... Why are the results with the Batteriser so bad?
... do we have a characteristic plot of current draw and velocity vs voltage for Dave's train? Can we show from these characteristics why we might expect the Batteriser to have such a negative effect?
Would a camera flashgun, a big one like a NIKON SB-700, be a worthwhile test? They are a pretty high drain device but also one that is not a continuous drain so the battery chemistry has some recovery time. It would test a device that photographers would use in a cold climate outdoors so the temperature effect on battery life could be included to see if Batteroo can add some benefit.
Alkaline batteries in flashguns tend to be removed because recycle time gets too long. So the Batteroo would be tested in circumstances where the battery isn't already completely exhausted.
There might be some worthwhile science to learn here. Why, if the dc-dc converter is (say) 80% efficient, are the run time and lap count reduced by as much as they are? Why are the results with the Batteriser so bad?
There might be some worthwhile science to learn here. Why, if the dc-dc converter is (say) 80% efficient, are the run time and lap count reduced by as much as they are? Why are the results with the Batteriser so bad?
Because the available amount of energy from a battery depends on the discharge current: If you draw more current, you get less energy out of it. That is exactly what a Batteriser is doing when it is trying to keep the output voltage at 1.5V.
rom a side-by-side testing of the toy train, the velocity was pretty constant due to the Batteriser.
But surprisingly the train without the Batteriser was constant too.
Thanks to Frank I got a Batterizer in the mail today. Testing with two incandescent light bulbs side by side right now.
My simple light bulb test mentioned hereThanks to Frank I got a Batterizer in the mail today. Testing with two incandescent light bulbs side by side right now.
showed unexpected problems. The light bulbs powered by the batteriser keep on failing.
Has already somebody measured the noise coming from those things? are there major switching spikes that could potentially blow up the bulb?
Im confused by your graph.
The graph is showing that both with and without the batteriser, that the train did 351/314 laps (numbers from video and approx in the graph), but in 540 minutes (from the graph) video shows 1:35 hours, 95 minutes.
Is the axis data screwed up?
My simple light bulb test mentioned hereThanks to Frank I got a Batterizer in the mail today. Testing with two incandescent light bulbs side by side right now.showed unexpected problems. The light bulbs powered by the batteriser keep on failing. I thought about a bad batch but until now the batterised bulbs died five times while the non-batterised bulb is not affected at all, keeps glowing as it should. I swapped the bulbs to see if I was just lucky with the still working bulb at the normal battery, but no, the bulb that has never been used on a batteriser blew up after around an hour being used on the batteriser, while the former "batterised" bulb is still glowing. strange. Has already somebody measured the noise coming from those things? are there major switching spikes that could potentially blow up the bulb?
My simple light bulb test mentioned hereThanks to Frank I got a Batterizer in the mail today. Testing with two incandescent light bulbs side by side right now.
showed unexpected problems. The light bulbs powered by the batteriser keep on failing. I thought about a bad batch but until now the batterised bulbs died five times while the non-batterised bulb is not affected at all, keeps glowing as it should.
My simple light bulb test mentioned hereThanks to Frank I got a Batterizer in the mail today. Testing with two incandescent light bulbs side by side right now.
showed unexpected problems. The light bulbs powered by the batteriser keep on failing. I thought about a bad batch but until now the batterised bulbs died five times while the non-batterised bulb is not affected at all, keeps glowing as it should. I swapped the bulbs to see if I was just lucky with the still working bulb at the normal battery, but no, the bulb that has never been used on a batteriser blew up after around an hour being used on the batteriser, while the former "batterised" bulb is still glowing. strange. Has already somebody measured the noise coming from those things? are there major switching spikes that could potentially blow up the bulb?
Would a camera flashgun, a big one like a NIKON SB-700, be a worthwhile test?
From a side-by-side testing of the toy train, the velocity was pretty constant due to the Batteriser.
But surprisingly the train without the Batteriser was constant too.
That's not unexpected. The constant 1.5V (maybe slightly higher) output voltage is too high for the bulb. It's probably a 1.2V rated bulb. In a normal battery the 1.5V drops pretty quickly hence not a problem.
Another way the Batteriser can be detriment instead of a benefit.
Would a camera flashgun, a big one like a NIKON SB-700, be a worthwhile test?
I was thinking the same but then I remembered that the cheap flashguns are unreliable and even the expensive ones, when fired repeatedly, can melt :-)
That's not unexpected. The constant 1.5V (maybe slightly higher) output voltage is too high for the bulb. It's probably a 1.2V rated bulb. In a normal battery the 1.5V drops pretty quickly hence not a problem.
Another way the Batteriser can be detriment instead of a benefit.
Sure, lightbulbs suffer greatly from overvoltage, nothing new here, but the ones I used were rated at 1V5 and the batterizer is outputting 1.51V RMS. So that SHOULD be ok, at least if those bulbs are definitely 1V5 rated and not "to use with 1V5 batteries", as I can only read the marking on the bulb itself which states 1,5V.
Even if they were not designed to run at a constant 1V5, they shouldn't just fail after around half an hour, should they? Also, I had two batches, three came with the package from frank, and just for comparison I bought another set of four at the local conrad store.
Either way, just for curiosity I digged out the scope (as I said, lab is being restructured right now, so just a few quick measurements...) and looked at what we have here.
First, no load connected. The Batterizer is switching between battery voltage (~1.48V) and around ~1.64V with around 10 kHz.
These waveforms are expected.
The actual switching frequency will be high - perhaps 1.5MHz. It would be good if you can see what the frequency actually is. I don't think anyone has actually measured it yet. It is almost certainly between 1MHz and 2MHz and it will probably be most noticeable at a high load.
That's not unexpected. The constant 1.5V (maybe slightly higher) output voltage is too high for the bulb. It's probably a 1.2V rated bulb. In a normal battery the 1.5V drops pretty quickly hence not a problem.
Another way the Batteriser can be detriment instead of a benefit.
Sure, lightbulbs suffer greatly from overvoltage, nothing new here, but the ones I used were rated at 1V5 and the batterizer is outputting 1.51V RMS. So that SHOULD be ok, at least if those bulbs are definitely 1V5 rated and not "to use with 1V5 batteries", as I can only read the marking on the bulb itself which states 1,5V.
Even if they were not designed to run at a constant 1V5, they shouldn't just fail after around half an hour, should they? Also, I had two batches, three came with the package from frank, and just for comparison I bought another set of four at the local conrad store.
A last one without the cursors, just for curiosity. Interesting waveform with nice tiny spikes at the rising edge.
Does the Batteroo "work" with rechargeable batteries? Anybody planing on testing it with rechargeable batteries? That would be interesting...