EEVblog > EEVblog Specific
EEVblog #751 - How To Debunk A Product (The Batteriser)
RupertGo:
I think they're sunk anyway. Once (if) the product gets into production, then no amount of marketing can compensate for reality and pissed-off users. It's easy enough to knock up a battery curve generator that automatically runs a variety of load scenarios - microcontroller, handful of relays - and then the truth will be out there.
MrAl:
--- Quote from: Wytnucls on June 06, 2015, 10:19:40 am ---Why do you think this a scam? The voltage boost technology has been around for a while. The battery manufacturers are well aware of the wasted energy in their product and how to recover some of it.
The miniaturization of the circuit in this gizmo is the clincher.
The 800% battery life increase may even be true in some extreme case. We know marketing will naturally concentrate on those figures to grab the headlines. With most devices cutting out below 1V, the normal battery life extension is more likely to be around 20%, according to the Duracell constant power discharge curve.
This is an electronic blog. Someone here should have the equipment and the skills to disprove the claims with some hard testing of batteries, instead of everybody dismissing it all, out of hand.
--- End quote ---
Hi,
It's not a scam, it's all 100 percent perfectly true. And also, i will have some of these devices modified to give you not only 800 percent battery life, but 8000 percent battery life, and i'll sell them to you for 5 bucks each, when they get through production. If 8000 percent still isnt good enough, just let me know and i'll get you some that will give you 80000 percent over normal usage. I'll have to charge more for those though, like 6 bucks each, simply because it takes more ink to print 80000 than it takes to print 8000, sorry.
Oh yeah before i forget, i wont tell you what voltage threshold these estimates are based on :-)
The above is all perfectly 100 percent accurate and true, but what you dont know is how the calculations are done because you dont know the target cut out voltage for a normal run of a single cell without the extra new device installed. But if that's not to your liking, i can always lie and tell you it's 1.3 volts, if that makes you more happy.
<chuckle>
To be more serious, in my last post i did give some 'reasonable' estimates that we might see IF we had a device that cuts out at 1.3v, but as i also pointed out, i dont have any devices that cut out at 1.3v so the new Battery Thingizer WILL NOT HELP ANY of my applications at all, not one.
Now turn the voltage up to 3.5v or higher (from a single AA cell) and can i could probably use them for other things.
0xdeadbeef:
--- Quote from: zapta on June 06, 2015, 12:44:06 pm ---Not necessarily.
--- End quote ---
Well, actually yes. You might construct cases where the consumption is higher/smaller for a certain voltage level. But increasing the voltage level certainly won't help there.
--- Quote from: zapta on June 06, 2015, 12:44:06 pm ---It's possible that in normal operation you consume more than 11? but waste a portion of it on heat because the battery starts with higher voltage then the minimum required by your device. Theoretically, an ideal DC/DC can fix that as well.
It's not clear if the debunking here is about 'breaking the laws of physics' or is just about the limitations of our current DC/DC technology.
--- End quote ---
This is a pretty bad example. Even counterproductive. You argue that the higher voltage at the begin of a battery's lifetime could be wasted due to higher currents. Well, this might be true in selected cases.
Then again the nominal voltage of a fresh alkaline cell is 1.5 V and this is exactly the voltage that this batteriser is said to deliver over the whole lifetime.
So in cases where the higher voltage means higher losses, this device extends the issue over the whole lifetime.
Wytnucls:
--- Quote from: RupertGo on June 06, 2015, 12:59:08 pm ---I think they're sunk anyway. Once (if) the product gets into production, then no amount of marketing can compensate for reality and pissed-off users. It's easy enough to knock up a battery curve generator that automatically runs a variety of load scenarios - microcontroller, handful of relays - and then the truth will be out there.
--- End quote ---
Absolutely; if the average battery life extension turns out to be only 10-20%, depending on DC to DC efficiency, like I suspect, it may only be useful for niche applications and the general public will lose interest.
EEVblog:
--- Quote from: PeterL on June 06, 2015, 09:59:45 am ---About the price: What kind of production numbers do you think they're targeting at? It must be huge I would say, and they already mentioned the price, so they really need a big start on their IGG campaign don't they?
--- End quote ---
No idea about numbers, but a stamped metal sheet, a thin board, and the circuit, not much in the way of huge capital required, unless they spun an ASIC or something. There might be some novel mounting tech though.
Like many Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns, it's not uncommon to not make a profit on the first units, the idea is to build the business up.
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