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11/23 |
2009/1/7-12 [Science/Battery, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:52329 Activity:low |
1/7 new macbook 17" THE BIG ONE not the portable, has a non removable 8 hour battery. Dicuss. \_ it's like the airbook \_ no it's not, it's giant and i'm not going to carry that thing \_ stupid idea, will alienate customers. \_ Who will it alienate? Assuming they can get longer battery life (both charge and number of charges) who cares? So it costs an extra 100-200 bucks to change your battery but most likely you won't ever need to. (I use my laptops pretty heavilly and it is only near the very end of their lives that the batteries start to go. Give me 2x battery lifespan and that isn't going to be a problem.) And if you do you save anyway because you replace the battery less often. \_ did you weld the hood shut on your bmw? \_ if the hood didn't need to be opened until 4 years later, and the car had little economic life after 4 years, that might be a better analogy. A better analogy might be that cars use a lot more electronics than they used to, so a 2009 BMW is a lot harder to self-maintain than an '82 bug. \_ steve has syphilis and it's finally showing. \_ Why not? \_ Not as crazy as it sounds. I've only ever removed my battery to upgrade the RAM, and a 8 hour battery life is very attractive, since this past semester one of my classes was 2 hours and my macbook barely made it each time. --t \_ why are all these idiots sold on the 8 hours of battery life? \_ because apple has never provided that before \_ do they know you can get 8 hours of battery life with any number of non-apple laptops? \_ Not a thin(ish) top of the line, full power laptop with a large screen. It's hard getting 8 hours out of a netbook. \_ Yes. But choice of OS > battery life. I'd rather run OS X than Windows, and with Linux I have the nasty tendency to play with everything until I muck things up to the point I have to reinstall (so I keep it on my desktop, which I don't use as much, and can keep it working). --t have to reinstall (so I keep it on my desktop, which I don't use as much, and can keep it working). --t |
2008/8/29-9/3 [Science/Battery] UID:50997 Activity:nil |
8/29 I have 2 AA rechargeable batteries. One is at 300mAH and the other one is at 600mAH. They used to be 2400mAH. Is there anything useful I can use them for? \_ How do you know this? \_ http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-BC-900-AlphaPower-Battery/dp/B00077AA5Q/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1220035985&sr=8-1 \_ http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-BC-900-AlphaPower-Battery/dp/B00077AA5Q I love it. PS thanks for tinyurl this for me! I love motd tinyurl minions. \_ shortified \_ How long have you owned them? |
2008/7/18-23 [Science/Battery, Computer/Companies/Apple] UID:50618 Activity:nil |
7/18 iPhone battery life SUCKS. You'll probably have to spend another $100 in a year to get it replaced. Here's a cheap way to do it: http://video.gearlive.com/video/article/q407-replace-iphone-battery-tutorial http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3036&p=3 (3G sucks, literally. Sucks up 25% more power) \_ no kidding. |
2008/7/9-11 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:50518 Activity:kinda low |
7/9 SSD don't improve laptop battery life: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955.html \_ Already debunked, please go away mr one line on link. \_ Really, I read a couple of articles that said SSD don't improve laptop battery life, especially on the MBA. If you have a url to a debunking article, I'd like to read it. \- i looked at some numbers on power draw for various components [for large machine room planning] and i was surprised at how little power disks pulled. say compared to even memory. so i am not surprised about this. BTW, the design of the new Berkeley-NERSC computer bldg and machine room is kinda interesting ... like the choice of axis w.r.t. to the sun, the calculation of how many days in the bay area the outside temp is lower than the targetted temp inside the machine room etc. \_ Is this over-engineering? I tend to think so, because the contents of the room will change radically over relatively short periods of time. \- this isnt a machine room with 1u and 3u machines coming and going. This is for "a computer" with a 8 figure price tag. a 8 figure price tag. and besides, the DoE actually does "energy research". \_ That "computer" will be obsolete in less than a decade. |
11/23 |
2008/6/12-13 [Science/Battery, Science/Space] UID:50236 Activity:nil |
6/11 I got this as a google ad, I'm flabbergasted http://www.runsyourcarwithwater.com \_ So... we use electricity from the battery to electrolyze water, burn that gas, and use that power to charge the battery. And carry around this water as extra weight. Sounds great. \_ You wouldn't actually think this is for real, right? |
2008/5/19-23 [Science/Battery, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll/Aspolito] UID:50009 Activity:nil |
5/19 why are you such an ass aspolito? why dont you stick a D battery in your ars, dipshit |
2008/5/18-23 [Science/Battery] UID:49997 Activity:low |
5/18 I'm looking for a good rechargeable AA battery system. What do you guys use? I'm thinking of getting a bunch of AA NiMH and a really good charger that can do a full drain/recharge cycle to reduce memory effect as well as battery tender since NiMH seems to lose 10% charge per week, or AA Li-Ion with normal chargers. What do you guys think? \_ http://www.steves-digicams.com/nimh_batteries.html \_ http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=79302 The candlepower guys are scary about batteries. It's pretty strange how much variance there is between simalarly rated batteries, both in prefered load and total wattage. \_ I wouldn't bother with "regular" NiMH, unless your usage pattern is "charge, use aggressively within a week, repeat." The obvious choice for the low-self-discharge type is the Sanyo Eneloop, but I've had success with cheaper Hybrio stuff (batteryjunction.com). I hear the new MAHA Imedion are very good, too. As for the charger, I own two MAHA C401FS as well as a MAHA C9000. I think C9000 is a neat toy and useful at times, but most of the time, I stick to C401FS. I hear LaCrosse charger is fine, too, as long as you avoid the earlier revision. \_ How's the usability for MAHA? I've heard a lot of bad things, like having to input 48 keystrokes to charge 4 batteries properly. LAME. \_ Yeah, it takes fair amount of key presses to make it do interesting stuff, but I don't find it annoying at all. \_ I recently got a LaCrosse charger, and love it. \_ Eneloops are awesome, now you can use rechargables electronics that don't need new batteries every month. \_ How are Eneloops different from other NiMH rechargable batteris? I bought the Eneloop package from Costco (AA and AAA batteries and charger in blue plastic case), and I'm using it just like the other rechargable batteries (e.g. Panasonic NiMH) that I have. I haven't been paying attention at its performance. \_ Regular rechargables lose charge very quickly even if they aren't used. (Like within a month.) It makes them pretty much useless for electronics that don't get regular use (or have a low power draw). Eneloops on the other hand keep their charge for years. Also they seem to last longer under high draw usage than cheap rechargables do, even ones rated the same mah or higher. \_ I don't use rechargeable. Alkalines are pretty cheap nowadays and they last 2-3X as long. Besides, 1.5V >> 1.2V. This whole 1.2V thing really renders rechargeable useful for only a short amount of time before they drop to unusable voltage. \_ Alkalines drop to 1.2V very quickly. Rechargables stay at or above 1.2V just as long as alkalines. \_ doubtful. I get about 30 flashes with a brand new NiMH rated at 2200mA, whereas I get over 100 flashes with alkaline. As a photographer, I can't afford to have to switch batteries all the time, or an extra clunky 12V NiMH pack at 5-8 pounds on my belt. \_ http://batteryboulevard.com/alkaline-aa-15-volt-vs-nimh-aa-12-volt-smackdown Also it really depends on the NiMH batteries you use. \_ Again, whatever people say is still FULL OF SHIT unless they provide an exact voltage/amp chart of different appliances in respect to time. What is the curve, drop off point, etc. You can't just say X is better than Y or vice versa without knowing exactly what the driving appliance is, and what the useful voltage for that appliance is, and what the chart looks like. Full of shit. Aspolito you're full of shit as expected. Try again. \_ Oh aren't you a cranky little pissant. There are plenty of battery geeks who have done voltage over time charts that support me. I frankly don't give enough of a shit to hunt down the data for some asshole. Fuck it. Keep using non rechargable batteries. It's not like they aren't a major source of environmental damage and toxic landfill waste. \_ Ok I lied. I do give enough of a shit. http://www.powerstream.com/AA-tests.htm \_ Cool link, and thanks for trolling, and you're a fucking loser. \_ People with any social skills apologize when they attack someone and are proven wrong. You may want try it someday. \_ dude, you're STUPID \_ Are you saying he's stupid because he's still conversing with a dick? \_ you got trolled !op \_ Trolls are still dicks. \_ Thanks for the link. It seems that NiMH is superior to all but Lithium? I guess the Energizer Lithium is not rechargeable? -jrleek \_ Lithium batteries do bad things when recharged poorly. Explosivly bad things. \_ On a somewhat related note, I have a MAHA C401FS and Maha Powerex and Duracell batteries I got a few years ago. I really haven't used them all that much (maybe 20 times). There was a period of maybe a year where I didn't use them at all. A few months ago, I had occasion to use them again, but the batteries and/or charger seem not to be working anymore (the batteries don't seem to hold a charge for long). I read recently that these NiMH batteries need to be charged on a regular basis, or else they lose their ability to hold a charge? This seems really lame. My batteries are only maybe 3 years old. Anyone else seen this happen? \_ I recently found some pretty ancient energizer NiMH batteries (6+ years old?) that I hadn't used for at least 3-4 years and they still seem to work well. \_ You need to 'refresh' them, ie, go through several charge/discharge cycle to bring back the full power. Some chargers like the LaCrosse do this automatically for you when you select that mode. |
2008/2/11-14 [Science/Battery, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:49114 Activity:nil |
2/11 "Scientists have invented the Prius of ocean-going submersibles" http://www.csua.org/u/kql (Yahoo! News) \_ submarines have been using 'hybrid' power systems since WWI, in that they have batteries to run off of and diesel engines to recharge those batteries. Granted this was done not to save fuel, but to actually have motive power when underwater. \_ "submersibles". Besides, it's not exactly a hybrid in the Prius' sense. It gathers thermal energy from the ocean to power its propulsion, and uses battery power to run its controls only. I guess it doesn't re-charge its battery by thermal energy or by any equivalent of regenerative braking either. -- OP \_ the 'prius' reference in the article was completely off base and uncalled for. |
2007/10/2-5 [Science/Battery, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:48221 Activity:low 75%like:48218 |
10/1 Finally! OLED Televisions http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071001112033.l3kf86xb \_ Technology needs more development still. But I'm glad this is finally rolling out. \_ 3mm thick? Does it break easily just from moving around? (Unless it's made of flexible material.) \_ I don't get it. What use does a home user/consumer have for this? \_ While this particular model isn't remarkable, OLED has a lot of potential for televisions in general. Compared to LCD, OLED sets should have wider viewing angles, response times two or three orders of magnitude quicker (so fast action on screen won't get blurry), and better display of the color black (all colors, really, but black is particularly bad on LCDs). Early adoption aside, the way OLEDs are manufactured means they should also be cheaper to manufacture (once the production issues get sorted out, yields come up, and economies of scale kick in). \_ Thanks. I wasn't seeing how super-thin was that big a deal but the color, speed, etc, makes sense. I get it now. |
2007/10/2 [Science/Battery, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:48218 Activity:very high 75%like:48221 |
10/1 Finally! OLED Televisions http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071001112033.l3kf86xb&show_article=1 \_ Technology needs more development still. But I'm glad this is finally rolling out. \_ 3mm thick? Does it break easily just from moving around? (Unless it's made of flexible material.) |
2007/9/20-24 [Science/Battery, Reference/Religion] UID:48135 Activity:kinda low |
9/20 explain this whole Jena 6 thing for me. ok tnx. \_ Black student asks for permission from principal to sit under so- called "White Tree," principal says sit where you like; next day, there are three nooses hanging from tree. Tensions rise, words are said, there's a fight, one of the (white) noose-hangers gets knocked out (but recovers in time to go to a school function that evening); prosecutor decides to prosecute (black) defendants for "Attempted Murder." \_ My understanding is the white kid who got beat up was not one of the noose-hangers but the whole thing has been so spun into the sadly typical OJ-like circus that who can tell? \_ and prosecutor decides not to prosecute the noose-hangers for a hate crime. \_ Actually, they were expelled, but then appealed. Yes, there is a difference between putting up some provocative rope and beating the crap out of someone. \_ Welcome to provocative speech, the kind of 1st Amendment speech that does not protect you from assault and battery, esp. when you're throwing punches as well. \_ Does not compute. \_ http://csua.org/u/jkl (ExpertLaw on A&B, mutual) \_ At first, I thought this was a troll about the porn star. My coworker briefed me about it this morning. -!op \- When i first saw "Jena protest" and "Jena 6" in print, I thought it was a reference to something going on in Germany. Jena is a famous old town prominent in German cultural/intellectual/religious history, and also famous for a Napoleanonic battle [hence the bridge in Paris from the Eiffel Tower to the Trocadero is the "Jena Bridge"]. I was kinda surprised when I first heard it pronounced "Gee-na". Did this story get natl coverage when the actual events occured last yr? Or only after the trial. I was kinda amazed to hear about the "White Tree of Jena". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena#Famous_citizens \_ http://www.csua.org/u/jkc Thank god they aren't locals, though... |
2007/7/24-26 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science/Electric, Science/Battery] UID:47414 Activity:nil |
7/24 Power outage in downtown SF. Lots of websites down. \_ Unable to surf, SF's civilization is down! CODE RED!!! Terrorism! \_ They got LJ, and now a million emo kids have nowhere to slit their wrists. \_ http://valleywag.com/tech/breakdowns/a-drunk-employee-kills-all-of-the-websites-you-care-about-282021.php \_ My old roommate drinks a lot and works there... hmmmmmm and is not online \_ FWIW I think the drunk employee story is a sham, but who knows. Just seems too much of a coincidence - drunk employee and major city power outage on same day? \_ D you know if affected Yahoo's webmail/addressbook/calendar services? |
2006/9/28-10/1 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:44592 Activity:nil |
9/28 IBM/Lenovo announces recall of Communist Thinkpad batteries: http://tinyurl.com/kqa6h (ibm.com) \_ Sony to announce global replacement program: http://tinyurl.com/f8zsa (engadget.com) |
2006/9/22-24 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:44499 Activity:nil |
9/22 Alan Cox's ThinkPad battery explodes: http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/22/another-thinkpad-battery-explodes \_ What happened to engadget lately? Their site used to look very professional, now it looks like it was designed by a 20 year old. A lot of pictures just isn't resized correctly, you see the jagged lines, etc. Did I miss something? Gizmodo went down a similar path a year or so ago and I read it was because the guy left. What the hell happened to Engadget? \_ I noticed the same thing. I'm not sure what is going on at either site. I have found that both sites do not play well w/ adblock plus in firefox (they look better in safari, but still not great). \_ It's essential to note that battery was bought off eBay, though it's an open question whether it was OEM or a knock-off. \_ Engadget did a site redesign just a few days ago. I suspect bugs will be squashed over the next few weeks and it will start to look better. \_ It's essential to note that battery was bought off eBay, though it's an open question whether it was OEM or a knock-off. |
2006/9/20-22 [Science/Battery] UID:44463 Activity:nil |
9/20 Toshiba also recalling batteries: http://tinyurl.com/elvwl (csd.toshiba.com) \_ Damn, have all the problems been with Sony manufactured batteries? \_ Damn, have all the fucking problems been with Sony manufactured batteries? |
2006/8/28-30 [Science/Battery] UID:44173 Activity:nil |
8/28 http://csua.org/u/gs5 (pcmag.com) http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2009199,00.asp Huge batteries and aggressive battery mgmt still don't give 4MB-shared- cache Core 2 Duo (Merom) based notebooks equal or better battery life over Core Duo (Yonah) - both 65nm. Need info on: 2MB-cache Core 2 Duo battery life and performance. |
2006/8/15-17 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid, Science/Battery] UID:44009 Activity:nil |
8/15 How ofter are you suppose to change your car battery? \_ Lead-acid batteries last about 5 years if well cared for. That means, it is never discharged more than 50% capacity, and is kept reasonably cool. Depending on where you park (hot sunny spot?), how often you leave lights on, etc., the outcome will be different. Just test it if you want to be sure. Otherwise, carry a jump cable and wait until you get stuck somewhere. And don't forget to recycle. \_ My battery's rated 60 months although I have to honestly say that I've never reached 60 months in the past 4 battery changes I've done in my life. I usually run them down, which is usually after 3-4 years, call AAA when I need a jumpstart, and get a new one. \_ When it dies. -average American male |
2006/3/11-13 [Science/Battery] UID:42192 Activity:nil |
3/11 Should Ni-MH batteries be occasionally discharged completely and if so, how often? Someone told me every 10-15 uses. Then again it might bi for Ni-Cd batteries, I forgot. Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated, thanks! \_ http://www.nimhbattery.com see FAQs \_ any Li-ion faqs? \_ gawd, STFW. |
2006/3/6-8 [Science/Battery] UID:42117 Activity:nil |
3/6 Holy crap! Yanni arrested for battery! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060307/ap_en_mu/yanni_arrested \_ So? He does look like an ex-con in the mugshot. Or are you saying holy crap he shouldn't have risked breaking his valuable fingers? \_ Like German John (and "Stanley"), Yanni is inherently funny. \_ It doesn't say anything about battery. \_ Second paragraph: "Yanni, whose legal name is John Yanni Christopher, was arrested early Friday and faces a domestic battery charge, according to a police report." |
2005/10/21-24 [Science/Battery] UID:40214 Activity:nil |
10/21 To extend the lifetime of your cell phone battery, is it better to leave them plugged in whenever possible, or to charge them only when absolutely necessary? \_ All the battery chatter I've heard so far is to not have it plugged in constantly but also not to let it drain completely. \_ For NiCd batterys, you are supposed to charge it fully when you charge it, and use it to empty before you charge it again. Otherwise it dies quickly. That's called "memory effect" or something. For NiMH and Li-ion batteries, supposedly you don't need to do that, but I do it anyway. \_ I've started seeing more manufacturer service advice suggesting to keep Li-ion on charge whenever possible, as the life is related to discharge cycle count and charge/discharge temperature (which goes up w/ current). The main reason they aren't saying this outright is that customers would interpret this as being inconvenient. |
2005/8/15-17 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science/Battery] UID:39124 Activity:moderate |
8/15 Hack you prius w/ extra batteries to get ~ 80 mpg: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/wip_modified_hy.php \_ Similarly to the 110mpg claims, these are specious; the car with these mods is even less efficient than the stock Prius. You just don't see it as "per gallon" because you're getting energy off the grid, but that power comes from somewhere. -tom \_ "off" -> "from" \_ peon \_ Yeah, it's kind of silly. If you never engage the IC engine does that mean it's "infinity miles per gallon"? Still, it'd a nice idea to extend a hybrid to behave like a pure electric until the juice is nearly gone and then kick in the gas. Of course here in CA where we only burn natural gas for electricity... \_ Another argument for nukular power... \_ No. Only 45% of electricity in CA comes from natural gas. \_ No, only 45% of electricity in CA comes from natural gas. http://www.pge.com/customer_service/bill_inserts/2005/july.html Scroll to the bottom. \_ Wow, an actual informative post on motd. Thanks for correcting my misconception. \_ What did you think CA was doing with their nuclear power plants and hydro-electric dams? my ride'. WORD." power plants and hydro-electric dams? \_ I was unaware of any working nuclear plants in CA. I'd forgotten about hydro because I was thinking about what were were burning for fuel. \_ Diablo Canyon pics http://www.zimfamilycockers.com/DiabloCanyon.html \_ Am I reading this right? They're planing on going from 2% nuclear last year to 23% nuclear this year? What? How does that work? \_ You're reading it wrong. The right column is for the whole state (in 2004), while the left column is for PG&E only (in 2005). \_ Ah, ok. \_ This is an excel spreadsheet of all the power plants in CA: http://www.energy.ca.gov/database/index.html#powerplants \_ Terrorists could use this info! Oh wait, I forgot that terrorists can only use public info if, by sheer coincidence, hiding that same info might allow some large corporation to hide something. \_ Yes, the 80mpg figures is meaningless. But let's get around the meaningless figures and look at the facts that the silly writing is obscuring. The article says "The extra batteries let Gremban drive for 20 miles with a 50-50 mix of gas and electricity." So *maybe* it means the extra batteries increases the range by 10 *maybe* it means the extra batteries extends the range by 10 miles. The small text in the picture says the (extra?) batteries cost as little as a quarter to charge. So maybe it means 10 miles per $0.25, or 100 miles per $2.50. From a pure cost-to- consumer's point of view, this is much better than a stock Prius considering that gas is around $2.50/gal these days. considering that gas is around $2.50/gal these days. I hope Mr Gembam, being an engineer, knows that he need to present the data in a clearer way that the author did. \_ It is not necessarily true that the power to recharge the batteries is coming from the power grid. He could have a solar setup at his house that lets him charge the batteries for the prius every night. \_ Solar? at night??? \_ Solar systems charge batteries during the day so that the energy can be used at any time (even night). The batteries charging at his house during the day need not be the ones charging in the car at night. |
2005/4/2-5 [Science/Battery] UID:37047 Activity:nil |
4/2 If I suspend a computer, can I change the battery? In another word, does the DRAM get refresh from the battery and if so, how many seconds do I have do change it? \_ No, yes, probably zero. Cool notebooks have a "bridge battery" for this kind of thing, but I haven't seen a bridge battery in years. \_ Use hibernate instead. \_ You used to be able to do this on PB/iBooks. You had something like 10 secs to swap out your batteries. \_ Still do, at least on my 1 GHz 15" PB G4. It's a very nice feature. \_ Just tried on my Toshiba (5 seconds). It failed. :( \_ just plug it in! |
2005/3/5-8 [Science/Battery] UID:36538 Activity:low |
3/5 So I want to buy an extra camera battery. If I buy one with the name of the OEM on the battery, it's about $45. If I buy one from a 3rd party, I can get it for around $12 and it has more Amp-hrs. What's the deal? \_ I've heard that cheaps brand don't last as long and/or that the Amp-hrs they claim is not accurate, but I've yet to seen a study on it. Maybe consumer rights activists should benchmark these things . However, as you pointed out $12 is a good deal so it's probably worth the try. BTW I don't personally buy name brand anymore... you're mostly paying for the stupid name. \_ http://csua.com/Science/Battery Look for entry 12256 which has pointers to info on batteries \- The batties start to die upon mfgr, so I suspect some of the really cheap batteries are middle aged. For the Nikon D70, a Nikon branded battery is about $40-44. There are repuatable off- branded sources for $30 ... I image those will perform ok and not leak and destory your machine. Not so sure about the $8 ones from ebay. I dont mind being out $10 for a poor battery, but I dont want something that will leak. \_ This is one reason why I chose a P&S camera that takes AA batteries. \_ I have a Canon 1100 A-Hr battery and a No-name 1800 A-Hr battery that I bought in Singapore. Both work fine w/ my 300D. However, the 1800 A-Hr battery has degraded a bit (fewer shots in a full charge) since I purchased it, but the 1100 A-Hr Canon battery seems to be able to take the same number of shots. I have used the 1800 A-Hr battery in many more cycles than the 1100 A-Hr battery, so perhaps the 1100 merely appears better b/c it has been through less cycles, I'm not sure |
2005/2/25-27 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:36420 Activity:nil |
2/25 Stupid question, how is the 2300mah on my AA battery different from the 4500mah on my laptop battery? Is it the voltage? If I take 2 of my AA NiMH battery and add it up, the capacity is larger than my laptop battery's rated mah.... \_ mAh is basically how much charge is available at a rated voltage. Total energy stored is maH*Volts. Since your AA batery is 1.5V and the laptop's is around 15, the laptop's battery has about 20 times as much energy as an AA battery. You could approximate a laptop battery with 2 columns of 10 AA batteries in series. (DO NOT attempt this) \_ what will happen? \_ Laptop batteries have 3 or 4 pins to allow them to monitor and control charging. Leaving these pins free is not in the laptop design. Also, laptop batteries are not exactly 15V, some are 13.2 and others are 18.6 or whatever. Getting it wrong could let out all the smoke in your circuits. \_ Feed the columns of AA batteries to the inlet for the AC adaptor. \_ OK, if you got the voltage and polarity right that would work. -pp |
2004/11/6-7 [Science/Battery] UID:34716 Activity:kinda low |
11/4 Dear physics guru, say I have a device (phone, notebook, iPod, radio, etc) with a rechargeable battery. Is it best to keep them charged most of the time, or use them up and then charge? For example my cell phone has a standby of 3 days, should I charge up everyday, or wait till it's almost dead and then charge it up? Which one is better for the lifetime of the battery? \_ It depends on the type of battery. For Li-ion batteries, the consensus seems to be that you should charge them all the time; they don't have a memory, and completely draining them is bad. \_ how about the 0859-0010, 4V 8AH Pure Lead Monoblock Battery? |
2004/10/19 [Science/Battery] UID:34221 Activity:kinda low |
10/19 I have a wierd problem, part of the little clip that keeps the battery in my cell phone has broken, so the battery falls out occasionally. I want a good way to keep it in, of course. Tape will look awful. I've considered epoxying the battery door to the phone, but I'm worried that if the Li-Ion battery wears out, it'll be near impossible to change it. Is there some epoxy that can be dissolved with solvent, and which solvent will not damate the (polycarbonate?) plastic? \_ I believe epoxy solvents will not damage hard plastics. Have you considered epoxying back the little clip, rather than the entire door? -- ilyas \_ I'm missing a tiny chip of plastic that held the door on. I'm worried doing just the open button/clip might not be strong enough. \_ I think it would be easier to just find (or make) another little chip of plastic, than epoxying the entire door shut. Another possibility is to make a form so the epoxy itself will solidify in the shape of the little chip. It WILL be stronger than the surrounding plastic. -- ilyas \_ The epoxy chip idea is a neat solution until you look at the actual phone and realize you'd need tiny mouse-hands to make it work. Thanks though. -op \_ Can't you talk to the manufacturer and ask if they have a replacement part or something? \_ The broken part is a button built into the case. It's not really replaceable. If you're interested, look up photos of the Audiovox VM4050, 9900 or 9950 \_ Get some colorful rubber bands, like the kind women use for hair. \_ Won't work, it's a flip phone. \_ weird. |
2004/9/22-23 [Science/Battery] UID:33707 Activity:moderate |
9/22 Those of you with laptops and who frequently use them: how often do you have to recharge its battery? Is once/day too much? \_ 2 hours runtime with the base battery, 6-8 hours with the extended life battery. Sharp Actius MM10. -tom \_ I have a Pentium III 1.2 GHz notebook, and two batteries last 4 hours. One battery, two hours. I believe any Pentium M notebook will last 3.5-5 hours with just the main battery. This is assuming you aren't compiling or playing games most of the time but doing MS Word Powerpoint type work. I understand Pentium 4 based notebooks (mobile or desktop CPU) and mobile Athlons (even the new ones) suck power, so watch out. \_ My ibook gets me just under 4 hours on a full charge. |
2004/9/19-20 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:33625 Activity:high |
9/18 how do i fix my thinkpad cmos battery? i can't find the correct part to buy online. is this something i can buy at radio shack? \_ watch out! I had a thinkpad where I thought the battery was busted, I bought a new battery, and it turned out that it was not the battery, it was something in the laptop's charging circuits or something. new battery did not help. \_ he's talking about the CMOS battery, not the main battery. \_ get the FRU# from 1-800-IBM-SERV. Buy the part on ebay. |
2004/7/26-27 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:32488 Activity:moderate |
7/26 I'm looking at Dell Latitudes, and there's an option for a 65W AC adapter vs. a 90W adapter which is $19 more. It doesn't give any explanation for what the higher wattage would be good for. The only thing I can think of that seems reasonable is if you want your laptop to power large USB devices or something. Can someone clue me in? Thanks. \_ The USB spec only allows something liek 5W of power to be sent over any single link of the bus. The 90W adapter it probably so you can charge your battery faster, or run your laptop at full power and still charge the battery at full speed. \_ You might replace your HD with a faster/more power consuming one later, etc. \_ For thermal reasons you might not want to do that in a laptop. \_ http://csua.org/u/8by 65W doesn't work with Latitude D800, but the 90W works for all. \_ I would urge you to look at the size of these things, and choose the one which is lighter and smaller, ignore the wattage requirement. |
2004/5/6 [Science/Battery, Computer/Companies/Ebay] UID:30058 Activity:nil |
5/6 i am shopping for digital camera's battery. where is a good reputable place to get it? i looked at ebay. the prices are attractive but i don't want my battery to explode and damage my camera. \_ i just went to fry's to buy a spare for my canon s45 \_ ebay, fry's, amazon, http://bhphotovideo.com |
2004/3/19-20 [Science/Battery] UID:12771 Activity:nil |
3/19 so why didn't the martian rovers use Solar Power cells so they can recharge and have endless trips instead of relying on batteries? \_ because solar isn't magic. mars is much further than earth from the sun. \_ They do use solar. That's what all the panels on top are for! Did you somehow miss that?! --dim |
2004/2/11-12 [Science/Battery] UID:12214 Activity:nil |
2/11 I've been looking at NiMH batteries, and there seem to be some brands that are popular even though they seem like relatively small, unknown brands. Any recommendations on which brands to go with? Thanks. \_ I've been happy with my PowerEx AAs (2200 mAh). \_ first link for nimh battery (thomas distro) is a good site. typing in battery nimh takes you to the great battery shootout, also a good site. rule of the thumb: the more mah, the better. |
2003/8/29-2004/2/14 [Science/Battery] UID:12256 Activity:kinda low |
2/13 Any recommendations on which brand of NiMH chargers/batteries are the best value (in terms of having both reasonable performance and price)? I've got the AA and AAA sizes in mind. Thanks. \_ Someone asked this recently and I think PowerEx was reccomended. \_ Yawn, hasn't been updated for half a year at least http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM |
2003/8/26-27 [Science/Battery] UID:29463 Activity:low |
8/26 I just got a new NiMH battery for my thinkpad. I'm going to use it occasionally, and I want it to last. Should I store it discharged or charged? I can't find anything on google or ibm. Thanks. -brett \_Return it and see if you can get a LiIon battery instead. NiMH is almost guarenteed to start failing within a year or two. If you want to keep it fresh you basically need to do a deep discharge/ charge on it once it starts failing. I'm not quite sure if storing it away discharged will help the situation, as the batteries will degrade on their own over time. Storing it charged will not likely make much of a difference as the battery will lose voltage over time on their own, they actually will slowly leak electricty. The key thing is not to charge or discharge NiMH batteries in bursts, as they will have a memory effect. \_ I must be on crack, it IS Li-Ion, I don't know where I got the idea it was NiMH. Thanks for the info and sorry about wasting your time. Ok, what about storing Li-Ion battery. -brett \_ Re the memory effect, are you talking about NiMH or NiCd? |
2003/7/14-16 [Science/Battery, Science/Electric] UID:29030 Activity:moderate |
7/14 Do DC to AC power inverters cause any strain / damage to car batteries? Would the car battery wear out faster from continued use of the inverter? Specifically, I'm looking at the Xantrex XPower 75 watt DC to AC inverter, available on http://buy.com at http://csua.org/u/3m8 If it does not damage the car battery or the device, is this a good price? \_ no, no, yes \_ Thanks for the validation. Quick search on the web shows prices of $28-$29 for that model. One site also showed 60W continuous, 75W for 5 minutes, 150W surge for the XPower 75. However, my laptop (Tecra 9100) requires 15V and 5A, so it seems it would only get charged for 5 minutes. Is that the case, or would laptop batteries charge on 60W continous? -op laptop batteries charge on 60W continuous? -op \_ discharging your battery will destroy it eventually. loading your electrical system while the engine is running is fine, as long as your alternator isn't on its last legs. |
2003/7/3-4 [Science/Battery] UID:28912 Activity:kinda low |
7/2 hello have any of you used a solar charger for a laptop in particular a g4 mac powerbook 15"? do those supply enough juice to power a laptop or can they only trickle change the battery? ok tnx. --psb \_ There are some that will allow you to run a pb on solar power alone, but these are quite big and not portable (mostly designed for people who can find a good spot to camp out and setup a mini-solar array to power their computer). The ones that are portable provide only a trickle charge. \_ I'm not a thief; I pay for my energy instead of stealing it from the sun. |
2003/6/24 [Science/Battery] UID:28826 Activity:nil |
6/24 I have a ThinkPad with a dead battery/charger. It only works when on ac power. I want to take the Li ion out of the battery pack to cut down on weight. Any recomendations on how to do this? I've read that Li-ion batteries are dangerous. How so? what to look out for? \_ how old is this laptop? The new thinkpad's have very easy-to- access batteries. |
2003/5/31 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:28593 Activity:high 50%like:28598 |
5/31 I had another hard drive failure recently, making this 2 drives over 2 years that have failed in under a year. (And they weren't even IBM deathstars) Is there any independent website logging failures to keep manufacturers honest about their MTBFs? \_ Could be your environment. Have you checked your powersupply lately?_ \_ Could be your environment. Have you checked your powersupply lately? \_ SARS? \_ You using a battery backup? I think that helps make your power better too. I've had two hd crashes / slow death before, but not in the 5 years since I started using battery backups. \_ what brand do you use? \_ could be the heat, get extra fans to blow on them. \_ what drives are they? |
2003/5/6 [Science/Battery] UID:28353 Activity:moderate |
2.4 Ghz, it means that there's a range of frequencies near 2.4 Ghz that it's transmitting and receiving. If so, isn't it true that as more people get the same kind of phones the more likely you'll get crosstalk and bad reception? Anybody happen to know the range of frequencies that a typical phone uses? Thanks. \_ My impression was that 2.4 Ghz was just an idea to appeal to the guy who thinks that more hertz==better. I've used many of both and my favorite *by far* was a 900Mhz uniden-- no static, no crosstalk, no problems. \_ Your impression is wrong. \_ My 900Mhz Uniden's battery runs out after fifteen minutes of talk time. What the hell? \_ Mine is a lead-acid battery that wears out after several years. If you pop open the battery casing you can probably find a serial number; type "uniden battery" along with that # into google and and you can find some quality resellers... I replaced mine with a longer per-charge battery for about $18 incl. shipping. \_ Good advice, will give it a shot. \_ Yeah, use what works. 2.4 GHz is a range that isn't regulated, so it's clobbered by X10, 802.11 and other products. I'd rather not have a phone that interferes with my wireless network. |
2002/12/26-28 [Science/Battery, Consumer/Camera] UID:26919 Activity:kinda low |
12/25 Just got a digital camera that uses AA. The batteries die after 30 minutes (Coolpix 2000). Should I go NiCd, NiMh or LiIon? Or exchange the Coolpix 2000 for the 2500 (+$60)? \_ If you like your current camera, go for the NiMH batteries (check out http://steves-digicams.com for your camera review). The 2500 seems pretty cool...but with most things, get the best that you can afford - depending on your level of interest in photography. \_ Regular batteries have too much internal resistance and so the camera will see dropping voltage very quickly as it draws significant amount of current. NiMH will do you good here. \_ 1850mAh NiMH should do the trick. $13 at Amazon/Circuit City. \- for AA in flashes i use Varta batteries. might try those. --psb |
2002/8/26-27 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:25695 Activity:nil |
8/26 I want to work outdoors for longer than my battery life. any recomendations for solar laptop power supplies? I saw quite a few on the web, but i'd rather not buy some expensive thing if i'm not *sure* it will work. has anyone here done this? \_ what about an extra battery? What about powering your laptop with alternate sources like a car battery or something like that? \_ or a foot pedal? \- is there relly something like that? that would be pretty cool for long remote trips. i know there is a flashlight you can charge with human power. ok tnx. \_ saw something like this at Fry's in Sunnyvale. Fry's is great for try-and-buy, as long as there's no restocking fee. |
2002/7/26-28 [Science/Battery, Computer/Networking] UID:25429 Activity:very high |
7/26 Any local places that recycle alkaline batteries for free? \_ Another offtopic question -- how to get rid of used up acetone? Since it has a half-life of 22 days in sunlight, and evaporates easily I just left it in the backyard in a canteen and it was all gone in a day. Is there a better way? \_ I work in a lab where we use a lot of acetone. We have all kinds of rules we have to follow to make sure that the organic solvents are disposed of "properly" , but as I understand it, it all just gets burned in the end. I'm sure there's a better way, but what you're doing is no worse than the EPA-approved official disposal method. \_ A little offtopic, but here's my chance to put in that the rayovac renewal (rechargeable alkaline) batteries work very well for many purposes. \_ How is it different from the old rechargable NiCd ones? -- yuen \_ They don't lose their charge in storage, and their voltage graph is sharper over time (consistently high voltage and then a sudden drop-off means that your CD player will just turn off instead of producing poor sound). They also don't have memory, so you can recharge them at any point in their drain cycle. They last longer per charge, but their useful life cycle is lower than NiCd. Cadmium is _really_ toxic, alkalines less so. \_ mmm, yummy... cadmium! \_ Are they 1.5V or 1.2V? Are they available in AA and CR123A (camera battery) sizes? About how much do they cost? Thanks. --- yuen \_ I already know about (and have) these batteries. They purport to be 1.5V and come in the normal 1.5V alkaline sizes, like AAA, AA, C, D (I tihnk they come in the last two, anyway). 4 AA's are like, ~$5-6 at fry's. -op \_ op doesn't work with cable modem. Or dsl. check out: http://www.epa.gov/etv/pdfs/vrvs/06_vr_rayovac.pdf \_ why do cable modems need batteries? \_ for when the power goes out. \_??? UPS. \_ Yeah, but what about when the UPS goes? \_ Yeah how long is your dinky battery going to last if your 3 hour UPS can't handle it? 5 minutes? Big deal. Sometimes, you're just fucked and have to deal with it. "five nines" just costs too damned much. \_ Apparently, it does work with UPS. But it doesn't work with cable modem. Cable modem just gets your account sorried. \_ Throw em in da Bay. \_ Why don't we cut em open, prop your mouth open with a crowbar, make you swallow them, and have your stomach acid handle the neutralization? Oh, and it might be interesting to watch too. \_ Someone a little constipated? \_ Econazi to the rescue, eh? Get a clue. It was a joke. Duh. Everyone else knew that. |
2002/4/15-16 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid, Science/Battery] UID:24444 Activity:very high |
4/15 How often do people usually replace their car batteries? My car battery died this morning even though I didn't leave any lights on. It's the original battery since I bought the car new in 1996. Thx. \_ that's reasonable. 2-4 years perhaps, and if you drive short distances more than long distance, battery life can be shorter. Its time to get a new battery, though seeing if the battery can hold a charge can be a good idea if the battery is newer than, let's say, 3 years. \_ My car battery lasted for 7 years, and it died because my starter went all wonky. I'm probably an anomaly. -geordan \_ It could be your alternator, too. Never hurts to check. \_ Or distributor cap and rotor. \_ about every 7-10 years. \_ The deal should replace it for you ever three years or so. \_ The dealer should replace it for you ever three years or so. \_ 5 Years, typically... if you don't abuse it. Then again, depend upon where you are. I heard that battery last a bit longer in a colder climate. someone flunked ChE176 \_ not to mention E190. \_ i had a battery last 10 years in an old toyota truck. current audi will probably only make 5. i blame the alarm etc. for sucking juice while the engine is off. |
2002/2/13 [Science/Battery] UID:23856 Activity:nil |
2/12 My VAIO laptop seems to be hosed. It runs fine on AC power, but randomly shuts off when running on battery power. I'm pretty sure it's not the battery because this behavior has been repeated with several different batteries. Does anyone know what might cause this sort of behavior? Does anyone have any experience dealing with Sony support or service centers? It looks seems painful and expensive. Should I just give up now, use the VAIO as a paper weight, and sell one of my kidneys on the black market to fund the purchase of an iBook? |
2002/1/25-26 [Science/Battery, Science/Electric] UID:23665 Activity:very high |
1/24 How do UPS's (uninteruptible power supplies) work? \_ trained hamsters inside only run when they see the little light go out. \_ Damn, products evolve almost too fast these days. My old version only uses rats. \_ Big rechargeable batteries. \_ They sit between your box and the power grid, and are supposed to figure out when there's a drop in power, and then kick in within a short enough time to prevent the connected device from powercycling or experiencing damage. Some also do surge protection, or are controlled by the protected machine itself (so for example when the charge is very low, they tell it to nicely shut itself down.) -John \_ More like "conditioned" power. Drops are just as bad as spikes. \_ http://www.howstuffworks.com/question28.htm --erikred \_ That's a GREAT web site!!! -- yuen |
2001/9/21 [Science/Battery, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:22565 Activity:nil |
9/20 When putting laptop in storage; i heard you should disconnect the main battery; but; should you leave the main. batt. charged and disconnected, or drained and disconnected? How will this affect the cmos battery? |
2001/4/23-25 [Science/Battery, Science/Electric, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:21069 Activity:high |
4/22 Windows device driver engineers needed. -jeffwong /csua/pub/jobs/Transmeta \_ With this posting, transmeta is now officially in the "We've given up competing, we are now trying to sell out to microsoft/intel/amd" category. \_ How does having Windows drivers constitute selling out? If they expected all of their users to use Linux, they'd be out of business already. Look how successful the Linux distro companies have been. \_ because one of the claims was that they could just transparently replace (from a software point of view) \_ D00D R3D H4T RUL3Z! 7H3Y W111 D357R0Y M$ 4ND 7H13R U53R5 4ND RUL3 7H3 W0R1D! 1N5T411 17 B3F0R3 17'5 T00 L473! \_ because one of the claims was that they could just transparently replace (from a software point of view) an intel chip for massive gains. Seems it's not such a perfect replacement if they need custom drivers, eh? Start looking for a new job, jeff. I give you 1, maybe 2 good years there. \_ Average length of employment of an engineer in the valley these days is between 18 and 24 months. \_ That average is skewed because of the high concentration of dot-bombs in the valley. My point being that transmeta looks to be another one. \_ Really? I was at Cisco for 4 years and I was still a "junior" in terms of years of service. \_ Perhaps because their "low-power" designs were not so spectacular after all. TM chips ran at lower power at the expense of performance and we all know that what matters isn't power but energy (E = P*t) consumed by a laptop. If a chip consumes energy at half the rate of another but runs at half the speed, which one would you buy? \_ D00D CRU053 15 7H3 B357 CH1P 3V3R M4D3! 11NU5 541D 50 0N 11NSUX.K3RN3L! CRU053 B3475 7H3 P4N75 0F 1NT31 4ND 4MD, M070R014 4ND D3C! 37337 R3D H4T GN00/11NSUX 15 W1CK3D F457 0N CRU053! \_ What percentage of your apps are CPU-speed limited? -tom \_ A process doesn't have to be CPU bound to benefit from a faster processor tom. \_ It has to be CPU bound to use the same amount of power in the equation above. I think for the vast majority of real-world applications, a slower chip is better in a laptop. -tom \_ Why? So you have IE running as an I/O bound process. Now a user clicks on a button and something happens. IE executes a short task. On a TM it takes 2 seconds while on another processor it takes 1 but for the most part they consume the same amount of energy because TM's power consumption is half of the alternative. The TM loses in this case. EDP (energy delay product) is a better metric for power efficient devices like this because it factors in performance and not just power and energy. \_ CPU is almost always starved for data these days. The speed of Netscape/IE is virtually unaffected by CPU speed difference--they're always waiting for disk or net. The difference between 200 Mhz and 400 Mhz is enormously larger than the difference between 400 Mhz and 800 Mhz. Why do you think people stopped buying PC's? -tom \_ At least on PIII there is a noticeable difference between 400, 550 and 600. Beyond 600 I tend to agree with you. An athlon 1.2 GHz is not that much faster than a 600 because you can't give it enough work to do in most cases or it blocks on device io. I believe that the future belongs not to single fast procs but to multiple cheap slow procs. MPP is the way to go. \_ It dynamically lowers its voltage and frequency according to your workload. Why would you want to be running at the maximum clock rate when you're typing or reading a web page? That is a waste of energy. Besides, a PIII laptop can't go very fast when it's batteries are dead. \_ I'm not defending the Pentiums either. Personally, I think Intel sells crap. But most processors today (at least those concerned with power savings) employ power savings features during idle periods like clock gating or disabling input latches to unused units. Power consumption during idle periods by the CPU is rather inconsequential compared to power drawn by a spinning disk, LCD monitor, DRAM refresh, and other crap running. I doubt TM chips fair much better during idle periods than other alternatives. \_ I'm not defending the Pentiums either. Personally, I think Intel sells crap. But most processors today (at least those concerned with power savings) employ power savings features during idle periods like clock gating or disabling input latches to unused units. Power coproperly phrased question. here, I'll put you out of your misery: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/peripherals.html \_ D00D U R 50 WR0NG! CRU503 R0X! R3P3N37 UR B45PH3M35 W4Y5! |
2001/2/22 [Science/Battery] UID:20643 Activity:nil |
2/21 Someone must have wanted to do this before me: I'm going on a week long backpacking trip. I want to take my digital video camera with me and do a lot of filming. I could buy a BUNCH of batteries but i'd prefer to bring along my charger and rig some sort of a micro-generator. (something lighter than a car battery). Ideas? \_ Blair Witch 3? \_ hrmm... I think I've seen like Brookstone or Skymall or something have hand-powered battery rechargers for everything from rechargeable niCad AA batts to most cell phone types. I've also seen crank type generators for flashlights at sharper image if you want to do some rewiring. \_ Will professional battery packs sold e.g. at http://bhphoto.com solve ypur problem? \_ http://www.bhphotovideo.com -brain \_ Any solar rechargers? |
2000/9/18-19 [Science/Battery] UID:19275 Activity:moderate |
9/18 What is the best rechargeable AA battery? I.e. the one that packs the most milliamp-hours. URL? \_ I've used 1600 mA hr NiMH batteries in my camera. I've seen 1500's at Radio Shack and 1600 at CompUSA, they're not hard to find --oj \_ Are they 1.2V? \_ Yes. Which makes the "battery life" indicators give misleading info --oj \_ So I suspect a 1600mAh 1.2V battery lasts somewhere between 80% and 100% as long as a 1600mAh 1.5V battery in a camera with both analog and digital components. Is that right? \-with a camera. especially a flash, i would strongly encourage using batteries especially for photo gear such as the varta batteries. they have a much sharper power drop off, so your flash goes from charging "instantly" to not at all ... rather than charging taking longer and longer. --psb \_ this 1.2V shit is stupid. Can't use it on 80% of the devices \_ I heard this too, but my Sony Discman works fine on 2 x 1.2V AA's. Which devices really can't use 1.2V batteries? |
11/23 |