than the cost of two of those 1300 mAH USB batteries. And it will recharge those batteries in a bit over an hour (if charging two at a time), instead of 5.

Re:how about a Hub and extension cable?

[Takumi2501]

Or, *gasp* a regular battery charger. It's cheaper.

This sounds like a cool invention, but I have to say that it does kinda seem like technology for technology's sake.

killer blow?

[WhatDoIKnow]

From the article: "they could be set to deliver the same killer blow to the battery market that memory sticks did to floppy discs." Really? Lets see. floppy disk: 1.4MB, about 4"X5" in size typical thumbdrive: 256MB, about, well, about the size of a child's thumb. Conventional rechargeable AA: ~2000 mAH, standard AA size, can recharge in maybe an hour with decent charger. USB rechargeable AA: 1200 mAH, standard AA size, recharge in 5 hours. yeah, that's a killer blow all right...