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 as useful as first thought

[Frag-A-Muffin]

I thought this might be useful, then I looked at some of my toys that take AA. My old Canon A70 takes 4AA. I use NiMH. I have a charger that can charge 4 batteries at a time. Ummm ... I don't think I even HAVE 4 USB ports :) and even if I did, I don't think they'd all fit. (Because you know how they like to cram a bunch of USB ports together and if you plug in something larger than a regular cable, the slot next to it is wasted)

So really, it's only useful for say, an MP3 player that takes a single AA battery. But then again, my brother's little samsung mp3 player has a built-in Li Ion battery and a USB plug built in that can flip up. And it's hardly bigger than a AA battery.

Hmmm .. I'm back to "I can't think of anything useful for it" :)

Um.... why?

[Kenja]

In most cases, if you have USB power you have an outlet. In rare cases where your out in the middle of no where with nothing but a notebook and a GPS unit running on AA batteries, and you need to keep the GPS charged so you can make it out there before dark, I guess these would be of use. Cant realy think of any other time.

A bit risky

[Dan East]

Unless the electronics are really well engineered (aka foolproof design) then a failure could result in a damaged motherboard, especially considering the amount of current these things are capable of drawing. Surface mount fuses aren't much fun to replace, especially in laptops. I'd wait a while to see if any horror stories surface before plugging that thing into my machines.

On a related note, the Motorola Razr cell phone's power connector is mini-USB, so it can charge off of your USB port as well.

Dan East

Y'know what would be more useful

[AC-x]

A USB batter charger [mrgadget.com.au]. This way you can use 2500mAh batteries rather then having half the capacity taken up by the usb port and charging circuit.

Re:These are $24 apice, not $16?

[alienw]

You are wrong. The usb port provides 500mA AT 5 VOLTS. If you convert that down to 1.5V with a buck converter, you could charge a 2500mAh battery in under 1.5 hours.

What if they integrated storage too?

[mr_zorg]

Now, throw in a couple-o-dozen megs of flash built in and you might actually have something. I could store the device drivers for my peripherals in the very same batteries that run them. No more hunting for driver discs. Oh, that and increase the mAh capacity.

No Windows and Linux drivers?

[marcomarrero]

  One stupid LED as a status? It's already USB! Why not also a little icon indicating charge status, how much power has left... Even maybe intelligent software to even tell how many seconds of gameplay I'll have my Sega GameGear! Ah.. USB. It reminds me when I saw the first USB speakers, I was amazed of how quicly computer technology has gone beyond prediction.. . Witnessing speakers crash! At least Windows 95 OSR2 somewhat tried to continue after a blue screen.

  Actually, it would be cool if most devices could simply work with rechargable AAA batteries. Having different batteries for cameras, cellphones, portable game systems, mp3 players.. too much stupid cables everywhere. Maybe something more usable, like flat, square things, Lego-like. One of them to power a camera, maybe interconnect 5 to power a portable mp3-video player, or, interconnect 100 and a Dell laptop to celebrate the 4th of July!

Different approach...

[Nefarious Wheel]

What about making a little removable USB cap that fits over the rechargeable AA? Don't know how you'd hit the bottom electrode though.

Re:Combine this with 15min quick charge

[Powercntrl]

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.

You're overlooking the fact that if the batteries survive those 4 cycles, you've broken even and everything after that is gravy. I've got one of the Ray-O-Vac 15 minute chargers as well. The batteries have paid for themselves and then some, with no signs of slowing down. And when they do crap out, another four pack is about $15 retail - roughly the same price as a four pack of Energizer's single-use lithium AA cells.

Let's face it, a 15 minute charger can bring a set of batteries back from the dead in less time than it takes to drive to the store and buy new single-use batteries. Telling anyone they should avoid this technology because it *may* reduce the cell's lifetime is being penny wise, pound foolish.