Author Topic: Batteroo testing  (Read 265162 times)

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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #500 on: January 11, 2017, 03:53:14 pm »
Are you sure you're seeing a true voltage, that the lower voltage isn't a measurement error because of output ripple?
As I wrote earlier: It is more than just a boost converter.

I'd think rather less than just a boost converter. A normal boost converter would have a voltage reference - this just seems to use the battery as a voltage reference i.e. it's just an amplifier, there's no regulation going on at all.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline JiggyNinja

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #501 on: January 11, 2017, 05:01:37 pm »
Are you sure you're seeing a true voltage, that the lower voltage isn't a measurement error because of output ripple?
As I wrote earlier: It is more than just a boost converter.

I'd think rather less than just a boost converter. A normal boost converter would have a voltage reference - this just seems to use the battery as a voltage reference i.e. it's just an amplifier, there's no regulation going on at all.
With the exception of the very top end of the range, to output voltage is higher than the input voltage. Whatever anyone else can say of it, it is a boost converter. Just because it uses a different form of feedback than is typical does not make it any more or less than other converters, just different.

Given that the input/output voltage relationships are almost perfectly identical over the range of loads tested, I think it's a given that there's some kind of feedback there. I'm just not sure if they decay is designed or an accidental part of some other feature (like the PFM operation).
 

Online HKJ

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #502 on: January 11, 2017, 05:57:54 pm »
Just because it uses a different form of feedback than is typical does not make it any more or less than other converters, just different.

Ok, one test.
The output voltage looks like it is optimized for the job, not like a standard boost converter. If Rob's theory that a lot of devices stops working below 1.3V was correct, it would be useful, but as we all know this is not the case and the usefulness of it is very doubtful in most devices.

 
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Offline cowana

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #503 on: January 11, 2017, 06:29:14 pm »
Ok, one test.

Wow, that's a huge amount of data conveyed really clearly by that graph - nice logging! It does really look like an interesting device (although a million miles from extending battery life by 8 times...)
 

Offline jippie

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #504 on: January 11, 2017, 07:22:03 pm »
Just because it uses a different form of feedback than is typical does not make it any more or less than other converters, just different.

Ok, one test.
The output voltage looks like it is optimized for the job, not like a standard boost converter. If Rob's theory that a lot of devices stops working below 1.3V was correct, it would be useful, but as we all know this is not the case and the usefulness of it is very doubtful in most devices.



I'm curious about how the switcher frequency / duty cycle changes over the input range. Might be possible to simpy pick that up with a coil near the inductor.
 

Online HKJ

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #505 on: January 11, 2017, 08:33:44 pm »
I'm curious about how the switcher frequency / duty cycle changes over the input range. Might be possible to simpy pick that up with a coil near the inductor.

I will not say much about it now, but it looks like it is around 2.5MHz
 

Offline FrankBussTopic starter

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #506 on: January 11, 2017, 09:14:04 pm »
Frank, can you confirm if your AAA batterisers are a fixed output voltage or does the output voltage change depending on input?

This is the data:

http://www.frank-buss.de/batteroo/batteroo.csv

I don't have them anymore, but when I measured it, it was the same behaviour, nearly no voltage change when load changed, and a similar curve as you measured, just a bit higher. For 100 mA:


So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
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Offline samgab

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #507 on: January 11, 2017, 10:01:22 pm »
I'd say that is a design decision to have the boosted discharge curve like that, to try to enable the battery gauge function? At least, they could swing it that way... Perhaps it also keeps the efficiency higher by reducing the amount of boost and current drawn from the cell as its input voltage decreases, compared to trying to keep the voltage fixed at exactly 1.5V as the source cell voltage decreases.  ESR would ensure the cell would die even quicker if they kept the voltage at 1.5V, thus exponentially increasing the current drawn from the cell as the voltage decreased. It seems like a pretty good design, it's just a shame there was so much dishonesty, lack of real info, false claims, and marketing BS which went along with it. And of course it's trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist (and failing).
 

Offline amyk

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #508 on: January 12, 2017, 01:36:44 am »
Are you sure you're seeing a true voltage, that the lower voltage isn't a measurement error because of output ripple?
As I wrote earlier: It is more than just a boost converter.

I'd think rather less than just a boost converter. A normal boost converter would have a voltage reference - this just seems to use the battery as a voltage reference i.e. it's just an amplifier, there's no regulation going on at all.
I was going to say that --- instead of a constant Vref it just appears to be some ratio of the input. I don't think I remember any instances but has anyone else ever supplied a dumb boost converter IC with somewhat less than its specified minimum voltage and seen the line regulation? I suspect this might be a similar story.
 

Offline Wytnucls

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #509 on: January 12, 2017, 07:02:41 am »
Usually, Vout is constant, set by an external voltage divider and an internal voltage ref (~1.25V), down to a Vin min of 0.5V.
What happens as Vin reduces, is that the efficiency decreases dramatically, especially with high loads, until a sharp shutdown at Vin 0.5V.
It looks like their IC has done away with the external divider, instead being optimized for a sliding Vout to reduce loss of efficiency.

 

Online dexters_lab

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #510 on: January 12, 2017, 07:03:27 am »
Frank, can you confirm if your AAA batterisers are a fixed output voltage or does the output voltage change depending on input?

This is the data:

http://www.frank-buss.de/batteroo/batteroo.csv

I don't have them anymore, but when I measured it, it was the same behaviour, nearly no voltage change when load changed, and a similar curve as you measured, just a bit higher. For 100 mA:



thanks Frank, i thought i was going mad there for a bit with everyone (including) Dave questioning it!

Offline amyk

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #511 on: January 12, 2017, 11:53:01 am »
Those graphs with the X-axis reversed look somewhat uncomfortable. :-// They're more like the typical output voltage vs. current graph.
 

Offline JiggyNinja

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #512 on: January 12, 2017, 01:35:23 pm »
Usually, Vout is constant, set by an external voltage divider and an internal voltage ref (~1.25V), down to a Vin min of 0.5V.
What happens as Vin reduces, is that the efficiency decreases dramatically, especially with high loads, until a sharp shutdown at Vin 0.5V.
It looks like their IC has done away with the external divider, instead being optimized for a sliding Vout to reduce loss of efficiency.
There are lots of chips that use an internal feedback network to give a fixed output voltage. And once you have an internal network, it's not really crazy to think that you could design one with this input/output characteristic.

That's not enough to conclude that is is designed though. Batteroo have slung so much bullshit that it's not worth bothering about.
thanks Frank, i thought i was going mad there for a bit with everyone (including) Dave questioning it!
I highly doubt Dave was questioning your result. I read it as sarcastic.
 

Offline drussell

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #513 on: January 12, 2017, 04:50:13 pm »
Giving a output voltage that scales somewhat with input voltage isn't exactly fancy technology.  You basically just add one resistor to your feedback divider string that goes to the input voltage to get part of your net feedback value from there.
 

Offline Fungus

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #514 on: January 12, 2017, 07:15:38 pm »
Giving a output voltage that scales somewhat with input voltage isn't exactly fancy technology.  You basically just add one resistor to your feedback divider string that goes to the input voltage to get part of your net feedback value from there.

Yep.

I'm suspicious that some people here are putting this down to design. I suspect it's just dumb luck - replacing a voltage reference with a resistor divider made the chip cheaper.

Has anybody investigated the origins of chip yet? I'm also skeptical that Batteroo designed it. They know know from the beginning their 8x claims are bullshit so why waste time/effort/money making a new chip when there's dozens of Chinese manufacturers making suitable devices? I can go on eBay right now and buy a 35 cent booster module that produces 5V output from a single AA, right down to 0.7V input (measured by me). Batteroo's 1.5V output is easy compared to that. :popcorn:

(no, they won't do much more than light up a single LED with 0.7V input...to be really useful you need 3xAA source)
 

Online HKJ

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #515 on: January 12, 2017, 07:41:56 pm »
I'm suspicious that some people here are putting this down to design. I suspect it's just dumb luck - replacing a voltage reference with a resistor divider made the chip cheaper.

It might be dumb luck or on design, the voltages matches fairly well with the purpose that makes it likely the chip is designed for it.
It might be a design from scratch or a few design changes to an existing design.
 

Offline Mr.B

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #516 on: January 12, 2017, 07:57:20 pm »
Has anybody investigated the origins of chip yet?

Has anybody heard from Zeptobars?
I thought I read somewhere here that he had been sent some by the same forum member who sent them to Frank.
I approach the thinking of all of my posts using AI in the first instance. (Awkward Irregularity)
 

Online dexters_lab

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #517 on: January 12, 2017, 08:06:38 pm »
wasn't someone going to be decapping the IC?


Offline Mr.B

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #518 on: January 12, 2017, 08:14:56 pm »
Zeptobars
I approach the thinking of all of my posts using AI in the first instance. (Awkward Irregularity)
 
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Offline FrankBussTopic starter

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #519 on: January 12, 2017, 10:57:09 pm »
Zeptobars

https://www.patreon.com/zeptobars

Cool, $2.50 for decapping a chip and the images are pretty good. @Ysjoelfir , if you don't need the broken sleeve of the two sleeves I sent you, please send it to him.
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Offline Mr.B

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #520 on: January 12, 2017, 11:04:47 pm »
Found where I had read it...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-751-how-to-debunk-a-product-(the-batteriser)/msg1102968/#msg1102968

I don't know where @drussell got the information from.
Perhaps earlier in that massive thread.

Ah, found it... Dave mentioned it here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-751-how-to-debunk-a-product-(the-batteriser)/msg1094759/#msg1094759
I approach the thinking of all of my posts using AI in the first instance. (Awkward Irregularity)
 

Online HKJ

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #521 on: January 15, 2017, 06:27:43 pm »
My review of the batteroo is up: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Batteroo%20AA%20UK.html

Performance with a Duracell alkaline:



One curve in my review is not finished yet, the review will be update with it is finished.
 
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Offline samgab

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #522 on: January 15, 2017, 07:07:28 pm »
 

Offline Delta

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #523 on: January 15, 2017, 10:58:22 pm »
Thank you very much for that testing!  A couple of suggestions if i may:

Replace the graph. Remove the Eneloop curve.   Have curves at each of you chosen currents for BOTH the sleeve and the bare cell.

State the exact type of Duracell AA that is used in the "Batteroo AA" on your comparison drop-down.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Batteroo testing
« Reply #524 on: January 15, 2017, 11:12:55 pm »
My review of the batteroo is up: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Batteroo%20AA%20UK.html

Awesome work  :clap:

WTF, is the Batteriser output voltage really this bad? 1.85V output peak?

« Last Edit: January 16, 2017, 12:39:13 am by EEVblog »
 


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