We really need to standardized battery sizes again…
I bought a flashlight the other day that came with a lithium ion rechargeable the size of 2 AA stuck together. If it ever dies or won’t hold a charge, I can just use two normal AA batteries.
It’s a really simple compromise to have a “state of the art” battery, yet not be tied to a weird size I won’t be able to find. In 30 years I should still be able to buy rechargeable AA batteries.
Or at least standard connectors to make modding easy. I get using a weird shaped battery in a handheld to maximize battery life in a compact device, but would be nice if it was an easy to find connector so you could just glue a battery pack to the back of it (or 3d print a new shell), so you can easily keep it going if/when that battery becomes unavailable.
The steam deck uses whatever the hell that is. And the laptops I’ve torn into in the last 10+ years use all kinds of connectors.
I’m assuming it’s because they’re doing all the battery management on the motherboard, not a separate bms in the battery pack. But some standardization would be great.
Shiftphone actually does that. Since the shift6mq (I think) they have used that same battery for just about everything. Yeah, it’s their own model, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Step one, force all battery manufacturers to switch to rechargeable cells. Keep all the existing sizes for now, but no more disposable batteries. What Panasonic did with Eneloop was make rechargeable AAA and AA batteries. If you want C or D, there’s a cheap plastic adapter for the AAs that turn them into C and D-sized batteries. So an aggressive approach would be to force C and D to discontinue and use AAs in adapters from now on. Continue making disposable 9-volt until they’re no longer needed, and alert manufacturers to stop making products that require 9-volt.
Step two, reduce “coin” batteries down to a single size (for simplicity, the same width as the smallest existing coin battery and the same thickness as the thinnest existing coin battery), force all new devices that need coin batteries to adopt that size. Keep making disposable coin batteries in all sizes until they’re no longer needed, and alert manufacturers to switch to the new universal size.
Then draft a bunch of different flat rectangle size standards that manufacturers can build products around.
In all cases, there will be exceptions that need custom-sized batteries. But for now this will keep the industry and standards bodies busy and make things easier for consumers as quickly as possible.
We really need to standardized battery sizes again…
I bought a flashlight the other day that came with a lithium ion rechargeable the size of 2 AA stuck together. If it ever dies or won’t hold a charge, I can just use two normal AA batteries.
It’s a really simple compromise to have a “state of the art” battery, yet not be tied to a weird size I won’t be able to find. In 30 years I should still be able to buy rechargeable AA batteries.
Not all AA cases fit the same, but that’s why god gave us the imagination to invent the dremel tool.
Not sure it is wise to take a dremmel to a lithium ion battery.
Yes, so not dremel the battery
But if your car has an arbitrary plastic divider that blocks you from using a two pack you can probably dremel that without issue
The dremmel is for the thing you plug the battery into
Or at least standard connectors to make modding easy. I get using a weird shaped battery in a handheld to maximize battery life in a compact device, but would be nice if it was an easy to find connector so you could just glue a battery pack to the back of it (or 3d print a new shell), so you can easily keep it going if/when that battery becomes unavailable.
Most of the ones I’ve opened up have one positive wire and one negative. What’s more standard than that?
The big difference is in battery voltages.
The steam deck uses whatever the hell that is. And the laptops I’ve torn into in the last 10+ years use all kinds of connectors.
I’m assuming it’s because they’re doing all the battery management on the motherboard, not a separate bms in the battery pack. But some standardization would be great.
Classic
But they could just use an existing connector as a standard. Doesn’t need to be anything new.
Shiftphone actually does that. Since the shift6mq (I think) they have used that same battery for just about everything. Yeah, it’s their own model, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Step one, force all battery manufacturers to switch to rechargeable cells. Keep all the existing sizes for now, but no more disposable batteries. What Panasonic did with Eneloop was make rechargeable AAA and AA batteries. If you want C or D, there’s a cheap plastic adapter for the AAs that turn them into C and D-sized batteries. So an aggressive approach would be to force C and D to discontinue and use AAs in adapters from now on. Continue making disposable 9-volt until they’re no longer needed, and alert manufacturers to stop making products that require 9-volt.
Step two, reduce “coin” batteries down to a single size (for simplicity, the same width as the smallest existing coin battery and the same thickness as the thinnest existing coin battery), force all new devices that need coin batteries to adopt that size. Keep making disposable coin batteries in all sizes until they’re no longer needed, and alert manufacturers to switch to the new universal size.
Then draft a bunch of different flat rectangle size standards that manufacturers can build products around.
In all cases, there will be exceptions that need custom-sized batteries. But for now this will keep the industry and standards bodies busy and make things easier for consumers as quickly as possible.