I think that at least one contact was made a week ago. It is a comment post to a "#786" youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=3OrG5ucVQBA
On my Maker Faire video!
No wonder I didn't see it.
Is is possible to hold on "anti-batteriser videos" for a moment and listen what they have in mind.
It is interesting how the Batteriser Fan Page has access to Batterisers and signs their post "Batteriser Team" yet claims no association with Batteroo. And in their post to Dave offering a test kit (on his Maker Faire video no less) talk as if in the first person like they are from Batteriser. Yeah, they are very definitely very linked to Batteriser and have access to all the videos and inside information.
With respect to the test kit, why not do what EVERYONE ELSE has done which is send one in the mail to Dave Jones that crazy Aussie bloke, not Austria, and mail it to his mailbox PO Box. No strings attached. We don't need any video chat between Batteriser and Dave. We need a no strings attached Batteriser (or several Batterisers) in Dave's hands so he can independently test them, do a teardown and circuit analysis and review the merits of this product. I trust Dave to tell it like it is, and if the Batteriser has any usefulness in certain cases I am sure he will point it out.
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o There is continual requoting that the GPS is "well designed", however I wouldn't say so if the device was designed for alkaline batteries and reboots when the voltage dips due to creating 600mA current spikes. However, Garmin recommend NiMH and Li presumeably for exactly this reason. Online reviews of the device refer to strange battery behaviour too, so is it really that "well designed"?
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o The GPS test is not a representative use case. Not only are they not using recommended cells, the high energy, sunlight-readable display is continually kept active by tapping the touch screen. In real use this would not be the case. In addition, the GPS will continually be in acquisition mode as the test is performed inside.
I don't necessarily have a problem with these two issues raised. In the latter statement, sure, it's not a representative use case, but at least it's apples to apples. It speeds up the test by keeping the backlight on. We do similar types of accelerated lifetime testing so we don't have to literally test a product out to 100K power on hours. The one caveat is this though: as I've mentioned before, use of the Batteriser will defeat the screen dimming power saving feature and theoretically shorten battery life because of that. If the device is readable in all situations where it would be used without the backlight, then I would say yes, it's fair to test the unit without the "finger pressing". Although in this case, it seems like a really poor design that the backlight is on unnecessarily when the battery is fresh.
As for the former issue: use in older and poorly designed products. My feeling is that if there are a lot of these products out there in people's homes, then it's fair to put those types of products forward as candidates for Batteriser use. If there really were a lot of these products that had high cut-off voltages or shut off prematurely after the slightest "kiss" of the cut-off voltage, then fine, there is a case to be made for the Batteriser. Dave showed in the first video that high cut-off voltage devices don't exist (although I will say that Dave probably has higher than average quality devices lying around). And I bet they had to specifically search for a device that exhibited this kind of behavior. I don't think it's common at all.
I guess most damning though is the fact that I am now convinced that they cheated on the GPS test. Did the GPS actually shut off shortly after the screen dimmed or did they just declare it dead and turn it off manually. I don't think there was enough to go on in the original video to make this call. But very clearly in the full length video Chris points to the point at which the device died, and clearly it did not. I'm usually willing to give people the benefit of the doubt until more data is provided, but in this case I really think they cheated.
EDIT: I forgot, that's not to mention the 10-15%+ loss in the boost converter
...I got the test rig mostly set up last night. Similar to theirs, only I'm using a servo instead of a "taken-apart" relay. I'll use the same interval for touching the screen. I'm going to datalog the whole thing too. I'm going to use my 34461A to datalog via Agilent's BenchVue software. I figure it's worth doing some high resolution datalogging to see if these voltage "dips" really exist or not...
...I got the test rig mostly set up last night. Similar to theirs, only I'm using a servo instead of a "taken-apart" relay. I'll use the same interval for touching the screen. I'm going to datalog the whole thing too. I'm going to use my 34461A to datalog via Agilent's BenchVue software. I figure it's worth doing some high resolution datalogging to see if these voltage "dips" really exist or not...
Can't wait to see your video response
I got the test rig mostly set up last night. Similar to theirs, only I'm using a servo instead of a "taken-apart" relay. I'll use the same interval for touching the screen. I'm going to datalog the whole thing too. I'm going to use my 34461A to datalog via Agilent's BenchVue software. I figure it's worth doing some high resolution datalogging to see if these voltage "dips" really exist or not.
Well there you go, they backed down and apologised
After Batteroo kicked their arse of course.
What's this rubbish about Batteroo not being able to set up a Youtube channel though? They have a ton of money, make all these professional videos, have a Vimeo channel, social media to the wazoo, but have no idea about how to set up a Youtube channel? Sorry, I'm not buying it.
That's the link I shared a few pages back: https://plus.google.com/106095496873834311761/posts/9zCvkcWPjhu
Wow
All this fun happening I didn't know about!
Seems like he's stopped posting now.
I wouldn't be surprised if he nuked the whole Youtube channel and g+ account.
Those playing along at home should take captures while they still can.
I do hope the Batteriser materializes...
By the time anyone figured anything out, they would have sold millions because items that cheap tend not to bother consumers much if they feel it was a waste. "Oh well, I spent $2.50 at Wal-Mart when I bought my batteries for my kids toy and it didn't really work, who cares?".
Nope. People should be protected against false claims and snake-oil products.
(And yes, there are laws...)
The problem is, until a product is actually "out in the market" nothing can be done. You can't stop a product that doesn't exist and hasn't actually harmed anyone yet, nor gone through testing to dispute false advertising. So until Batteriser actually exists, we can all bark and shout but the real "police" won't be able to do anything.
EDIT: One other thing - once the Batteriser is physically being produced and can be tested, there will be independently verifiable and reproducible data that can be used for any lawsuits claiming false advertising, harm to people and devices, and so on. Then the lawyers can nail Batteriser to the wall and make them pay. But until then, we can only discuss the scientific merits of their claims on theory only. Unless they have discovered some "magical sauce" that is in the Batteriser, we will know soon enough.
We don't need to own a Batteriser to measure cutoff voltages or pull batteries out of our devices and test their "only 20% used" claim.
We don't need to own a Batteriser to know their videos are lies - we can see them measuring batteries open-circuit right there on video, despite their own FAQ telling us this is the wrong way to do it. Daves measurements of the monkey are just icing on the cake.
I don't understand why anyone is talking about legal recourse, lawsuits? What.
What we are seeing here is simply the biology equivalent of creationism. Whenever you see nonsense like this in tech, debunk it, debate it, explain why they are lying, give the science. When they want to teach overunity and free perpetual motion physics in the classrooms, that's when the law comes into the discussion.
What "anti-batteriser" videos?
I haven't seen any "anti-batteriser" videos on here.
I've seen some videos pointing out technical mistakes in the Batteriser claims, some videos calling them clowns when they deserve it by acting like clowns, but no "anti-batteriser" videos.
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The only "legal" contract that is involved here is between backers and Batteroo, or when (and if) it ever gets sold to the consumer public, will be between people who buy it, or not.
Except Indiegogo specifically states that backers have no rights here